Is Ken Buck really a fiscal conservative? If he’s elected to the U.S. Senate, will the Weld County District Attorney (DA) put his votes where his mouth is?

The answer seems obvious. If elected, Ken Buck would be one of the most fiscally conservative members of the U.S. Senate. After reviewing some 40 pages of

budget data for the last five years and bureaucratic memos that he has written to his county commissioners and others when seeking additional funding, it seems clear that Buck has tried to contain his budget. It’s also clear that DAs’ budgets are strongly affected by forces beyond their control, including population growth, inflation, state legislation, tax revenue projections and the priorities of the county’s board of commissioners who approve all budgets.

A fact sheet provided by Buck’s office says that from 2005 to 2010, the DA’s total proposed budget increased 40.47%. For 2010, the proposed budget is down 0.72% from 2009. From 2005 to 2008, the actual budget for the DA’s office (DA and victims witness) increased 27.08%.  

As noted in Part I of this report,

Buck says he won’t vote for any bills that include tax increases.

The 4,000-square-mile Weld County has been one of the fastest growing counties in the country. As a result of aggressive prosecution, many of its criminals are in jail, and that has helped reduce the crime rate. In the last five years, Buck noted, the county has added a couple of judges, which has forced him to add attorneys and support staff. The county’s also been hit hard by the recession.

In a recent interview in his Greeley office, I gave Buck the ultimate soft pitch question:

Question: What is it about how you have run your office that shows that you have been a fiscal conservative and will be if elected to the Senate?

When I asked for the interview, I said that this would be the subject I wanted to address. So Buck was ready to discuss several examples of how he has and is containing money as a DA.

Answers: The Weld County DA’s office is piloting paperless software programs that allow it to communicate with the county’s 16 police agencies, the State Patrol and the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles. These programs will save money for the county and the state, and they will make it easier for prosecutors, the sheriff’s office, police and the courts to accurately track and administer cases, Buck said.

Buck says it took him five years to get all 18 groups on board—police, sheriff, State Patrol, county courts and the DMV. This was because their priorities and budgets were in a constant state of flux and took their officials off what Buck was trying to do from time to time.

The software lets everyone involved instantly know about new traffic cases, for example, so that prosecutors and other officials can respond to inquiries by defendants and their attorneys much more quickly than they could under the old paper system.

Similarly, another software program gives the DA’s office instant access to police reports and the DMV office’s records of DUI and DUR cases. A DUI case involves people driving under the influence of alcohol. A DUR case involves people who lose their driving privileges and are caught driving under restraint orders. Under the old system, a lot of paperwork was required when someone got a DUR. Of the thousands of DUR cases in Weld County, 99% of them don’t go to trial. Now that Weld has access to the DMV’s computer files, it only needs paperwork on cases that go to trial.

Buck’s office also has worked with police agencies to make it easier for police officers to track when they need to go to court to testify at a trial. Often, cases are delayed and settled. Under the old officer calling system, the cops often didn’t get the word that they weren’t needed, and they wasted a lot of time showing up when they should have been home sleeping or otherwise occupied. Under the new scheme, schedules are posted on the DA’s web site. Soon, Buck said, an e-mail system will send e-mails to the officers a month before they will be needed in court. And when there are changes, new e-mails will go out. The cops will be much happier, Buck said.

After the interview, Buck invited me to listen to him talk about implementing his pilot paperless system to a group of police department officials from around the state. They were meeting in Greeley’s three-year-old police station, and Buck talked for five or 10 minutes. The Greeley police chief helpfully gave Buck a lot of the credit for starting the project and for getting all of the groups involved to participate.

Buck said that in addition to implementing paperless systems, he has stopped paying for memberships in the local Chamber of Commerce and for his attorneys’ membership fees in the Colorado and Weld County bar associations. He also spends less on business lunches.

“I’m very frugal,” he declared in his quiet way.

Then I asked some questions based on the budgets of recent years and on his budget requests for 2009 and 2010.

Question: Your budgeted positions are down 3.4% for FY 2010 and up 17% versus your office’s actual positions in FY 2005. Why?

