St. Louis Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore knew he was coming into a challenging situation when Gov. Mike Parson appointed him to his job last year.
But with one year of service under his belt, Gore said Thursday that the biggest surprise he encountered was just how much the circuit attorney’s administrative functions were in disarray.
“That has been a lot of work that has been necessary that I really hadn't considered at all before I accepted the appointment and came to the office,” Gore said. “In retrospect, I probably should have anticipated that.”
Parson appointed Gore after Kim Gardner resigned while facing widespread criticism of how she managed her office. Among other issues, the circuit attorney’s office faced chronic staffing problems and a gigantic backlog of cases referred to Gardner from the St. Louis Police Department.
In roughly a year, Gore said his staff managed to have a functioning warrant office again and reduce the backlog of warrant applications from about 6,700 to 2,600. He said he’s been able to hire 33 attorneys and fill out his executive staff with experienced people, including former Missouri Supreme Court Judge George Draper.
Gore said some of the cases in that warrant backlog are going to be difficult to effectively prosecute.
“There's a saying among lawyers that no case gets better with time. And that is pretty much true across the board. And we certainly have encountered a lot of difficulties prosecuting very old cases,” Gore said. “And chief among those difficulties as usually witness availability. That's been a big problem.”
While Gore said his office received assistance from both private attorneys and the U.S. attorney’s office to handle homicide cases, that help will not be available forever.
He also said there have been several instances in which attorneys in his office left to take jobs in the public sector that paid better.
“We're never going to be competitive with the private sector on salary. And that's something that I think everyone who works here accepts,” Gore said. “We've got to be competitive with neighboring prosecuting attorney's offices.”
Gore is running for a full four-year term without opposition this year. He said his ultimate goal is making the circuit attorney’s office one of the best performing in the nation.
“I've come to understand that fundamentally, we all want the same things,” Gore said. “We want to live in a city that is safe. We want to go about our daily activities feeling secure. As long as I continue to serve as circuit attorney, I will spend every single day striving to make the city of St. Louis safer and a more just community.”
