Over the past several months, the Grays Harbor County Board of Commissioners (BOCC), consisting of Georgia Miller, Rick Hole and Vickie Raines, has been extremely purposeful and calculated for various reasons when it comes to filling positions, promotions, and pay increases.

This past Tuesday was no different as Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Daniel Crawford made an impassioned plea for promotions and raises for three county prosecutors. The BOCC, Miller in particular, pushed back — hard.

Crawford put forward for discussion promotions and raises for District Court Prosecutor Andrew Fleming, and Superior Court Prosecutors Jessy Nations and Christopher Smith. The justification? Increased caseload and prosecuting cases beyond their experience level and pay grade. The requested raises amount to a total $89,376 per year, not including the commensurate increase in the monetary value of their benefits.

The personnel cover letters for each promotion and raise request include similar language and indicate “the caseloads are currently unusually high due to recent vacancies.”

As for Nations and Smith, Crawford said they have stepped into the breach to prosecute difficult, complicated and high-profile cases.

“These two particular individuals have gone through quite a bit. We moved them up into felonies, and as people have moved on for different reasons, have been assigned and tasked with major felonies, Class A’s, homicides, some child rape cases, and such, far over their number of years (of) experience,” Crawford said. “They’ve been very successful, we’ve had some very successful cases. These are tasks that are allotted to much more experienced prosecutors, but because of the nature of the people in the office right now, they are the most experienced other than myself. If you look at other counties, the pay they are getting is akin to maybe entry level, or experienced district court prosecutors at this point.”

At this point, Miller began asking Crawford pointed questions about the nature of the requested raises.

“Aren’t these three basically getting entry-level attorney wages because they’re basically entry-level attorneys?” Miller asked. “The increase that is being asked for is equivalent to somebody who would be working approximately 10 years as an attorney.”

Crawford countered by arguing that the prosecutors under discussion, particularly the superior court prosecutors, have earned the higher pay due to the work they’ve put in.

“These two have been doing the work of someone who has the experience of 10 years,” Crawford said.

The conversation then pivoted to current vacancies in the Prosecutor’s Office and retention, with Miller asking questions regarding the current work culture and environment and the inability to attract more experienced talent.

“I’m trying to understand how throwing an additional $150,000 to the budget is going to solve the problem of retention and attraction for the prosecuting attorney’s office. Back in 2023, there was an ask for $160,000, 11 different positions, because retention was such an issue and attraction was such an issue. That amount ended up being closer to $260,000,” Miller said. “Of the 11 positions that were increased at that time, there are only three people still in employment in that department and one of those three is looking to leave because they want more money. Retention has actually gotten worse since we added $260,000 in 2023. How is adding another $150,000 now to your department going to help with retention? Isn’t it possible that the issue isn’t money, that there’s an issue of leadership and culture in the workplace, and that might be why you can’t retain people in your department?”

Crawford brought the conversation back to wages and the fear that attorneys would use their experience in Grays Harbor County as stepping stones to higher-paying positions in other realms. Miller countered by reiterating her belief that the problem is culture and not pay.

“One of the individuals who said that they would stay for additional money is now threatening to leave unless he gets additional money, which indicates the issue is most likely culture and workplace,” Miller said. “Right now, we’ve already had public disclosure requests, which means a lawsuit is looming from staff leaving the prosecuting office and wanting to sue the county for how they were treated within your office. I do not believe that any amount of money that we could possibly provide the prosecuting attorney’s office will fix this problem. It is clear in my mind that there is a leadership issue and a culture issue within the prosecuting attorney’s office.”

Miller added that the negative reputation of the Grays Harbor County Prosecutor’s Office is causing issues in attracting and retaining personnel, and expressed concerns about creating an out-of-whack pay scale.

Crawford returned to discussing the three attorneys whose promotions and pay raises he was championing in this meeting.

“I’m talking about these three individuals specifically, based on their merit and what they’ve earned by sticking with it, regardless of the issues you speak of,” Crawford said. “They’re willing to hang in there. … They see a change of culture at least as far as the criminal division is concerned. I can’t speak to anything other than that. They are doing the major level cases; they should be paid for doing the major level cases. They’re getting paid less to do a lot more, and they’re absorbing a lot of the cases.”

With regard to the heavier-than-usual caseload compared to other attorneys in other counties, Miller countered by indicating the number of vacant positions that currently exist in the Grays Harbor County Prosecutor’s Office.

“That’s because your office has so many positions that they cannot fill, because nobody wants to come and work for the prosecuting attorney’s office in Grays Harbor,” Miller said. “We have had not one, but two investigations, internal investigations, that have been done on complaints for employees toward the prosecuting attorney’s office, and those have not been addressed. And until those things are addressed, behavior is addressed, we’re going to have the same problem over and over again. The positions are there, we’ve authorized to hire the positions, but nobody wants to come here.”

Miller went on to say that she was not interested in entertaining the salary increases as they were presented in the requests Crawford brought forward for discussion. Hole suggested the parties come up with a compromise. Raines, ever the pragmatist, said that she is concerned that attrition would be detrimental to the ability to prosecute cases.

“I look at some of the cases that we’ve had in the last year, since Daniel came on board, the convictions that we’ve seen, the cases that we’ve seen, horrible cases, that I don’t want to do something that causes these people to leave,” she said. “If we can’t pay them and they leave, can we do the public’s work? That’s a big issue for me. I think we’re going to see a turn in the prosecutor’s office, we have to see a turn in the prosecutor’s office. I don’t want to limit the people that we have that are doing good work.”

Crawford echoed Raines’ concerns with regard to prosecuting cases and safeguarding the public.

“The most important thing about all of this is we’re talking about public safety here. What does it look like if they move on?” Crawford said. “Then there is only one other felony prosecutor other than myself who has a grand total of two months of experience.”

Miller reiterated she felt the proposed salary increases would not solve any of the problems that surfaced at Tuesday’s meeting. The conversation circled back to trying to reach a compromise and find a way to reward the three attorneys being discussed without distorting the pay scale for future, more experienced hires.

Hole brought up the need to review an organizational chart for the prosecutor’s office to better understand the existing positions and vacancies. Crawford explained the career trajectory for prosecuting attorneys and noted that the candidates applying to work in Grays Harbor County are quite junior.

County Administrator Sam Kim said he is quite confident that a compromise will be reached when it comes to compensation for Fleming, Nations and Smith.

“It could be a lesser amount because what they are proposing, we had no appetite for that. We do realize that these attorneys are working hard, the denial is not because of their performance or their contributions,” Kim said. “As Commissioner Miller indicated, there have been a couple of investigations, there are work culture issues, and we want to address that for retention and recruitment.”

Kim said filling the vacancies in the prosecutor’s office is on the table, and that the salaries are part of the county’s ongoing classification and compensation study, the results of which will be published in February. He added that he met with Crawford after the BOCC meeting.

“The prosecutor’s office is participating in the classification and compensation study,” Kim said. “We would rather wait before we do any promotions. When I met with Mr. Crawford, there would be a greater appetite for giving them step increases rather than promotions. These are junior attorneys … because of the vacancies they have, they have to move these people up, and they are doing very well. They’re doing a very good job, and we do recognize that.”