Correction: This new data center is near Unity Reed High School, near Manassas. An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported Patriot High School.

This article is FREE to read. Please Sign In or create a FREE account today. Make the smart choice for staying informed about your community. Thank you!

In a meeting on October 8, 2024, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors approved funding for new positions in the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office, addressing the office’s need for additional resources to handle an increasing caseload. The positions include four new attorney roles: paralegal, victim-witness staff, and administrative staff. Commonwealth Attorney Amy Ashworth emphasized the importance of these positions for the efficiency and effectiveness of the county’s criminal justice system.

The new hires come after Ashworth said she would withhold prosecution of certain misdemeanor charges, effective May 1, 2024, if county leaders don’t give her more employees.

During the meeting, Ashworth explained the need for the positions, noting that the Virginia Compensation Board had allocated funding for four attorney positions at $70,000 each, but that amount fell short of what is needed in Northern Virginia. “Obviously, that doesn’t cover what we pay in Northern Virginia for an attorney,” she said. She also worked with the county’s budget office to creatively allocate the funding, ensuring that critical positions would be filled.

Ashworth explained that while the positions were funded for fiscal year 2025, the full costs of the positions will be felt in FY 2026 due to the timing of when the hires are expected to take place. “They’d be active for maybe six or seven months of the remainder of the fiscal year. But in fiscal ’26, they would presumably be hired and filled, and their salaries and benefits would be paid for the entirety of the fiscal year,” she said.

The new positions come after an updated time study from the Supreme Court of Virginia recommended that the Prince William Commonwealth Attorney’s Office be staffed with 61 attorneys, 30 administrative staff, and 15 paralegals. Ashworth pointed out this was an increase from the previous year’s recommendation and highlighted the office’s struggle with understaffing. “We are operating with approximately half of the administrative staff that the time study recommends and approximately half of the paralegals,” she told the board.

Supervisors acknowledged the importance of providing adequate resources to the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office, particularly in light of the increasing demands on the local criminal justice system. Supervisor Bob Weir expressed concern about the funding shortfalls, asking, “Are we on the hook for the delta between the two amounts?” He pointed out that the revenue provided by the Compensation Board did not fully cover the costs associated with the positions.

Supervisor Yesli Vega, who was previously critical of the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office, expressed her support for the additional staffing, recognizing the need for more resources. “I do understand that there is a need and that this continues to be an opportunity for myself and the Commonwealth Attorney to work collaboratively to assure that we’re addressing the needs that the office really has,” she said.

One of the most critical roles approved was for a victim-witness staff member, a position Ashworth emphasized as essential to ensuring that victims and witnesses feel safe and supported when coming to court. “There is a lot of reluctance on the part of people to do that, to be involved. People are afraid that there will be retribution,” she said, explaining the importance of the victim-witness role in helping alleviate those fears and ensuring witnesses are kept informed and supported throughout the legal process.

The discussion also highlighted the need for collaboration between local and state governments to ensure that compensation for critical public safety roles is adequate. “We have to make sure that each of these [departments] have adequate resources,” said Supervisor Andrea Bailey. “Quite frankly, we’re going to continue to have these discussions about how the Compensation Board does their part.”

The new positions are set to be fully incorporated into the FY 2026 budget, and discussions are ongoing about how to fund the shortfalls between state-provided compensation and local needs. Ashworth closed the discussion by expressing gratitude for the board’s support and underscoring the importance of providing adequate resources to maintain a functioning and just legal system.

The Prince William Board of County Supervisors met on Tuesday, October 8, 2024, to discuss a proposal to address the risks associated with street panhandling by offering employment opportunities to those begging on busy streets. The plan, spearheaded by the county's health, wellbeing, and environmental sustainability team, sought to provide panhandlers with jobs paying $13 an hour for two days a week, hoping this alternative would reduce their presence on streets and mitigate safety concerns.

This article is exclusively for our Locals Only members. Please Sign In or upgrade to become a Locals Only Member today!

Your support helps us continue delivering more in-depth community news that matters to you.

A proposal to introduce artificial intelligence (AI) tracking for traffic and pedestrian safety in Prince William County was deferred after a contentious discussion during the Sept. 19, 2024, Board of County Supervisors meeting. If approved, this initiative would mark the first time the county government has used AI technology to track and analyze citizens’ movements.

This article is exclusively for our Locals Only members. Please Sign In or upgrade to become a Locals Only Member today!

Your support helps us continue delivering more in-depth community news that matters to you.

Prince William County residents are invited to attend a Multi-District Town Hall on Monday, September 16, 2024 at 7 p.m. Supervisors Yesli Vega, Tom Gordy, and Bob Weir of the Coles, Brentsville, and Gainesville districts will lead a discussion on community safety and the proposed Affordable Dwelling Unit (ADU) Ordinance.

This article is exclusively for our Locals Only members. Please Sign In or upgrade to become a Locals Only Member today!

Your support helps us continue delivering more in-depth community news that matters to you.

Prince William County’s Board of Supervisors easily approved the fiscal year 2025 budget with a few changes on Tuesday, April 23, 2024, to take effect on July 1.

This article is exclusively for our Locals Only members. Please Sign In or upgrade to become a Locals Only Member today!

Your support helps us continue delivering more in-depth community news that matters to you.

In a letter addressed to the Chair and the Supervisors of Prince William County, Commonwealth’s Attorney Amy Ashworth outlined her intention to withhold prosecution of certain misdemeanor charges, effective May 1, 2024, if county leaders don’t give her more employees.

