One more full-time job at the McKean County Courthouse is in the
works, but the change will end up costing the county less money
than keeping the position part-time would cost.

In an announcement made Wednesday, McKean County District
Attorney John Pavlock said that he will accept the offer from state
legislators to make his office a full-time position, effective Jan.
2, 2006.

“The financial reimbursement scheme in the new legislation
actually makes the full-time position less expensive than the
existing part-time position,” Pavlock explained. “Currently, the
county must pay all of the district attorney’s part-time salary.
Under the new legislation, the state pays 65 percent of the
full-time salary for the district attorney’s position.

“Therefore, the county will actually save approximately $20,000
a year,” he added.

The full-time district attorney legislation, passed in July,
left it up to the prosecutors in each Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth
and Seventh class counties to decide for themselves if they wanted
to be full time. A decision must be given to the chairman of the
county commissioners between Dec. 1 and 30 announcing their
intentions.

McKean is a Sixth Class county.

If the district attorney were to decide against the move, the
legislation would make the position full time by the year 2012.

“…since the change is inevitable regardless of what I do, why,
when it would benefit the county now, wait?” Pavlock said.

While Pavlock has devoted a significant amount of time to his
duties as district attorney in the past, he has also maintained a
private, civil law practice as a partner with Mattie &
Alfieri.

Under the new legislation, “as of the end of December, I can’t
receive any compensation for civil practices,” he explained.

He has decided to give up his private practice and devote his
time to being McKean County’s top prosecutor.

“I’ve already notified my clients. I advised them I greatly
appreciated the trust they placed in me,” Pavlock said. “Attorney
Mike Alfieri will be taking over all my active cases. I’m already
starting to wrap up my civil practice.”

Will the change be permanent?

“That’s up to the voters, I guess,” Pavlock said. “That’s a risk
that I, and all the other district attorneys, had to take. There’s
always a question of whether you’ll be elected again.”

Pavlock had served as assistant district attorney under Michele
Alfieri before seeking his first term as district attorney.

“The demands of the district attorney’s office have grown to the
extent that McKean County truly needs a full-time district
attorney,” Pavlock said. “Not only has the caseload continued to
grow, but with each new state or federal mandate, criminal law and
procedure has become more complex and therefore, additional time
and participation from the prosecutor’s office is required.”

He explained that the new requirements of the driving under the
influence of alcohol law have more than 20 categories, three tiers
and varying penalties – far more information than existed
previously.

More time to devote to the duties of the office can mean more
positive projects coming from the district attorney’s office,
Pavlock said.

Having taken over the local Drug Task Force operations this
year, Pavlock is looking forward to having more time to devote to
those efforts.

“In the past, we have gone to schools and talked about a variety
of issues, from drug issues to informative sessions on criminal
justice procedures,” he explained. “When you have no time to spare,
those things couldn’t be undertaken. Those things are vital.”

He added that the county has been working on a Sexual Assault
Response Team. “We hope to finalize that soon.

“All the providers work together in working with victims to
gather the information we need for a prosecution and also be
sensitive to their situation,” he explained. “That’s another
example of the type of program the full-time position could
benefit.”

In making his decision for a full-time position, Pavlock has
sought input from the public. And the response was about 5-to-1 in
favor, he said.

“It has become painfully clear that the criminals in McKean
County are not working part-time; neither should the district
attorney,” he said. “The people of McKean County need and deserve a
full-time district attorney whose constant and undistracted focus,
from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and beyond, is on enforcing the law
throughout the county.”