Tarrant’s new DA wants to add new key positions. He was told to wait until January.
Tarrant County’s incoming district attorney will need to wait until January to begin reorganizing the office by adding key positions under his leadership.
The Commissioners Court on Tuesday voted 3-2 against District Attorney-elect Phil Sorrells’ request for four new positions and reclassifying a fifth. Judge Glen Whitley, whose term ends Dec. 31, said he believed the outgoing court should not be making significant budgeting decisions before the newly elected judge and two other new commissioners are sworn Jan. 1.
Sorrells said it was critical that he gets his staff organized as quickly as possible. One of his campaign promises was to clear a backlog of criminal cases.
“We have over 40,000 cases pending in our county, 172 capital cases pending, 266 murder cases pending,” he told the Commissioners Court on Tuesday. “These cases require expertise, they require knowledge. I have people wanting to come back to this DA’s office to work these cases.”
Sorrells wants to add a new first assistant district attorney position, who could serve in the DA’s place when needed; a new managing attorney III position; and two attorney VIII expert positions, effective Jan. 3. Sorrells said he is already talking with candidates who would need time to transition out of their law practices to join the DA’s Office.
He also requested that the Commissioners Court reclassify the chief of staff position, which manages projects, oversees financial operations and support staff, and manages non-lawyer personnel.
The total personnel cost of the proposal is $847,414 a year.
Whitley responded that the court has always been responsive to the DA’s Office’s requests.
“I think the new court needs to be able to direct and affect that budget, he said. “When we started the budget season last year, we said those of us going out will not be allowed to add people. I think come January, they can do it.
“Yes, we’re talking a matter of days,” Whitley said, referring to the first meeting of the new commissioners court on Jan. 10, “but I don’t think what can be accomplished between now and Jan. 10 will be that dramatic.”
The county judge-elect, Tim O’Hare, campaigned on making budget cuts, lowering property taxes and supporting law enforcement and criminal justice. Whitley expressed that he believed it would be more appropriate to let O’Hare and the new commissioners court to make those funding decisions when they take office.
Commissioners J.D. Johnson and Gary Fickes voted to fund Sorrells’ staffing requests. Whitley and commissioners Devan Allen and Roy C. Brooks voted against it.
Johnson said he wants the county to move as quickly as possible to reduce case backlogs and reduce the jail population.
Outgoing District Attorney Sharen Wilson, who did not seek reelection, was asked during the meeting what her thoughts were on Sorrells’ requests.
“From an organizational and leadership standpoint, it makes sense to me that he’s trying to get ready before Jan. 1,” Wilson said. “For him to get his organization together, I think this is important.”
Whitley said he agreed that Sorrells needed to move quickly, but “I just believe the new court needs to be the one that makes that decision as far as adding people, changing the organization over there, and I want to give the new court that opportunity.”
