Floyd County attorney appointee Prichard sworn in; taking new part-time role

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Floyd County’s new part-time county attorney was sworn in Wednesday morning at a special meeting of the Board of Supervisors.

Todd Prichard, a Charles City attorney, former Iowa legislative leader and Army Reserve colonel, took the oath of office after the board took two actions – first passing a resolution changing the county attorney position from full time to part time and setting the salary, then making the appointment.

Prichard stressed in his interview for the position Monday that part time did not mean half as many hours as full time. The main distinction is that designation allows him to maintain a private practice, which by Iowa Code a full-time county attorney cannot do.

He said he would limit his private practice to things like probate work and business law that can be scheduled around his county attorney duties, and he would be available for whatever amount of time and whenever the county job requires.

That topic of full versus part time came up again Wednesday morning, as supervisors were discussing the appointment before making it official.

“I’ve received some pushback on the part-time piece of it,” said Supervisor Dennis Keifer. “I think the public doesn’t necessarily understand. They think you’re limited to 20 hours a week and I don’t know what you or we can do to help clarify that.”

“I think, do the job,” Prichard said, is how you prove it can be done.

Keifer also asked how aggressive Prichard would be prosecuting criminal cases.

“Will you be an aggressive prosecutor, or will you try to plead things down? …” he asked.

“The pole star is justice,” Prichard said. “Different defendants, in my mind, they need to be looked at where they are, right? You may have somebody who committed a similar crime, but maybe they have different factors. They may have a longer criminal history, maybe they have a shorter criminal history.

“You have to look at those factors when you look at a case. And you really have to take it as a case-by-case situation,” he said.

“I think when it comes to violent crime, crimes that have victims like sexual assault and those types of crimes, I think I would be aggressive, because there are people that need to be off the street and need to be incarcerated, because they are public safety hazards,” he said.

“When it comes to other types of crimes, maybe what the person needs to get them back into the fold of society and get them back on their path isn’t necessarily jail time, but maybe some probation. Maybe something like a warning,” Prichard said.

“It’s tough,” he said. “It really is tough to say, OK, what’s going to work, because what we really want is we want people out of the criminal system, in jobs, in productive lives, with their families, not causing problems for other people. Sometimes you have to be aggressive, and sometimes you don’t.”

Part of the resolution changing from a full-time to a part-time county attorney also had to include what the new salary will be, and Supervisor Chair Mark Kuhn said he and County Auditor Gloria Carr had spent some time looking at comparative salaries.

The previous county attorney, Rachel Ginbey, who left to become the county attorney in Hancock County, had been receiving an annual salary of $114,005, and was scheduled to get a 2.43% increase at the start of the new fiscal year, July 1, to $116,775

The average salary of all part-time county attorneys in the state is $81,970, according to information Carr gathered.

But Kuhn said what is usually more representative and what they frequently do is compare the salaries of the next five counties above Floyd County in population and the next five counties below Floyd County in population.

In this case there are only four counties with populations higher than Floyd County that have part-time attorneys. Taking those four, and the five counties closest to Floyd County with lower populations that also have part-time attorneys, the average part-time pay is $92,169.

Kuhn said Prichard had agreed to an annual salary of $84,000, prorated for the rest of the fiscal year. He also agreed to take no pay increase for the next fiscal year, July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024.

Prichard said, “$84,000, I think, is perfectly acceptable. I’m very satisfied with that.”

Prichard said that the current full-time assistant county attorney, Randall Tilton, had agreed to stay on in the position at his current salary, and had also agreed to take no pay increase in the next fiscal year. Tilton’s pay, currently $96,904 annually, had been figured at 85% of what the county attorney earned.

Tilton, who had been one of the three candidates interviewing for the position Monday, was at the special meeting Wednesday morning, “to do a little show of support” for Prichard, he said.

During Tilton’s interview he had said the County Attorney’s Office is understaffed.

Prichard said the difference between his (Prichard’s) new salary and what Ginbey was making will result in about $30,000 annual savings for the County Attorney’s Office. Also, he said, he gets his health insurance from the Army Reserve so he doesn’t need county health insurance, saving about another $20,000 per year.

“It gives me some flexibility to consider other staff within my budget,” Prichard said. “There has been some discussion what the staffing needs are, and I want to make that assessment with Randy Tilton’s assistance in the next few weeks to kind of see what we need long term. I’ve got some ideas and some direction, perhaps another part-time attorney. Maybe another clerical staff worker, maybe something like that. I’m just open in my thinking to see what we need to do.”

One of the issues that Kuhn had brought up during Tilton’s interview was what Kuhn thought was a lack of responsiveness by the County Attorney’s Office on a couple of civil issues – an alleged nuisance violation near Nora Springs that had neighbors very concerned, and an issue with an old school house near Marble Rock that the Marble Rock Historical Society wants to relocate – and Kuhn asked Prichard about those Wednesday.

Prichard said he still needed to get some details, “but yeah, that will something today and the next few days,” he said Wednesday morning.