Durham County’s district attorney is warning proposed budget cuts next year could have immediate impacts on her office.
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Monday afternoon, Satana Deberry sent a letter to the Durham City Council and City Manager Bo Ferguson expressing her “profound disappointment” with the city’s proposed budget for the fiscal that begins July 1.
The budget, as Ferguson presented May 18, proposes a $313,493 cut in funding to the N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts, which oversees the Office of the District Attorney. Deberry said that will result in a 10% reduction in staff and “dismantle almost three decades of cooperation between this office and the City of Durham.”
Ferguson’s $766.1 million spending plan keeps the city’s property tax rate flat but recommends funding cuts for certain areas, increases to utility bills and no merit pay increases for city employees. The City Council plans to vote on the budget proposal on June 15.
The money slated to be cut pays for two assistant district attorneys (ADAs). These prosecutors are stationed daily within the District Criminal Court, District Traffic Court and Juvenile Delinquency Court where there is the highest volume, Deberry said.
“The positions are already severely underfunded, with the ADAs in those positions making only $65,000/year. The market salary for entry level attorneys in the Triangle is twice that,” she wrote. “My staff are already some of the lowest paid attorneys in state government.”
Cutting these position mid-year, Deberry said, will have a big impact on young attorneys entering the job market that is “only active once a year and summer is not that time.”
For the prosecutors in the district attorney’s office who will remain, their caseloads will swell, slowing the legal system more.
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“Justice delayed is justice denied,” she wrote.
Outside of position cuts, Deberry said the ADAs are also integral to the Durham Expunction and Restoration (DEAR) Clinic, another program facing proposed funding rollbacks.
The DA’s office and DEAR have historically focused on restoring drivers’ licenses and clearing the records of thousands of Durham County residents. Deberry wrote that the clinic has helped forgive over $2 million in fines and fees. The money is returned to the local economy, expands employment and education access, and lowers insurance costs.
As the City Council talks about public safety, including solutions to gun violence, Deberry pointed to a paradox in the proposed cuts. The city is talking about expanding the Durham Police Department.
“Hiring more law enforcement officers means there must be more prosecutors,” Deberry wrote. “For the city to hire more police while cutting prosecutors simply does not make sense.”
Durham’s proposed cuts come as the next DA in neighboring Wake County is asking that county and several towns to help pay for more prosecutors.
Last month, Wake’s incoming DA Wiley Nickel detailed a $603,000 request to add more assistant district attorneys and legal assistants, and to find a local supplement for public defenders. The funding would also improve mental health court in the county.
The News & Observer has reached out to the city for comment on the proposed cuts to the DA’s office and regarding Deberry’s letter.
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Budget Cut Letter to City Council From Durham DA by Kristen Johnson