DENVER—Prosecutors who won a lot of guilty verdicts last year were rewarded by their district attorney in Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert and Lincoln Counties with $164,362 worth of bonuses.
“I knew nothing about it. This is news to me,” Elbert County Commissioner John Shipper said.
The Elbert County commissioners participate in approving the budget for the 18th Judicial District. Elbert County is facing cuts this year.
“I’m going to have to think about this,” Shipper said.
The 18th Judicial District is the only prosecutor’s office in the state that gave out bonuses last year, according to the Colorado District Attorney’s Council.
“In the last couple of years, most DAs have been asked to cut or freeze their budgets,” said Tom Raynes, executive director of the Colorado District Attorney’s Council. “In Mesa County, for instance, DA Pete Hautzinger’s (21st Judicial District) budget cuts resulted in the elimination of all of his DA investigator positions.”
In Denver, prosecutors haven’t had bonuses in years.
“We can’t do that. We don’t have the money,” Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey said. “I’ll be lucky to have as many deputies this year as last year. There’s no extra money in the budget to do anything. Most of them feel lucky to have jobs.”
Eighteenth Judicial District Attorney Carol Chambers handed out $414,456 in bonuses to prosecutors and non-attorneys between 2007 and 2010, according to office statistics. In 2010, she gave out twice as much money than in 2008, when staff received $74,787 in bonuses.
In the last four years, records show, Chambers also returned money to the four county commissions that largely fund her budget.
In 2010, she returned $914,000. In 2009, Chambers gave back $1.2 million in excess budget funds after giving employees $114,257 in bonuses.
This year, Chambers says bonuses were handed out to prosecutors who tried at least five felony cases with a 70 percent conviction rate. In prior years, bonuses were not tied to conviction rates.
Court records show Chambers gave every trial and deputy attorney working death penalty cases bonuses of up to $1,500 in 2007.
Chambers has been giving out bonuses from $1,000 to $3,000 per person since she took office in November 2004, according to court records. Chambers says she has never received any bonus money.
“I got a raise every year except the first year I started,” 18th Judicial District Deputy Attorney Ann Bronwen Tomsic said in a court deposition in August. “Most of the staff received some kind of bonus.”
Before 2010, court records show most staff didn’t realize why they received extra pay that showed up in their paychecks.
“I’ve never been given an explanation as to why I ever received pay for performance or a bonus,” Chief Deputy District Attorney John Topolnicki said in a court deposition. “I think there was some kind of a form letter that just maybe said something like, ‘Dear employee, your check includes an additional bonus for good work.'”
Under Colorado law, counties are supposed to fund the reasonable and necessary expenses of the DA as required to maintain and operate offices.
However, past and current line-item budget proposals from Chambers to Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert and Lincoln county commissioners make no mention of money for performance pay or bonuses, according to court testimony and 18th Judicial District budget requests obtained by KUSA-TV.
The chief financial officer for the office of the 18th Judicial District in charge of budgets and payroll, Doris Houser- Williams, says Chambers has never made a request or sought approval from county commissioners to give out bonuses, according to court testimony in People vs. Montour in 2010.
“I believe if the DA sought approval, I would have received documentation that would have said such,” Houser-Williams said.
Chambers says her office is thrifty, which is why she had money left over in her budget for bonuses.
“If there is money remaining, we want to use some of it to improve morale and retention,” Chambers said.
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Information from: KUSA-TV,
