Costly district split has little support

In the section of the House budget proposal covering justice and public safety spending just one item represents increased spending: a plan to split the 11th prosecutorial district, which covers Harnett, Johnston and Lee counties.

The proposal would spend $164,459 in the 2010-2011 fiscal year to add a new district attorney and two staff positions to serve Harnett and Lee counties, Dan Kane reports. Johnston would become its own prosecutorial district, which is where the current district attorney resides.

Given the tough fiscal times, you'd think the proposal would need solid support and justification. But it doesn't have it.

The state Administrative Office of the Courts hasn't requested it, nor has a state judicial council that looks into staffing needs. The Johnston County Bar Association adamantly opposes it. Minutes reflect that the association shot the proposal down by a 24 to 2 vote, calling it "fiscally irresponsible."

"Isn't that ridiculous, in this time when people are losing jobs and everything's being cut back, to spend money in that way?" said Robert Denning, a Johnston County defense attorney and bar member.

More after the jump.

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Rep. Jimmy Love, a Sanford Democrat, and Rep. Leo Daughtry, a Smithfield Republican, sponsored legislation to split the district. Love said the bar associations in Lee and Harnett counties support the move. They are concerned that the more heavily populated Johnston County is drawing too much of the district attorney's attention and resources, he said.

"To get the supervision at the prosecutorial level that we need it would be better for Lee and Harnett to be together and for Johnston to be alone," Love said.

The proposed move also has a political angle. Johnston County is predominately Republican, so splitting it off would make a Lee-Harnett district more friendly to Democrats.

Denning said he and other attorneys are also worried the move would lead to a split of the judicial district so that the district court judges in Lee and Harnett would no longer hold court in Johnston.

"In Johnston County we're not that large, we know one another very well, so you are better off when you have out of county judges making the decisions," he said. "If you have other judges in the district to choose from then you don't have to appear before your neighbor."

Love said he has no intention of splitting up the judicial district. That could potentially benefit his son, Jim Love Jr., a district court judge in Lee County.

The Senate budget proposal does not include the new prosecutorial district.