SOUTH BEND — St. Joseph County Commissioner Steve Ross leveled a series of startling allegations against County Prosecutor Michael Dvorak, saying he's mismanaged his department's multi-million dollar budget for years. On Wednesday, he called for Dvorak to resign.

The allegations came during a county budget hearing Wednesday. Ross (D-South Bend) called the figures in Dvorak's budgets over the last 5 years: "extremely disturbing."

It began as "just another budget hearing" in a budget season that's been filled with anxiety over major shortfalls projected to be in excess of $5 million for St. Joseph County in 2009.

And as county leaders crunched the numbers again Wednesday night, they got a familiar result.

"We're $2.6 million dollars short of the cuts we need to make our budget for 2009," said St. Joseph County Auditor Peter Mullen. "We're about halfway there."

The problem is, that progress comes after a week's worth of budget hearings where each county department was asked to cut at least 8% from their budget. That would have effectively eliminated most of the county's projected deficit.

Many departments made the requested cuts, but a handful did not. That includes the County Police Department and County Prosecutor's Office, which make up more than 75% of the county's budget.

On Wednesday, county leaders met to decide what to do next. And when it was time for the prosecutor's numbers to be crunched, things took an unexpected turn.

"The salaries are way out of whack in that department," began Ross, passing out a chart showing the salaries of every employee in the prosecutor's office over the last 5 years. "I found that really, really disturbing, and, if I were him, I'd resign."

Silence followed for a brief moment, before Ross began explaining why.

The figures, he told the group, show significant raises to a number of employees since 2003. Some are for tens of thousands of dollars.

"For the last two years we've been telling every department -- no raises. Not that we liked it, but we told them no raises. And it's obvious there were thousands of dollars worth [of raises]," said Ross.

"It's a disregard--maybe not for the letter of the law -- but it's definitely an ethical disregard of the public, of the county, and of our employees. I think it was a slap in the face," he continued. "I think he violated the public trust. I think he should resign."

And salaries aren't the only reason why.

According to the figures Ross provided, at least two employees in the Prosecutor's office are directly supervised by their husbands, including Dvorak's wife Kathleen. Ross says that's a violation of county policy.

And on that, Ross wasn't alone in voicing concerns.

"I've always had a concern with nepotism," said St. Joseph County Board of Commissioners President Mark Dobson (R-Granger). "I felt pretty strong when he hired his wife, that I think that was a mistake. On paper or not, I think it was a mistake."

"It was more important for he and his wife to take $200,000 home in salaries than it was to operate in a positive manner," Ross added.

Dvorak called that "ridiculous."

"It sounds to me like Steve Ross has gone off the rails," Dvorak told WSBT following Wednesday's meeting. "He has no support for those allegations."

But Ross says that's not true.

"It's hard to refute the facts," he said. "These are not baseless allegations. The documentation is there."

But on every piece of documentation, so is Ross' signature, said Dvorak.

"He approved all those budgets himself. He's a lame duck who's angry I didn't support his reelection campaign," Dvorak said.

Others at the meeting were quick to point out that not all the facts may be in.

"That's one elected official's opinion, but we need to make sure we're dealing with all factors of that particular raise," said St. Joseph County Council President Rafael Morton. "We have to have all the evidence and look at each department who did not meet the cut very closely, and even some of those who did make the cut. We just don't have a choice."

Still, Dvorak said one thing is already crystal clear.

When asked if he plans to resign, he said, simply, "no, absolutely not."

Even so, Ross promised the debate isn't over.

"There's a federal lawsuit involving behavior of employees in that department. There's nepotism going on in that department. There's a violation of expectations about salaries going on in that department. After a while, it just starts compounding itself to the point where it's no longer acceptable behavior," Ross said.

But next time, the debate will likely include Dvorak at the table. County Councilman and Commissioners plan to call the Prosecutor to appear during a hearing on Monday to talk more about his budget.

And another issue could take center stage during that meeting too.

There was some debate during department budget hearings last month about eliminating the St. Joseph County Prosecutor's Office child support division.

Commissioner Ross says it's the state's responsibility to collect child support payments. Right now, the county gets a 70% cost reimbursement from the state to cover costs associated with payment collection.

Cutting the program, and turning those responsibilities over to the state could save the county in excess of $1.5 million a year, said Ross.

But some county leaders were hesitant to take that step, saying there are still too many unanswered questions.

"What's the effect?" asked Dobson. "It's all about cause and effect. Yes, maybe we could do that. But, who suffers if we do? Nobody's answered that question."

Several other county leaders also brought up concerns that the state might not collect comparable amounts of child support payments, and that could have unintended residual effects, including an increase in juvenile crime.

But Dvorak says the whole plan isn't even an option under current state law.

"That's [Ross'] opinion. But to do that, he'd have to get that changed by the legislature. All other 91 counties have prosecutors do this. Not funding it in 2009 is not an option. I'm compelled by contract to do it. Either [Ross] doesn't understand that, or he doesn't care," said Dvorak.

County leaders will meet for their next budget workshop on Monday.