Hoping to keep its momentum, the “largest law firm in this community” has appealed to Wilmington City Council for staff funding.
The district attorney’s office in Wilmington has seen its staff pared by 25 percent over the last five years and is near the end of a seven-year state grant supporting the salary of a victim-witness assistant that DA Ben David said he doesn’t want to lose.
Noting he’s never wanted to rely on local funds, with his office traditionally covered by higher levels of government, David on Monday requested from the city a one-year grant that can keep the position in place.
The cost is $50,000 after factoring in benefits and other associated expenses.
“I’m here today because we’re at the point where we’re cutting into bone, we’re not just trimming the fat,” said David, whose office handles 75,000 cases a year.
The victim-witness assistant is a support position that David said upholds constitutional rights for victims and ensures they’re properly served. The staffer also helps with police coordination in the judicial district covering New Hanover and Pender counties, which includes 20 police agencies with more than 1,000 officers on the beat.
“They all have court dates at least once a month” in district court alone, he said, a situation of juggling that the victim-witness assistant helps to keep in order.
The position also coordinates community outreach, like with David’s local school talks that educate 10,000 children a year against temptations like underage drinking.
“Underage drinking is obviously a huge issue in this community,” said the district attorney, first elected in 2004. He noted a national statistic that 72 percent of high school seniors have tried alcohol, and that 25 percent binge.
It’s even a danger at the middle-school level, with 39 percent of eighth-graders saying they’ve partaken, according to a slide presented to council. Altogether, it can roll into a deal of underage drinking downtown and around UNCW, not to mention the cases of impaired driving that are a peak public safety threat. David said this area tops the state for driving while impaired arrests.
His office previously had the funding squared away for the victim-witness assistant through an allocation from the New Hanover County ABC Board, which budgeted $106,000 for it and one other position: a companion prosecutor. But that approval reversed last month.
Past story: DA requests, gets ABC funds for program to target underage drinking
Asked to explain, New Hanover County ABC CEO Dan Sykes on Tuesday said the related contract was viewed as “too open-ended” and that the board wanted wording that would cap the allocation in a “not to exceed” sense. He said the board, which had given approval at its June meeting, aborted the agreement at its July meeting.
“I think the board would like to help them out,” Sykes said, “but we have to be as risk-free as possible.”
David on Monday, during his presentation to the city council, indicated the request to ABC was still alive. “I was hopeful that they could fund all this and I wouldn’t have to appear before either one of you,” he said, referring to his additional intention to ask the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners for aid with the companion prosecutor spot, whose salary would be roughly $40,000.
He reiterated to the city council Monday that he didn’t enjoy asking local government for money; “I like to just focus on crime and be at the courthouse. I’m here today because I think we need to be.”
The city council did not make a decision Monday.
“I think we probably need to do this in a [regular] meeting,” said City Councilman Kevin O’Grady of any vote on the request.
‘I’m happy for that scrutiny,” said David. “I welcome it.”
Wilmington City Council has planned the discussion for its Aug. 20 meeting.
Ben Brown is a news reporter at Port City Daily. Reach him at [email protected] or (910) 772-6335. On Twitter: @benbrownmedia
