The Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office has major problems with employee retention and replacement, staff told county council at a meeting on Thursday.
At the second hearing for the 2023 budget, the DA’s first assistant and chief of staff Rebecca Spangler said 23 people have left the office in the last year, and they currently have seven vacant positions.
According to Spangler, low starting salaries are in part to blame; the office’s $45,000 starting salary isn’t competitive with other counties.
“We can’t retain attorneys with that salary scale. And we can’t hire them either,” Spangler said.
She noted that many attorneys leave Allegheny County for Erie or Washington County. Starting salaries for the Erie County DA’s office start around $65,000, while salaries in Washington County start around $68,000.
“For nine years I’ve been raising this issue as the canary in the coal mines,” Spangler said. “We’ve always been seen as a training ground by private practices and other agencies like the Attorney General’s office and U.S. Attorney’s office.”
Spangler said the staffing shortages mean that prosecutors may carry between 250 and 400 cases per year—a much higher caseload than is typical.
The DA’s office is asking for an additional $550,000 in the 2023 budget. The funds would allow them to bump base pay to $65,000 and provide pay increases to long-serving employees. In the following budget, the office requested an additional $1.3 million, which would allow them to replace staff that have left and create and hire for new positions.
Allegheny County public defenders are experiencing a similar issue. Public defenders also have a starting salary of $45,000.
“This is not a problem of any one entity’s fault. This is a systemic problem and it’s related to the economy, but this is something that’s been going on for many years,” Spanger said.
Both public defenders and staff in the DA’s office are covered by a collective bargaining agreement that sets the starting salary at $45,000, but Spanger said the agreement should set the floor.
“It’s the minimum that we’re permitted to pay. Council passes the budget. You give us a budget, the elected District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala should have the discretion to apply those monies as needed,” Spangler said.
The union and county officials are currently in budget negotiations.
