Hancock County Prosecutor Brent Eaton
HANCOCK COUNTY — Prosecutor Brent Eaton reiterated to the Hancock County Council this week that his department is in a bit of predicament. Using state records to support his point, Eaton said that not only does his department need more than standard raises, but it is also in need of more employees. That’s something county officials say cannot be addressed all at once or as fast as Eaton would like.
“It would be a stretch to say we can do both this year,” Hancock County Council President Jeannine Gray said after the most recent council meeting earlier this week.
Eaton went before the county council again to plead his case, reminding county leaders, who are in the midst of hearing pleas for the 2024 budget, that both the state prosecutor association and the national association say prosecutor’s offices around the nation are in a staffing crisis.
Eaton already presented a multi-year plan to county leaders to not only bring staffing levels to where state officials say they need to be, but to also bring compensation levels up for legal and administrative assistants. He’s asked the county council to allow him to bring on three new employees in 2024, including a paralegal, a victim advocate assistant and a new deputy attorney, as well as give current staff members a larger-than-projected raise.
Eaton noted that he’s finally, just this week, up to full-time status with paralegals, but is down two deputy attorneys because he can’t pay them enough to take the position. Eaton would like to see a total salary budget increase of $94,210 to be shared among current employees or, in other words, a 10% raise for the administrative staff and an 8% raise for deputy prosecutors.
“We’re just not competitive with our compensation right now and it has to change,” Eaton said.
Following the meeting, Gray noted that the county council has been through this same issue before with the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department and their need for more merit deputies. She said the council was able to work over time — about a year and a half period — to get that department to the appropriate staff and salaries in order to protect the growing county and avoid losing good employees.
“We do feel because we’ve been down this road before we are equipped a little better equipped to analyze the information Brent is sharing with us because we have been there and done that before,” Gray said.
Eaton shared information showing his paralegals are paid $4,000 less than the average paralegal in the state, some 10%, while child support workers are paid about $6,000 less than the average state worker, 15% to do the same job. He also noted his staff deputy prosecutors are paid about $6,000, or 8%, less than the average position. That, Eaton said, is one of the reasons he has two deputy prosecutor positions open now.
“Forget us being a training ground for people. We can’t even get people to hold the fort with the pay we currently offer,” Eaton said.
The county council has approved a lump total for each county department that equates to a $1,700 raise for each full-time employee and elected official with department heads determining the pay increases per employee for 2024.
While county officials have tentatively talked about trying to come up with the funding to allow Eaton to hire at least another victim advocate’s official and another paralegal, Eaton noted that getting higher raises for his current staff is his priority.
“It makes the most sense to see that we are able to attract and retain talent for the spots we have on the roster before we begin to expand the roster,” Eaton said.
Eaton says that he understands the office’s position didn’t happen overnight but is the result of years of mismanagement, and he doesn’t expect the staff or salary issues to be fixed instantly. However, with the office being a public safety agency, if employees are not compensated appropriately and are overworked, it will be the community which ends up suffering.
“If we can’t do our job right, things will become less safe, end of story,” Eaton said.
Gray noted the council may be able to give the prosecutor’s office, a public safety department, a little more money for raises, but then may have to hold off on the office getting new employees.
“There is always the possibility that it may come down to pick or choose,” Gray said. “The prosecutor’s office is made up of speciality people, but many of our other offices are too because of special certifications.”
Gray feels Eaton has done a great job of explaining his offices’ needs to the county leaders and said final decisions will be made closer to official budget time in July.
“Each passing day, we are getting more and more information as to what our budgets are looking like and what that income is going to look like,” Gray said.
Council member Keely Butrum reminded the council that people who work for the prosecutor’s office change often and at the whim of a new prosecutor which can come every four years.
“This is more about paying these people something fair while they are there,” Butrum said. “I would really like to see consideration given to the budgets as we can to make the office competitive.”
