Clatsop County Commissioner Patricia Roberts brought up a touchy issue in this week's meeting.
She asked staff for a clarification on statements made during the last budget process regarding two positions in the county DA's office. Former manager Scott Derickson had recommended that the two staff positions be added at the DA's request but also said that if the county should find itself in a shortfall those two positions should be the first to be cut. The positions were added in light of the addition of a third judge and the anticipated increase in workload that might result for the prosecutors office.
The question now is whether or not that increase in caseloads and court appearances has come to pass. Rumblings I've heard so far is that there hasn't been significant increases. Perhaps not enough to justify protecting those positions. It's just not clear at this point.
It's unfortunate that the county DA, in addition to everything else he has on his plate, will most likely have to make a case to the budget committee and the commission for adequate staffing yet again.
Where is she heading?
ReplyDeleteI would say involuntary political retirement should she choose to continue this petty, "Boss Lee Era", pissing match between the leftovers of that regime and the County District Attorney.
My bone of contention is, there are two people working for us, sitting on a bubble with their livelyhood and security at stake because of the possible irresponsible actions of a few elected officials.
Tom,
ReplyDeleteWhy do your feel so sorry for DA Josh Marquis? He is, by his own statement, an independly elected law enforcement official, and, by definition, a politician. Do you believe Marquis does not have the political ability to work in a tiny political arena all by himself? Does he need the assistance of you, Roger Rocka and others to simply do his job as an elected law enforcement official? If you compare Marquis' issues with those of other District Attorneys, you will find that Marquis goes out of his way to create controversry, while the normal DA uses his political expertise to avoid things that distract from his job. Agreed, Marquis is simply out of his league anywhere but here. But, he does not need your sympathy, he needs a community that expects him to do his job, both as a prosecutor (which means he must put forth the people's case against those about whom there is probable cause to believe they committed a crime) and be an independently elected official (which means he must get along with other elected officials to the extent that he can do his job). Please find some other sympathy case. Marquis should be a big enough boy that can handle the job he got himself into.
Oh boy, just what we wanted.
ReplyDeleteAnother mud wrestling contest between County Commissioners and the DA.
Don't they have anything better to do?
Does anyone know whether the DA's office is falling down on the job or wasting taxpayer money?
Is the DA's Office the one place we should be most concerned about when it comes to how the County spends our taxpayer dollars?
Marquis will always make himself to be the victim....same story different day....the daily marquis...I mean, the daily Astorian will probably put him above the fold at least three times a week during budget time...maybe he'll write another referendum to get a raise again...blah, blah, blah...then his democratic puppets can act up and around and around we go...it's become predictable.
ReplyDeleteBe real interesting to see what those "performance measures" that were such a controversy show for the in workload at the DAs office.
ReplyDelete