County employees in Shelby Co. DA's office to get raise, closing pay gap with state positions

The pay gap between state and county employees of the Shelby County District Attorney's office will be closed after the Shelby County Commission passed a resolution allowing raises for county employees in the DA's office Monday.

In a packed commission chamber, many employees of the DA's office spoke about how the pay disparity impacts morale among county employees, and how the high turnover rate in different positions threatened public safety and the mental health of victims of crime.

Commissioners Charlie Caswell, Erika Sugarmon, Michael Whaley, David Bradford, Britney Thornton, Shante Avant, Henri Brooks, Mickel Lowery and Chairwoman Miska Clay Bibbs voted in favor. Commissioners Amber Mills, Edmund Ford Jr. and Mick Wright abstained.

Some of those pay discrepancies discussed Monday were nearly $50,000 between employees doing the same work, at the same experience levels.

Initially the DA's office requested $2.25 million in the 2024 fiscal year budget to immediately provide comparable raises for county prosecutors, with $965,000 of that money going to the Shelby County's Office of the Public Defender.

The resolution Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy submitted to the commission also mentioned including about $3.1 million annually moving forward, which includes sustained raises for prosecutors, victim and witness coordinators, investigators and secretaries.

The price tag to close the pay gap was lowered by a substitute Monday, after conversations between the DA's office and the county finance department, Mulroy said.

That substitute requested $1.73 million for both the DA's and public defenders' offices for the remainder of the 2024 fiscal year, and an additional $2.97 million for the DA's office annually moving forward.

The public defender's office is required to receive a 75% match of whatever additional funding the DA's office receives.

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Mulroy told commissioners during committee meetings last week that if action is not taken to address the pay disparities he would lose employees.

During committee, Chief Administrative Officer Harold Collins said that Mulroy's ask would drop the county's general fund balance below the 18% threshold it has to stay at. Collins said during Monday night's meeting that the Shelby County mayor's office "trusts the Commission's wisdom" to figure out the funding source, and that ultimately it is up to the Commission to vote on this.

What commissioners had to say

Ford said the mayoral administration will blame the commission for political fallout if there are financial problems down the road.

While the item was about lessening the pay gap between county and state employees, Wright took the time to ask Mulroy a flurry of questions about the efficiency of the courts and why there aren't more trials. Wright has taken to social media multiple times to show the lack of activity in the criminal courts. Mulroy responded and said that a lot of work happens outside the courtroom and that when not in court his attorneys are in their offices working.

Wright also offered a substitute resolution that would change the funding source to American Rescue Plan Act funds and also make the raises a one-time payment. Mulroy said that ensuring that employees know that their salary will be increased in the future was the only way to ensure the office does not lose employees. The substitution ultimately failed with four votes in support, seven votes against and one abstention.

Whaley said he was initially hesitant about adding on the budget item so late in the fiscal year as there is a "process" for budget items such as this. But, Whaley said, the pay disparity within the DA's office needs to be addressed.

"But this situation to me is unique in that we're talking about a disparity that has existed... for a while," he said.

The discrepancy has existed for years, according to Mulroy, but was exacerbated when assistant district attorneys and other state employees in DA's offices across Tennessee were given 15% to 20% raises last year. County employees did not receive the same raise.

According to Mulroy, the discrepancy is a "luck of the draw type thing" that needs to be corrected quickly, or the lack of retention and hiring incentives could exacerbate the already heavy load of cases that prosecutors are taking on within his office.

That difference in pay, which can result in a $15,000 to $20,000 annual difference in salary for employees at the same level, comes down to whether they are paid by the state or paid by Shelby County. Some county employees make up to $53,000 less than the state rate.

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Being a county or state employee is essentially luck, according to Mulroy, and is based on which opening is available when someone applies. The format dates back decades, he said, when Shelby, Davidson, Knox and Hamilton counties all needed additional prosecutors. At the time, all employees in DA's offices were state employees. To fix that problem, the counties decided to supplement with county positions.

General sessions court, which is a county court, would have county attorneys working cases, and state attorneys would exclusively work in criminal court, where judges are also paid by the state.

About a decade ago, during former Shelby County DA Amy Weirich's tenure, the Shelby County DA's Office switched to a vertical prosecution method. In that method, a prosecutor stays with a case from general sessions to criminal court. This removed the need for attorneys to learn new cases when defendants were indicted. It also meant county and state attorneys were doing, essentially, the same work.

Brooke Muckerman covers Shelby County Government for The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at (901) 484-6225, brooke.muckerman@commercialappeal.com and followed on X, formerly known as Twitter @BrookeMuckerman.

Lucas Finton is a criminal justice reporter with The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at Lucas.Finton@commercialappeal.com, or (901)208-3922, and followed on X, formerly known as Twitter, @LucasFinton.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Shelby County District Attorney's office workers to get pay raise