Legal News

52 Court Jobs Saved By Federal Dollars

By Brian Harris

By Amaris Elliott-Engel
Of the Legal Staff

Mayor Michael Nutter and Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Pamela Pryor Dembe said there are no hard feelings between the judicial and executive branches over funding for the courts as they and other officials announced $13.5 million in federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds that will be spent on public safety in Philadelphia.

Nutter and Dembe literally hugged at a press conference Wednesday when asked about the court's budget cut from $114.5 million at the beginning of the fiscal year to $99 million proposed in the next fiscal year. The $99 million from the city's general fund is being supplemented by federal dollars and is contingent upon approval in Harrisburg for the city of Philadelphia's proposal to raise temporarily the city's sales tax and defer pension payments.

The jobs that will be saved because of the funding include five positions in Community Court that will be

funded by $619,526, 22 adult probation and parole officers that will be funded by $2.58 million, 14 juvenile probation officers that will be funded by $1.64 million and 11 pre-trial services jobs that will be funded by $1.18 million.

Dembe and Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Everett Gillison both said the Criminal Justice Advisory Board, a stakeholder group for the leaders in the city's criminal justice system created less than a year ago, made applying for the federal funds a smoother and more collected process.

Dembe said there is an unprecedented level of cooperation in the city's criminal justice system because of CJAB, and Gillison said the joint effort in applying for federal public safety funding is just the start of the cooperation the CJAB will engender.

The rest of the federal dollars will be spent on a centralized crime center at Philadelphia Police Headquarters to aid investigators in the field, green jobs training for ex-offenders, a Mural Arts program for at-risk youth, cleaning and sealing vacant buildings and police training.

The Recovery Act funds supplemented public safety funds are allotted each year under the Byrne grant program, which is administrated by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Full post as published by The Legal Intelligencer Blog on June 18, 2009 (boomark / email).