Pulaski County Prosecutor Dan Murphy says he needs more help to keep up with his increasing caseload. He reminded the county council last week that he’d asked for an additional secretary when preparing this year’s budget, but members denied the request.
“In 2014, which is the last year before I took office, there were a number of cases filed in both the courts. In 2015, my first year, we did 142 percent of that amount,” he said. “In 2016, the second year of my term, we did 210 percent of that amount. In 2017, we did 260 percent of that amount in new cases filed.”
On top of that, the courts are in the process of adding pretrial release and veterans court programs. “The problem is each of these programs add additional burdens on my staff to meet these programs and provide services that they need,” Murphy said. “The Superior Court got grants to cover that and to hire additional people to do it. My office did not.”
As a first step, council members suggested having the current employees work overtime or hiring someone part-time, to avoid having to pay for benefits for a full-time employee. Council President Jay Sullivan added that Murphy could use whatever money he has budgeted for part-time help. If the arrangement works, he could come back to request more money, to keep the position in place.
However, Murphy didn’t think he could attract a part-time employee with that amount of uncertainty in the funding source. Beyond that, he said he typically uses the part-time help line item to pay summer interns, who help the Prosecutor’s Office with scanning old files.
No action was taken, but council members agreed to take Murphy’s request under consideration.
