Seattle City Attorney Erika Evans hopes more money and more staff will finally do away with a persistent and hefty backlog of criminal cases, starting with 1,700 unresolved allegations of domestic violence, elder abuse, assault and stalking.

During the city’s budget talks, Seattle City Council members put forward a trio of proposals that would give the city attorney’s office an extra $2.8 million to resolve the 5,000-case pileup, which includes 830 criminal traffic violations like drunken driving.

The buildup of unresolved cases has persisted across at least three city attorney administrations. When she took office this year, Evans inherited the backlog from Ann Davison , who in turn received a similarly sized queue in 2022 from her predecessor, Pete Holmes.

The amendments to Mayor Katie Wilson’s $9.1 billion budget plan proposed Tuesday by Councilmembers Dionne Foster and Bob Kettle — and supported by Evans — would allocate funding for resolving those cases over the next two years.…