A proposition on the ballot for the Aug. 2 primary election will ask voters to decide whether the office of prosecuting attorney should be made a full-time position in Howell County. The question is posed by county commissioners.
Presiding Commissioner Mark Collins said issue has been discussed for several years, since Howell County is considered a third-class county based on property values and population; a third-class county has assessed property value of less than $600 million. All such counties, by default, employ part-time prosecutors unless a county elects to make the position full-time.
“Howell County is one of the largest counties in Missouri that does not have a full-time prosecuting attorney. Two neighboring counties have populations and property values much less than Howell County, but they have elected to make those prosecuting attorney positions full-time,” Collins told the Daily Quill in an interview this week.
Howell County Prosecuting Attorney Michael Hutchings has chosen to work full-time in the prosecutor’s office even though he is paid as a part-time position, Collins said.
Before Hutchings took office, Collins said the prosecutor at the time worked both in private practice and in the prosecutor’s office.
“The prior arrangement created a number of conflicts of interest that required the county to pay for a special prosecutor to handle. By working full-time, the amount of conflicts is diminished and the cost to the county is reduced,” Collins explained.
“If the position remains part-time, there is nothing that would prohibit the prosecutor from maintaining a private practice and work in the prosecutor’s office,” he added.
Making the position full-time would explicitly prohibit the prosecutor from establishing a private practice.
Currently, the county prosecuting attorney’s salary is $74,011, Howell County Clerk Kelly Waggoner said. If voters approve the issue on the ballot on Aug. 2, the prosecuting attorney’s salary will increase to $146,812.
Waggoner noted that the salary is set annually on July 1, which means the actual salary of the full-time prosecuting attorney position could change by election day.
Missouri law stipulates that the full-time salary for the position will go into effect after the proposal's passage on the date the elected prosecutor is sworn into office.
Hutchings, a Republican, is running unopposed in the August primary to retain his seat.
According to official statistics reported by Missouri Courts, in 2021 the Howell County Prosector’s Office filed just over 2,000 felony and misdemeanor charges. By comparison, Webster County in the 30th Judicial Circuit has a population of about 39,100 and filed about 1,400 such cases the same year, and Pettis County, population 42,400, filed just over 3,000 such charges. Howell County’s population is about 40,100 as of the 2020 U.S. Census.
According to Collins, the office also handles all traffic tickets issued to the state court that occur in Howell County, along with various other duties that the legislature has given them, which include mental health commitments, Missouri Department of Revenue license revocations, tax collections and providing legal advice to the county when requested.
“The county is now financially equipped to handle the obligations of making the position of prosecuting attorney full-time should the voters choose to make such an election,” Collins said.
