Sutter County District Attorney ups pay and incentives amid prosecutor turnover

Sutter County supervisors this week approved pay raises and additional time-off benefits to entice and retain deputy district attorneys after losing prosecutors and struggling to hire new ones.

The Sutter County District Attorney’s Office has four of 10 deputy positions filled, all of whom have worked with the office for less than a year, and two of whom were hired within the last two months, according to county officials.

“This is a statewide recruitment problem, as well,” said Sutter County administrator Steve Smith. “In almost every county we are having this issue. … I’m sure it’s to varying degrees of severity depending where you are.”

Prosecutors who recently left the job cited high workload due to low staffing levels, insufficient pay and a lack of experienced staff to train and mentor colleagues as reasons for leaving, said county officials, citing exit interview responses.

“District Attorneys are not a dime a dozen,” said Jennifer Dupré, Sutter County district attorney. “They are a very, very scarce resource nationwide.”

What kind of raises?

The OK from supervisors allows the District Attorney’s Office to pay higher salaries to new and current deputy district attorneys, with increases ranging from about $7,900 to $14,600 per year, based on experience. Before the approved raises, salaries for the first three experience tiers ranged from about $86,000 to $142,000.

A human resources survey found that Sutter County paid between 17% and 28% below the median salary ranges for experienced prosecutors compared to similar counties. The pay raises bring those salaries to within 12-17% of market value.

The county also approved bonuses of up to $10,000 or $15,000, excluding entry level prosecutors and depending on experience, paid out in increments through a new hire’s first two years.

Supervisors also approved accelerated vacation and sick leave accrual rates for experienced prosecutors, as some would leave behind counties where they have established benefits, and a relocation bonus for moving to Sutter County.

Two current prosecutors would also qualify for the added bonus and incentives. The office may also staff an additional prosecutor in place of a currently unfilled investigator position.

“What I can tell this board is that we have two people who left, who have experience, who are looking forward to coming back in the event that this moves forward and you approve it,” Dupré told supervisors.

Dupré said that the other rural District Attorney’s Offices have similar 50-60% vacancy rates.

She pointed to Butte County as an example where an approved tax measure helped to hire and retain prosecutors. The District Attorney’s Office has funds to pay for the approved raises and benefits through this fiscal year without requiring more from the county.

County union pushes back

Ron Slaven, a Sutter County Employees Association union representative, told supervisors that county employees were surprised by the District Attorney’s proposal and uneasy about its timing.

The proposal came to the union’s attention in September, he said, about a week after the union had agreed with the county on pay raises for other county workers.

“We concur that the deputy district attorneys are underpaid, and we know there’s a problem with retention and recruitment,” Slaven said. “The union has emphasized this at all departments and it appears to have fallen on deaf ears until now, when there’s an absolute state of emergency.”

Smith said that the county, which has gone through years of budget tightening, is not OK with paying its workers below median rates, but has had to be selective in which positions to fund more comparably to similar counties.

“It may look like picking and choosing, but we’re picking and choosing positions that are incredibly out of market and trying to move that up enough to make it right,” Smith said.