|
SCS/SB 672 - Currently, the county commission of any county may or shall upon voter petition submit to the voters at a general or special election the proposition of making the county prosecutor a full-time position. This act provides that in any county that has followed this voting procedure, and where the voters have elected to make the prosecutor a full-time position, the county commission may or shall upon voter petition submit to the voters a proposition to change the full-time county prosecutor position back to a part-time position. If the prosecutor position is changed back to a part-time position, the contribution the county must pay in to the retirement system and the retirement benefit earned by the prosecutor will prospectively be that of a part-time prosecutor. This act provides a method for the governing bodies of two or more contiguous counties in a judicial circuit to join together to form a prosecutorial district and share a district attorney upon the adoption of a resolution or charter amendment and the approval of a joint agreement. Additional counties in the judicial circuit may join a prosecutorial district by the consent of each county participating in the district. The district attorney for a multi-county prosecutorial district formed prior to January 1, 2015, is to be elected to an initial two-year term at the 2016, general election, and to four-year terms starting in 2018. Other district attorneys are to be elected at the 2018 election and every four years thereafter. The governing body of a county in a single-county judicial circuit may convert the office of prosecuting attorney to a district attorney office by resolution or charter amendment. In a single-county circuit, the prosecuting attorney must immediately begin performing the additional duties required of a district attorney upon approval of the resolution or the amendment, but the election for the new district attorney position will not occur until the next regular election. In addition to the duties required by current law for prosecuting attorneys, district attorneys must represent state agencies in debt collection cases and provide at least six hours of continuing education to police officers. Unless there is a different agreement, the district attorney retains 20 percent of all debt collected on behalf of state agencies with one-half of the fee to go to the Missouri Office of Prosecution Services Fund and one-half to go to the county treasurer of each county in the district on a pro rata basis. Under this act, district attorneys must receive compensation equal to that of an associate circuit judge and the same retirement benefit as a full-time prosecuting attorney, which is prorated among the counties. This act provides that part-time prosecuting attorneys can be compensated according to the assessed valuation scale provided under current law or they may receive half the compensation of a full-time prosecuting attorney if the part-time prosecutor represents the juvenile officer in all juvenile court cases. Current law provides that $2,000 of a prosecuting attorney's salary is payable only if the prosecutor has completed at least 20 hours of classroom instruction each calendar year. This act provides that $10,000 of district attorney's salary is payable only if the district attorney has completed at least 30 hours of instruction. Provisions of this act are similar to SB 824 (2014). MEGHAN LUECKE
|
