FTR: ‘I can’t do the work of six attorneys’: Dodge County loses all state prosecutors
Starting this Wednesday, Dodge County no longer has either a district attorney nor any full-time state prosecutors in an office that typically houses six attorneys who handle the county’s criminal prosecutions and civil matters.
District Attorney Kurt Klomberg put in his resignation, effective this past Friday, once he realized he’d be the last prosecutor in an office after a string of retirements and resignations that the office hadn’t been able to get applicants to replace.
“I really don’t have a choice,” Klomberg told Naomi Kowles on For the Record this week.
“This has been really one of the most difficult decisions of my life. I built this office with my partners here,” he said. “We were leaders in policy, procedure, management; we had been training other offices, consulting with almost every other DA’s office in the state.”
Klomberg, who has been the county’s district attorney for twelve years, started a plan six years ago to plan for retirements of key assistant prosecutors in the office. One aspect of the plan fell apart when a key replacement for a retiring attorney had to take extended family leave. The office wasn’t getting applicants — something Klomberg attributes to the $56,000 base starting salary for assistant district attorneys, far below private attorney salaries and even many government attorney positions like family attorneys and corporation counsels.
When it came down to him and one other attorney, Klomberg still hadn’t given up. He came up with a plan where the two of them could do the work of six: “It wasn’t pretty…but I was willing to give it a shot.”
It was when he presented that plan to the prosecutor that he learned she had taken a position in another county: better hours, closer to home.
“She was looking down the barrel of the gun with me, and she made a reasonable decision,” he said. “I can’t blame her for doing it, because ultimately I’m doing the same thing.”
Klomberg sought assistance from the state, the Wisconsin Department of Justice, other neighboring counties. No one could help, he said. Once he sent his letter of resignation to Governor Tony Evers, he says Evers didn’t reach out to him but did contact the Department of Administration about seeking out retired prosecutors to fill in the gap. There will be two part-time retired prosecutors for now, Klomberg said, but the office will be empty of its normal six full time positions.
“If you don’t have a prosecutor in place, the police can do a great job, they can arrest a dangerous offender, put them in jail, and within 48 hours if they’re not in front of a judge with a prosecutor reviewing the case, they’re getting released,” he explained.
“If a prosecutor isn’t there to charge a case, which is required that an attorney make that decision and prosecute the case going forward, there will be no accountability. Those people will return to the community with no consequences, no accountability, and quite frankly that is a terrible public safety threat.”
Klomberg’s message is one of overwhelming urgency: the state legislature, which controls starting salaries for assistant district attorneys, has to act. The Wisconsin District Atttorney Association, of which Klomberg has been president, is pushing for a starting salary of $70,000 a year: still below other government positions, but still closer to attracting talent who wants to be there.
“That has got to happen right now, and it has to happen this year in this budget. If we wait another two years, there will be other offices that collapse just like we did.”
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FTR: Wisconsin Election Commissioner Bob Spindell responds to accusations of racism
After emails emerged where Republican elections commissioner Bob Spindell praised the underperformance of Black and Hispanic areas in Milwaukee during the latest midterm election, Democrats say his emails distributed to Republicans in Wicsonsin are racist and an example of the GOP actively working to suppress votes from people of color.
Spindell joined For the Record to defend his position — which he believes is not racism, but an example of Democrats losing their hold on the votes of people of color.
FTR: Senate majority leader on flat tax proposal
Also on For the Record, political reporter Will Kenneally sat down with Senate majority leader Devin LeMahieu to discuss his proposed legislation that would do away with Wisconsin’s income tax brackets and instead implement a flat tax of 3.25%.
DETAILS HERE: GOP introduces flat tax in Wisconsin
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