Attorney General lays out staffing and administrative changes in supplemental budget

Attorney General Aaron Frey outlined 11 initiatives in the governor's supplemental budget that he said are intended to align the office's staffing and administrative capacity with current demands.

Frey said the package would eliminate a long-vacant legal secretary position, request funding for an assistant attorney general focused on manufactured-housing enforcement, add a paralegal to support homicide prosecutions, and provide an allotment to cover the 25 percent state match for federally funded Medicaid fraud-control positions. "My name is Aaron Frey. I have the privilege of serving as Maine's attorney general," he told the joint committee before walking members through the Part A language.

On manufactured housing, Frey said the proposed assistant attorney general would be needed if oversight of manufactured housing is transferred from the Department of Professional and Financial Regulation to the Maine Office of Community Affairs; related staff transfers and earlier testimony from that office, he said, are the appropriate collateral material for committee members to review.

Frey described the homicide-paralegal request as a capacity issue: he said discovery obligations and the number of pending homicide cases have "long strained the current capacity" of the criminal division and that additional dedicated support is necessary to ensure cases are trial-ready.

On district attorney salary items, the AG said the supplemental includes three initiatives for the DA program, including language to eliminate four assistant district attorney positions that were initially created with federal funding that has since receded and that are now vacant and unfunded. He said one federal grant-funded ADA in Cumberland County created to support assault-kit investigations will be continued as a permanent position if federal funding remains available.

Committee members asked targeted clarifying questions about past utilization of the now-vacant federal ADAs, current vacancy levels by prosecutorial district, and the administrative cost of establishing state email accounts for DAs and deputies to use the state's HR and PRISM systems. Frey agreed to provide an organizational chart, a list of position changes since he took office, and a written breakdown of the transcript/email cost and other questions for the work session.

The committee limited questioning to clarifications and asked Frey to return detailed data for work-session debate on policy choices, funding sources and potential offsets. The AG said he would supply requested materials and work with stakeholders to provide fuller answers at the next meeting.

The committee did not take any formal votes during today's hearing; next steps were set for work-session follow-up.