By Brian Wright | Casa Grande Dispatch
On a 3-2 vote, the Pinal County Board of Supervisors Wednesday approved dozens of raises for employees of the County Attorney’s Office that its new boss says will be paid for through staff restructuring.
The changes, requested by County Attorney Lando Voyles, include eliminating a capital attorney position, creating a new senior attorney position and increasing the pay of many employees. Voyles claims the changes will save the county about $20,000 a year.
Voyles’ request came less than two months after the board approved, also by a 3-2 vote, a drastic reshuffling of his office at an annual cost of more than $1 million. That included hiring 30 new employees.
Voyles said the capital attorney, who tries death penalty cases, will be replaced by a “wiretap” attorney, who works on securing permission to tape phone conversations.
“You can still get an attorney that costs less than a capital attorney,” he said. “Instead of hiring a capital attorney and calling them a wiretap attorney, I figure we should just give the savings back to the county and call them what they are. That’s what we’re doing here with these positions.”
However, board Chairman Steve Miller wasn’t buying Voyles’ message. He said it basically amounted to giving raises to employees in the County Attorney’s Office, when the board already mandated that every department cut spending.
