Lawyers see different pay rates from county: County paying experienced public defenders each about $10,000 less than newly hired deputy prosecutor
Posted on Sunday, November 16, 2008
Two experienced lawyers paid by the county who work in the Washington County Public Defender’s Office will receive raises next year, but their salaries will still not equal the amount paid to a newly hired county-funded attorney in the 4th Judicial District Prosecutor’s Office.
It means that one of the lawyers with the Public Defender’s Office who has 18 years of experience will be making about $7,000 less than the new lawyer in the Prosecutor’s Office, which covers Washington and Madison counties.
The pay issue came up September at a Washington County Quorum Court budget meeting, when the Public Defender’s Office asked to increase salaries for its two county-paid lawyers, Autumn Tolbert and Julie Tolleson. Tolleson had 18 years of legal experience before she went to the Public Defender’s Office. Tolbert recently passed the bar exam and was hired as an attorney with the office after she had been a law clerk there for several years.
The original request for Tolleson was to move her from $37,500 to $60,000 a year, while the request for Tolbert was to go from $36,000 to $44,000 annually.
Quorum Court members tabled the matter and came back last month with an alternative: That Tolleson’s salary will go from $37,500 to $43,700 next year, while Tolbert’s salary will increase from $36,000 to $40,000.
Finance Chairman H.L. Goodwin Jr.’s recommendation was to review during the 2010 budget process and increase Tolbert to $42,000 and Tolleson to $52,500. Since Tolleson has 18 years of experience, including certification to try death penalty cases, this “would be in keeping with the newly approved hiring practices” of Job Evaluation/Salary Administration Program employees with extensive experience, according to a memo last month from Goodwin detailing the recommendation. JESAP is designed to keep county employees’ salaries competitive with comparable jobs in the private sector.
In the meantime, the one county-paid position in the 4th Judicial District Prosecutor’s Office has recently been filled due to a promotion and Deputy Prosecutor David Harris’ leaving for the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The annual salary is $50,000 for this spot, which has been funded by the county since a federal grant ran its course several years ago, Washington County Prosecutor John Threet said.
Threet says the amount of experience is irrelevant to the pay for this position because it remains stagnant — subject to county cost of living adjustments and merit raises.
State pays more
Concerns raised by justices of the peace in September when the Public Defender’s Office asked for big salary jumps for Tolleson and Tolbert was that 640 other county employees were only receiving a 25-cent cost-ofliving raise and a 1.5-percent increase in the merit pool for 2009 — creating some inequity among county-paid employees.
It was noted, however, that lawyers are not rated in the JESAP system, even though Goodwin used JESAP standards to arrive at figures for Tolleson and Tolbert. Another thing, which makes the water muddier, is that most of the positions in both the public defender’s and prosecutor’s offices are funded by the state. The state positions pay more in both offices.
Chief Public Defender Denny Hyslip said public defenders received a raise this year of about 6.5 percent for state-funded positions. But he said “where we’re bottoming out” is in the county-funded positions. There are eight lawyers in the Washington County Public Defender’s Office paid by the state and the average salary is about $60,000. County-paid Tolbert and Tolleson are at the bottom of the salary range. What concerns Hyslip is losing experienced attorneys due to low county pay.
“Every time I go out and hire a new attorney, it’s a completely new training process,” he said.
Having death penalty certified attorneys, he said, is not very common, and the office has been fortunate to have lawyers with this certification.
“We’re working to get as many as we can that are death penalty certified,” he said. “If Julie [Tolleson] leaves, chances are, I’ll hire somebody just right out of law school,” he said.
Different workloads, functions
Threet said comparing salaries in the public defender’s and prosecutor’s offices is not an “apples to apples” process because the two offices are separate entities with different workloads and functions. Their state-funded positions are governed by their respective organizations: The Public Defender Commission and the State Prosecuting Attorneys Association, which make recommendations to the Arkansas Legislature for state-funded positions.
Goodwin said in an interview Thursday that the prosecutor’s office handles 100 percent of the felony cases in its district. In other words, it must deal with cases involving public and private lawyers.
Hyslip said the Public Defender’s Office handles about 70 percent of the cases.
Threet said his office also serves a law enforcement function. He added, however, that “in no way does that diminish the importance of the public defenders.” He said he served three years in the Public Defender’s Office prior to going to work as a prosecutor.
“It’s a critical part of our justice system,” he said. “They do a good job.”But, Threet said, the Public Defender’s Office should compare its salaries with those of other public defender’s offices across the state, not the prosecuting attorney’s office.
“I’m in no way trying to interfere with them trying to get a raise,” Threet said. “But I don’t think comparing them to us is accurate.”
Public defender comparisons
The average county-funded salary in the Benton County Public Defender’s Office is about $10,000 higher than in Washington County, but, like Washington County, the state positions receive more money. There are nine attorney positions in the Benton County Public Defender’s Office. The average annual salary for the three county-funded deputy public defenders is about $47,250, according to the Benton County Human Resources Department. In Washington County, the average for the two county-funded positions is about $37,860. The other six positions are paid by the state, according to Benton County Chief Public Defender Jay Saxton. The average salary for the six full-time, state-funded positions is about $54,000. The average salary for the office is about $51,750, according to information provided by Denny Webster, personnel manager for the Public Defender Commission in Arkansas.
Saxton disagrees a bit with Threet’s contention not to compare prosecutor’s and public defender’s offices when it comes to salaries. He said caseloads are at a critical point, and that prosecutor’s offices are typically better funded and staffed than public defender’s offices to handle the caseloads. Responding to this, Threet said public defender’s offices do not have to handle victim restitution, hot checks and other programs, nor do they deal with the general public like the prosecutor’s offices do.
Prosecutor’s offices
There are 15 lawyer positions in the 4th Judicial District Prosecutor’s Office, which includes attorneys who work on circuit court cases in Washington and Madison counties, as well as district court and juvenile attorneys. All but one of the 15 spots are state funded.
The $50,000 county-funded position was something the Quorum Court helped fund after federal funding stopped. Threet said the Court “stood in the gap for us. We’re very thankful to the Quorum Court for it.” He said four different people have held the position, and one left because of the pay. Another turned it down over money.
“I never considered asking the Quorum Court for more money for that position. If someone would not take money for that position, I would just go and get someone else,” Threet said.
The average annual salary in the prosecutor’s office is about $56,890. That is not much more than the average annual salary in the Benton County Prosecutor’s Office, which is about $53,300 for its 16 positions. The average salary for its 12 state-funded positions is about $50,400, according to the Benton County Prosecutor’s Office. Four positions are paid by the county and their average salary is about $62,070, according to the Benton County Human Resources Department.
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