Salary for district attorney position likely to increase

A change must be implemented in the way Dyersburg City Court cases are being handled from the prosecuting end, District Attorney General Phil Bivens explained to fellow public safety committee members on Monday.

"Dyersburg City Court probably handles 75 percent of criminal cases that come through Dyer County," Bivens said, indicating the need for an assistant District Attorney General to prosecute cases for the state. "These are state cases to be prosecuted; they've got to be prosecuted by a district attorney."

Bivens presented an opinion from the state Attorney General's office handed down in 2001, describing the duties of District Attorney Generals.

The opinion states that each District Attorney General "shall prosecute in the courts of the district all violations of the state criminal statutes and perform all prosecutorial functions attendant thereto, including prosecuting cases in a municipal court where the municipality provides sufficient personnel to the district attorney general for that purpose."

If the municipality does not provide sufficient personnel, however, the District Attorney General's office is under no obligation to prosecute those cases. Yet, since the death of city prosecutor Clarence Cochran last fall, one of Bivens' assistants has been prosecuting cases one day a week in Dyersburg City Court with no financial assistance from the city.

The open part-time assistant District Attorney General position currently is not attracting qualified candidates, Bivens asserted, because of the low salary - $9,000 per year.

Bivens presented two resolutions to committee members. First, the city could raise the salary of the position, supplementing the $12,000 needed to bring the total salary with Social Security benefits to $21,684.60. Second, the city could amend the court system and redirect any city court cases aside from city ordinance cases to general sessions.

The problem with the second alternative, committee members agreed, is that the general sessions court already is close to overloaded. Adding more cases to be heard in that court might necessitate a second general sessions division, Bivens said. The Madison County court system currently operates with two divisions of general sessions, Bivens said, because of the caseloads.

"If we were to take the city cases and put them on him (Judge Charles Moore), he would have to set aside two days for criminal cases," which would take away time from other cases, Bivens said.

Committee members discussed the possibility of the first option, raising the salary for an assistant District Attorney General to prosecute cases in city court.

"The cheapest I can get is a part-time assistant for $18,000 (not including Social Security)," Bivens said.

"So we're talking about 12,000 additional dollars because we've budgeted $9,000," said member Lewis Norman, taking into account the additional $3,684.60 needed for Social Security.

City Treasurer Robert Reed reported that Dyersburg City Court currently generates revenues of approximately $186,000 for the city. The additional funding necessary for the salary increase could come from those revenues, especially with the recent decrease in city court personnel, Burns said.

With an assistant District Attorney General devoted to prosecuting city court cases, the frequency of having an A.D.A. in city court would likely increase, Bivens said. Instead of the current one day a week, city court cases might be prosecuted three days a week.

The committee members voted unanimously to present the salary increase to the board of mayor and aldermen at its next meeting on Feb. 7.