Wallace elected Lincoln County’s next district attorney, but learns three of six prosecutors departing soon

 

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews

The biggest challenge for Lincoln County’s newly elected district attorney may not be prosecuting bad guys but finding and keeping attorneys on her staff.

Jenna Wallace, the chief deputy district attorney who stepped in to run for district attorney at the last minute in March, won election this week to become Lincoln County’s third district attorney in four years.

Wallace, 34, of Toledo, won with 55 percent of the vote over longtime Newport defense attorney Kathryn Benfield — more than the 50 percent majority she needed to take office next January. With 95 percent of ballots counted Wednesday night, Wallace easily led Benfield 7,060 to 5,748.

District attorney Lanee Danforth defeated appointee Jonathan Cable in May 2020, took office in 2021 and filed for re-election last September. But she suddenly and without public explanation withdrew from the race in early March.

Wallace, who has been a prosecutor in the district attorney’s office since 2022 and chief deputy since August, filed soon afterwards — as did Benfield.

Danforth’s four years in office was marked by office turmoil and turnover, public clashes with county commissioners, and a federal lawsuit by a former deputy district attorney. Both Wallace and Benfield said they would work to change that.

But Wallace’s election win was overshadowed with word this week that three of six deputy district attorneys in the office were leaving for other jobs this month and next. The office already had two prosecutor vacancies.

Two of the three departing prosecutors – Hollie Boggess and Carly Cannon – said they notified Danforth before the election and that their departures were due to better pay, lower caseloads and more affordable housing elsewhere.

Both said they had high expectations for Wallace as district attorney and hoped the county would study and then increase pay for attorneys in the office.

“It’s difficult to justify working here when one can be paid a higher salary elsewhere with lower housing costs and an equivalent or smaller caseload,” Boggess said in an email to YachatsNews. “Requests to rectify pay issues have been either flat out denied by the Board of Commissioners or have sat pending for months on end with no progress.”

Boggess, who was hired in 2018, is the second-longest serving prosecutor in the district attorney’s office. As of December her salary was $97,654 a year, according to county records. She is leaving at the end of June.

Cannon was hired 10 months ago after finishing law school, had a salary of $76,784 and is leaving May 31. The third departing attorney, Jessica Gordon, was hired in 2022 and was being paid $94,800 a year, according to county records.

In their campaigns, both Wallace and Benfield said hiring and retaining prosecutors in the district attorney’s office was a critical issue. While there has been higher-than-usual turnover during Danforth’s three years in office, both Boggess and Cannon said in emails to YachatsNews that it was lower pay, the high number of cases they were handling and high housing costs that led them to new jobs.

“Unfortunately, Lincoln County lacks the ability to maintain and recruit deputy district attorneys due to its low salaries and high cost of living,” Cannon said in an email. “As a result, the district attorney’s office is short-staffed and means we each carry a much heavier caseload than even larger counties.”

Cannon said the salary in her new job is $25,000 more, with a slightly lighter caseload and she will be “paying hundreds of dollars less in rent than I do in Lincoln County.”

“No one chooses to work in the public sector with the goal of getting rich — but we do wish to be valued for our work,” Cannon said.

Deputy district attorneys in Lincoln County are members of employee unions. Both Boggess and Cannon urged the county to study prosecutor pay in Oregon and raise salaries to more easily attract and retain attorneys.

The county started its budget deliberations this week, with departments asked to lower their overall requests by three percent from current levels. Danforth’s proposed budget is $2.77 million, a four percent decrease from the current budget — but with a proposed 2 percent salary increase for prosecutors and other union members in the office.

“I have full faith that Jenna Wallace will do a wonderful job running the office with the resources she has available to her,” Boggess said. “I hope the commissioners work with her to make sure that incoming deputy district attorneys are offered salaries that will entice them to make Lincoln County a home and not just a stop on the way to a higher paying office.”

