Title
AMENDMENT TO INDIGENT DEFENSE CONTRACT
COUNCIL STRATEGIC INITIATIVE ADDRESSED:
Council Initiative: Continue effective financial management
CITY ATTORNEY REVIEW: REQUIRED
SUMMARY STATEMENT:
The City contracts with the four attorneys of Longview Municipal Defense for indigent public defense service. The standards for indigent defense adopted by the Washington State Supreme Court imposes a limit of 400 cases per attorney per year. Longview Municipal Defense has notified the City that as of mid June of this year it has already been assigned 864 cases. At this rate, the firm will exceed the 400 case/ attorney limit prior to the end of 2015. In addition, there is some evidence that crime rates increase with the longer days of summer. Finally, as the City gets closer to authorized police officer staffing levels, the second half of 2015 may well see more arrests and more public defender appointments than the first half of the year. Consequently, the contractor has proposed hiring an additional public defender and necessary support staff at a cost of $135,000 per year. The City continues to utilize its pre-filing diversion program to control the number of cases filed, and an analysis prior to the issuance of the public defense RFP showed it to be more economical to contract for public defense than create the City’s own office of public defense. In addition, the City considered the option of hiring a separate additional attorney by separate contract. However, considering the City’s obligation to not only provide for the cost of the attorney, but necessary overhead, and also in consideration of the efficiency in having all indigent cases handled by the same firm, the City elected not to pursue that option.
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Authorize the City Manager to amend the contract for indigent defense services with Longview Municipal Defense, to add an additional public defender and consequently raise the total compensation f...
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