According to the letter, the Prince William County Prosecutor’s Office is operating with 26 fewer positions than required.  A recent time study showed the office has a deficit of seven attorneys and 19 administrative staff, Ashworth wrote.

On April 18, 2024, supervisors voted in a straw poll and decided to fund an additional four attorneys and four administrative staff for Ashworth’s office. Ashworth asked for 16 new people and asserted that the office cannot sustain its current level of service and must take steps to reduce the caseload. As it stands, Ashworth is set to receive $13 million from the county government to operate her office for the coming fiscal year, starting July 1, 2024. The figure does not include funding from Manassas and Manassas Park cities, for which Ashworth also prosecutes criminal cases.

In response to the straw poll, Ashworth wrote supervisors and listed a series of Class 1 and 2 misdemeanors to which she may no longer assign a prosecutor, including petit larceny, shoplifting, narcotic charges, underage alcohol offenses, disorderly conduct, obstruction of justice, escapes, obscenity, false identification and false report to police, destruction of property, trespassing, reckless driving (unless fatal), and all traffic and operator license misdemeanors.

The Prince William Board of County Supervisors is set to approve its entire FY 2025 budget tomorrow.

“The bottom line is that this office was not properly staffed and funded for decades as the County grew up around us,” Ashworth wrote in an email to Potomac Local. “The time study was able to finally give us a clear staffing standard across the state for all prosecutor’s offices.”

Ashworth, a Democrat, was re-elected to office in November 2023 and is in the first year of her second four-year term.

“The Commonwealth of Virginia does not fund prosecution of misdemeanor cases – only felonies. In smaller jurisdictions, it is easier for the prosecutor to just handle all the misdemeanors as well. However, other large jurisdictions do not handle all of the misdemeanors as [Prince William County] does,” Ashworth adds.

Acknowledging the impact of this decision, Ashworth emphasized the need to focus limited resources on misdemeanors deemed most critical, such as DUI, weapon offenses, and violent crime.

Ashworth’s threats to cut prosecutorial services garnered a quick response from supervisors.

“She claims her predecessor understaffed his office. I don’t recall anyone claiming Paul Ebert [Ashworth’s predecessor] didn’t prosecute enough. The question is efficiency. If Fairfax can do more with less, why can’t she?” asked Gainesville District Supervisor Bob Wier.

During a presentation earlier this month, Ashworth told the Board of County Supervisors that of her 54 office employees, 29 were prosecutors when she took over from her predecessor Paul Ebert, Virginia’s longest-serving prosecutor from 1968 until his retirement in 2019. Since that time dozens of full-time positions have been added to the Commonwealth Attorney’s office, resulting in nearly 80 employees.

“By supporting eight new positions in FY25, in addition to fulfilling the three-year staffing plan introduced by Ms. Ashworth in 2021, I am confident that this Board has provided the Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney with the necessary resources to fulfill its prosecutorial duties to our residents,” said Occoquan District Supervisor Kenny Boddye. “These new positions will make our Commonwealth’s Attorney office the largest in Virginia, eclipsing even the staffing levels of Fairfax County, which serves more than two times as many residents.”

Since she took over, the Board of County Supervisors has increased funding for her office by $6.4 million and added 32 employees. This represents a cumulative percentage increase of about 93.5% over five years. All the while, Ashworth is pursuing fewer cases than her predecessor, choosing to indict 75 felonies on average per month compared to the 350-per-month average Ebert pursued.

Despite Ashworth having successfully lobbied to increase her office budget to the largest it has ever been in county history, she has the fewest average prosecutions of her predecessors. Meanwhile, the county’s murder rate has doubled, and violent crime increased by 70% since 2019.

In a letter to constituents, Coles District Supervisor Yesli Vega called Ashworth’s letter a “dangerous temper tantrum” describing it as “a stain on the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office and unbecoming of an elected official.” She also questioned how a 2% increase in caseload could represent a $2 million budget request.

Both Weir and Vega pointed to neighboring Fairfax County, which cut misdemeanor prosecutions and has subsequently seen a rise in overall crime, with Vega rhetorically asking, “How has that worked out for them?”

In addition to the potential for increased crime in Prince William, the change would also increase the workload of Prince William County Police officers. In her letter, Ashworth clarified that while her office will no longer prosecute these offenses, the burden of prosecution will shift to the arresting police officer, who must handle traditional prosecutor duties such as subpoenaing witnesses, answering discovery, and presenting evidence in court.

“There will be an additional burden on the department in that we will need to train officers on how to do the legal courtroom work traditionally done by the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office,” said Prince William County Police Chief Peter Newsham. “This will also likely result in officers spending more time in court and less time in the community.”

Newsham added that there likely would be a “negative impact on conviction rates during the learning curve.” adding, “Our officers are committed, dedicated, and professional, but they are not lawyers.”

“I don’t think this board responds well to threats and Prince William County does not have an unlimited source of revenue,” Weir added when asked if Ashworth’s threats would lead to him consider changing his vote. “We’re growing the government at a level that is unsustainable given the revenues.”

The Board of County Supervisors meets at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 23, 2024, at the McCoart County Government Building, 1 County Complex Court in Woodbridge. The meeting is open to the public and will be streamed online.

Alan Gloss is a freelance reporter for Potomac Local News.

A note to you, our readers:

This story is free to read, but it costs money to bring it to you. If you rely on us for local news and haven’t already, please support us by becoming a member!

• • Join our Locals Only Membership Today!