COM 0193.017 2006-2008 - Laserfiche WebLink

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OFFICE OF THE PROSECUTING ATTORNEY 2007 - 2008 FISCAL YEAR The Office of the Prosecuting Attorney has submitted a budget and supplemental_ requests that will enable us to carry out our mission of "pursuing justice with`infegrity and commitment". The main focus areas of the Office continue to be: 1) core prosecution and victim services, 2) improvement to the criminal justice system and 3) community initiatives to promote crime prevention through education and collaboration. We continue to face growing demands and challenges while working tirelessly to serve our community. Our budget of $8,040,231 includes $5,689,957 (71 from County general funds, $2,050,274 from federal and state grant sources and $300,000 from federal and state forfeitures (29%). We should be mindful that federal and state grant sources aze dependent on competitive applications and can fluctuate yearly. Forfeiture funds also fluctuate yearly. Although our office seeks grant funding, notably, grant funding creates an inherit instability with personnel uncertainties. Most of our grants pay for personnel only. If grant funding is reduced, as has happened in our Victim Witness Assistance Program and Cazeer Criminal Prosecution Programs, core functions can be affected negatively. Recognizing the need to have stable county staff to do core victim assistance functions, the Mayor supports our budget request to convert one state funded and one federaily funded clerical positions to county funding. This will enable more island-wide resources to be directed to victim services. Additionally, increasing court required changes and technological demands were recognized and funds for two high-volume copiers for Hilo and Kona approved. During the next fiscal year, we expect that the court required demands will increase, including screening and handling all the misdemeanor juvenile court petitions, and preparing all complaints in writing for matters including criminal traffic cases. New laws require increased security for personal and private information which in turn require staff time to "redact" personal and private information from police reports and other documents, along with developing more security for retention and disposal of such records. Additional security measures create additional costs. Another legal requirement decided by our Hawaii Supreme Court requires traffic convictions be alleged in the written charge for certain serious traffic offenses. This will require our deputies or support staff to research the prior traffic conviction abstracts, which will add hundreds of personnel hours to research. By the end of 2007, technological requirements of electronic transfer of criminal case reports from the Hawaii County Police Department's Records Management System will shift the persomtel and material requirements to copy and distribute such reports to our office staff. We have experienced that with advancing technological improvement, which is encouraged and embraced, there are unseer, and additional personnel and Comm, No. 1 ~ 3• l7 Ref. To: Presee~e'1 1 Ref. Uat Z