Judges deliver hefty raises

Two Augusta judges approached the city with a tale of salary inequity and walked away with more than half of its emergency reserves for the year. It would result in double-digit raises for Juvenile Court employees and a triple-digit-percent raise for the daughter of one of the judges.

The Augusta Commission's Administrative Services Committee voted last week to give $138,000 of the city's $250,000 contingency fund to boost the salaries of employees of Richmond County Juvenile Court. The full commission must approve the transfer Tuesday.

Augusta Judicial Circuit Superior Court Chief Judge Carl C. Brown Jr. and Juvenile Court Chief Judge Doug Flanagan have long complained about the salaries for those Juvenile Court employees, and last year City Administrator Janice Allen Jackson put those salaries through the same compensation study that other city employees got in 2017. Jackson told the committee last week that almost all of the eight employees would receive a raise starting next month in addition to the 1.5 percent cost-of-living adjustment all of the other employees got at the beginning of the year.

Those raises, which were analyzed by The Augusta Chronicle, generally ran between 4 and 6 percent but included one for more than 60 percent salary for DaCara Shelease Brown, Judge Brown's daughter, and a nearly 25 percent raise for Patricia Strength, the wife of former Richmond County Sheriff Ronnie Strength. Those raises would be mostly covered by the court's budget for the year, and Jackson said she would find a way to cover the rest.

But that didn't satisfy the judges. Brown told the committee that what they wanted was "equal pay for equal work for women" and referred back to a letter he wrote in September to Commissioner Marion Williams, then the committee chairman. In that letter, Judge Brown wrote about the great responsibility court employees have for "the training and welfare of our children" and said they were not being paid commensurate with that task.

Those with this "awesome responsibility" have been "suffering in silence as they have worked hard on behalf of our children," Brown wrote. "This must be corrected immediately."

He included specific salary requests for each employee, comparing them to other city positions he thought comparable as well as equivalent positions in Chatham County Juvenile Court. Brown referred to his daughter as the judicial staff attorney and as "Mrs. DaCara B. Myers" without mentioning the family connection. He requested a salary of $93,143 for her, a 151 percent raise from her current salary of $37,607.50. It was fulfilling a longstanding request and a promise made to his daughter, Brown said.

DaCara Brown, as she's listed by the city, is in city finance records as administrative assistant III, as is Strength, whom Judge Brown referred to as the Juvenile Court administrator. Judge Brown requested a salary of $94,370 for Strength, a 92 percent raise from her current salary of $49,040, which he said was in line with other "city administrator" positions as well as Chatham County positions. The average salary for the 28 Augusta administrative assistant positions is $39,712.

Brown said his daughter was owed the new salary she would receive in the new salary scale.

"She's trying to get what was promised to her (by Flanagan) when she was lured into working for Juvenile Court as a lawyer but labeled as an administrative assistant," he said.

When budget requests were submitted for 2018 and 2019, however, no request to change her position or salary were made.

Assistant district attorneys paid by the county made an average salary of $57,684, according to the city's salary data.

DaCara Brown worked with Flanagan in Columbia County Juvenile Court for 10 years before moving to the Richmond County court, and "I wanted someone with lots of experience," Flanagan said.

The new raises also include a 20 percent jump for Brendan Fleming, son of former Chief Judge William M. Fleming Jr., who would get $45,000 a year plus benefits for a part-time public defender position with Juvenile Court. Judge Brown said it is really a full-time position, although the younger Fleming is allowed to maintain a private law practice.

The percentage raises were not included in information on the Juvenile Court salaries given to the commission last week and are the result of analysis by The Chronicle. Judge Brown said he had not run the numbers himself and was not aware of them before an interview with the newspaper.

The numbers raised the eyebrows of some Augusta commissioners.

"One hundred and fifty-one percent?' Commissioner John Clarke said. "I am sure there is going to be some more discussion" about the raises, he said.

"There better be," said Commissioner Brandon Garrett, who said he learned about the Brown family connection as he was leaving the commission chamber after the vote. As someone who is not a member of the committee, he said he hoped "the commission will take a much closer look at what is actually happening" with the money.

The raises delivered last week are part of a longstanding request to raise those salaries and add more resources to Juvenile Court that have not been able to make their way through the "bureaucracy" of city government, Judge Brown said. The Juvenile Court officials have been "intimidated" by those setting the budget and "fearful of asking for money to do the job," he said.  The city did not receive a request for those increased salaries from the court for this year, a spokesman said.

"A lot of people down here did not get raises over the years," Flanagan said. "It's been very difficult, but the county commission has been very helpful."

The problem of juvenile crime is a serious issue and one in need of greater resources and attention from the city, Judge Brown told the committee.

"The bottom line is we need desperately to address these growing challenges," he said.

Juvenile Court is severely understaffed, Brown maintains, although he did not ask for more positions in the budget request for this year. And though he did not calculate the percentage increases of the new salaries, and said he didn't see the large percentage of his daughter's increase, "they are justified based on what they are currently making,” Brown said.

The Juvenile Court employees have to coordinate with multiple agencies, such as the Richmond County Sheriff's Office and the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services, he said. Staff on their own time seek out grants and design and implement community programs in hopes of preventing children from entering the system as well as other work to make the community better overall, Brown said.

"Look at their responsibilities in comparison to others,” he said.