Lack of state funding results in loss of DA office staff
NORWICH – The Chenango County District Attorney’s Office will be forced to cut one of its assistants at the start of the new year due to a cut in state grant funding.
For the last six years, the office has received an Aid to Prosecution grant from New York’s Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) which helped cover the cost of an assistant district attorney’s position and a legal secretary. After December, the grant will run out.
“That grant has allowed us to have an extra ADA at the county level who has aided in several felony prosecutions, law enforcement investigations and extensively covered local justice court in more than a half dozen municipalities,” said District Attorney Joseph A. McBride.
On Jan. 1, ADA James P. Chamberlain, a Norwich attorney and a nine-year veteran of the DA’s Office, will step down as a local prosecutor as the grant expires.
McBride said his office had received the grant annually since 2003 and in its first year, the funds awarded were about $50,000. Since that time, the amount has steadily decreased until the office received $35,300 in 2009.
The DA’s Office currently employs a full-time confidential secretary, the district attorney, one full-time ADA and secretary and two part-time ADA’s and their secretaries.
Chamberlain is a part-time ADA and receives an annual salary of $33,097, according to the 2009 Chenango County budget. His secretary is also part-time and received $4,388 in 2009. McBride estimated that an additional $12,000 was associated with benefit costs for the two positions.
“Jim has done an incredible job serving the community of Chenango County for almost the last 10 years. He’s certainly been a valued asset to the office,” said McBride.
McBride said another issue involving the grant was that it was released in April and ran until March, while the county budget schedules its costs from January to December, creating a scheduling challenge in the finances.
Although the ADA position will cease on Jan. 1, McBride said he would be willing to hire Chamberlain back if the grant was again awarded to the office in the spring, but he worries about running into the same problem again next December.
“The grant can’t cover the full year’s costs to have the positions and while we’re willing to move some of our funds from our forfeiture accounts, involving money seized during prosecutions, we can’t cover the whole amount and fell short this year,” he said.
Chamberlain currently represents the DA’s Office in the local courts of all the municipalities located in the Towns of Columbus, Earlville, Smyrna, Sherburne, Preston, Guilford, Otselic and New Berlin.
At the end of this year McBride said his office would have to restructure the coverage areas of prosecutors to adjust to the loss of the position, increasing the workload of the remaining attorneys.
“Basically the citizens of this county are losing an ADA because state funding has run out, that’s the short explanation,” said McBride.
For the last six years, the office has received an Aid to Prosecution grant from New York’s Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) which helped cover the cost of an assistant district attorney’s position and a legal secretary. After December, the grant will run out.
“That grant has allowed us to have an extra ADA at the county level who has aided in several felony prosecutions, law enforcement investigations and extensively covered local justice court in more than a half dozen municipalities,” said District Attorney Joseph A. McBride.
On Jan. 1, ADA James P. Chamberlain, a Norwich attorney and a nine-year veteran of the DA’s Office, will step down as a local prosecutor as the grant expires.
McBride said his office had received the grant annually since 2003 and in its first year, the funds awarded were about $50,000. Since that time, the amount has steadily decreased until the office received $35,300 in 2009.
The DA’s Office currently employs a full-time confidential secretary, the district attorney, one full-time ADA and secretary and two part-time ADA’s and their secretaries.
Chamberlain is a part-time ADA and receives an annual salary of $33,097, according to the 2009 Chenango County budget. His secretary is also part-time and received $4,388 in 2009. McBride estimated that an additional $12,000 was associated with benefit costs for the two positions.
“Jim has done an incredible job serving the community of Chenango County for almost the last 10 years. He’s certainly been a valued asset to the office,” said McBride.
McBride said another issue involving the grant was that it was released in April and ran until March, while the county budget schedules its costs from January to December, creating a scheduling challenge in the finances.
Although the ADA position will cease on Jan. 1, McBride said he would be willing to hire Chamberlain back if the grant was again awarded to the office in the spring, but he worries about running into the same problem again next December.
“The grant can’t cover the full year’s costs to have the positions and while we’re willing to move some of our funds from our forfeiture accounts, involving money seized during prosecutions, we can’t cover the whole amount and fell short this year,” he said.
Chamberlain currently represents the DA’s Office in the local courts of all the municipalities located in the Towns of Columbus, Earlville, Smyrna, Sherburne, Preston, Guilford, Otselic and New Berlin.
At the end of this year McBride said his office would have to restructure the coverage areas of prosecutors to adjust to the loss of the position, increasing the workload of the remaining attorneys.
“Basically the citizens of this county are losing an ADA because state funding has run out, that’s the short explanation,” said McBride.
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