Wayne County Prosecutor Kym L. Worthy held a press conference Wednesday morning to discuss the consequences of Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano action March 14, in which he laid off 26 of the Wayne County prosecutor's office contractual employees. A T.V. slide-show stood beside her higgling quotes from news articles expressing some of the controversies surrounding Ficano. (Tanya Moutzalias | MLive.com)

DETROIT, MI - Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy isn’t concealing her disdain for Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano’s administration.

She’s suing Ficano and the county for a bait-and-switch budget commitment. The county and Worthy entered into a three-year budget commitment that Worthy said Ficano reneged on last year when he reduced her budget by $9 million, which Worthy says is insufficient to fulfill her constitutional mandate.

She said the reduction to her budget, currently at $25 million, is closer to $12 million if you include about $3 million in increases for fringe benefits.

The most recent blow to her office came last week when Ficano announced the layoffs of 26 contracted prosecutor’s office employees — 22 attorneys, three investigators and a weekend clerical employee, all contracted employees who don't receive benefits or pensions.

As of last Friday, the office was backed up on 40 homicide warrants. It no longer has the personnel required to staff traffic cases, which has resulted in rescheduling or dismissals, and there are no attorneys for the misdemeanor, domestic abuse, family court or personal protection order dockets, Worthy said.

“We will reissue every case that has been dismissed,” the county’s lead law enforcer said. “People will not get away with them forever, I hope.”

News headlines scrolled across the screen of a Vizio flat-screen TV in Worthy’s conference room on the 12th floor office in the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice Wednesday, where she called in media to talk about her issues with the budget and Ficano’s administration.

“Langston: Is Ficano corrupt?” “Wayne Co. Jail costs run $65 million over budget,” “Probe into Wayne County expands as FBI serves 2 new subpoenas,” Ficano’s fleet of drivers costs Wayne County more than $160,000,” “Wayne County commissioner asks Robert Ficano to resign,” and “Wayne County chief information officer charged with extortion, bribery.”

“This is not some kind of feud,” Worthy said when asked about the intent of the display. “This is not a dispute and this is not a stunt or ploy... This is about a county that needs a fully functioning prosecutor’s office.

“It’s not funny, it’s not cute; it is stressful.”

Her office has 160 assistant prosecutors, more than 50 fewer than she had coming into this fiscal year.

“We were not fully function before I lost one quarter of my staff,” said Worthy. “ I am down 53 assistant prosecutors.”

The office handled 50,328 cases in 2011. Worthy said her office has eliminated a $1.6 million deficit left by her predecessor and stayed within or under her budget for each year since 2004.

Worthy says Ficano committed to a budget of $34 million for the prosecutor’s office, but once the fiscal year began only budgeted $25 million, 73 percent of what was expected.

June West, a spokeswoman for Ficano, said the layoffs were planned and should have come as no surprise.

“The Prosecutor has been on notice since late February that the County could not extend the use of these consultants because of her office’s overspending," West said. "We have been working in good faith to reach a budget adjustment that can be presented to the Wayne County Commission.

"A budget compromise proposal that increases her approved budget has been on her desk since Tuesday. It is unfortunate that she is using scare tactics as a cover for her deficit spending and her lack of response to the proposal.”

Ficano never calls me directly, Worthy said, adding that her hope is they can discuss amending this year's budget to restore funds to the prosecutor's office.

"The first function of government is to keeps its people safe," said Worthy.

She said "mismanagement" and "misspending" are at the root of the problem, and her office is not to blame.

The cost of fringe benefits in Wayne County have increased from 47 percent of an assistant prosecutor’s total cost to 81 percent, said Worthy, and is expected to continue to increase at 18 percent per year.

She said fringe benefits by 2015 will eclipse 100 percent of the salary cost.