By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
County commissioners court will have to wait at least one more year before attempting to
create a county public defenders office.
The court discussed ongoing attempts to create a local public defenders office during
their last meeting of the fiscal year on Sept. 25 after hearing a presentation on the
program from James McDermott, chief public defender of the Far West Texas Regional
Public Defenders Office in Alpine.
Owens invited McDermott to address the court.
McDermott said, “Some of you may remember me. I lived here from 2006 to 2010 with
the previous public defenders (office) that you had back then. . .
Unlike what you
experienced down here, up there we are a county-based program.
We run through the
county. We have an oversight board, the county judge is on (the board), so we are
accountable to the county directly, financially and policy-wise.
“When Judge Owens spoke to you all about this, when it was on your agenda last spring,
the item you had was to approve Judge Owens signing off on a grant application to the
Texas Indigent Defense Commission (TIDC). Unlike what you had in the past, the
Indigent Defense Commission now is paying a two-thirds funding sustainably for the life
of a program, and that would go to new counties that joined an existing program,”
McDermott added.
McDermott said Val Verde and Terrell counties were first on TIDC’s list of grants to
fund, and “ everything looked like it was ready to go in October.”
“In June, right before they had their meeting in Austin, someone from the Texas Indigent
Defense Commission called and told me they didn’t have any money this year. They
were going to grant no new applications, and that was a late revelation to me,”
McDermott told the court.
“I was planning to go up to Austin for their meeting, and it was seven days beforehand
when I received that note, which was bad news for me, personally, because I’m really
invested in my history in Val Verde and my relationships here. It was bad news for the
county. County Attorney David Martinez and I spent hours on the phone in June and
July. There was some lobbying efforts made with your senators and representatives as
well as a senator from outside your area who is still very attached to your region,”
McDermott said.
“One of the things that was pretty disappointing to me was I know the financial situation
this county has been in as it relates to indigent defense. As you remember, it is a
constitutional duty for courts to provide counsel and pay for the counsel. The state of
Texas provides that the counties carry out that financial responsibility, not the state. This
was an effort by me and your county attorney and your county judge to bring state money
in to do that,” McDermott added.
He said, “The budget that I had proposed, that we had gone through, line item by line
item with Judge Owens, was coming up somewhere between $450,000 and $550,000,
with state funding of over $1 million to match that funding, and so I would be bringing a
million dollars to your community from state funds.
“That’s not happening this year. We want that to happen. I have received assurances and
as somebody in your community just said to me five minutes ago, words don’t
necessarily mean anything, as we’ve experienced, but that still is my priority. I’ve been
told over and over again, the state, as they figure out their budget crisis at the Texas
Indigent Defense Commission, that we are number one on their list,” McDermott said.
McDermott said the state’s decision made him very angry.
“It was deeply hurtful to me how this played out,” he told the court.
County Commissioner Pct. 3 Beau Nettleton said, “So once again, the state, with their
unfunded mandates, has dumped it back on our laps. They’ve taken the money and used
it for other things, because the money was there in the beginning of the budget, and put it
other places and dumped a $1 million a year unfunded mandate, is about what it amounts
to now.”
“And that’s something the taxpayers out there need to understand. Unfunded mandates is
the reason we have a tax rate of $0.499. They equate to a very large portion of that, these
unfunded mandates like this. It’s sad that they did that. I still think we need to move
down the road to put something together,” Nettleton said.
“I’m not going to disagree with anything you said,” McDermott said.
“This burden is on the county right now. I’ve spoken with your auditor, and I’m working
with the county attorney. I believe that the budget, with adjustments, normal cost
adjustments, the budget we had proposed is going to be more or less the same budget that
we had proposed, unless there is some radical change in your numbers,” McDermott said.
McDermott said his initial proposal had been to cover all of the county’s adult criminal
cases, not juvenile case or Operation Lone Star cases.
McDermott also said one of the Texas Indigent Defense Commission’s policies is that if a
county starts a public defenders program on its own, the commission won’t come in after
the fact to fund or help fund it.
“So, bottom line is, we need to continue with what we’re doing and then reapply,” Owens
said.
“That’s correct. I think what you need to do this year is to continue with what you’re
doing,” McDermott replied.
Nettleton said he assumed since the Texas Legislature will meet again in 2025, McDermott and his office will be lobbying to refund this program, and McDermott said
he would.
“I think this is desperately needed for your county, and I am doing everything I can to
support this process and bring it home,” he added.
“I mean, at the end of the day, we’ll wait. If we need to go testify (before the
Legislature), we’ll go testify, because it would be a savings of $350,000 to $400,000 if
we could get the money, compared to what we have in our budget this year,” Owens said.
County Commissioner Pct. 4 Gustavo “Gus” Flores asked how much money had been set
aside in the county’s Fiscal Year 2024-2025 budget for indigent defense, and Owens said
he had budgeted $850,000.
McDermott said the grant funding from the state would bring in about $1.5 million in
services to the county, and he believed a public defenders office would also make court
dockets move more quickly.
He noted also establishing a public defenders office would bring in employees who
would live in Del Rio and contribute to the local economy.
“It’s a win in multiple different directions, I think,” McDermott said.
The court took no action following McDermott’s presentation.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com.
