Maricopa County Attorney's Office over budget for civil litigation AZ Central.com
Over the past year, county officials also have questioned the workloads of Thomas' 20 civil attorneys, saying most of the work disappeared when the board created its own unit, staffed with about three dozen employees.
Thomas' former chief deputy, Phil MacDonnell, said the deputy county attorneys had to scramble to deal with an "explosion" of property-tax cases caused by the economic downturn, and an increase in mental-health cases, which the county's civil unit did not handle.
As Interim County Attorney Rick Romley took over the office after Thomas resigned to run for attorney general, he told The Arizona Republic that right-sizing the civil budget was a key priority. His office is analyzing spending, staff, outside attorney costs and other expenses to determine how to fix the budget.
"We have been taking some time to review the civil division, . . . the current workload, the attorneys that are assigned there and their budget," said Carol McFadden, Romley's chief executive. "Obviously, the work has been done and the invoices have been paid, and we can't do anything about the past, but we certainly can do something going forward."