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Caroline's prosecutor wants job full time

January 10, 2008 12:36 am

Ever since he began campaigning for the position, Tony Spencer has said the Caroline County commonwealth's attorney should work full time.

And since he was elected in November, he has been working to rally support for expanding the position.

Spencer went before the county's Board of Supervisors Tuesday night to tell them he will be asking for funding for a full-time position.

"We are in the process of submitting a request for the [county's] budget," Spencer said yesterday.

He said his discussion at the board meeting wasn't anything formal, but he mostly wanted to alert the newly elected board that his request would be coming.

Typically, when a commonwealth's attorney wants to take his job from part to full time in Virginia, he must apply and get funded through the state budget.

But because Spencer did not take office until Jan. 1, the deadline for this year's budget had passed when he took office.

So Spencer said he will explore avenues to get the funding this year for the position and then apply next year through the state.

The two main ways the funding could be made available early are either from Caroline's budget or through a budget amendment, which would have to be proposed by a state legislator.

Spencer told the board that Caroline is the county most in need of a full-time office according to state records.

He also said that the county has the lowest rate of convictions for felony cases and he thinks the full-time office would improve those rates.