Oconto County board approves incentive to retain ADA

Assistant district attorney position was vacant for almost a year
By: 
Warren Bluhm
Editor-in-chief

The Oconto County Board has approved an incentive package aimed at retaining the county’s new assistant district attorney for as long as possible.

During its March 23 meeting, supervisors unanimously approved a plan to provide quarterly payments totaling $10,000 a year for three years to supplement the position’s posted salary range of $27.24 an hour, which equates to just under $57,000 annually based on a 40-hour work week.

Richard Zoellner started work as assistant district attorney at the end of February, close to a year after former assistant DA Lisa Rowe took a job with the Dane County district attorney’s office. Oconto County District Attorney Ed Burke took a medical leave of absence a short time later and eventually retired, leaving the office empty for several months until new District Attorney Hannah Schuchart took over at the end of October.

County Administrator Erik Pritzl said currently there about 46 full-time equivalent vacancies for assistant DAs in 29 counties. Oconto County is one of several counties to pass a resolution encouraging the governor and state Legislature to raise the salary for assistant DAs to attract more candidates. The discussion was underway long before Zoellner entered the picture.

“Starting last year there was a lot of discussion when we had a vacancy in the assistant district attorney’s position, before District Attorney Burke retired, that we knew this was going to be difficult.”

Court officers are state employees, and Pritzl said the salary set by the state has long been considered too low to attract and retain qualified candidates.

“It’s very difficult to just maintain an office when you have that kind of an issue with salaries,” he said. “What was discussed over the past nine to 12 months has been the option of offering an incentive so that Oconto County becomes attractive for a candidate.”

The quarterly incentive payments of $2,500 will continue for three years, Pritzl said.

“At that point we’re hoping that there’s correction in the state budget process that will bring the pay up to a level that, at least for this person, they would not experience a real cliff in terms of the incentive.”