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Thursday, February 25, 2010
Prosecutors' pay cut caught in controversy
Oregon district attorneys won’t say who they think pressured them to stay silent
By NICK BUDNICK
The Bulletin - An AP Member Exchange
Thursday, February 25, 2010
 | | Josh Marquis |  |  | | Deschutes County District Attorney Mike Dugan |
BEND - Last July, Deschutes County District Attorney Mike Dugan learned that he and Oregon's other elected top prosecutors had each lost about $5,000 pay. Not only that, but his own wife, Rep. Judy Stiegler, D-Bend, had, like other lawmakers, voted for the bill that slashed his salary in the final days of the 2009 legislative session - not knowing it would hit the elected DAs personally.
For many district attorneys, $5,000 is almost a month's paycheck. And that sum, it turns out, is enough to affect how a public debate plays out at the Capitol.
Though Deschutes County's Dugan, a Democrat, won't say much about the politics of the pay cut, several prosecutors say they stayed out of this month's legislative debate over a criminal sentencing bill, hoping the Legislature would restore their unexpected pay cut in a budget bill.
The action focused attention on the inner workings of politics in Salem, prompting Clatsop County District Attorney Josh Marquis to say, "I've never seen anything like this."
Some of the state's 36 district attorneys contend lawmakers used the pay cut to pressure the DA s group into an uncharacteristically quiet role on a "fix-it" bill modifying "earned time" sentencing provisions that allow some inmates to be released early. The bill, which effectively puts a six-month moratorium on early release, was approved by both houses and sent to Gov. Ted Kulongoski, who signed it Feb. 17.
The accusations are contained in e-mails obtained by The Bulletin under Oregon's Public Records Law.
Warning issued
On Feb. 10, Clatsop's Marquis warned his fellow elected prosecutors not to voice criticisms of an earned time bill, Senate Bill 1007.
"There are many problems with this 'fix' but if any of us say a word they'll cut off our salaries ... so I hope everyone has equity for a loan, savings or has been setting aside money," he wrote.
In an e-mail to his elected colleagues the next day, Malheur County District Attorney Dan Norris wrote that the Legislature "is buying our silence on (legislation) with our salary. ... The Legislature has taken a very dangerous low road by tying our hope that we get the salary (restored) to our rolling over on earned time."
Several key Democratic lawmakers said they don't believe the claim that pay raises were linked to legislative positions. "Neither I nor anyone I am aware of would tie the two together," said House Speaker Dave Hunt, D-Clackamas County. "It wouldn't be appropriate, and it didn't happen."
Sen. Chip Shields, D-Portland, clashed with prosecutors last year over the earned time issue. Told of their allegations of improper pressure, he said, "I hope they use more evidence than that when convicting people."
The prosecutors won't say who they think pressured them to stay silent. But Marquis, who is active in Democratic politics and who is among the candidates to be Oregon's next U.S. attorney, said that based on his inquiries at the Capitol, he firmly believes that "legislators who had the power to do this" made the threat.
He said he wouldn't single out any lawmakers in part because he didn't want to reveal his sources. But he's lobbied on criminal justice bills for close to three decades, and "I think I'm able to distinguish between truth and rumor," he said.
Marquis, like other prosecutors, refused to discuss the pay politics until the e-mails were obtained under records law.
"I've never seen anything like this, and it's very concerning," he said of the politics around the pay cut.
Pressure politics
The concerns add prosecutors to those who in the last month have complained about pressure politics in the Capitol, a list that includes Oregon Head Start officials, corporate lobbyists and a bank president.
Last week, e-mails surfaced that show that Hunt warned Head Start officials that their budget was at risk next year because the group had failed to support two tax measures on the Jan. 26 ballot, backed by Democratic leaders, and wouldn't fire their conservative lobbyist, Mark Nelson, a leader in the opposition to the measures. For his part, Hunt contends he simply was worried Nelson's role would hurt Head Start.
The prosecutor pay cut controversy dates back to November 2008, when voters approved Measure 57, which increased penalties for drug and property offenders, including drug dealers, burglars, car prowlers and identity thieves. But in 2009, legislators wanted to suspend Measure 57 to help close a $4 billion hole in the budget and they ran into a fight.
Prosecutors protested that House Bill 3508 would effectively let thousands of inmates out early to reduce prison costs. It did so by increasing the amount of "earned time" an inmate could shave off his or her sentence, from 20 percent to 30 percent.
