County attorney will ask board to reconsider grant proposal

Gage County Attorney Randy Ritnour has asked the County Board of Supervisors to consider an amended grant to add an attorney to his office to prosecute alcohol-related offenses.

Ritnour asked that the item be placed on the board’s Wednesday agenda.

The request marks another chapter in an increasingly public dispute between the county supervisors and the county attorney.

On July 30, the board voted to reject a $44,000 federal grant to the county attorney’s office, saying that accepting the money through the Nebraska Office of Highway Safety would cost the county too much in the long run. At that meeting, supervisors voted 5-2 to oppose using federal highway safety assistance or other funding for additional positions at the county attorney’s office, saying that adding the new position would cost $43,000 for the first year, as much as $54,000 for the second and $67,000 for the third.

Ritnour said at the time that the cost to the county for the additional attorney, including benefits, would be $7,000 to $9,000. And, he said, an in-kind contribution from the Gage County Multiple Agencies Partnering for Success coalition would kick in $2,500.

Earlier this month, Ritnour applied for and got an amended grant for $96,370 for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, with the option of reapplying for two additional years of funding after that.

“We are unable to officially commit funding beyond the initial fiscal year,” Office of Highway Safety Administrator Fred E. Zwonechek said in an Aug. 7 letter to Ritnour. “However, as long as the grant is successfully meeting its goals and objectives, we would approve funding for two additional years without any hard matching requirements as long as federal funds are available.”

Ritnour said Friday that that means the second and third years of the grant, if approved, would be fully funded.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” he said when asked if he thinks the board will vote to accept the money. “I hope that they’ll see that it’s a 100 percent grant and that ... if we’re successful, they’re very much willing to look at no hard-match funding for the next two years.”

Board Chairman Rex Adams said he couldn’t handicap how the board will vote either.

“I can’t speak for the others,” Adams said Friday afternoon. “I guess I feel if he spent as much time doing his job as he does fighting against us right now he’d probably be more effective.”

Last month, the county attorney and the county board traded accusations of grandstanding and bending or breaking state law regarding timely publication of the board’s agenda.

“I’m about done saying anything on it, really,” Adams said. “It’s time to go on.

“You know, every year the sheriff applies for two cars and two more deputies. We tell him no and it’s over. ... For the betterment of the community, you go on. You roll up your sleeves, and if you have to work harder, you work harder.”

Ritnour says accepting the grant and cracking down on alcohol-related accidents and fatalities is for the betterment of the community.

“This issue results in people dying,” he said. “Our alcohol-related traffic deaths and accidents are up there compared to other counties. ... What we’re hoping to do here is, at least as far as this issue is concerned, is work ourselves out of a job. If we get four years down the line and we haven’t been able to address this issue I’m going to be very surprised. This is not some subterfuge to try to build some little empire.

“Obviously ... there may be some basis or some reason that you want to keep the attorney. On the other hand, hopefully what we’ve done is addressed the DUI issue so that people know, at least in Gage County, you don’t want to be doing this, and we’re back down on the lower end of fatalities and injuries.”

Ritnour said he hopes to keep the discussion over accepting the grant open and civil.

“Literally, you’re talking about maybe $300,000 to $400,000 over the next few years. I don’t know how you can turn that down.”

Adams said it appears Ritnour’s office is handling its caseload just fine. It’s the board’s job, Adams said, to keep a lid on spending.

“My territory and turf is different than his,” he said. “Mine is the budget and making sure we live within the means that we can.”

Two weeks after the board rejected the initial grant offer, it voted to contract with an outside law firm for its civil work, saying that would give the county attorney’s office more time to pursue such things as drunk driving. The board also said it will ask for a state attorney general’s opinion on whether county officials are required to live in the county in which they were elected. Adams said then that questions have been raised about Ritnour’s residency.

Ritnour said the attorney general’s office already told him his living arrangement -- he said he has an apartment in Beatrice and lives part of time with his wife in Lincoln -- is acceptable.