Sacramento County District Attorney Jan Scully has complained about budget cuts, warning politicians and the public that crime will go up because she doesn't have the money to run her office.

So why would she promote 15 employees this year with pay raises averaging 36 percent?

For the most part, the promotions were necessary to fill vacancies created through retirements and employees leaving for new jobs, said Cindy Besemer, Scully's chief deputy.

More than half of the promotions have gone to employees who had been working as legal research assistants and became entry-level prosecutors, county records show.

In some cases, Besemer said, the research assistants were attorneys and already handling cases. But when they were moved into vacant attorney positions, they were given the pay that goes with the job – $85,612 a year, a 50 percent increase.

The big bump in pay was worth it for the District Attorney's Office because the attorneys were willing to work as temporary employees, Besemer said.

If the employees had been hired permanently, the office would have had to pay them benefits, too.

Still, the office also agreed to promote another employee so she could protect benefits. The employee had been laid off as lab technician and was rehired as a criminalist, along with a 29 percent hike in pay.

One reason she was hired in the new position was so that she could keep accumulated sick time she would have lost if she had been hired in her old position, Besemer said.

In all, the promotions went to attorneys, criminallists and a legal secretary.

Some county supervisors say they're reluctant to second-guess the district attorney's budget decisions, even though they're responsible for setting her budget. Under state law, supervisors set the budgets of departments headed by elected officials but leave the management to the officials.

Supervisors Jimmie Yee and Roberta MacGlashan said they understand that promotions are often necessary to handle turnover.

In June, Scully complained that a $6.9 million cut approved by supervisors showed that public safety wasn't a priority for the county. Supervisors replied that her office received a smaller reduction than most other county departments, and she received some additional funds.

In August, a memo was circulated in Scully's office saying funding had been found to avoid any layoffs. Scully used $5.1 million from a settlement of a lawsuit over underground storage tanks.

Scully told supervisors she wasn't notified about the potential settlement until a month after the county budget had been approved. Settlement discussions were handled by the state attorney general's office, Besemer said recently.

While supervisors agreed to include the settlement in her budget, they said they had concerns about using it to fund salaries and benefits. It's a one-time revenue source that will have to be replaced next year, or the employees will have to go.

– Brad Branan