Last fall, the grand jury empaneled by Brunswick-area District Attorney Keith Higgins decided that nearly all criminal cases brought to them warranted criminal indictment. Towards the end of the term, the group dug into another matter of public security in Glynn County: the legal dispute between the county commissioners and Higgins that involves a budgetary overspend of nearly $1 million, a topic that The Current has been covering for months.
Under Georgia law, grand juries can conduct questioning and investigative matters pertaining to the justice system. The Glynn grand jury spoke to Higgins under oath, but the county attorney stopped their efforts to talk to county officials, citing the ongoing legal case the municipality is fighting against the district attorney.
The Current spoke to the grand jurors who led the investigation committee. Below are the five questions they wanted answered by the county — and the responses that the county sent in an email from its spokesperson when asked by our newsroom.
1. Explain what happened or led to the DA’s budget problems.
“In a nutshell, [Higgins] said the buck stops with me, I’m the responsible one, I’m the elected official. The issue was that he trusted his executive assistant, who told him that the budget was fine and he could keep hiring ADAs,” said John Vining, vice-foreperson of the jury.
The grand jury then asked Bill Fallon, the county manager; Tamara Munson, the county’s CFO; and Dwayne Pollock, the county’s HR director, to speak to them for the county’s account.
The Current reached out to the county administration along with the county attorney to respond to the questions that jurors posed but did not get answers to.
Glynn County is the largest county in the Brunswick-area judicial district covered by the district attorney’s office, and the DA’s office receives funding for its lawyers and operations from all the counties in the district as well as from the state.
For 20 years up until September 2024, the county acted as the office’s payroll processor, disbursing payments for all employees in the circuit except for six paid directly by Camden County. The DA’s office would transfer budget money back to Glynn’s coffers from the other jurisdictions in a timely fashion — until late 2023, according to county officials.
That’s when the DA’s office told the county that the other jurisdictions were behind on their budget transfers.
In 2023, the county said the DA’s office received $180,000 per month from all five counties in the district to cover personnel costs. Glynn County contributed 53% of that amount, while the other four counties provided the remaining 47%, totaling approximately $84,680 per month.
The county asserts that the DA’s office did not reimburse the amount it paid out that covered lawyers funded by the other counties.
That issue snowballed throughout 2024, with the county losing patience with Higgins over what county officials believe is a failure to engage.
“We also reached out to the DA himself on numerous occasions who failed to respond to our requests for meetings to discuss this overage for several months, cancelled scheduled meetings and finally met with us in May, 2024,” the county said. “At that meeting, he and his staff stated they would have us repaid in full by the end of the fiscal year (June 30, 2024). He failed to do so.”
2. Explaining the county’s position control policy
The committee of jurors sought clarification on the position control policy from the human resources department, which prohibits new hires if the budget cannot cover them.
John Vining, vice foreperson of the jury, said the information was crucial to understanding how to assign accountability for the cost overruns. Jurors were told that Glynn administration had position control numbers, where if someone was hired, they would have to look at that docket and see if that position was available until Higgins former executive assistant was able to remove the safeguard after approval from the county.
Higgins told The Current that when he was elected, the DA’s office personnel actions were run through Glynn County’s human resources department.
“They had assigned position numbers to employees,” Higgins said. “If they don’t have position control, why are they assigning position numbers?” he said.
The county said the failure to ensure proper budgetary planning falls on the DA’s office, because only Higgins’ staff knew the source of his total operational revenue.
The county does not have legal authority over the DA’s budget.
3. Who in the county decided to terminate payroll services?
Glynn County’s Board of Commissioners decided to terminate payroll services for the District Attorney’s office when Higgins failed to engage in meaningful discussions about how to repay the cost overruns and provide clarity about which staff lawyers were working on Glynn County case work.
The grand jurors wanted to know how that decision was made because of the unintended human costs incurred from the decision.
“There’s some unintended consequences that these guys created when they shut that payroll now, right? And I think somebody on the county side either anticipated it or didn’t care,” said Bill Ehrensperger, a grand juror.
The county did not answer the question asked by The Current about who recommended that decision. It did explain the thinking behind the decision.
The county said it suspected that Glynn County citizens were underwriting expenses incurred by staff lawyers assigned to cases in the other four counties. The commissioners do not trust that Higgins has a comprehensive budget to match the revenue from other counties in the jurisdiction.
“We attempted to work with the DA’s office for over a year to recover the funds before payroll processing was suspended,” the county said.
In response to the concerns brought by employees of the DA’s office, the county said that it is “very concerned” and will continue to support them.
“If it wasn’t for Glynn County paying his payroll every month, the DA’s office would have had people not getting paid since the fall of 2023,” the county said.
4. What is 5% money?
Grand Jurors wanted the county to explain what one described as the “Byzantine maze” of funding sources for the DA’s office.
The office has four funding sources — state funds, county funds, grants and the so-called 5% money— That is the fee added on to each criminal case in a county that is adjudicated through the judicial circuit. That money is used to operate Victim Assistance Programs and discretionary spending for the DA’s office.
State revenue goes directly to state-paid employees as salaries and benefits. Grant funding may only be spent in accordance with the grant’s stipulations. Asset forfeiture consists of money confiscated during criminal investigations; it can only be used to supplement the salaries of state-paid ADAs or for capital improvements in the office. County funding is allocated directly to the DA and is used for the payroll expenses of county employees.
5. What could be a solution to the budget overage?
Grand jurors wanted the county to put forward solutions to the budgetary impasse that they believe is affecting public safety and the district prosecutors’ ability to work.
The county responded that it still needs the DA to repay the funding spent on salaries that should be covered by other sources. That budget reconciliation should be straightforward, according to the county, considering the open staff positions in the DA’s office.
The county said that a lack of transparency from Higgins about his budget has hindered a solution. “Glynn County has not recovered a single penny this year of what he owes us and the DA is on track to spend 100% of Glynn County’s allotted funding to his office,” the county said.
Higgins has provided a staffing plan to the county, and the county countered with additional questions that the DA answered. There has been no correspondence since.
The Glynn County office is currently staffed with three state-paid prosecutors, one county-paid prosecutor, three county-paid victim advocates, two county-paid legal assistants, one state-paid legal assistant and one county-paid investigator. There are over 2400 pending felony cases in the circuit.
The county has hired Baker Tilly Advisory Group for a forensic audit to determine if any “fraudulent activity” occurred in relation to the DA’s office and its transactions.
“The county needs to acknowledge there is a problem, swallow their pride and sit down and negotiate a resolution,” said Ehrensperger.
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