Travis County Commissioners Court
January 15, 2008
Item 26
Misreal, I’m looking at 26 to consider and take appropriate action regarding appointment of committee to review request for additional funding for court pointed lawyers in Travis County for consideration in 2009 budget process. We got a sort of a last-minute request from a lawyer's committee for a substantial increase in that line item for criminal cases, and we promised basically to take a look at that. In mew --my view this is a follow-up item. I was considering another request that is much broader which I plan to bring back in a week or two, and we need a larger committee. But as I said in my backup, ms. Hail and judge perkins have been working with these tree defense lawyers. So mmy view, we're keeping our promise if we basically sort of bless their work, add ms. Ri o. And she has consentd to assist. My point is this basically is for the criminal cases and not all the other. And I would consider this to be short term. That was an e-mail to jumps who had asked for a time certain but I think they thought we were looking at something much broader than this. So in my view this is ripe. I suggest they get something to us as soon as possible so we can include it in the next budget process. I think we ought to on another item look at all kinds of long-term stuff if the judges kwee, quality of representation, feasibility of public--
>> I think it's very appropriate to bring this back because, again, you hear complaints and things like that about the representation in this particular regard. Of course, I just think that it's something that we need to really, and I know during the budget cycle we talked about this a little bit. I just think that we need to pursue because of the complaints that you do hear out there about not having the proper, adequate financial representation that is really required, I think, and how much we end up dealing with this overall, I think, is an issue that we will probably end up on. I thank you for bringing it back because I think we really do need to do something about it adequately to ensure that there is the type of representation that I think would be well afforded. P it's a big deal when you really look at it.
>> I have a question.
>> okay.
>> perhaps nit picky, but I’m wondering about judge nuranto's position on the committee. She is a great judge but she only has civil jurisdiction. Is this committee just looking at criminal indigent defense?
>> the reason her name came up is that she has worked on the state task force.
>> okay.
>> since that act was passed.
>> I see.
>> that was 2001. She sent an e-mail basically volunteering to assist as much as she could.
>> she formerly had criminal jurisdiction as a county judge.
>> right.
>> the other thing is that some members of that task force have indicated their willingness to assist in any way they can. Since she has been working with them, I thought, and I did kind of run this by judge perkins and ms. Hale. There may be one of the other criminal judges, judges of criminal cases, that want to serve too. I would just defer to them on that. Judge perkins had mentioned the possibility of judge kennedy. There will be enough work here, I think. We just need to know what the recommendation is and the justification for it, I think. You know, a lot of counties are doing different things, different models. We have ours that apparently has been in place for some time. It may be the best model available but I don't know that we really analyzed and compared it yet, and I’m suggesting on the other item that we do that.
>> I agree. The complaints are definitely coming if in. We just need to make the shoe fit properly on the indigent attorneys that we end up looking at and the clients they serve. It's a big deal.
>> right.
>> it really is.
>> judge, this is pretty interesting reading whenever you really get to see in it a concise format like this, four or five pages. And I agree that there seems to be, or there are issues that some people would bring up with regards to representation for folks. We spent $7 million indigent attorney fees. That is no small amount.
>> in total, not just criminal.
>> five on criminal and two on civil. Which is pretty mind boggling to think that we have to pick that amount up. If you truly are indigent, if you truly can't pay, I mean, that's one thing. I would like to see a comparison as to what the other counties do. And that may have been what you were talking about, judge, about what are the best practices, what are other folks doing. I mean, this is a little eye opening, the reason I would ask this question, if you go and you watch manage station, I mean, if you got some idle time about two o'clock on Saturday morning, just go over and watch people go who needs representation? All the hands go up. I don't know, some of those people sitting out there could have four or 500 in their pocke.
>> I don't think there's any issue of whether the individuals getting indigent defense are indigent. That's easily verifiable and the courts are aciduous on applying that. The I think the only shissues we have, which are big fat issues, are the quality of the defense.
>> exactly.
>> and the cost structure.
>> I agree but the point I’m making is that it is pretty easy to put your hand up. I think in some instances it's also pretty difficult or maybe we don't have a great system on trying to find out who could pay something. When you get in legal trouble, I think that most people think before you do something illegal, you ought to think twice about it because I mean, taxpayers are paying for it. And that is, that is sort of an issue for me. I want to you have representation because quite frankly, the fact that some people think that you have a legal problem, you may not be found guilty. If are you innocent, I certainly think that you're due that representationment --representation. It would be interesting to know where we are comparing counties to see what happens.
>> a great project for our new criminal justice planning executive manager.
>> right.
>> I don't want there to be a miss conception out there that all you have to do is raise your hand on get indigent defense in Travis County. That is the first ask when you're magistrated but after that I believe it's pretrial services that does the preliminary check for judges to determine.
>> move approval.
>> second.
>> discussion? All in favor. That passes by unanimous vote. I did tell the judges in e-mail that I would try to put together what I think the issues are we ought to look at and share them with y'all at the same time in draft so we get their agreement on it before we come back to court. That tells me that probably two weeks from today would be much better than one week. Thanks, ms. Ri o. 24, by the way we should mnb executive session within the next few minutes. Like five.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, January 16, 2008 3:07 PM