State lawmakers appear poised to reform Georgia's distressed public defender system, saying the changes are the first step before finding a way to adequately fund the program.
The legislation, which has passed the House and the Senate Judiciary Committee, would give the director of the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council far more authority. It would allow the director to remove for cause any of the defenders who head dozens of circuit offices across the state. The Senate is expected to vote on the bill before it adjourns this week.
The bill would allow a circuit defender to appeal such a decision to the council's board. A vote of two-thirds of the board's members would be needed to overturn the director's decision. Currently, only the council's board can vote to remove a circuit defender.
House Bill 238 also would also replace the council's current 15-member board with a nine-member board. It would give five appointments to the governor and two each to the lieutenant governor and the House speaker.
"Once governance reform is enacted, then we can credibly begin the conversation on how we can sustain the system financially into the future," state Rep. Rich Golick, the chief sponsor of the bill, said last week.
Fulton County officials tried to get the Senate Judiciary Committee to approve an amendment that would allow Fulton and other single-county judicial circuits to leave the state defender system. But that effort failed.
Sara Totonchi, director of the Southern Center for Human Rights, which closely monitors the state indigent defense system, said allowing counties to abandon the state system "would be a shameful step backwards towards Georgia's previous dysfunctional system of so-called justice."
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Bill Hamrick, R-Carrollton, said last week he does not expect the opt-out provision to be in the bill's final version.
Hamrick said he supports H.B. 238 because the current structure of the defender system has been unworkable. "The goal is for the council, the governor's office and the Legislature to work together to provide adequate funding with accountability, and H.B. 238 is drafted with that in mind."
Golick, the Smyrna Republican who chairs the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee, said the system is financially challenged because of the recession.
"My sense is that we need to address the governance issues first prior to tackling the funding issue," he said. "It's difficult to make the case for increased funding for an agency when the agency is not functioning as well as it could."
The system, which began operating in 2005, has struggled to stay afloat financially and has been slapped with a number of lawsuits that contend it does not have enough resources to provide adequate legal representation of the poor.
Advocates of the system, including present and past board members, say the agency has been shortchanged more than $35 million from a collection system enacted by the Legislature to fund the program. The funds are generated from surcharges on criminal fines and bonds, and add-ons to civil court filings. Lawmakers have said a constitutional amendment is needed to dedicate the collections to the agency.
About the Author
