LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – Lubbock County’s top prosecutor says flat funding is pushing attorneys out the door and putting public safety at risk.
District Attorney Sunshine Stanek says her office is currently down 10 prosecutors — a fifth of her attorney workforce. She said in her 26 years with the office, she has never seen it in its current state.
While she feared it may fall on deaf ears, she urged commissioners to increase funding so she could give her employees eight percent raises at an initial budget hearing in June.
“If we keep having years like last year, where we don’t give them anything, we are setting this office and public safety and this community up for failure,” Stanek said.
Attorneys leaving for higher pay
Stanek said of the 12 attorneys who left over the past year, 10 departed for higher-paying jobs and two left the workforce entirely. She said those departures included both new attorneys and two who had been practicing for more than a decade.
“To know the reason why someone’s leaving your office is not only very personal to me, but it’s something that we could actually do something about,” Stanek said. “It’s not like they’re complaining about the environment or the work or things like that. It’s something that you could actually change if people would get on board with that.”
She told commissioners her top priorities are retaining experienced attorneys and recruiting new ones. She said entry-level attorneys could immediately earn $23,000 more by taking a job in Canyon, roughly 90 miles away.
Salaries stagnant since last correction
Chief Administrator and Prosecutor Edward Wharff said commissioners brought salaries up to a competitive rate three years ago but pay has not moved since.
“We have just slowly lost folks again and we’re at another point where it’s going to have to take quite a big correction to set us right,” Wharff said.
Last year, county departments were asked to cut their budgets by 10 percent, and county employees did not receive raises or cost-of-living adjustments. Stanek said she declined a $5,000 raise to her county stipend that commissioners offered to some elected officials because her staff received nothing.
State grant funds out of reach
Stanek said she is also still requesting the three additional positions she sought last year and warned that inaction will have consequences.
“We can’t remain stagnant. We are a growing community and in order to keep up with that growth, which is great by the way, it’s great, but we have to keep up with the growth in this county or public safety is going to fall behind.”
A recent state law provides grants to supplement salaries for rural law enforcement and district attorney’s offices. Lubbock County falls at the cutoff threshold and is considered too large to receive those funds.
“I fear what this office will look like if they do not do anything this year,” Stanek said. “I fear what the sheriff’s office will become if they do not do anything for them this year. I mean, I can’t use this word enough. This is alarming.”
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