Feb 18, 2016 2 min read

Washington County Salary Board agreed Thursday that District Attorney Gene Vittone can create a fourth victims’ advocate position, with the proviso that the job be abolished if and when a federal grant paying the $31,733 salary dries up.

“We have three, but we have a lot of cases,” Vittone said after the meeting.

There were 3,289 criminal cases filed in Washington County last year.

According to the National Association of Victims of Crime Act Assistance Administrators, President Barack Obama’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2017 would release $2 billion from the fund, one-third less than the $3.042 billion Congress approved for 2016.

The latest budget would include $481 million for programs not included in the act, including money for the Office on Violence Against Women, tribal victim assistance grants, and programs aimed at stopping human trafficking and improving statistics-keeping.

In Pennsylvania, VOCA grant money is distributed through the state’s Commission on Crime and Delinquency.

The Victims of Crime Act of 1984 is financed by fines and penalties paid by convicted federal offenders, not from tax dollars. The fund ballooned to nearly $9 billion due to deposits from federal criminal fines, forfeited bail bonds, penalties and special assessments collected by U.S. attorneys’ offices, federal courts and the Federal Bureau of Prisons, plus more than $300,000 in private donations under the 2001 Patriotic Act.

The opening for the advocate’s position will be posted, Vittone said.

When the salary board convened earlier this month, Vittone received unanimous approval to abolish part-time Assistant District Attorney Michael Fagella’s position beginning Feb. 8 and create slots for two full-time assistants. The part-time job had paid $39,473, and salaries for the two new assistants will be $56,390. Assistant district attorneys are members of Teamsters Union Local 249.

“My goal is to have an assistant district attorney at every criminal hearing in the county so we can move cases more efficiently,” Vittone said. “The DA’s office had been covering fast-track cases at the magisterial level with a part-timer, and we needed more staff. We took a look at other fourth-class and third-class counties. Basically, we were understaffed.”

Asked if he had chosen the new assistants, Vittone said, “We’re in the process of doing that right now through (the county’s Human Resources Department). Hopefully we’ll have that completed in the next week or two.”