An organizational assessment of the Marin County District Attorney’s Office has recommended hiring five lawyers and eliminating three positions devoted to consumer protection.

The county ordered the assessment after a Marin County Civil Grand Jury report in 2023. The grand jury blamed the prosecution office for a backlog of criminal cases in the county at the time and recommended that county supervisors hire an independent consultant to analyze its operations.

“The District Attorney’s Office lacks the internal organizational structure and procedures to facilitate the processing and resolution of cases,” the grand jury report said.

The county paid the 65th North Group $49,000 to conduct an assessment, which was completed in January. The county made the document public during a budget hearing on May 19 with little discussion by supervisors.

“It’s no secret that we have faced many challenges in the recent and distant past, including staffing levels,” Marin County District Attorney Lori Frugoli said at the time. “Our staff trusted the process and fully participated in the 65 North study with faith that the findings would be implemented. That process was not always easy, but here we are.”The consultant conducted in-person, email or telephone interviews with employees and compared authorized employees by job classification with full-time equivalent staff demand.

“The study’s results revealed that while the district attorney’s office is well managed, there are operational, organizational and staffing-level opportunities for continued improvement,” the report said.

While 65th North discovered that demand matched the number of authorized employees in most categories, there was a need for the equivalent of 5.73 more full-time attorneys while the demand for consumer protection exceeded staffing by 1.53 full-time equivalent. The consultant recommended a phased hiring of the five attorneys, with three coming in the first year.

As a result, the Office of the County Executive recommended adding about $700,000 to the 2025-26 budget to cover the cost of hiring three entry-level deputy district attorneys.

“It is no secret that we have long been understaffed,” Frugoli wrote in an email, “and we are grateful 65 North and the County Executive’s Office recognize and appreciate that fact.”

In its report, the grand jury also recommended additional hiring: two or more former deputy district attorneys on short-term contracts to reduce the backlog and paralegals to assist attorneys.

Frugoli acknowledged staffing problems at the time, but she disagreed with the jury’s assessment that a lack of organizational structure was to blame for the backlog.

Frugoli said the COVID-19 pandemic was at the heart of the problem. In March 2020, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order effectively closing the courts for criminal trials. In the same month, the state’s chief justice issued the first of several emergency orders that permitted courts to extend trial dates beyond the statutory time periods.

The 65th North assessment recommends that the DA’s office discontinue a COVID-19 pandemic policy not file on certain types of crimes.

“Interviews with multiple employees revealed that these restricted-filing policies are still in place,” the report states. “In the interests of public safety, these restricted filing policies should be reconsidered.”

Responding in an email, Frugoli wrote, “We had previously, and continue to review our filing policies including the Covid 19 filing policies and have made changes consistent with the recommendation.”

Other recommendations include: ensure that each DA’s office supervisor and manager have management training; identify clear chief deputy district attorney reporting relationships in the organizational chart; develop a conflict-of-interest policy; consider using artificial intelligence to reduce employee workload; and digitize case files in storage to ensure compliance with the California Racial Justice Act and the California Public Records Act.

The report quotes unidentified Marin County DA leadership regarding both the urgency of digitizing stored case files and the challenges of doing so.

The Racial Justice Act entitles defendants to seek from the DA case information for all similarly situated defendants, including the race, sex and age of each defendant; what charges were recommended by police; what charges the DA’s office filed; what plea offers were made; what the final disposition was; and documentary, physical and digital evidence associated with the cases.

The 65th North report cites the example of a defendant convicted of murder in 1994. The defendant has filed a discovery motion under the law asking the DA’s office to identify every murder case filed from 1980 to present. For each case, the defendant wants disposition information; the race of each defendant; whether and what special circumstances were alleged; an analysis of whether felony murder special circumstances could have been charged; the criminal history of each defendant; and the police reports and probable cause statements.

Most case records are kept in a storage facility in San Rafael. The main storage room contains thousands of files, mostly in large boxes stacked from floor to ceiling. The boxes are often not accurately labeled as to the range of file numbers that should be located inside.

“We are in the process of digitizing all historical case files in storage,” Frugoli said.

65th North foresees a tidier future for the DA’s office if it uses artificial intelligence.

“When a Racial Justice Act order comes into the office, AI can be trained to quickly analyze tens of thousands of case files and develop a custom-written response to the court for each RJA,” the report says.

“AI models can be trained to review body-worn camera footage, dash camera footage, and audio tapes to identify case-related issues or concerns that need to be addressed by an attorney,” the assessment says. “AI-created algorithms can mask race, age, sex, national origin, and other factors that are sometimes perceived as possible influencers in prosecuting decisions.”

While the assessment’s recommendation for artificial intelligence could cost jobs, the report advocates making more DA office positions full-time with benefits, instead of adding more contingent or extra hire positions.

Susanna Farber, an attorney representing Marin County deputy district attorneys in Teamsters Union Local 856, said she is pleased that 65th North recommends hiring full-time employees rather than contingent workers.

“The 65th North working study is how we think it should be done,” Farber said.