If the Senate, House and governor agree, some Missouri counties could be given a chance to become part of multi-county prosecutor areas.
The state's prosecutors association said last week they will support a compromise version of Sen. Bob Dixon's proposal to allow those arrangements, if voters in the affected counties agree.
But two months ago, the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys took no position on Dixon's bill - because they were deeply divided over the proposal.
Dixon, R-Springfield, wants to give counties the option of joining together and sharing one full-time prosecutor rather than having part-time prosecutors with private law practices.
"When we began this whole process," he explained, "it was to try to find a way to make sure that people had access to the courts, and make sure that resources were utilized in a way that was good for the taxpayers, and to give taxpayers more options."
On Jan. 27, six prosecutors and a couple of county commissioners from rural Missouri spent nearly 42 minutes telling the Senate's Judiciary Committee why the idea is a bad one, while the four supporters took just 16½ minutes endorsing the measure.
The Missouri Constitution and state law already allow counties to cooperate in many ways - but the current law defining prosecutors and their elections says a prosecuting attorney "shall be elected in each county."
The revised bill Dixon expects to offer when the Senate debates the issue - this week or next, he said Thursday - still allows two or more contiguous counties in the same judicial circuit to act cooperatively to employ a joint prosecuting attorney, using the current law's procedures for allowing cooperation among counties.
However, while those procedures require a simple majority vote, the vote for multi-county prosecutors would have to pass by a four-sevenths majority in each county involved - the same percentage required to pass most bond issues.
And the agreements can't be made before 2022, because the state's judges currently are looking at ways to redraw the 45 circuit court boundaries. That process must be finished by 2020 under a law passed last year.
Counties that agree to a multi-county prosecutor must pay that prosecutor the same salary as an associate circuit judge, and share the cost of that salary on a pro-rated basis.
Pulaski Count Prosecutor Kevin Hillman opposed Dixon's original proposal, and a second one that would allow county commissions to abolish the county prosecuting attorney's office and, instead, join a state's attorney system.
"I believed those original bills benefited the larger counties and placed a disproportionate burden on rural multi-county circuit counties by, basically, requiring rural counties to give up their local prosecutor in exchange for a district or circuit attorney - something that the large counties did not have to do," Hillman explained last week, in an email.
He thanked Dixon and his staff for meeting with and listening to concerned prosecutors, and agreeing to the compromises.
"My opinion is that a local prosecutor, at the county level, is the best system," Hillman said. "However, I also realize that there are a handful of counties that struggle to get anyone to even run for the position, mainly because the county's population is so small that there are not enough lawyers to fill the position of judge, prosecutor, etc."
The compromise bill also proposes a pay increase for the smaller county prosecutors who are part-time, and allowed to practice civil law as well.
"In appreciation to those local prosecutors," Dixon said, "I have to say that, while there a number of prosecutors around the state who hold the title "part-time prosecutors,' they're not part-time.
"They're working full-time, and they're getting paid part-time."
With Dixon agreeing to make the proposed changes, members of the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys recently voted 75-18 to endorse the bill and work for its passage.
"Counties need flexibility to provide high levels of prosecution services to their citizens," Boone County Prosecutor Dan Knight, MAPA's current president, said.
"This approach provides that flexibility and keeps local control."
Knight told the News Tribune: "There is enough time left in this session to get this done, I think - particularly with a unified position by the prosecutors.
"This should be an attractive good government bill that encourages flexibility and local control."