Courts, DA plead case against budget cuts

By Patrick Fox

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Gwinnett County officials heard dire prospects over the past week from most of the dozen departments weighing in on proposed blanket 9-percent budget cuts for 2010.

Two departments, courts and the district attorney's office, said the cuts sought were unattainable and offered bleak pictures of the consequences.

Superior Court Judge Tom Davis said a 9 percent cut would break the court system.

At a budget committee hearing, Davis brought a proposal to reduce the court administration's $19 million budget by $615,000. Those cuts included eliminating senior judges and their staffs, and reducing operating costs, travel and training.

Davis predicted the cuts would increase the backlog of cases by 6 percentand that further cuts would have more serious consequences.

"If we make more cuts than what we have come to you proposing to make, we will break the court system in this county," he said. "If it breaks, it'll be broken for a long time."

The judge predicted more cuts would create significant delays in criminal, business and domestic cases and would place a burden on law enforcement that might put public safety at risk.

"The across-the-board meat-axe approach to budgeting does not work, and it does not serve the budget interest," he said. "It does not serve the public interest."

District Attorney Danny Porter called the 9 percent cuts "unrealistic and unreachable under current conditions."

Like the courts, he said, the district attorney's office is constitutionally required to perform certain services. And, he added, the county is obligated by law to provide funding for the proper operation of the DA's office.

Porter said his office opened 6,300 new felony cases in 2008 using 103 people. By comparison, Cobb County opened 4,364 cases with 115 people, he said, and DeKalb County opened 8,209 with 161 people.

Porter said caseloads have more than doubled in the past 10 years, and the DA's office has already logged 103 jury trials this year.

"Which 9 percent do you want me not to prosecute?" he asked. "Which 9 percent of these victims do you want me to say ‘I can't prosecute your case'?"

The budget committee also heard from Chief Sheriff's Deputy Mike Boyd whose report tied another knot around the court operation.

If the sheriff's office cuts $6 million from its $68 million budget, Boyd said, it would shut down the entire court security division and field operations division, representing some 133 sworn officers.

Instead, Boyd said, if the sheriff keeps the budget the same as last year it would allow for the addition of 30 deputies to staff six vacant housing units at the jail.

The budget hearings are one of the first steps in drawing up the 2010 spending plan. Budget officials will now review department funding requests, then weigh them against targets set by the county commission.

Finance staff will then work the figures into the chairman's proposed 2010 budget before December.