Saline County attorney blames salary for shortage, receives pushback

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WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) -Staffing shortages continue to impact many parts of everyday life, including local government. That’s the case in Salina where the Saline County attorney says his office is in desperate need for more attorneys and blames the salary for the shortage.

Some in Saline County don’t think the office deserves more money and claims it’s not properly prosecuting some cases. That was a big topic of discussion in Tuesday night’s Saline County Commission meeting.

Saline County Attorney Jeff Ebel told commissioners his office needs eight attorneys to cover the workload. Currently, there are six with one soon to leave. He says the reason for the shortage is the starting salary of about $60,000 per year. After Ebel spoke, two women at Tuesday night’s meeting told commissioners why they don’t think the county leaders should approve the raise. The women are both therapists who said they work closely with child advocacy centers and regularly test victims in court. They claim the Saline County Attorney’s Office has failed to properly prosecute some cases of rape, sexual abuse, and sexual abuse of children.

The women also claim in some cases, convicted rapists were able to enter plea deals, only being charged a small fine without serving minimal jail time and not having to register as sex offenders.

“I am appalled at the current incompetence of our county attorney’s office and the fac that they’d ask for a raise when they do nothing on cases which involve child sex offenders and predators,” said marriage and family therapist Joni Alberts-Plumer.

Eyewitness News reached out to Ebel who sent a statement, saying in short, some court records may appear to support claims of the speakers at Tuesday’s county commission meeting, but there are two sides to every story and a variety of factors that go into prosecuting cases . He said one of those factors is having enough attorneys to handle the workload.

Eyewitness News is looking into the cases mentioned at Tuesday’s meeting and will continue to ask questions.

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