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County encouraged to fight state cuts to public defenders |
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By Charlie Warner
Argus News Editor
An article in last week’s Caledonia Argus explained how budget cuts to the State Board of Public Defense (SBPD) may impact Houston County residents. In the memo to the Houston County Board, Association of Minnesota Counties (AMC) Executive Director Jim Mulder reported a number of counties have passed resolutions informing the court that the county has no plan to pay for this state function.
Seventy-two full-time public defenders’ positions were done away with July 8 when cuts in state funding resulted in a $3.8 million deficit in the SBPD’s budget for 2009. Before July 8, there were 441 public defenders in the state. The 72-staff reduction reduces the state-wide pool of public defenders by nearly 20 percent.
As of July 8, public defenders are no longer accepting appointments to represent parents in child in need of protection or services (CHIPS) or termination of parental rights (TPR) cases, according to Larson.
Judges will now be required to appoint other attorneys to represent parents and the counties will be responsible for paying those attorney fees.
“AMC staff has met with the court folks and at some point, there will be litigation,” Mulder stated in the memo, which the county board reviewed during the July 8 meeting. “AMC is sending a letter to the Legislative Advisory Commission (LAC) requesting they declare an emergency and provide funding. The LAC is made up of the governor, speaker, Senate majority leader and finance chairs. As you move forward, we are encouraging the counties in each district to set up a meeting with the chief judge and express your concern about this issue.”
The county board will take this issue up during the Aug. 5 meeting, when members of the court administration, the sheriff’s office, Judge James Fabian, and a representative of AMC will be present.
You can contact Charlie Warner at
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