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Published Monday, September 01, 2008 in Local

DA workers face furloughs

By Elizabeth Richardson

The Times-Herald

The Prosecuting Attorneys' Council of Georgia has made the tough decision for one-day per month furloughs for state employees in district attorney's offices throughout the state to mitigate the state budget crisis.

Coweta Judicial Circuit District Attorney Peter Skandalakis serves on the council and was present as members discussed potential ways to cut the budget before they ultimately voted to impose the furloughs.

"We talked about all the options available to us," said Skandalakis. According to Coweta's district attorney, the state only provides funding for personnel and travel expenses at district attorney's offices. As a result, the council had only two line items in the budget to consider in order to cut costs.

In the Coweta Judicial Circuit, the state funds approximately 30 percent of the total budget -- the rest of the budget is funded by the five regional counties' governing bodies, with some supplemental funding in the form of asset forfeiture and fraud and abuse money, according to Skandalakis. Those include Coweta, Heard, Carroll, Troup and Meriwether counties.

The state's Office of Planning and Budget directed all agencies to cut this fiscal year's budget 6-10 percent from what was originally appropriated. The governor has issued a state employee hiring freeze and an out-of-state travel, vehicle purchase and equipment purchase moratorium.

"We briefly considered layoffs, but we're so short staffed across the state that if we let attorneys, secretaries or investigators go, we thought we'd be significantly hampered in our ability to do our job in the courtroom," said Skandalakis. "The only other option was furloughs."

The Prosecuting Attorneys' Council voted that state-paid employees of district attorney's offices and the prosecuting attorney's council staff will be furloughed one day per month beginning in September -- which translates to one day of unpaid leave that must be taken monthly. Employees paid from another funding source, such as county paid staff and child support assistants are not affected by this action.

"This is going to involve 50 percent of my prosecutors," said Skandalakis. It will also affect his state-paid secretaries and investigators. He plans to stagger the days that staff members will take off each month so that everyone isn't off at one time. "I understand that the court schedule is going to dictate a lot of what I do."

The Prosecuting Attorneys' Council has had to make other difficult decisions this fiscal year, such as eliminating pay raises for all state employees, eliminating the longevity raises for experienced assistant district attorneys and canceling some planned training programs.

Skandalakis says this all came about because revenue collections are down on the state level.

"We're waiting to see if they come back up -- it will depend upon the revenue collections when this action is lifted," said the district attorney.

The budget cuts aren't just affecting the statewide district attorney's offices, it affects everybody involved in state government. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is facing office closings and employee layoffs to meet the budget cuts, according to GBI Director of Public Affairs John Bankhead.

"We've been through other tough economic times, particularly after 9-11. But this is probably the worst in recent years," said Bankhead.

This fiscal year, the GBI has already had to shut down the medical examiner's office in Moultrie, Ga. and the medical examiner's portion of the crime lab in Summerville, Ga. Now, bodies from Moultrie and Summerville are taken to the Atlanta crime lab headquarters for autopsy.

According to Bankhead, the GBI has proposed closing crime labs in Columbus and Moultrie -- two of seven crime labs in the state excluding the Atlanta headquarters -- for next year's budget. That proposition will have to go to the state legislature for approval. Some of the employees at those crime labs would be offered transfers to the Atlanta lab. Some positions will not be filled, and because of the moratorium, the GBI cannot hire new people.

"The [Columbus crime lab] was number one in terms of the turnaround on drug cases," said Skandalakis. "This is going to slow down the criminal justice process. This is starting to create a backlog in the system, and everybody is going to pay, even the taxpayers."

Bankhead remains grateful that at least these decisions are being made by the GBI, and, so far, they've managed not to cut out any services, just fallback locations where services would have been performed.

"Everything will be performed at other labs," said Bankhead. "Still, there will be an increase in backlog."

Bankhead says the only solution to this problem is for the state revenue collections to increase drastically.

"We can't print money like the government -- we have to have a balanced budget," said Bankhead. "Difficult decisions have to be made in difficult times."

According to Tommy Floyd, chairman of the Prosecuting Attorneys' Council, the amount of funding that must be cut among district attorney's offices across the state and their support agencies is almost $3.4 million. The one-day per month furlough will continue until "the crisis is over, or more drastic action becomes necessary," according to Floyd.

"I'm blessed to have people who have a calling to serve the public to make sure justice is served," said Skandalakis. "Our morale is good in this circuit -- we understand that being a public servant means ups and downs in the economy, and we'll deal with them the best we can.

"My people are used to doing more with less," he continued. "This is one of the largest circuits in the state -- we have 16 attorneys covering five counties. Our case load ratio is high. I know my staff will step up to the plate. This is an obstacle which can be overcome.

"We will still devote our services to victims of crime," said Skandalakis. "We will push cases through the system as quickly as possible. People who have been victimized expect a level of service, and we're going to continue to provide that level of service."