After nearly 40 years of service, Ada County Prosecutor Greg Bower to retire

Oct. 15--Bower announced his retirement Tuesday, after serving almost 40 years in the Ada County Prosecutor's Office. He will leave the office Nov. 28, near the mid-point of his current four-year elected term.

"It's something I've thought about for a while. I've been doing this a few days short of 40 years," Bower said.

Bower, 65, went to work in the prosecutor's office in 1975 and was first elected as the head prosecutor in 1982. He worked under for Prosecuting Attorneys David Leroy and Jim Harris and has outlasted everyone else who was there when he started.

"You know, I get to do something to change the lives of people in my community and it's been remarkably fulfilling to be in a place where you can do that," he said.

He is the longest-serving prosecutor in Ada County history and leaves office with the longest tenure as an elected prosecutor in Idaho, according to statistics provided by his office.

Later this month, the Ada County Republican Central Committee will submit a list of names of attorneys to be considered to replace Bower. Ada County commissioners will pick the replacement.

Bower said he will recommend Jan Bennetts, his chief of staff, to take over for him. Bennetts has served in her current position for the past two years and served as assistant chief criminal deputy prosecutor for three years before that.

Overall, Bennetts has served in the Ada County Prosecutor's Office for 20 years. She has worked as the lead attorney in murder cases and has experience working sexual abuse cases, robberies and domestic violence cases.

There were maybe a dozen attorneys in the office when Bower started and the town was much smaller. Now, there are 68 lawyers for a county of more than 400,000 people. About a third of those attorneys work for the office's civil division, which handles litigation for the county, which went to a self-insurance system. Previously, the county's insurance carried handled that work.

Bower said he never had aspirations beyond the elected county prosecutor.

"In those 32 years as the elected prosecutor, I never applied to be a judge. I never applied for a job elsewhere. I never wanted to be U.S. attorney," Bower said. "I wanted to be the Ada County prosecutor. For me it's not a job. It's a calling."

Many times, in other elected positions or in the law, officials often have to represent interests that don't always align with your own, he said.

"In this job, every day of those 40 years, I've been able to do the right thing for the right reasons," Bower said.

___

(c)2014 The Idaho Statesman (Boise, Idaho)

Visit The Idaho Statesman (Boise, Idaho) at www.idahostatesman.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services