Zellerbach To Address Tough Issues In Riverside County D.A.’s Office

Riverside County District Attorney Paul Zellerbach was expected today to detail the financial challenges facing his office during his first appearance before the Board of Supervisors since being sworn in.

Zellerbach was slated to brief the board on what he’s doing to contain an estimated $6.3 million budget shortfall and what staffing adjustments he has made — and may yet need to make.

“During this presentation, it is my intent to answer three main questions: What is our budget situation? How did the office find itself in this situation? What steps have been, and will be, taken to help remedy the situation?” the district attorney wrote in a message to the board.

In the Feb. 1 midyear 2010-11 county budget report, Zellerbach stated that he was “working on a comprehensive budget plan that will maintain operational effectiveness while attempting to reduce this deficit.”

Zellerbach told City News Service just prior to taking office in early January that he feared his predecessor’s spending habits would make balancing the D.A.’s budget virtually impossible in the current fiscal year.

The former Superior Court judge defeated incumbent Rod Pacheco in the June election. Zellerbach said Pacheco’s post-loss decision to promote 70 deputy district attorneys, hire eight new ones and sign off on a $900,000 vacation buyback program for staffers placed greater burdens on the budget.

The Executive Office had initially estimated a $9 million deficit in the D.A.’s accounts — a figure that Pacheco consistently argued was overblown. The $6.3 million figure was arrived at within weeks of Zellerbach taking office.

The county’s new top prosecutor eliminated nearly a dozen executive level positions. He said two ways he will save his office and the county in general money is by filing fewer death penalty cases and giving prosecutors more latitude to settle cases before trial.