Attorney General Opinions | 2014 Miss. AG LEXIS 271 | 2018
Attorney General Jim Hood has received your request and has assigned it to me for research and reply. Your request concerns the statutory salary of a victim assistance coordinator.
ISSUE
Section 99-36-7 enacted in 1997 of the Mississippi Code provides that "the salary of the victim assistance coordinator shall not exceed the salary authorized for criminal investigators in Section 25-31-10...".
Section 25-31-10 enacted in 2009 provides "the full and complete compensation for all public duties rendered by said criminal investigators shall not be more than Fifty-nine Thousand Five Hundred Dollars ($ 59,500.00) per annum....".
Section 25-31-10.1 enacted in 2010 provides "the salary of a criminal investigator may be supplemented in an amount not to exceed Five Thousand Dollars ($ 5,000.00) per year, payable monthly."
QUESTION: Is the victim assistance coordinator entitled to the supplement for criminal investigators authorized in Section 25-31-10.1?
JIM HOOD, ATTORNEY GENERAL; James Y. Dale, Special Assistance Attorney General
RESPONSE
Section 99-36-7 clearly provides legislative intent to authorize a salary for victim assistance coordinators in an amount not to exceed $ 64,500 as set forth for criminal investigators' salaries in Section 25-31-10. Section 25-31-10.1 references the salaries of criminal investigators authorized by Section 25-31-10(5) which would therefore include victim assistance coordinators pursuant to Section 99-36-7.
It is therefore the opinion of this office that when Sections 99-36-7, 25-31-10 and 25-31-10.1 are read in pari materia the victim assistance coordinator's salary may be supplemented in the amount provided in Section 25-31-10.1 for criminal investigators.