BILL NUMBER: S9387
SPONSOR: HINCHEY
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the public officers law, in relation to removing resi-
dency requirements for Ulster county assistant district attorneys
 
PURPOSE:
This bill will allow non-residents of Ulster County, residing in an
adjoining county, to hold the office of assistant district attorney of
the county of Ulster.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section one of this bill amends section three of the public officers law
and creates a new subdivision 77 to permit a person residing in Ulster
County, or an adjoining county, to hold the office of assistant district
attorney of the county of Ulster. The provision, with respect to nonres-
idents of Ulster County, shall not apply to the office of first assist-
ant district attorney or chief assistant district attorney.
Section two provides the effective date which is immediately.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
The Ulster County District Attorney recently requested this legislation
to allow the hiring attorneys from an adjoining county to serve as
assistant district attorneys, With some exceptions, current New York
State law requires that assistant district attorneys reside in the coun-
ty of the district attorney's office where they are employed.
As a rural county, there are a limited number of attorneys who practice
criminal law who reside in Ulster County. Most of those who do would
rather serve as defense counsels than prosecutors. As such, the Ulster
County District Attorney is finding it difficult to hire an additional
assistant district attorneys to meet caseload demand and is therefore
asking that Ulster County be afforded the opportunity to expand its
candidate pool to neighboring counties.
Currently, the Ulster County District Attorney's office has six vacan-
cies out of a total of 23 full-time assistant district attorney posi-
tions and one vacancy out of a total of six part-time slots. The need
for additional assistant district attorneys is even more acute since the
office is transitioning to 28 full-time assistant district attorneys due
to the case load and the need to make the office run more efficiently.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New bill.
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None from the State.
 
LOCAL FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
Ulster County will pay for the hiring of new assistant district attor-
neys as it does now,
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.

Statutes affected:
S9387: 3 public officers law