MaineBusiness.com

District Attorney Mark Lawrence said Tuesday that York County's crumbling financial situation is a product of years of fiscal mismanagement that will significantly slow the criminal justice system in the county.

Lawrence was reacting to the layoffs of 24 county employees Monday – six of them clerks in his office – because of a $1.3 million budget shortfall.

County officials attributed the cuts to the recession, dwindling revenue, increased health insurance costs and a state law that prohibits counties from using jail revenue to cover other expenses.

Lawrence said the county is no longer meeting its statutory requirement to provide his office with adequate staffing and office space, and he is looking into the legal ramifications of that failure.

County officials say the staff cuts – including seven sheriff's deputies – will slow police response to routine calls and delay adoption and legal guardianship proceedings.

Officials in the county's 29 cities and towns were trying to figure out other effects of the cuts.

Register of Probate Carol Lovejoy said the public can expect everything in her office to take much longer, with her seven-employee office downsized to four. Last year, the register handled 12,000 transactions, ranging from name changes to adoptions.

Lovejoy said the county's twice-weekly Probate Court sessions could be cut to one day a week.

She said the level of business in her office has remained unchanged over the past few years and that revenue, budgeted at $365,000 this year, remains on target.

"We have divided up the work among the four of us left," Lovejoy said.

The 14 towns that rely on the York County Sheriff's Office for police coverage were still trying to assess the effect of the cuts Tuesday.

Nancy Brandt, town administrator in Waterboro, said she was waiting to hear from Sheriff Maurice Ouellette about whether the department will continue to serve the town. Waterboro pays $68,000 a year for its own deputy, who was among the seven who were laid off.

In other towns without police departments or full-time deputies, officials said they will be concerned about crime levels if the layoffs reduce patrols.

Parsonsfield Selectmen Chairman Doug Hawkins said his town depends on the county's deputies and Maine State Police for coverage. "The town of Parsonsfield is truly disappointed," he said.

Ruth Ham, chairwoman of the Shapleigh selectmen, said deputies were busy in Shapleigh last year, responding to 694 calls, including 70 burglar alarms, 146 traffic stops and 27 domestic disputes. She said the town may have to learn to live with less service.

"We are victims of the times. That is what it amounts to," she said.

Ouellette spent most of Tuesday trying to figure out how to continue patrols in his department's 580-square-mile coverage area.

He said that with the help of state police, who also patrol the county, he has plugged some of the holes. But residents can expect delays on routine calls, such as damaged mailboxes or other vandalism.

"We will take the call and stack it by severity," Ouellette said.

He said towns such as Waterboro and Arundel, which pay extra for dedicated deputies, will continue to receive the service.

Other counties in Maine are not having similar fiscal problems.

"Nothing on that scale," said Robert Howe, executive director of the Maine Association of County Commissioners. He said most York County residents probably won't feel any effect of the layoffs because many services that counties provide are indirect.

"Most people live most of their lives without ever needing a probate court, but it is their broker or banker who will feel it," he said.

Lawrence, whose clerical staff has been cut from 20 to 12 in the past year, said part of the county's problem is that it has no unemployment insurance and must pay the costs of severance to laid-off employees, which eats further into the budget.

He said his office, which handled 14,000 cases last year, won't be able to handle as many cases because of the cuts.

"This is not a county that has placed a high priority on criminal justice," he said.

Staff Writer Beth Quimby can be contacted at 791-6363 or at: bquimby@pressherald.com