Alec Ballo is looking to replace Greg Parker as the Shawano-Menominee County District Attorney, and he made a stop at the May 8 Shawano Common Council meeting to talk about why he’s running.
Ballo noted he’s running for several reasons. One is to speed up the cases going through the court system
“When it comes to misdemeanor cases, it takes our court system roughly about a year to process a misdemeanor case,” Ballo said. “For a felony, it takes about a year and a half.”
Comparatively speaking, Ballo said Oconto and Waupaca counties take about half that time to process cases.
Ballo said he thinks there are some things he can do in the district attorney’s office to improve matters.
“I’ve had experience in three different district attorney offices now, Shawano County included,” Ballo said. “I started out in Brown County. I am currently in the St. Croix County District Attorney’s office. I’ve been there for three years now. I’m trying to get back home, come back to my family.”
Ballo said his parents have lived in Green Bay for 15 years.
He pointed out that with Shawano being the county seat and the largest municipality in Shawano County, a lot of the court’s business is the result of activity within the city.
“A lot of the criminal cases coming to the district attorney’s office are coming through the city,” Ballo said. “So I thought this would be a good place to introduce myself to some of the county’s population.”
Ballo considers the length of time court cases continue to be a matter of public safety. On his website, www.balloforda.com, he vows to cut the waste and the time spent processing the cases.
“Defendants remain on bond on high-level felony cases while victims wait for closure,” Ballo wrote. “Officers frequently come to court for hearings that resolve at the last second, because decisions are made last-second. I will fix this while saving the taxpayer money.”
Ballo also claimed on his website that there is technology available to the district attorney’s office at no charge, but it is not being utilized.
“We can go paperless and save our county so much time and money by making easy adjustments to prioritize use of this free resource,” Ballo said. “I will modernize the office by incorporating extremely beneficial technology that will allow prosecutors to focus on their cases and not their pencils.”
lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com
Ballo seeks to replace existing district attorney
