Action News Jax Investigates: Questionable taxpayer-funded raises

Public defender-elect and former judge Charlie Cofer said he’s not happy with wage increases in current public defender Matt Shirk’s office.

Since the fiscal year goes from July to June, Cofer is locked into those salary increases when he takes office.

Action News Jax requested all raises handed out in the public defender’s office since Sept. 1 after Shirk lost the election.

We found 11 employees received raises.

According to the Justice Administrative Commission, one administrative assistant's salary almost doubled with a $34,000 raise.

An automated systems assistant saw more than $33,000 bump in salary, and a chief investigator received a more than $35,000 raise.

Cofer said he was never asked about the raises and doesn’t fully agree with them.

“The size of some of these raises is very concerning to me, just because they do not seem to be appropriate for the positions that the individual are holding.”

Earlier this month Shirk came under fire after he fired four employees one day after losing the election.

According to Cofer, Shirk is making other changes too.

We learned to outgoing public defender is switching software to an outside source at a cost of more than $2 per case, a number that adds up for an office that sees 35,000 to 40,000 cases per year.

“He is in the process of changing over the case management system which is going to cost the state an incredible amount of money going forward that’s very concerning to me,” Cofer said.

Cox Media Group