The Montgomery County Attorney, who is under a court-ordered deadline, meets with Commission about staffing issues.

County Attorney Lisa Montgomery tells commissioners that Judge Jeffrey Gettler ordered her office to have all journal entries entered within 2 weeks of sentencing. In order to comply with the Judge’s orders, Montgomery asked the commissioners for unlimited overtime due to understaffing in her office. Commission Chairman Robert Bever asked if they had any success in filling positions in her office. Montgomery says she has an interview with an applicant later this week.

The commissioners did not grant overtime and told Montgomery to make hiring someone the highest priority. Montgomery says she can’t be jailed but could be brought before the state disciplinary administrative office and could lose her license, fined or both.  She says her assistant could face the same punishment and even possible jail time. The commission says if her officer runs into any issues and can’t get caught up they will hire an attorney for her.  Montgomery is up for re-election this fall.

Montgomery says in an effort to have more time to review plea deals and more time to spend with journal entries, she has advised all defense attorneys seeking amendments for plea bargains to submit those one week prior to court. Montgomery says she and her assistant were taking calls on their personal cell phones from attorneys while off the clock, or during other court proceedings. As a result, this will make dockets slower, which is the opposite effect the state had when they assigned Montgomery County a third judge.