St. Clair County prosecutor’s office facing ‘an employment crisis’

St. Clair County Prosecutor Mike Wendling said his office is facing “an employment crisis,” and he wants help from the county’s board of commissioners to better recruit and retain staff attorneys.

“I am not here bargaining for my employees,” he said Thursday. “I’m here trying to get tools within my office to carry out my constitutional function.”

During the board’s committee meetings, the long-time elected department head recapped the issue to county commissioners, citing wide gaps in available pay steps compared to other regions amid a slow exodus of qualified assistant prosecuting attorneys and difficulty finding applicants to replace them.

Currently, 15 attorneys are working in Wendling’s office, in addition to himself and Chief Assistant Prosecutor Stephen Guilliat, who help handle thousands of criminal cases a year, work with over 100 police officers in eight to 10 different agencies, are often active in local community roles, and are on-call 24-hours a day.

However, they’ve had three openings with zero applications since November 2023 and a pending retirement of a senior assistant prosecuting attorney, or APA, this year.

“We need help. And I’m not able to keep the people I have, and I’m not able to recruit other people based on the current financial structure that I’m working under,” Wendling said.

Now, Wendling, who’s been the elected prosecutor for two decades, is asking the county board to sign off on a proposed resolution drafted to change or reclassify employees’ wages with a more competitive, step-oriented pay scale.

Referencing a 2023 State of the County priority to retain staff, Wendling added, “We haven’t done enough. Because of (the) current situation we’re at, I cannot find attorneys that will come here and work for the St. Clair County prosecutor. … My whole career, that is a new circumstance.”

How did we get here?

Assistant Prosecutor Joshua Sparling initially spearheaded a group of assistant prosecuting attorneys and staff in January 2023, asking the county board for a wage study. They echoed similar concerns as Wendling about retention, as well as general morale in the office.

In the end, Sparling said on Friday, they analyzed wages themselves.

And on Thursday, Wendling presented findings to board members, pointing to APA postings for St. Clair County, Lapeer County, and Wayne County, as well as the general multi-county area tied to the Southeastern Michigan Council of Governments.

“We often compare ourselves here in St. Clair County to SEMCOG,” the prosecutor said. “We want to be part of the bigger southeastern Michigan area, we want to be competitive with them, and if there was a Chrysler plant that was moving into Marysville, we would be looking for incentives to get that plant in our jurisdiction. We would not say, ‘Oh, by the way, Macomb County’s much bigger than us. We’ll let them have that Chrysler plant.’”

The APA posting referenced for St. Clair County, Wendling said put salaries at $63,392 to $83,419 annually at the lowest step versus a reported $86,000 to $106,000 for Lapeer or $75,000 to $92,000 for Wayne.

On a SEMCOG level, also including Oakland, Livingston, Washtenaw and Monroe counties, St. Clair County was 20% lower than the average of all the others at both the lowest and higher ends of wages.

Even in comparisons where the difference was smaller, Wendling said they thought the drop was still preventing applicants from applying for APA jobs in St. Clair. And that also comes with a shrinking talent pool, he said, as fewer pass a more difficult state bar and with fewer statistically going to law school.

“Nobody’s going to come for 10% less,” he said. ”They don’t even send me a resume.”

Why is this important?

On Friday, Sparling said it was never about “just getting a raise,” but rather, maintaining “the experience and integrity of our office.”

Since 2019, Wendling said they’ve lost 10 St. Clair County APAs. Two have gone to Wayne County, separate judicial benches, and private practice, one to Oakland County, and one to the local friend of the court — the latter, he said, citing better hours and less stress.

In March this year, Wendling said staff was asked to track their overtime to demonstrate typical workloads. Beyond the typical 37.5 hours factored into wages, they logged 229 hours.

Although they don’t get paid overtime hours as salaried employees, Sparling said the time on the job stacks up, adding, “The burnout is getting pretty high.”

“We’ve got a couple of prosecutors that are on the newer side that just can’t afford to work here, and so, they’re actively looking to go other places,” Sparling said. “And it’s really concerning because, as our collective bargaining representative, they come to me, and they tell me all this stuff.

“I am really heartened that Mike has taken action, and we’re glad to see that the county is actually giving this a hard look because it is truly needed. Our numbers are just down. Our experienced attorneys are leaving, and pretty soon, I think it’s going to be at that precipice (that) if something isn’t done soon, we’re not going to be able to prosecute all these crimes. It’s not maintainable to continue to work 60 hours a week and (in balance with) a healthy family life.”

What comes next?

Wendling told county commissioners his office had begun hiring outside attorneys at $150 an hour — the lower step APA range locally was the equivalent to $31.56 to $41.53 an hour — to help with appellate cases.

However, for the “15 attorneys I’m talking about,” he said, the requested reclassification would mean a 20% increase from what they make now by the fifth year.

It was an increase he thought his department’s budget could absorb its first year, partly because of vacancies, before it’d cost the county more money.

St. Clair County Administrator Karry Hepting said they were already set to address a negotiating strategy for the associated labor group — St. Clair County Prosecuting Attorneys Association — in closed session at the county board’s next regular meeting.

While some officials said they could address Wendling’s resolution to affect a higher scale of pay then, Hepting alleged any adjustments outside of the negotiating process could mean an “unfair labor practice” issue.

“I would absolutely disagree that the county board can’t do this. This is a situation the county board has the power to set wages for employees,” Wendling said. “I don’t think anybody’s going to complain if they’re getting an opportunity for a salary increase. I know last year we gave $3,500 out to every employee mid-year outside of collective bargaining.”

Some commissioners inferred they understood those challenges as other county divisions and other industries face retention and recruitment concerns of their own.

“I definitely want you to have the best people you can have because that benefits St. Clair County,” said Commissioner Dave Rushing.

The county board of commissioners next meet at 4 p.m. on Thursday, July 25, in the second-floor meeting room of the county administration building, 200 Grand River Ave., in Port Huron.

Contact reporter Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or [email protected].