Supervisors taken to task over DA’s O ce salaries
EL CENTRO — Permission to treat the county supervisors like hostile witnesses granted, said no one ever.
But it could have been said, because they got a forceful earful from Assistant District Attorney Deborah Owen this week that could have made the toughest of customers shrink a bit.
The issue was pay, as in, not enough for the deputy DAs who are fleeing the county for higher-paying jobs elsewhere.
“The exodus of attorneys from the DA’s O ce is directly related to the compensation package o ered by this county and the continued refusal of the county to address the problem in a meaningful way,” Owen told the county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. “We simply are unable to retain experienced attorneys because they are able to get higher-paying jobs as prosecutors in other counties.”
“Sometimes,” she said, “the di erence in pay is between $20,000 a year more and $50,000 a year more” in other counties.
For 20 years, Owen said, the DA’s O ce has been unable to maintain full attorney sta ng because of pay. “On Oct. 23 2018, we had informed you that seven attorneys had left the o ce for higher-paying jobs. Since that time, two additional attorneys have announced they are leaving the office.”
At present, she said, there are only three attorneys on sta who have experience in going to a jury trial for murder, and that includes Senior Deputy District Attorneys Sid Hester and Heather Trapnell, and Owen herself.
She said all three serve in supervisory positions, so if they are tied up in court, that is fewer opportunities for the training of young, inexperienced deputy DAs.
“I would submit you that having the Assistant District Attorney going to trial is great for me because I don’t have to deal with the headaches of administration,” Owen said, “but it’s the equivalent of having the undersheriff out investigating murder cases.
“What that means is, when we can’t retain experienced attorneys, and we’re putting our supervisors in situations where they are trying the cases, then no one is in the position to train the inexperienced attorneys that we get because of the low wages.”
The supervisors remained silent throughout Owen’s comments, which came during the departmental reports section of Tuesday’s board meeting.
“I have worked here for almost 24 years, and every year it is the same thing. It doesn’t matter whether the economy is good. It doesn’t matter whether the economy is bad. It is the same 2.2, maybe if we’re lucky, 2.5 percent (raise being offered),” she said. “And if bargaining units hold out, I would argue they are punished, because the longer that they hold out, they know they are giving up money because it’s never retroactive.”
Owen continued: “Now for our office, these attorneys serve a vital purpose. They are an independent administrator of justice. The prosecutor is the only one involved in the criminal justice system who has the responsibility of seeking the truth. We don’t represent individuals or entities, we represent society as a whole. In order to work as a prosecutor or as a defense attorney, an attorney has to be licensed by the state bar. That means they have to have an undergraduate degree as well as a juris doctor, then they have to pass the most difficult examination for licensing purposes in the United States. The 2018 bar passage rate for the June exam was 40.7 percent, the lowest it has been in 70 years. It is extremely difficult to be an attorney in the state of California.
“Now why is that important? It’s important because the county’s actions as a whole demonstrate a complete lack of understanding of how difficult it is to replace experienced attorneys. We recently advertised for a Deputy District Attorney IV, the most experienced level that we have, and only one qualified attorney applied. One. We had three openings at that time,” she said.
“Being an effective prosecutor or a defense attorney requires skills and judgment that are acquired over time. To obtain the best trial attorneys, the salaries and benefits exchanged for the services must be commensurate with the salaries and benefits for other areas for the expertise developed. Without the ability to earn a salary sufficient to justify remaining in the prosecutor’s office or the public defender’s office, the office becomes a training ground for private practitioners, and the people are denied the best representation,” Owen added. “Now I’d like to claim those words as my own; that’s not just my opinion. These words are contained in the national prosecution standards published by the National DAs Association, and approved by the American Bar Association.”