Answer: The new paperless systems help cut staff. Since 2005, the county has added two felony court rooms. “We ask for two attorneys and one secretary when we get a new court room.” Another county, he said, asks for seven people when it gets a new court room. “We work our people hard.”

After Referendum C was passed, Buck said, judiciary got more money and new court rooms. “Our felony numbers went from 1,800 in 2004 to 2,500 in 2005. They’re now between 2,350 and 2,500 a year. When you take bad people off the street and put them in jail, your felony numbers go down.”

Question: Your personal services budget is down 0.6% for FY 2010 and up 28% v. FY 2005? Why?

Answer: “There are things beyond my control. Health insurance costs and other costs.” He didn’t add the new court rooms. His staff has grown by six attorneys and three secretaries over that time for two new felony and one new county court room. After the interview, Buck e-mailed that from 2005 to 2008, “Costs not within our control (health insurance, Medicare and FICA taxes) increased 67.23%.”

Question: Your supplies budget is $75,000 per year for fiscal year 2009 and FY 2010 v. a high of $104,774 for FY 2008 and a low of $68,403 for FY 2006. Why?

Answer: “We have been able to reduce our supplies as a result of going toward paperless systems. When I took over, I cut a number of things. When I came here, we had subscriptions to expensive legal books. (Spending on legal books and magazine subscriptions was cut to an average of $473 between 2006 and 2009 from $5,700 in 2004.) We stopped using those and went on line. We used to pay Colorado Bar Assn. dues and Chamber of Commerce dues. There are more than a dozen areas where I cut spending when I came in.”

Question: Your purchased services budget for fiscal year 2010 is $270,800 versus $286,000 budgeted for FY 2009 and $199,397 in FY 2008 and a six-year low of $185,310 for FY 2007. Why?

Answer: Buck said he would get back to me on the details. He didn’t get back with any explanations. But he e-mailed that purchased services include postage, publications, books, memberships and registration fees, excess trial expenses, phones, contract payments, professional services (medical records, certified records, intoxilyzer certification, transcripts, civil filing computer access fees), repairs (copiers, printers, scanners), repairs (vehicles, fuel, depreciation), meeting/training expenses (mileage, training registration, meals and travel expenses, special prosecution travel expenses).

Question: Where do your revenues come from? Why were they budgeted to drop 6.5% in FY 2010 after rising 38% in FY 2009?

Answer: “We charge defense attorneys for discovery. That drives up the supply budget. We’re soon going to have a web based system and charge people to go on the web. It will eliminate paper and make it easier for everybody.” The DA’s office generates revenues from grants. It charges for services (subpoena reimbursement), and it collects fees on checks.

Question: What are the important “case load” metrics for a DA’s office?

Answer: Felony filings take the most time. County Court work went up in 2005 because of more aggressive charging. We had highest fatality rates in state for a long time. We’ve cut them by about 40%. We get a lot more DUI and traffic cases because there is higher enforcement now.

Question: How do case load changes affect your budget?

Answer: If the county gets a new court room, the DA’s office adds attorneys, secretary, furniture and computers. Infrastructure costs rise.

Question: How has your case load changed over the last five years?

Initially felonies went to 2500 from 1,800. Crime also went up. It’s been reduced in Weld by 50% in five years as a result of a partnership between Buck’s office, police agencies, the sheriff and the state patrol.

Question: How have new service mandates and new laws enacted by the state and federal governments affected your budgets during your service as Weld County’s DA?

Answer: A new law that requires the retention of DNA evidence requires more attorney time.

Question: For a brief time, local banks funded your white collar crime unit. That funding has gone away. Why?

Answer: There were 12 to 15 banks that participated. “I put up a wall between the fund and the banks so that all we knew the balance in the account. It was a tremendous program. We’ve had 17 white collar convictions that wouldn’t have happened without the fund. But banks are suffering from the financial crisis. We will go back to them when they are doing better.”

Question: What do you want voters to know about how you have managed spending in the DA’s office?

Answer: “I have been very frugal. If you look at my expense accounts, I think I have maybe $50 of expenses a year.”