Longtime prosecutor leaves city

After 32 and a half years as the Green River city prosecutor, Lisa Botham has decided to move on.

Recently, the Green River City Council decided they were going to put the contract position out to bid. When Botham heard the news, she decided she would just leave earlier than she originally planned.

“It was just time,” Botham said.

Botham said she was planning on retiring at the end of the fiscal year, which would have been July 1, 2015, but she decided it wasn’t worth putting in a bid for a few more months of work.

“I’ve always loved being the prosecutor,” Botham said. “I’m proud of what I’ve done. People who don’t like me are probably the defendants.”

Botham prided herself on making sure sentences were consistent. She said she didn’t care if she knew the defendants or not, whether they were well-known or who their defense attorney was, she tried to make sure the sentences were consistent.

In the future, Botham plans on opening her own practice.

Botham’s career with the city started when she was appointed as the city prosecutor by Green River Mayor Dick Waggoner; and had served under numerous mayors, including Don Van Matre, Norm Stark, David Gomez, Hank Castillon and Pete Rust.

She also worked with Municipal Court Judges Peggy Beckum and Jason Petri and city attorney the late Ford Bussart.

“I always enjoyed working beside Ford Bussart,” she said. “He inspires me still.”

Through the years, Botham has seen the city make changes to its ordinances. Some of the ones that stand out include an ordinance about motorized skateboarding.

“We spent months on that; and we’ve never cited anybody,” she said.

Another law on the books that no one has ever been cited for, is deer feeding. It is just too hard to prove, she said.

Another ordinance that stands out in Botham’s mind, was the dog poop ordinance. She said this also is a hard one to enforce.

She said although most of these ordinances have had little or no citations, they did serve a purpose -- they raised awareness about city issues, which may have decreased the amount of problems they city was having. For example: there are bags all along the Greenbelt that residents can use to pick up their dogs’ poop.

On Botham’s last day, the city through her a party.

“I never thought I wanted a party, but under the circumstances it was the nicest thing,” she said.

After the party, Botham started think about just how many employees had worked for the city for 20 plus years; and she wanted to do something for them. She said she and her husband own a park bench along Uinta Drive and they would like to to place metal plaques on the cement around the bench for any city employee with 20 plus years with the city. She said their name and dates of employment or years of service with the city would be on there.

“They should be allowed to leave their mark somewhere,” she said.

“I’m one of the lucky people who can say they love their job,” Botham said.

Finding a new prosecutor

Police Chief and acting city administrator Chris Steffen said the position was a contract position and with all contract positions nothing is set in stone. In the past, the Mayor of Green River made an appointment recommendation to the Green River City Council, which required a majority vote to pass.

“This governing body choose not to extend that contract,” he said.

Under the new process, the position is being bid out, which means a qualified applicant must submit a proposal of what he or she can do for the city in the city prosecuting position. The deadline for all applications is Feb. 15 at midnight.

Steffen said since the city is currently without a prosecuting attorney, the city would like to move as quickly as possible in obtaining a new one.

The municipal court is still open, but there are some things that they just cannot do without a prosecuting attorney.

“It does slow us down, but that’s why we’re moving quickly,” Steffen said.

As for when the city council is going to hire a new prosecutor, that is still up in the air. It all depends on whether or not Mayor Pete Rust will have enough time to go through all of the applications prior to the Feb. 17 meeting. Rust will narrow the field down and make a recommendation to the Council after he has reviewed all of the proposals.

As with any request for proposals, the final price or in this case salary is negotiable, Steffen said.

Steffen said Botham was with the city a long time and always worked hard for the city and she is more than welcome to submit a proposal.