Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey plans to unveil to Denver City Council members a new proposal for staffing a gang task force this Wednesday.
Although a specific funding proposal isn’t on the agenda for the council’s finance committee, Morrissey will hammer out the final details today, said Lynn Kimbrough, spokeswoman for the DA’s office.
Morrissey’s new plan will further refine negotiations underway between him and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper over how to beef up gang prosecutions.
Last month, Hickenlooper said he had secured a commitment for $150,000 from a private source for Morrissey’s gang plans.
But the two went back to the drawing board after Morrissey told council members that it would take $460,000 over 18 months for him to fully tackle Denver’s gang issues.
The $460,000 would allow Morrissey to devote two prosecutors and an investigator for 18 months to gang-related investigations. The $460,000 would be used to fill gaps in Morrissey’s staff created by the shift in deployment.
The amount the mayor raised would allow Morrissey to shift one prosecutor to grand jury investigations.
Kimbrough said Morrissey has scaled back his funding needs to the next nine months, which would cover staffing needs to the end of this year instead of the next 18 months.
Hickenlooper has said a private nonprofit foundation has pledged to contribute the $150,000, but the mayor has declined to reveal the source until the foundation’s board gives final approval.
Councilwoman Jeanne Faatz, who heads the council’s finance committee, said that while she applauds the mayor’s ability to raise the money privately, she thinks the source needs to be divulged.
“I have no reason to believe that any sources would have a conflict of interest here,” Faatz said. “But the people have a right to know where the money is coming from to fund various functions of government, and they ought to be able to track it.”
David Lane, a criminal defense lawyer, said it was the first time he had heard of the district attorney’s office receiving private funds for prosecutions.
“This is a core function of the district attorney’s office, and they are going to get private funds for it,” he said. “It seems that is what tax dollars are for.”
