Also on this page: Despite warning, Walker cuts DA funding dedicated to dangerous sex offender cases. Sheriff's budget request down $3 million.

Committee restores position dedicated to keeping dangerous sex offenders out of the community

Oct. 22, 2007 -- The six women on the County Board are supporting a budget amendment to restore a paralegal position crucial to the district attorney's team that works to keep serious sex offenders out of the community, according to Supervisor Lynne DeBruin.

County Executive Scott Walker cut the position in his 2008 proposed budget.

District Attorney John Chisholm said that without the position, “the likelihood of repeat sexual predators in our neighborhoods will increase.”

“We, the Women of the County Board, are respectfully asking the County Executive to reconsider his decision to cut this position,” DeBruin said. “We expect the County Board to restore this position and we ask the County Executive to support this amendment.”

Besides DeBruin, the amendment is co-sponsored by Supervisors Elizabeth Coggs-Jones, Toni M. Clark, Marina Dimitrijevic, Peggy West and Patricia Jursik.

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Despite warning, Walker cuts DA staffing devoted to dangerous sex offender cases

Oct. 10, 2007-- A paralegal position the district attorney says is "desperately needed" to help get and keep dangerous sexual offenders off the street has been cut by County Executive Scott Walker in his 2008 proposed budget.

If a paralegal doesn't do the work a paralegal should do, Chisholm told Budget Director Cindy Archer, then lawyers will -- lawyers whose time would be better spent on issues "headed for higher courts on important issues of public safety."

County Supervisor Lynne DeBruin said she Wednesday that she opposed Walker's cut.

“You’re talking about the real violent sexual predators,” she said.

Chisholm said predator cases -- which involve civil commitments and not criminal trials -- are time-consuming.

"The only way a file can be closed is upon the discharge of the offender," Chisholm wrote to Archer. "This has to date occurred in less than 10 cases. As a result, the caseload of our office continually increases, and this increase necessitates continued prosecutorial hearings held while the person is committed."

Chisholm's Sept. 14 letter was written almost two weeks before Walker released his budget.

The paralegal's involvement with sexual predator cases begins when they are opened, the DA wrote.

"Merely opening a file on a sex offender requires the organizing of several banker's boxes of unsorted files related to the offender that must be organized quickly so that my office can respond to strict statutory timelines imposed upon the prosecution of these cases," he wrote. "This task alone averages approximately 40 hours for every new file."

The paralegal also orders "extremely time sensitive" records, creates conduct reports about offenders, prepares petitions, files legal documents, conducts legal research, prepares discovery and retrieves files for doctors conducting evaluations of offenders.

Prosecutors handling predator cases "received specialized training, and are extremely dedicated to this important mission," Chisholm wrote. "They routinely work far in excess of the standard work week. Their expertise has successfully resulted in the continued removal of dangerous sex offenders from Milwaukee County neighborhoods. Their legal work alone requires them to go above and beyond the call of duty on a consistent basis. These prosecutors should not have their valuable time inefficiently directed toward work that could be accomplished by support staff."

To read Chisholm's letters to Archer and other county staff members, click here.

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Sheriff's budget down $3 million
Cuts in airport security, investigative services projected

Sept. 17, 2007 -- The Sheriff's Department budget would drop $3 million and include major cuts in the airport security staffing, investigative services and the parks patrol, budget documents show.

The department would rely on a Tactical Enforcement Unit -- including 25 deputies -- to supplement the parks and other areas of the department as needed.

The requested $74.8 million budget includes a property tax levy of $60.6 million, down $4.4 million, or 6.8%, from the $65 million levy budgeted for 2007.

The number of deputies assigned to patrol Mitchell International Airport would drop from 50 this year to 40 in 2008, a 20% staffing cut, according to budget documents.

The department's General Investigative Services Division, which conducts investigations, serves warrants, processes extradition papers, and performs background checks and other duties, would be reduced from 50 deputies to 31, a 38% decrease from this year''s budgeted levels, according to documents.

Despite the cuts, the department is anticipating no reduction in the number of background checks conducted or restitution writes served.

The parks patrol also would be sharply cut under Clarke's budget request -- from $759,814 this year to $416,675 in 2008, a 45% decrease, according to the documents.

The budget request would increase bailiff staffing from 81 deputies to 87 deputies. Clarke's budget request indicates costs for the bailiff services will go down $100,000, despite the staffing increases, dropping from $9.4 million to $9.3 million.