Crook County District Attorney Daina Vitolins said prosecutors fought the bill out of concern for public safety as well as on behalf of thousands of crime victims.
In late June, it became clear the bill would pass, over their objections. So the prosecutors decided to "get out of the way" and drop their opposition, said Kevin Neely, the lobbyist who represented the Oregon District Attorneys Association in the fight.
But that wasn't the end of it.
In two budget hearings in June, several lawmakers said that the prosecutors' pay deserved to be cut but said it wouldn't be.
They complained that the ODAA's activism on House Bill 3508 had reduced the scope of the bill and therefore necessitated cuts elsewhere. In a June 22 hearing of the budget-writing Joint Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Nick Kahl, D-Portland, called prosecutors' lobbying an "incursion to the legislative process."
It was only after the hearings closed that lawmakers were presented with a last-minute budget bill that cut about $170,000 from elected district attorneys' pay.
Lawmakers now say that DA pay was cut not in retribution but because so many deeper cuts were being made elsewhere. "Prosecutors were not singled out," said former state Sen. Margaret Carter, D-Portland, who co-wrote the budget bill before leaving office last summer.
Stiegler recalls the day in July she learned about it from Dugan, her husband: "I remember Mike coming home and saying, 'Do you know you cut my salary?"'
"And I'm like, 'What are you talking about, dude?"' she said.
Dugan said that he thinks most of the 90 state representatives and senators didn't know their vote would make prosecutors the only elected officials to receive a pay cut last year. "It's my opinion that at least 87 of the people in that building had no inkling whatsoever," he said.
The news hit district attorneys in a personal way. Prosecutors in smaller counties make about $87,000 from the state, and in larger counties, of more than 100,000 people, about $99,000. On top of that, many counties give their elected district attorneys supplements to boost salary.
Jefferson County District Attorney Steven LeRiche said he has two young sons and a wife to support and said the lost paycheck wouldn't just affect his kids' college fund.
"I'm probably living more month to month than that," he said. "You're pretty much talking about a month's salary, and what employed person can say they could lose a month's salary and not (feel it)?"
Relations between the elected prosecutors and lawmakers remained tense after the session. Media accounts discussed how thousands of inmates were being released, some of whom had records of violence and sex abuse. Lawmakers vowed to take up a legislative fix to stop further releases of dangerous convicts.
Meanwhile, many prosecutors tried to find out why their salaries had been cut and what they had to do to get it back. E-mails from the elected district attorney's listserv show the first mention of pressure from lawmakers appeared less than six weeks after the pay cut.
Seeking support
On Aug. 12, Tillamook County District Attorney William Porter e-mailed his colleagues in support of a legal challenge to the salary cut, calling the pay cut punishment for their fight against HB 3508. "We are also being blackmailed w/threats of further cuts if we don't behave. ... Let's fight back!"
In another e-mail, Marquis insisted lawmakers told the group that the negative newspaper articles about HB 3508 risked their salaries.
Asked about the e-mails, Neely denied knowledge of any direct threats, instead saying he had typical political discussions with lawmakers when he approached them about getting the DA pay restored. In an e-mail, he called it a "two way street" in which lawmakers sought the district attorneys' support on the legislative "fix" bill, later called Senate Bill 1007.
"Some legislators expressed dismay over the media attention around earned time; I expressed my dismay over the salary reduction," Neely wrote. "Was I specifically told to play ball on SB 1007 or lose salary money? No. Did legislators insinuate that it would be an easier road if we assisted on SB 1007? Sure. At the same time, I told legislators that it would be pretty hard to ask for the DAs to support anything until our salaries are restored."
Most district attorneys, in fact, wanted HB 3508 to be fully repealed, not just fixed. But in the end, they decided not to fight it actively, instead co-authoring a polite letter with law enforcement groups. Neither Neely nor any elected district attorney testified on the bill.
Neely characterized the toned-down stance as a tactical decision to repair frayed relations with the Legislature. Was it motivated partly by desire to restore their salaries? "I'm not sure," he said, adding that while some prosecutors had that motivation, others didn't.
Stiegler, for her part, said she hadn't heard from lawmakers about DA salaries getting wrapped up in pressure politics, though she knew some prosecutors suspected it.
Dugan and Vitolins say they don't think lawmakers pressured prosecutors.
LeRiche said he doesn't know what to think. But the suspicions aren't good for public faith in the democratic process, he said, adding that legal protections for district attorney pay could be the solution.
"If people are suggesting that you can influence public officials with money, then that's a bad thing, and it shouldn't be part of the process," he said.
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