Gov.-elect Nathan Deal has told Rob Teilhet, who was appointed to head the state's public defender agency only a few months ago, that he will be replaced.
Teilhet, a former state lawmaker from Smyrna, lost the Democratic nomination for attorney general earlier this year. In September, Gov. Sonny Perdue appointed Teilhet to replace Mack Crawford, whom Perdue had appointed to a Superior Court judgeship.
Teilhet declined to comment. In an e-mail sent out to staff Thursday morning, Teilhet said he would remain as executive director of the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council until Jan. 10.
"I want to thank everyone that I’ve had the opportunity to work with in my time here at the agency," he wrote. "I have been tremendously impressed with the quality of people that have committed their professional lives to this important work.
The agency started up about five years ago and has public defender offices in most of the state's judicial circuits. In recent years, the council has been hit with a number of lawsuits, which contended the agency could not meet its constitutional obligations because of insufficient funding.
Deal spokesman Brian Robinson said the governor-elect may issue a statement on the situation Friday. He declined to say who would succeed Teilhet.
Bert Brantley, a spokesman for Perdue, said Deal informed the governor about the planned change.
Perdue believed the former lawmaker was an excellent choice to head the agency, Brantley said. "We thought he'd do a great job," he said. "We think a lot of him and still do."
Brantley said Perdue is not going to second-guess or question any decisions the governor-elect is making. "A new governor comes in and has the prerogative to place his people in positions of leadership," Brantley said.
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