Itasca County Board takes 2nd swing at selecting new county attorney

GRAND RAPIDS — Four meetings, two candidates and dozens of resident comments later, the Itasca County Board selected a new county attorney at its Tuesday, June 18, work session.

The Board unanimously approved the appointment of Jacob Fauchald, who’s been an assistant Itasca County attorney for just over two years. He’s been practicing law since 2016.

Fauchald addressed the Board following his appointment. He said his family moved to Grand Rapids in 1996, and he graduated from Grand Rapids High School in 2008. That local connection made this appointment more personally impactful.

“When we [Fauchald and his wife] moved here a couple years ago from Fargo, it truly was with the idea that I might be able to be in a position similar to this to give back to a place that gave me so much in getting me to where I’m at today,” Fauchald said.

Fauchald was Commissioner Casey Venema and Sheriff Joe Dasovich’s second-highest scoring candidate. Venema, Dasovich and a local attorney made up the committee tasked with interviewing four candidates.

The highest-scorer and the board’s first choice, Jim Austad, outscored Fauchald by over 30 points, according to scoresheets obtained by KAXE. Austad withdrew his name from consideration June 12. At the County Board meeting the day before, a dozen county residents criticized Austad, many for his requested salary of $185,000. Fauchald — who has practiced law for more than a decade less than Austad and has never served as a county attorney before — will be paid $140,000.

But Austad also raised concerns about pay disparities in the Itasca County Attorney’s Office that he foresaw as creating difficulties in recruiting attorneys in an already short-staffed office.

Fauchald acknowledged the staff shortage and the challenges the office has faced in the last few weeks without a county attorney in his remarks.

“I’m going to stabilize the situation in the ways that I know how to effectively do that, and get us back to a place where we’re able to efficiently deal with the legal issues that come through the county attorney’s office,” he said. “ ... I am confident that I’m the guy to lead this office into the modern age that we must get into to be effective with fewer attorneys.”

No one from the public spoke concerning Fauchald’s appointment. He’ll be officially appointed June 25 and serve as county attorney at least through the 2026 election, though he plans to do so for as long as he can.

“I am confident with all of my experiences, with the background that I have, that I am going to do this job at an extremely high level,” Fauchald said. “I intend to do so, be it the will of the voters, in this capacity for many years to come. That is my intent. I don’t have motivations beyond this. This is the pinnacle, like I said, of what I feel like I can achieve.”