Earlier this summer, the Post asked our readers what issues you wanted to hear candidates in contested races address leading up to the Nov. 5. election.
Based on that feedback, we developed a five-item questionnaire centering the issues most important to residents across Johnson County.
Each day this week, we’ll publish the candidates’ responses to one question.
Today, we’re publishing candidates’ responses to the following question:
Several readers said it’s important to them that the Johnson County DA’s Office maintain a staff of highly qualified and experienced attorneys. What steps will you take to recruit and retain a staff of top-notch prosecuting attorneys? And how will you approach assigning cases to your assistant DAs, considering issues of equity, fairness and experience?
Below are the answers the Post received from candidates on the issue:
Steve Howe (Republican, incumbent)
My office is considered one of the premier prosecutors’ offices in the Midwest. That is why we continue to bring in top notch prosecutors from throughout the country.
We also use our law school intern program to assist in recruiting and obtaining good candidates. After a yearlong internship, these interns are hired by my office, other prosecutor offices across the country and large civil law firms.
I have also worked with the county manager’s office and Board of County Commissioners over the last couple of years to increase pay levels to stay competitive in the job market. These efforts allow us to maintain a stable and high performing work force. It is also why we continue to provide excellent results, which has aided in keeping our crime rate low.
My office assigns cases based on experience levels and specialized training they have received. That is the sole criteria we use for case assignments. We also assign a second attorney on big cases to provide them hands on experience.
Vanessa Riebli (Democratic)
In the past 4 years, over 20 prosecutors have left the office – a 50 percent turnover rate. Of the 4 departures in the last 30 days, 3 left to work as prosecutors in other offices. Prior to the recent departures, approximately 40 percent of the prosecutors had less than 5 years of experience. That percentage has grown with the four most recent prosecutors leaving, as they represented over 75 years of collective experience.
This turnover is due to a number of factors that I intend to address to include the reorganization of the office away from specialties, lack of training and mentorship, and lack of leadership.
Due to the reorganization of the office in 2020, which assigned prosecutors to courts versus specialty units, the management in the office has become decentralized which has led to inequities. Each court is assigned a section chief who is given broad discretion as to how to operate their court, which means they each do it differently, resulting in significant disparities with how cases are assigned, training and mentorship, the number of cases assigned per prosecutor and how cases are resolved.
Additionally, moving away from specialties has resulted in a decrease of subject matter expertise in the office. Prosecutors have been forced to become generalists instead of specializing in specific areas of the law, such as elder abuse, economic crimes, sexual assault, etc.
I want to return to a centralized management structure with an emphasis on specialty units to allow for cases to be assigned to subject matter experts within the office. The number and severity of cases per prosecutor will be proportionate. High level cases will be assigned based upon experience, and I will, as the District Attorney, handle the tough cases–something the current District Attorney does not do.
As a part of addressing employee retention, the centralized management structure will promote more uniformity in the execution of policy and procedures in the office – which leads to greater equity among the staff. I will also move an attorney position to a Chief of Staff position, which will increase training and mentorship to support new prosecutors and address inexperience in the office.
Finally, I will place an emphasis on valuing employees through staff appreciation, implementing periodic mental health check-ins for secondary trauma, and optional monthly training programs unrelated to the practice of law.
Coming up:
Tomorrow we will publish the candidates’ responses to the following question:
Johnson County’s Officer Involved Critical Incident Investigation Team, or OICIIT, currently investigates all Johnson County officer-involved shootings. The county’s OICIIT process has come under scrutiny in recent years, particularly for the investigation into the 2018 fatal shooting of teenager John Albers in Overland Park. Do you think OICIIT currently accomplishes its stated mission of conducting impartial and transparent investigations? What changes or improvements, if any, would you like to see?
