The Maricopa County Attorney is both the CEO of the largest law firm in the state and a public servant with a duty to taxpayers to run the office efficiently and frugally. To best protect our citizens, the County Attorney must compete for top-notch attorneys with private law firms and other public agencies, while paying salaries within the limits set by state and county lawmakers. Hiring and keeping great lawyers on a lean budget is a constant challenge -- but not an impossible one.

 

Unfortunately, Andrew Thomas's mismanagement of the County Attorney's office has devastated morale there. Competent attorneys are resigning in droves, resulting in multiple vacancies, understaffed cases, and yes, inevitably, courtroom losses. Reasons include the lack of a comprehensive training program, Thomas's rigid ideological positions, his unwise decision to strip prosecutors of prosecutorial discretion -- their most valuable justice tool -- and some particularly unwise and unpopular personnel decisions.

 

When I am County Attorney, I have a plan to attract, cultivate and retain the best legal minds and public servants. To start, I will offer these professionals not just competitive public employee salaries, but real opportunities to grow professionally and put their degrees to good use for the public benefit. Then, drawing on my 20-plus years of successful experience in the private and public sectors, I will create a productive working environment that develops and empowers the lawyers we need to do justice effectively.

 

As part of that, I will reinstitute the acclaimed prosecutor training program that once attracted the most promising law school graduates and prosecutors from other law enforcement agencies. Before it was scrapped by Andrew Thomas, that program produced some of this state's best prosecutors. Comprehensive training ensures that deputy county attorneys are equipped to make the best possible cases against criminal defendants and effectively represent county agencies in court.

 

Finally, I will also give these well chosen, well trained prosecutors the tools they need to do the job, including the discretion to prosecute their cases the best way they know how. The career prosecutors and other public attorneys who represent our County are dedicated to serving the public and see their work as not just a job, but the pursuit of justice. To inspire their best efforts for the people of Maricopa County, I will implement policies that recognize and respect their commitment to the common good.

 

In short, as County Attorney, I will fill the current vacancies as quickly as possible and create a culture of excellence in public service that will allow my staff to better protect our County. Working together, we will restore the office to a place where our state's best public servants are proud to work for the people of Maricopa County.