FORT SMITH -- A personnel request from the Sebastian County public defender's office has become a point of contention in 2020 budget talks.
During a special meeting Tuesday, the Sebastian County Quorum Court discussed a proposal to convert an investigator position in the public defender's office to a deputy public defender position, which would cost more. The county currently funds the investigator position.
Justices of the peace decided to table the proposal until their regular meeting this Tuesday.
Materials provided in the meeting packet state that it costs $49,796 per year to fund an investigator position in the public defender's office. It would cost $86,659 to fund a deputy public defender. So, to convert the position would result in a yearly cost increase of $36,863 for the county.
County Judge David Hudson on Thursday said the request came from County Public Defender Ernie Woodard as part of the 2020 budget proposal for the public defender's office. The county has funded an investigator's position and half of a secretary's position in the office because funding for them is not being provided by the state, and because members of the Quorum Court, as the legislative body, felt that the positions were justified for the office to function effectively.
LACK OF ATTORNEYS
In a letter to Hudson dated Oct. 14, Gregg E. Parrish, executive director of the Arkansas Public Defender Commission, said the state transitioned public defenders to state funding in 1998. Before then, counties provided indigent representation through contracts or appointment. The Legislature determined that the state would assume the obligation of salaries for personnel, and directed responsibility to the local county government for maintenance and operation expenses.
The Public Defender Commission, Parrish said, currently has offices in most counties in the state, although it is limited by the number of practicing attorneys in remote locations.
"Over the past twenty (20) years, our state has seen a steady increase in crime, especially those of a violent nature," Parrish wrote. "At present, this agency is allotted approximately 167 attorney positions to cover 75 counties."
The commission is responsible for providing legal representation in Arkansas' circuit courts in the criminal, juvenile and probate divisions, according to Parrish. Also public defenders are appointed to cases in city and county divisions of district court.
"To simplify the statute, if one faces a loss of liberty and is indigent, we are routinely appointed," Parrish wrote.
There are 123 circuit judges in the state, Parrish said. That does not include the five new judgeships created during this year's legislative session. (Those positions will go into effect next year). It also doesn't include the "numerous" district courts that typically have city dockets and separate county dockets. Recent legislation has provided for the increase in district judge positions, as well.
Parrish said he has approached the Legislature about the need for additional public defender positions and funding. He requested 10 additional attorney positions during this year's legislative session. His request was denied, and so he had to submit his budget based on the number of positions he had at the time. However, the Public Defender Commission was provided two more attorney positions upon the legislative session's conclusion.
In the past, Parrish said, Sebastian County provided the local public defender's office with an investigator position.
"Earlier this year, I moved a vacant investigator position (state) to Sebastian County with the hope, not expectation, that the funds appropriated for the county investigator position could be retained and used toward a county public defender position in the upcoming budget process," Parrish wrote. "Several counties throughout the state are doing so."
"There was no condition I requested in moving this position to Sebastian County, and there will be no condition on the position staying there. It was needed, and I had an employee retire. While I have not done the math, I am confident there has been a substantial salary savings to Sebastian County."
FOR AND AGAINST
During Tuesday's meeting, Justice of the Peace Danny Aldridge voiced his opposition to the proposal. Specifically, Aldridge said he was concerned about the part of Parrish's letter that read there will be no condition on the position staying in Sebastian County.
"I'm concerned about where the state will be on their positions available and their funds in the near future," Aldridge said.
Programs to reduce the number of inmates in the county jail are taking effect and "getting better every day," Aldridge said. The new state Crime Laboratory in Lowell, in Northwest Arkansas, will also possibly reduce the time people will be in the jail.
He said he thinks the Parrish's proposal is a "slippery slope."
"If we get this first public defender attorney that the Quorum Court's paying for, the taxpayers are paying for, it's going to start a process that we'll never get out of," Aldridge said. "So I'm going to continue to oppose the Sebastian County Quorum Court funding a public defender based on the state's inability to give us solider grounds that they will be with us for more than this 2020 year, and I'd like to see the other programs try to go in effect before we get back to that point."
However, Justice of the Peace Linda Willsey Murry supported the proposal.
"According to the guidelines, our responsibilities are broken down to the things that we shall do, and the court system is one of those things. The jail is one of those things," she said. "The parks and a lot of other things are not, so we should be required to do that."
She said there is a "bottleneck" because of the public defender's office being understaffed, which has been the case for years.
Hudson told the Quorum Court that he thinks Parrish's proposal is justified. He believes it would help the Sebastian County justice system and lower the population at the jail, which is operating overcapacity.
The county is currently going through an assessment of its criminal justice system and jail needs. The study is being carried out by a team consisting of TreanorHL, Studio 6 Architects, and Mark Goldman and Associates.
"In the interviews that we've been having on the justice system, we have talked to the public defender," Hudson said. "Their ability to be in the jail is very limited. They're using those iPads and things of that nature."
"The ability to control the jail population, that's on everybody's plate here. That's on our plate. That's our No. 1 problem. If it's unresolved, I don't know what we're going to do about it."
Ernie Woodard, the Sebastian County public defender, said Friday that his office has eight deputy public defenders, plus himself. An additional deputy public defender would help the county criminal justice system work more efficiently overall, thus saving the county money, he said.
"The more lawyers I have, the fewer cases each lawyer has to have, which is more time they can devote on each case, and hopefully process cases quicker to turn people in and out of jail," Woodard said.
State Desk on 11/18/2019