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Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano and Prosecutor Kim Worthy are fighting openly over money. She calls him "irresponsible" and his aide accuses her of "using scare tactics."
Worthy said late Friday afternoon that her office is being forced to layoff 22 attorneys, three investigators and a weekend clerk, a move she says will "endanger the pubiic safety for the citizens" and result in more criminal suspects on the streets.
Ficano fires back through spokeswoman June West, who accuses Worthy of extreme rhetoric "as a cover for her deficvit spending" in comments quoted by Oralandar Brand-Williams at The Detroit News:
"The prosecutor has been on notice since late February that the county could not extend the use of these consultants because of her office's overspending," said June West, a spokeswoman for Ficano. "We have been working in good faith to reach a budget adjustment that can be presented to the Wayne County Commission.
"A budget compromise proposal that increases her approved budget has been on her desk since Tuesday. It is unfortunate that she is using scare tactics as a cover for her deficit spending and her lack of response to the proposal."
In her office's earlier three-page news release, Worthy says she received notice on Thursday from the county that it would have to cuts the employees, who are contractual workers.
"We have been warning the County for months that any reduction in staff would cause drastic actions to be taken and severely impair our mandated functions," Worthy says. "Robert Ficano has taken the irresponsible action of laying off people who work hard to prosecute criminals in my jurisdiction. The effect of these layoffs will affect the safety of the men, women and children in this County. We will continue to pursue our lawsuit to ensure that this office is properly funded."
Those laid off at bthe end of Friday include Richard Hathaway, chief assistant prosecutor, and Timothy Baughman, chief of appeals.
A rift between Worthy and other county leaders emerged last year.
The prosecutor sued the county in October after Wayne County commissioners funded the prosecutor's office at $25.4 million for fiscal 2012-13, The News report says. Worthy's suit says she needs at least $34 million to run her department.
Millage differences at root?
As Brand-Williams recounts, Worthy has said Ficano wants to cut her budget because she has not supported a $38-million, 0.97-mill tax for public services proposed in August. The proposal would have earmarked $9 million for Worthy's office, but commissioners failed to approve it and it never made it to the November ballot.
The 26 staff members being laidoff are employed as project consultants -- contract workers who don't get benefits. If they had been hired as employees it would have cost $5.3 million instead of the actual $1.7 million, a savings of $3.6 million.
The office said starting on Monday, the layoffs would impact courtrooms in 36th District Court, which will not be fully covered. In fact, the office said, there were will be no coverage for the domestic violence and traffic court docket.
"With half the warrant staff laid off, there will be significant delays in charging serious felonies, cases involving nonfatal shootings, which will cause the jail population to grow," the release says.
Addiitonally, delays in the charging processs will result in "large numbers of suspects" being released pending investigation.
Layoffs also will delay prosecution of three majoir financial crimes involving multiple victims, the office sys.
Eroding public trust predicted
"Prosecutors handling public corruption, police shootings and police misconduct have been reduced by the lay-offs; withoout this oversight, Wayne County residents will have signficantly less confidence in their public institutions," it adds.
The prosecutor's office said that it already has a backlog of 58 warrants for homicides and 62 for sexual assaults that need to be reviewed to see if charges should be filed. The layoffs will only make matters worse, the prosecutor's office said.
Worthy also has been unable to fill 30 vacant attorney slots.
Daniel Jensen, director of the Grosse Pointe Farms Police and a spokesman for the Wayne County Chiefs of Police, is quoted in the county press release:
"Now is not the time to be laying off assistant prosecutors. The county does not need any more victims. Let Kym Worthy do her job."
