Following Gov. Jim Hunt’s request, the State Administrative Office of the Courts issued a hiring freeze to reroute money to hurricane relief efforts.

The courts said any position that becomes vacant must remain so for 60 days and the money saved will be rerouted to flood relief.

Rowan County District Attorney Bill Kenerly says local court officials were feeling stressed even before the hiring freeze.

In August, the legislature approved a fourth District Court judge for Rowan County.

“I had to make someone available to prosecute the (extra) cases, a clerk has to be present and the Sheriff’s Department had to provide deputies,” Kenerly said.

Then, Assistant District AttorneyDarrin Jordan resigned on Jan. 31, about a month after the courts instituted the hiring freeze.

Kenerly made a special request to the Administrative Office of the Courts to allow him to fill Jordan’s spot.

The office denied Kenerly’s request, and Kenerly can’t replace Jordan until April 1.

“This means a backlog will develop in Superior Court that will likely take a year to resolve,” Kenerly said.

Kenerly’s staff now consists of assistant district attorneys Cynthia Barnhill, Karen Biernacki, Doug Smith and Bonnie Busby.

One complication is that Kenerly tries to reduce the case load in Superior Court by handling plea bargains for Class I and H felonies, the least severe classes of felonies, such as embezzlement and check frauds, in District Court.

“... Rowan County is one of the few counties that takes advantage of the law allowing us to take these pleas in District Court,”Kenerly said.

But without the extra prosecutor to handle the plea bargains in advance, those cases make their way to Superior Court.

Rowan County handled 424 felony cases in District Court in the 1998-99 fiscal year. Only Wake and Forsyth counties had more.

So, Jordan’s spot needs to be filled to keep up the pace.

“We have to clear 75 cases a week to keep up,” Kenerly said.

Also, Kenerly said it usually takes one to two months to train a new assistant district attorney, adding more time to the court delay.

At this point, Kenerly said all he’s sure of is: “The 60-day hiring freeze is still 60 days,” and he’ll be able to fill Jordan’s spot after April 1.

The problem remains with any other vacancies. Kenerly’s victim-witness advocate quit several weeks ago and the 60-day freeze applies to that vacancy.

The future still looks bleak for the court system. Gov. Hunt set a goal for the judicial branch to save $3.75 million for flood aid.