County OKs Nonprofit Community Defenders

Hoping to restore stability and respect to San Diego County’s much-maligned system of providing a defense for indigents accused of crimes, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday agreed to turn the job over to a nonprofit community defender organization run by an independent board of trustees.

The board’s 3-2 vote, with supervisors John MacDonald and Leon Williams opposed, comes after years of debate over how the task of defending the county’s poor in court can best be carried out. The county’s existing hybrid system of using a small staff of civil servant lawyers and other attorneys under contract has been widely criticized as inadequate.

In approving the plan to contract with Community Defenders Inc. at an estimated cost of $12.8 million annually, the board rejected a competing proposal--recommended by top county administrators--that would have established a more conventional public defender office within the county bureaucracy.

Flexibility Cited

Supervisor Susan Golding, who made the motion for awarding the contract to community defenders, said the nonprofit alternative afforded the county “flexibility” that would not be true of a public defender office staffed by civil servant attorneys.

“At this point, I believe the nonprofit organization will operate more efficiently and effectively,” Golding said. “But if it doesn’t, then we have the option of going to the public defender . . . If it doesn’t work, we have an out.”

Golding said she also was swayed by the community defender office’s ability to attract grants to help fund the system--an advantage a government agency does not enjoy. And she noted that the nonprofit organization will provide an avenue for involving the community’s legal experts in the running of the county’s indigent defense system.

“I think we have the opportunity here to do something new, to set San Diego up as a leader in the nation in the use of private resources to supplement county resources,” Golding said. Supervisors Brian Bilbray and George Bailey also endorsed the proposal.

Action Applauded

Supporters of the novel community defender approach applauded the board’s action and predicted it would inject stability and cohesiveness into a system that has been fragmented and criticized for its spotty quality.

“This means we will now have an efficient, cost-effective and well-organized system for representing the county’s indigent in court,” said E. Miles Harvey, a San Diego civil attorney who is chairman of community defenders’ board of trustees. “This will be a marked improvement over a system that is now factionalized and plagued by deficiencies.”

At least one attorney whose contract with the county will be terminated when community defenders takes over seemed nonchalant about the turn of events.

“We’ll be phased out by December, but what will be will be,” said Richard Boesen, whose law firm handles about 5,000 misdemeanors a year under contract with the county. “You’ll hear grumbling, but that’s just sheer self-preservation. I figure if it’s for the betterment of indigent defendants, then I’m all for it.”

Under the plan approved Tuesday, the community defender office will be up and running, staffed with half its contingent of 156 lawyers, by July 1. The balance of the attorneys will be on board by Dec. 31, at which point the office will assume its full caseload.

Other Provisions

While the community defenders office will handle the bulk of all criminal cases in the county, including cases involving juveniles, the supervisors also agreed to fund a so-called “conflicts budget.” This will be used to hire outside attorneys to handle multidefendant cases in which the community defenders’ lawyers would have a conflict.

In addition, the supervisors will hire a “public defender,” a county employee who will oversee the board’s contract with the nonprofit organization and hire attorneys used in conflicts cases. And, at Golding’s request, the contract will also require community defenders to raise $150,000 in grants during the first year to contribute to the operation.

Harvey said he expects contract negotiations with the county to begin promptly and hiring to get under way soon after.

Supervisors have struggled for a decade with the dilemma of balancing the high costs of indigent defense with the county’s mandate to provide counsel for the more than 30,000 low-income people accused of crimes each year.

In 1986, a blue-ribbon commission of lawyers and judges recommended junking the existing system and replacing it with a nonprofit organization directed by a board of trustees appointed by the supervisors and the county bar association. The supervisors approved the idea in concept nearly two years ago, and Community Defenders Inc. was formed to take over the job.

Traditional System

But the chief administrative officer, Norman Hickey, continued to push for a traditional public defender office, the system favored by most large counties in the state. Hickey proposed an office staffed by 128 lawyers at an annual cost of $11.5 million.

Proponents of the community defenders approach, meanwhile, insisted that 128 attorneys were too few to handle the caseload. And the county’s own advisory board on indigent defense said a minimum of 160 was necessary to do the job.

The two supervisors who voted against the nonprofit approach--MacDonald and Williams--seemed unpersuaded by such testimony. They favored Hickey’s less costly proposal of 128 attorneys, noting that other county programs have suffered the budget ax and arguing that supervisors should take the least expensive route in reworking the indigent defense system.

“In view of the county’s financial situation and in view of the CAO’s recommendation, I have to support his recommendation for . . . 128 (attorneys),” MacDonald said. “I do believe you have to hold the line and particularly when the district attorney’s office will press us for additional staff if we go” with the higher number of attorneys requested by community defenders.