By Tom Pacher

Attorney at law

My office in Coupeville has been providing public defense services for Island County since the start of 2007. We have been operating under a contract that is due to expire at the end of 2009. We have asked Island County to continue contracting with us to provide such services, but the rules and duties applicable to our work have changed since we first contracted with Island County.

Three years ago, I bid on the Island County contract, which had not gone to public bid for at least 15 years. I had been practicing in Island County, almost exclusively in criminal defense, since early 2000. A number of people connected with the criminal justice system in Island County urged me to submit a bid for that contract. Ironically, some of those people worked in Mr. Banks’ office (back before his attorneys outnumbered ours three to one in some courts).

Our current proposal seeks to increase staffing to meet caseload standards set by the state bar and adopted by Island County. Either Island County can ignore those standards or it needs to fulfill them. Should Island County ignore those standards, it does so at substantial risk to taxpayers.

It is not surprising that meeting those standards equates to a nearly 50 percent increase over the current contract, as it provides funding for the three employees necessary to meet those standards versus the current six. Using historic and current caseloads, these three additional employees are what is needed to fulfill the contract and meet these standards. It is a simple matter of mathematics.

I understand the anxiety that a large increase in budget would normally cause. I understand that anxiety would be even greater in light of budget cuts that Island County already experienced. However, please understand that the services we provide are constitutionally guaranteed to each and every citizen in Island County.

Furthermore, what has not been publicized is that nearly all of the money that would be required under these standards would come from either state funding or in savings to Island County. I’ve recently explained to each commissioner how a conservative estimate both of state funds and savings to the county will offset the additional costs by nearly 90 percent. Depending on case filings next year, Island County may actually receive a net savings by contracting with us under the proposal we have submitted, as opposed to contracting out surplus cases.

These funds and savings could not come from any county department or agency. The state public defense funds have to go to pay for public defense services, and the funds are available contingent on the county meeting the state bar standards or making substantial progress towards them. The other savings, both in taking over a lease and cutting related costs, could not be handled by anyone other than a law firm.

Another issue that has arisen in this discussion is the notion that the funds requested are somehow going to be a windfall for me personally. That is simply not true. I have previously submitted a budget to the county, one of many items I have been requested to produce in this process, that shows where the additional funding would go.

If this were about me, I could easily just let the contract run out and go back to what was a much quieter life for myself and focus solely on San Juan County. However, I also feel an obligation to the people who have been doing the work. They have been working extremely hard, and we are like an extended family, with many employees having been with me for 1.5 to nearly 3 years.

Contracting with Island County to provide public defense services set me back personally several thousand dollars of debt, as I knew it would. However, as I told the Island County commissioners then, I had two main motivating factors for pursuing the contract: I wanted to raise the level of quality of public defense service in Island County, and I wanted the people performing the work to be treated as well as I could treat them.

Based upon the feedback we’ve been getting, I believe that both goals have been met with resounding success.