Bram Kranichfeld will depart as executive director of the State’s Attorneys and Sheriff’s Association at the end of the year.
Kranichfeld in January will return to the Chittenden County State’s Attorney’s Office as chief administrative deputy, he said this week in an email to staff.
Kranichfeld was a deputy prosecutor in Chittenden County for six years before working as the state’s attorneys’ lobbyist in Montpelier. In his new position, he will have a full caseload as well as administrative duties.
He will be one of two chief deputies in T.J. Donovan’s office. The other is chief deputy of major crimes Mary Morrissey. She will be able to do less administrative work once he comes on board, Kranichfeld said.
The opening he plans to fill isn’t guaranteed but Chittenden County deputy state’s attorney Paul Finnerty is running unopposed for state’s attorney in Lamoille County, where incumbent Joel Page is retiring. No new positions will be created in Donovan’s office, Kranichfeld said.
A new director for the state’s attorneys’ association has not been chosen but a search has started, he said. Kranichfeld said it will be a “smooth transition, and it will be business as usual here at central office as we search for a new ED.”
Kranichfeld said he is leaving because he wanted to be back on the front lines.
“I felt that it was time to get back into the courtroom and I’m thrilled to have this opportunity,” he said.
His salary as executive director is $83,429. As deputy state’s attorney he expects to make $78,437, Kranichfeld said.
Kranichfeld said it was an honor and privilege to work with the state’s attorneys and sheriffs for the past two years. The executive director of the association prepares the state’s attorneys’ budgets and lobbies for it and other issues that affect them, as well as larger criminal justice issues, before the Legislature.
“We took some significant steps forward on a number of important issues in the last two years, and I want to thank you all for your patience, hard work, and support,” he wrote in the email.
Chief among those has been raising the awareness of the importance of state’s attorneys in the criminal justice system and the challenges they face because of limited resources, Kranichfeld said.
He is proud to have helped lay the groundwork for a statewide system of precharge programs that will help people in the criminal justice system access drug treatment and other services, he said.
