To: Dale K. Weighill, Governmental Operations Committee Chairperson
From: Prosecutor David Leyton
title
RE: Approval of a request by Genesee County's Prosecutor to self-fund liability and worker's compensation insurance for the Special Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Generals
recommendation
BOARD ACTION REQUESTED:
Passage of a resolution approving “self-funding” for liability and worker’s compensation insurance for attorneys working as Special Assistant Attorney Generals (SAAGs) in the Genesee County Prosecutor’s Office for Fiscal Year 2025.
BACKGROUND:
For the past eleven years, the Prosecutor's Office has been the beneficiary of the Michigan Attorney General's Office "Special Assistant Attorneys General" (SAAG) program which was established under the State of Michigan's Public Safety Initiative (a.k.a. the Distressed Cities Initiative). This has provided us at any given time with up to four SAAGs each year who work in our office performing the work of assistant prosecutors (APAs). SAAGs do everything an APA does from warrant reviews to felony jury trials. It has been an invaluable program to the Prosecutor’s Office and provided the County millions of dollars worth of service over the years.
DISCUSSION:
Under this program, the SAAGs are authorized to serve as Assistant Prosecutors in Genesee County. SAAGs are selected, hired, and supervised by the Genesee County Prosecutor’s Office and they provide temporary, year-to-year non-supplanting services to our office. Salaries are funded entirely by the AG’s budget but the agreement with the AG’s Office does not include workers comp and liability insurance. In return for the invaluable cost savings the SAAG program provides to our office and the County’s budget, the Board has agreed in the past to "self-insure" the SAAGs in the performance of their work; this includes both workers comp and liability claims.
IMPACT ON HUMAN RESOURCES:
None.
IMPACT ON BUDGET:
None.
IMPACT ON FACILITIES:
None.
IMPACT ON TECHNOLOGY:
None.
CONFORMITY TO COUNTY PRIORITIES:
This grant advances the priority of safe communities by adding resources to assist in the prosecution of crime. These grant funds also tie into the County’s value of service by giving us more resources to provide prompt, efficient and competent service to victims of crime while at the same time helping secure the County’s financial stability by providing funds that otherwise would have had to come from the County’s general fund.
resolution
TO THE HONORABLE CHAIRPERSON AND MEMBERS OF THE GENESEE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS, GENESEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:
BE IT RESOLVED, that this Board of County Commissioners of Genesee County, Michigan, approves the request by the Genesee County Prosecutor to self-insure any Workers Compensation or liability claims that might arise from the work performed by Special Assistant Attorneys General (SAAGs) while said SAAGs are working under an agreement between the Prosecutor’s Office and the Michigan Attorney General’s Office during Fiscal Year 2025, with no County appropriation required (a copy of the memorandum request being on file with the official records of the September 11, 2024 meeting of the Governmental Operations Committee of this Board).