The Skagit County Prosecutor’s Office will no longer be looking outside of the county for legal counsel.

Instead, Prosecuting Attorney Rich Weyrich will utilize his six on-staff attorneys to pick up the added duties, according to a release last week.

“One of my central campaign promises was to reduce the county’s reliance on outside legal counsel,” said Prosecuting Attorney Rich Weyrich in a statement. “Our in-house Civil Division attorneys have done a superb job picking up the additional workload.”

The move comes after a 2006 Citizens’ Budget Advisory Committee identified outsourced legal costs as a “significant factor impacting the county’s budget,” the release stated.

The county has began cracking down on its outside counsel since Weyrich took office in 2007.

Skagit County’s average outside legal costs between 2004-2006 was about $125,000 per month, said Will Honea, chief civil deputy for the prosecuting attorney’s office. Last year’s average monthly cost was about $47,000, with that number to decrease this year, he added.

“We’ve gone from $2 million (in total costs in 2005) to no outside counsel,” Honea said. “It’s definitely a good thing.”

According to the release, the county will continue using several retainers for specialized matters such as land use, flood control and water rights.

“In a world of decreased tax revenues and unfunded mandates from state and federal government, the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney is proud to help the county with its budget challenges,” Weyrich said.