Centre County's election board yesterday refused to place a question on May's ballot asking voters whether they support the re-classification of the district attorney's job to full time, the county commissioners' office said.

Vicki Bumbarger, the only county commissioner who does not sit on the elections board, proposed last week that the non-binding advisory question be used to gauge public opinion on District Attorney Ray Gricar's status.

Neither Bumbarger nor Commissioner John Saylor seconded Keith Bierly's motion last month to make Gricar full time, and the motion died without a vote despite testimonials from a battery of local law enforcement officials.

Gricar said he will no longer work full time, adding that he plans to take a part-time position with another firm. He would not release the name of the firm where he plans to work.

"I think it is a set back for the people," Gricar said. "If the people elect a district attorney, he shouldn't be out of town" taking care of business for another job, he added.

Gricar, who makes $40,000 as a part-time prosecutor, would have brought in $79,000 annually had his position been made full time.

Saylor and Joyce Kerr, the other elections board member, voted against the proposal, with Bierly favoring the idea, a secretary in the commissioners' office said. None of the elections board members could be reached yesterday afternoon.

State policy mandates a county district attorney's full-time salary be $1,000 less than that of a common pleas judge in the county -- a regulation that concerned Bumbarger, who said she worried Centre County might lose control of its purse strings.

But in her proposal last week, Bumbarger promised to side with the voters if her question was placed on the ballot.

Last week, Gricar welcomed Bumbarger's idea as a direct appeal to what he called a sympathetic public.

"I'm more comfortable with the position being part time," Gricar said about his personal feelings on the board's decision. He said he thought the people wanted a full-time district attorney, and may miss the work Gricar did over the past year filling in full time under part-time status.

Only 16 of Pennsylvania's 67 district attorneys have full-time status.

Gricar contends his 57 percent victory over State College attorney Jeffrey Stover in November's election was a voter mandate for making the district attorney's position full time.

Stover had advocated keeping the job part time.