Dunkirk agrees on set rates for traffic cases
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Dunkirk's attorney and paralegal will now get fixed stipends for prosecuting traffic violations.
The city's Common Council voted April 5 to rescind a previous arrangement that would have tied the pay to traffic ticket revenue. It then agreed to pay $10,000 to the attorney and $2,500 to the paralegal.
Dunkirk is taking over the traffic violation cases from the Chautauqua County District Attorney's Office in what city officials call a "pilot program," set to be revisited and reviewed after six months. Claiming increased workload from new state laws regarding pre-trial discovery, the DA's office is no longer prosecuting noncriminal traffic violations in local courts.
Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt criticized the previous pay arrangement in a letter to the council.
Dunkirk's attorney, Richard Morrisroe, told the council before it voted April 5, "What we've done on this modification, as you'll see, is we've uncoupled it from the fine income so it's a flat-rate stipend, it's pro rata, paid out weekly for the weeks we have to do the work."
Councilwoman Nancy Nichols said earlier in the meeting, "The public needs to know that when Richard was hired… that our city attorney was hired part time. Everybody's beating us up in the newspaper, in people's columns and editorials, on how much money he's to be getting paid.
If they knew all the figures, and all the facts and all the time…
"He's hired part time. I don't know if it's 20 hours (per week), I don't know if it's 32 hours… I don't wanna know that. I don't need to know that. If he's doing a service for the city and he's doing it well, and I know he has other responsibilities and obligations that he's taken on himself, so be it.
"We're just glad that he's here, and as long as he's available and feels comfortable, and not drawing things too thin by taking another position by doing the violations, so be it."
Mayor Wilfred Rosas replied that Morrisroe is officially at 90% time so he can have a private practice.
"There are communities who will not allow the attorney to have a private practice but they pay a lot more than what they're paying," he said.
Morrisroe received $58,667 from the city in 2021, according to government salary data available at seethroughny.net.