District Attorney's Office Budget and Operations Overview

DISTRICT ATTORNEY Presenter: Patricia W. Perlow, District Attorney FY 23-24 Proposed Budget Presentation

Department Overview Mission: Strive to improve public safety and quality of life by prosecuting the guilty, protecting the innocent, securing appropriate support for children and families, and determining cause and manner of death in all cases of traumatic or unattended death. Criminal Prosecution, including Juvenile, and Death Investigations Family Law Support Services, including Victim Services and Prosecution Clerical Staff FY 23-24 Proposed Budget Presentation

FY 23-24 Budget Details 23-24 RESOURCES State Revenues $1,092,921 County General Fund Grants Child Support Program VAWA (Stop Violence Against Women) VOCA/CFA (Victims of Crime Act/Criminal Fine Account) Fees And Charges $575,673 Interdept Reimburse $106,072 Discovery Fees Interest Earnings $4 Federal Revenues $1,753,103 Fines, Forfeitures, Penalties $5,800 Grant revenues are keeping up with expenditure growth. FY 23-24 Proposed Budget Presentation

FY 23-24 Budget Details 23-24 EXPENDITURES Personnel Costs up $14,000,000 $11,655,216.0 0 +1.0 FTE Medical-Legal Death Investigator $12,000,000 $10,000,000 +1.0 FTE Administrative Assistant (for Death Investigations) $8,000,000 $6,000,000 Fleet, PC Replacement, and Countywide Indirect all increasing, other costs holding steady $4,000,000 $2,247,727.00 $2,000,000 $42,000.00 $0 Personnel Services Materials & Services Capital Expenses FY 23-24 Proposed Budget Presentation

Criminal Division Mission: Investigate and prosecute violations of Oregon criminal statutes, assist the Juvenile court, and investigate unattended or non-natural deaths that are required by ORS Chapter 146 Teams: Major Crimes, Domestic Violence, General Felony & Misdemeanor; one attorney assigned to juvenile; one attorney assigned to treatment courts (Drug, Veteran, Mental Health). Three investigators and six attorneys on call to assist law enforcement. Other statutorily required tasks outside of prosecution include public records appeals, expungements, SB 819 resentencing reviews, and motions regarding sex offender registration requirements and license reinstatement. Other duties as assigned include search warrant reviews, training for staff and law enforcement, and retrial of cases returned by the appellate courts. Death Investigations include apparent homicides, suicides, overdose, accidents, unattended deaths or those under suspicious or unknown circumstances; determining the cause and manner of death. The division also investigates found bones; determining if they are human versus non- human, determining identity and establishing the cause and manner of death with four FTE investigators and extra help. FTE: 35.00 Proposed FY 23-24 Resources: $773,183 Expenses: $8,038,101 FY 23-24 Proposed Budget Presentation

FY 23-24 Changes Recruiting continues to be a challenge while caseloads remain high. COVID backlog of over 312 cases awaiting trial. Complexity of cases and additional legislative/appellate changes adding to workload. No File list implemented for first time since 2015. Additional agencies with body camera videos, and dozens of non-unanimous jury verdict cases sent back for re-litigation, with our current staffing levels means removing the no- file list is an impossibility with current staffing. Due to a more than 21% increase in cases since 2020, it is necessary to add one FTE Medical-Legal Death Investigator and one Administrative Support Assistant to manage caseloads in death investigations. FY 23-24 Proposed Budget Presentation

Family Law Division 7 Mission: Enforce child support and health care coverage orders, establish paternity, establish new child support and health care coverage orders, and modify existing support orders in conformance with the Oregon Child Support Guidelines. The Division provides these services in compliance with Federal and State statutes and regulations. Secures appropriate support for children and families. Works to increase parent compliance with health care coverage orders for children. Funded by a Federal grant passed to us by the Oregon Department of Justice, which reimburses 66% of the costs of providing Child Support Enforcement. FTE: 15.00 Proposed FY 23-24 Resources: $2,108,281 Expenses: $2,666,439 FY 23-24 Proposed Budget Presentation

FY 23-24 Changes 8 No changes anticipated however, children require consistent financial support more than ever, and family financial resources are strained for many as a result of the lingering effects of the pandemic. Child support caseloads, both statewide and nationally, saw some decline in numbers over the past year. Statewide studies are underway to evaluate whether this trend will continue or reverse. Ensuring all families that rely on child support are aware of the services available to them may require new efforts. FY 23-24 Proposed Budget Presentation

Support Services Division Mission: Provide comprehensive services to crime victims in order to guarantee that victims constitutional and statutory rights are upheld and provide clerical support to criminal division attorneys Victim/Witness Program provides victim notification; restitution investigation and documentation; assisting victims filing for protective orders; referring victims to other community agencies; counseling referral as appropriate; assisting victims with filing claims with the State of Oregon Crime Victims Compensation program, and providing culturally appropriate support through the criminal justice process. Prosecution Clerical staff provide assistance with case management, dockets, court filings, discovery, and records management. FTE: 29.00 Proposed FY 23-24 Resources: $652,109 Expenses: $3,240,403 FY 23-24 Proposed Budget Presentation

FY 23-24 Changes 10 No changes are anticipated but the Victim Services program always hopes for more funding to assist with the growing caseloads and victim s needing assistance in our community. There is a bill in the 2023 Oregon Legislature which would require the State to fund one victim advocate position for every four prosecutor positions. Prosecution Clerical Support will continue to support the workload for Criminal Division attorneys. Recent legislative sessions have produced bills that increased the responsibilities of DA offices, without providing any resources to meet the obligations. Examples include conviction set-asides, resentencing requests, non- unanimous jury cases returned for retrial, appellate court decisions, and post-conviction relief cases. FY 23-24 Proposed Budget Presentation

FY 23-24 Key Initiatives Cases resolved through alternatives: Specialty Courts and 416 (non- violent repeat offenders) Program Crime Victims Served Collection of Child Support FY 23-24 Proposed Budget Presentation

Lane County Strategic Plan OurPeople & OrganizationalHealth Safe, HealthyCounty VibrantCommunities RobustInfrastructure Holding offenders accountable. Utilizing DUII/fatality investigator. Working to initiate a DUII court. Watching for disease trends in cause of death. Enforcing support, medical care and education for children. Ensuring all victims in our community have access to services regardless of language or other barriers. Participating in programs designed to empower people that commit crimes due to alcohol, drugs, or mental illness to obtain tools to address the disease and move out of the criminal justice system fully engaged in the community. Taking care of our aging and inadequate facility. Working for improved security of existing facilities. Recruiting, hiring, and retaining employees who actively work to support our department and countywide missions. Partnering with agencies to improve outcomes for those who come in contact with our department. FY 23-24 Proposed Budget Presentation

Future Challenges & Opportunities Legislative changes and Appellate court decisions have increased the workloads on our Deputy District Attorneys. To fully eliminate our no-file list, additional personnel will be needed. We are at capacity with our current office space, which makes increasing staffing a challenge. FY 23-24 Proposed Budget Presentation

Questions? 14 Up Next: Eve Gray with Health & Human Services FY 23-24 Proposed Budget Presentation