By Maggie Lee / Staff

North Fulton could lose its “invaluable” new community public prosecutor if the County Commission this month shrinks Fulton’s projected criminal justice budget and forces the Fulton County District Attorney to look for programs to prune. 

When prosecutor Todd Ashley moved into an office in Alpharetta in mid-August last year, he became the only DA stationed north of I-285. A native of Milton, he came at the behest of a coalition of Northside leaders including County Commissioner Lynne Riley (R-Johns Creek) and then-Roswell city councilwoman Lori Henry, a mayoral candidate who was subsequently  defeated in November.

Fulton’s six so-called community prosecutors like Ashley are not just attorneys. They’re meant to be active in crime prevention — problem-solvers, plugged into their area, on a first-name basis with law enforcement and community leaders. 

But forget about names; Ashley can recite many of their phone numbers from memory.

“His effect is tremendous,” says Alpharetta Director of Public Safety Gary George, who described Ashley as “invaluable.”

Night or day, seven days a week, Ashley can get to a crime scene on short notice, George notes. Also, he saves city officers hours-long trips to Atlanta as well as some long, frustrating phone calls seeking case data out of the downtown courthouse.

‘PENNY WISE AND POUND FOOLISH’

Roger Wise, a board member of the Alpharetta Public Safety Foundation and all-around north Fulton mover and shaker, went to the Commission’s public hearing on the budget to testify in support of Ashley’s office.

“Speaking as someone who works very closely with public safety personnel, this thing is working really well for them,” he said, adding that it’s a beautiful example of county, local and private cooperation. 

Henry, known for her cutting and no-nonsense oratory style, took the podium after Wise.

“All of the cities in our county depend on Fulton County Superior Court ... We’ve done everything we can to maximize our resources through partnerships,” she said, adding that cutting Ashely’s office would be “penny wise and pound foolish.” Henry reminded the commissioners that North Fulton contributes far more in tax dollars to the county than it ever gets back in services.

It is nearly certain that the Fulton County Commission will cut budgets of all of the so-called justice agencies: all courts, the public defender, medical examiner, sheriff, marshal and DA. The county manager has recommended cuts to all city departments from Arts Council to Tax Commissioner, and all of them have vocal advocates. 

The first plan for the 2010 budget would have given the DA $21.6 million. The second dropped it to $19.4 million; the latest draft assigns $20.6 million – a 5 percent cut from the first figure. 

‘NO NEW TAXES’ LEAVES LITTLE CHOICE

Commission Chairman John Eaves took the responsibility for the budget. “We, the Chairman and the Board [of Commissioners], said ‘no new taxes.‘  So that’s part of why we must cut.”

District Attorney Paul Howard has yet to divulge how he’d adjust his plan downward, but earlier in the budget-wrangling his office noted that 10 percent of $21.6 million represents the price of 12 attorneys or 13 investigators or 23 support staff.  That’s roughly $180,000 per attorney. 

“We’re suggesting,” Howard explained on the sidelines of the Commission meeting, “let’s cut it [money] from the place we don’t need it, that is, from the inmates sitting in jail.” Fulton’s budget this year includes $12 million to send prisoners to other jails; a court order prevents them from staying in Fulton’s overcrowded, overtaxed lockup. Howard argues his team —prosecutors, investigators and support staff — are essential to turning over the prisoners. 

Ashley has disposed of 16 cases — nearly 40 distinct crimes by nine separate people — since moving to Alpharetta. It’s difficult to compare him statistically to his downtown colleagues, because community prosecutors are meant to deal in prevention, communication, community networking and intensity, not necessarily volume. Other public prosecutors may spend more time in court, but if a case crosses Ashley’s desk, it should meet a timely disposal. 

DA Howard believes many Fulton cases take too long; he’s pushing for a 63-day limit to dispose of the least serious cases and up to two years for murder. He says Fulton can’t achieve that with a smaller DA’s office nor, for that matter, with bottlenecks in potentially pared-back sister agencies like drug court (a treatment alternative to jail for nonviolent, drug-addicted offenders) and pretrial intervention. Both are also on the block.    

The Commission hearing on the justice budget brought out passionate defenders of drug court and pretrial intervention. Rep. Ralph Long (D-Atlanta), calling himself a “former employer” of the latter program, said it “turned my head around” and asked the Commission to fund it because it emphasizes care and treatment rather than incarceration. County Superior Court Chief Judge Doris Downs devoted most of her allotted two minutes of testimony to emphasizing that she needs all the personnel in all the justice departments in order to maximize the benefit of a federal grant that’s meant to clear Fulton’s case backlog. 

But no matter how the ax falls, there’s no indication yet what would happen to Ashley.  There’s no word yet on attorney layoffs at all; Ashley could stay put or be reassigned downtown Or he  may leave the prosecutor’s office for a judgeship – he’s on Gov. Sonny Perdue’s short list of potential appointees.

“It doesn’t matter to me,” said Ashley. “I’ll go where they need me.”

But there’s reason for hope. The DA’s latest 2010 tentative budget of $20,643,980 still beats last year’s actual expenditure by some $30,000, according to Fulton‘s numbers. It’s not enough to overcome inflation, but still it’s a tenth of a percent more money than last year.