Stutsman County assistant state's attorney declines to withdraw resignation

Jun. 9—JAMESTOWN — The Stutsman County assistant state's attorney who is resigning from her position said the work environment was "phenomenal" and she is leaving because she has a "great opportunity" in the North Dakota Office of Attorney General.

Megan Carmichael declined to withdraw her resignation after the Stutsman County Commission approved a salary increase for employees in the state's attorney's office, said Fritz Fremgen, Stutsman County state's attorney, in an email on June 1. Carmichael's last day is Friday, June 23, leaving Fremgen as the only attorney in the Stutsman County State's Attorney's Office.

Fremgen previously said he has to prioritize criminal cases because of the staff shortage in his office.

The county commission approved salary increases for employees in the state's attorney's office effective June 1 during a special meeting in May. The starting yearly salary now ranges from $100,100 to $104,150 for a state's attorney, $94,000 to $97,850 for an assistant chief state's attorney, $88,300 to $91,900 for a state's attorney II and $82,900 to $86,300.

"Thank you for what you did at that last special meeting," Carmichael said at the county commission's meeting on Tuesday, June 6. "It means a lot to me and it will not go unnoticed."

The chief assistant state's attorney position was also added to the pay scale during the county commission's special meeting in May. The Stutsman County State's Attorney's Office has not had an assistant chief state's attorney for a while.

Carmichael said she was ready to stay in Jamestown. She applied for a position in the North Dakota Office of Attorney General seven months ago, but the office finally asked her to interview for a position.

But, Carmichael said she could potentially see herself pursuing Fremgen's position sometime in the future and what turned her off was Fremgen fighting for pay increases for attorneys in the Stutsman County State's Attorney's Office.

"He fought so hard for pay increases not for himself, even though he is one of the lowest-paid state's attorneys in the state at the time ... . He fought for us," she said. "I saw the fight that he put in there and it got turned down, I didn't want to put up with that fight. I didn't want to have to deal with that and that was really concerning to me."

Carmichael said she applied to be an attorney at Stutsman County in June 2021 because she was new to criminal law at that time.

"I wanted to get my foot in the door for criminal law," she said.

Carmichael, who is from the Bismarck-Mandan area, said it was her intent that working in the Stutsman County State's Attorney's office would be a stepping stone for her. But, when Carmichael moved to Jamestown, she said she loved the position and everyone she worked with.

"When I was considering positions to apply for for criminal law, I heard a lot about state's attorney's offices across the state — some micromanaging more than others, some don't let you charge, some just have really poor working environments," she said. "I hadn't heard anything about Stutsman."

Carmichael said she enjoyed her work environment and learning from Fremgen. She said Fremgen would take three hours a day sometimes to teach her and Brianna Kraft, who was also a new attorney when Carmichael started, about criminal law and how to be attorneys and prosecutors.

"You could tell he was tired. You could tell he knew that we were both looking at this job as stepping stones but it didn't matter to him," she said. " ... his workload probably was sacrificed because of that but ultimately we became attorneys."

Carmichael said Fremgen has helped produce great attorneys who have gone on to do "amazing" things in North Dakota.

Commissioner Joan Morris asked Carmichael if she had any suggestions on how to recruit and retain employees for the state's attorney's office.

"I realize there is an allure to Fargo," Morris said. " ... I also realize the generation coming out of college now has a different viewpoint than when I left college."

Carmichael said the pay increases for the attorneys in the state's attorney's office is "very promising." She also said the state's attorney's office needs to find someone who is either from the Jamestown area or someone who enjoys living in a smaller community.

"Fritz talked a lot about comparing us to Cass (County)," she said. "To be fair, I think that we need to have an allure over Cass because that's what will keep people here is having an allure over Cass, but you also just need to find that person that is going to be that small-time, small-town person that's OK with being in a town of 15,000 to 20,000 people."

In other business, the county commission unanimously approved a request from Maureen McGilvrey, recorder/treasurer, to hire a temporary employee to index historical documents.

The temporary employee will be paid $15 per hour for a maximum of 1,000 hours per year. The employee will be paid with funds from the document preservation fund.

McGilvrey said her office budgets for about $20,000 in revenue per year for the document preservation fund. She said $3 from every document gets put into the document preservation fund, which can be used for preservation of documents, training and storage.

She said documents from the 1800s to around 2012 need to be indexed. The documents from 2012 to now are already indexed.

The county commission also unanimously approved the purchase of a large format printer and scanner for the recorder's office to print and scan large plat maps.

The large format printer and scanner will cost $22,000 and be purchased using funds from the document preservation fund.