The fear of inadequately prosecuted criminals was enough to thaw Amador County's hiring freeze Tuesday as supervisors agreed to fill a position in the District Attorney's Office.

It was a tough sell. Already this year, in budget-cutting mode, the board stared down stiff opposition from a deputy district attorneys' bargaining unit, which had balked at a four-day work week imposed across the board on county staff members.

The DA's office is largely at the mercy of case-scheduling practices used by the Amador County Superior Court, said District Attorney Todd Riebe. Three weeks per month, cases proceed in that court on all five work days. The mismatch of court scheduling and deputy district-attorney work week has cut into the ability of Riebe's office to handle its case load while operating with a vacant staff position, he said.

In late 2007, courts had a total of 70 cases pending; in 2008, 88 were pending and 345 are pending this year, Riebe said.

"Both my options stink," Riebe said. "I can keep reviewing and filing cases with current practices and force continuation of cases. Or, I can review less cases, so the deputy DA's can manage the load. That means no consequences for certain criminals. It will create a victim population and embolden criminals to more serious crimes. It's the 'broken-window' principle - target misdemeanors to prevent more serious crimes in the future, a real public-safety problem."

Riebe brought up a recent murder committed within the walls of Mule Creek State Prison in Ione by an inmate serving life without parole. He said his office probably is too strapped currently to prepare a capital case against the man and that preparing a non-capital murder case seems a superfluous waste of resources, but it's ludicrous to think of the inmate having no consequences at all for his act.

The account of the Mule Creek situation appeared to backfire slightly on Riebe, who took a grilling from supervisors and a resident about his discretion in use of resources.

"We don't want to create a mind-set of 'get away with it,' but Mule Creek speaks to efficiency," said District 1 Supervisor John Plasse.

In the end, use of statistics by Riebe and Chief Deputy District Attorney Melinda Aiello wove an argument that District 2 Supervisor Richard Forster called "compelling" for filling the vacant position.

For example, each Amador deputy DA is handling more than twice the number of case referrals as is a Sacramento County deputy DA and is handling roughly 25 percent more referrals than a Calaveras County deputy DA, according to Riebe's account.

Forster and other supervisors entreated Riebe and Aiello to make the most of the new hire. It will be initiated after the board reviews the possibilities of using state grant money - which partly funds the salary - toward paying for the new hire's unemployment insurance, as well. In addition, the county wants to bring in the new hire at a renegotiated tier of retirement benefits.

"It's a compelling argument to hire," Forster said. "I'd like to see a mentality in the DA's office of trying to avoid continuances and trying to resolve as many cases as possible at the lowest possible level - get them off your plate so you have time for the more serious cases."