In a statement Friday, Wallace said she is committed to helping rebuild the office.

“I am excited about the opportunity to be Lincoln County’s next district attorney,” Wallace said in an email Saturday to YachatsNews. “Being elected into office after learning about the exit of three prosecutors is obviously not how anyone envisions winning an election. I have no doubt that Ms. Cannon and Ms. Boggess would have remained in Lincoln County if pay equity issues were resolved. Although both requests were supported by district attorney Lanee Danforth, within budget, and based on job performance, neither were approved by the Board of Commissioners. I am hopeful that the Board of Commissioners will work with me to address the current recruitment and retention issues noted by current and past deputy district attorneys. I hope to have a positive working relationship with the Board of Commissioners. I believe the only way we can resolve these challenges is by being transparent and working as a team. Until we can work collaboratively together, recruitment and retention will continue to be an issue.”

Hall in November runoff

As of Wednesday night, the county clerk’s office had counted 95 percent of ballots with the next results not released until 5 p.m. Friday. There have been 15,052 ballots counted — a turnout of nearly 38 percent and much lower than the expected turnout of 50-60 percent.

Results show there will be a two-person runoff in November for county commissioner.

While five-term incumbent county commissioner Claire Hall easily beat four challengers in Tuesday’s primary, she failed to get more than 50 percent of the vote to win a sixth term outright. That means Hall and second-place finisher Rick Beasley, a Depoe Bay city councilor, will face off in November.

Hall had 4,964 votes after Wednesday’s count, or 39 percent of the 12,838 total votes counted in the commission race. Beasley had 2,605, or 20 percent, while Newport city councilor Ryan Parker had 1,916, Tyrone Halbrook of Waldport 1,679 and Don Gomez of Newport finishing last at 1,674.

All the money measures on the ballot in Lincoln County were passing.

Oregon Coast Community College’s request for a $33.16 million bond to build a trades education center on its Newport campus and upgrade education, health, aquarium sciences and welding programs, update classrooms and technology and make safety improvements was easily approved 9,326 to 5,144 after the second round of ballot-counting Wednesday.

College officials said they were pleased by the strong show of support from voters.

“Since I arrived in Lincoln County, I’ve heard consistently from folks from all walks of life some version of, ‘What this county really needs is more trades education’,” said Birgitte Ryslinge, who is retiring in September after 10 years as OCCC’s president. “Those folks stepped up, and voted to fund this work, and to invest in their county’s growth and development. We are humbled and deeply moved by their support. ”

Voters in the Lincoln County Library District — Waldport, Toledo, Siletz, Newport, Lincoln City and unincorporated areas – were approving the renewal of an operating levy of 9 cents per $1,000 assessed property value to replace a levy of the same amount that expires in 2025. The vote was 5,444 to 2,622.

Other results as of Wednesday night included:

• Voters in the city of Newport were passing 1,655 to 1,427 a measure that will institute a 5 cent per gallon year-round gasoline tax to replace one that varies from one to three cents depending on the season to fund road repairs;
• Voters in the Depoe Bay Rural Fire Protection District approved 1,177 to 481 a five-year levy of $1.39 per $1,000 assessed property value – 30 cents more than the levy expiring in June 2025 — to fund operations and personnel;
• Voters in the Gleneden Beach Sanitary District south of Lincoln City approved 524 to 223 a five-year local option levy of 77 cents per $1,000 assessed property value to renovate and improve its infrastructure;
• Voters in Toledo approved 477 to 249 a $2.65 million bond to replace the 32-year-old city water tank on Ammon Road that would result in a property tax of 35 cents per $1,000 assessed value;
• Two legislative incumbents – Sen. Dick Anderson, R-Lincoln City and Rep. David Gomberg, D-Otis, are unopposed in their party’s primaries. Anderson will face Democrat Jo Beaudreau, a Florence city councilor, in the November general election. No Republican filed to challenge Gomberg in November.