Update from State Public Defender

I’m at the ISBA Criminal Law Seminar and listening to the State Public Defender is speaking about the issues we’ve faced over the last couple of weeks.

Straight from the man in charge, his office has finished its duties as to the past due bills as of this morning. They then sent them to the department that is responsible for cutting the checks and does electronic transfers. Checks should be mailed and electronic transfers initiated no later than Monday or Tuesday.

Interest payments will not be included because interest is figured through the day the check is sent. Interest will be paid for bills past due more than 60 days. I had heard both six and eight weeks, but I don’t know where those numbers came from. Only $7,000 total interest will be paid across all past due bills.

One interesting thing is that they are beginning to look at moving toward electronic filing of claims for payment. He has no idea yet when that will happen, though.

It’s signed!

Governor Branstad today signed SF 209, providing supplemental appropriations to the Iowa Indigent Defense Fund. See the release here. He did line-item veto certain portions of the bill, but he left the supplemental appropriations intact. It’s over…for now.

More Waiting

Governor Branstad signed eight bills into law yesterday, none of which was SF 209. So, we continue to wait. Iowa Public Radio and the Des Moines Register have reported that the governor hinted that he may veto the tax provisions of SF 209. Most of the quotes I’ve seen are him indicating that tax provisions shouldn’t lumped together with appropriations. It’s my understanding that he’s in favor of the supplemental appropriations, so I’d be surprised if he dumped the whole thing. Though, stranger things have happened.

One thing we probably should keep our eyes on is the current battle over budgets for next fiscal year and beyond. The governor has said he won’t accept any budget from the legislature that is for only one year. Though I’ve heard many say that they support fully budgeting the indigent defense fund in the future, the question remains when the new budget will be finished. There’s talk of the legislature staying in session past the scheduled end on April 29. Will they have a new budget by July 1? What happens if they don’t?

One More Step

The Iowa Legislature yesterday sent SF 209 to the Governor. From the quotes I’ve seen, I don’t think the indigent defense appropriation is in danger of being vetoed, though there are some other provisions that he’s said he doesn’t like. Because he has the power to line-item veto, I don’t expect that indigent defense will be caught up in a veto of other provisions. I hope to have some good news by the end of the day, but we’ll see.

SF 209 Passess Both Houses – 4/18/11

Both the Iowa Senate and the Iowa House have unanimously passed the version of SF 209 that came out of conference committee. The way that I understand it works is that both the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House have to sign the bill, then it’s sent to the Governor. With luck, the Governor will have it no later than tomorrow. Hopefully he doesn’t dilly-dally. There may be light at the end of the tunnel.

When this is all said and done we need to be sure to remember it. Never again should Indigent Defense Funding be under-budgeted or used for political gain. We should also remember that both parties and houses are at fault in this and that there are those who stood in the way of passage of a stand-alone appropriation.

Good luck everyone. May the money start flowing soon.

It’s About F****in Time, But Don’t Count Your Chickens – 4/14

So SF 209 is still alive. Apparently the conference committee has been working on it. I’m not going to completely believe this until the Governor signs the bill, but things are definitely looking up. Here’s the full text of an email I received from the ISBA tonight:

“Dear Erek,

Iowa State Bar Association leadership is happy to report that at approximately 4:45 pm Thursday afternoon the House and Senate reached an agreement on SF 209.  This is the conference committee bill that contains the indigent defense funding.

Preliminary highlights of the deal include:

• Creation of a new Tax Relief Fund to capture up to $60 million of surplus revenue annually and return it to the taxpayers
• $141 million in income tax relief over 2 years via coupling with bonus depreciation and increase in Earned Income Tax Credit
• $18.6 million for indigent defense and public defender
• $27.2 million in supplemental appropriations for priority areas like mental health institutes, prisons, and community colleges
• $20 million for mental health waiting lists and other mental health spending, repeal of system as of July 1, 2013

The conference committee report must be prepared and signed by all members of the conference committee, and then voted upon.  The report will be taken up by the Senate first because that is where the bill originated.  It will then be sent to the House for their concurrence.  It is hoped that the bill will be to the Governor early next week – perhaps by Tuesday or Wednesday.  The stalemate has ended and a bill with supplemental appropriations will be passed sometime next week.

Frank Carroll, President
The Iowa State Association”

Another Bill and Good Editors – 4/14

Here’s a good editorial piece from the Des Moines Register. It seems from the comments, too, that people who are commenting are mostly in favor of getting this done.

Also, someone in the Senate has introduced SSB 1208, a new stand-alone appropriation. It appears that the Senate Appropriations Committee will look at the bill on Monday, the 18th.

ISBA Indigent Defense Lobby Day

With apologies to the Iowa State Bar Association and its president, Frank Carroll, I’m posting the full text of an email I just received. I will not be able to attend the function because I will be in Juvenile Court carrying out my duties as a court-appointed attorney that afternoon. I think this sort of thing will likely be more effective than a rally, as I would expect attorneys to get access directly to some legislators and indirectly to others. I urge anyone who can to attend.

“Dear Erek,

Yesterday (April 12), we learned that the Governor line-item vetoed the transfer language in SF 512.  He approved the Federal Tax Code Coupling Provisions that were also contained in the bill.  You can read The Governor’s rationale for vetoing the transfer language at the following link:
https://governor.iowa.gov/2011/04/branstad-vetoes-send-clear-message-on-a-return-to-responsible-budgeting-with-a-focus-on-predictability-stability/.

A news report on Des Moines station KCCI-TV, channel 8, last night also quoted the governor on his reasons for the veto. In addition, it featured ISBA Legislative Counsel Jim Carney discussing the indigent defense subject. The link to the video is at: http://www.kcci.com/news/27523239/detail.html

This means that SF 209 is the only legislation currently pending that contains a supplemental appropriation for indigent defense.  That bill is presently in conference committee, where it has been for several weeks.  We are told that the conference committee members are getting closer to resolving their differences regarding SF 209, but do not know when this resolution might happen and, more importantly, when the lawyers affected by the failure to fund indigent defense services will be paid.

Where do we go from here?
Bar leadership and many ISBA members have written, e-mailed, telephoned and personally spoken to our legislative representatives.  Letters to the editor, opinion pieces and interviews have been distributed to news media outlets across the state.  Despite our concerted efforts, there has been no resolution of this issue.  We believe it is time to enlist the direct assistance of our members and harness the collective power of our voices in order to directly communicate the impact of this funding crisis.

The Iowa State Bar Association is sponsoring an Indigent Defense Lobby Day on Wednesday, April 20, 2011 at the Capitol Building in Des Moines. Your presence and voice are critically important if we are to impress upon our legislative leaders the importance of this funding.

The day will begin at 12 noon at ISBA Headquarters where ISBA President Frank Carroll and other bar leadership will provide an update and talking points on Indigent Defense Funding before heading to the Capitol.  You are encouraged to bring others affected by this lack of funding.

Lawyers don’t appear to be garnering much sympathy from legislators, but personal stories from clients who rely on their lawyers to protect their interests may be more persuasive.  If you do indigent juvenile work, for example, and can bring a child’s guardian or social worker who can stress that the ultimate victim is the child, we could have more influence.

Please use the on-line registration form to register for this event. The form can be found at:  https://m360.iabar.net/event.aspx?EventID=29039

Thank you for your continued support on this most important issue.

Frank Carroll, President
The Iowa State Bar Association”

Update from the Iowa Bar

You can watch a video here of Iowa Bar lobbyist Jim Carney giving an update on the indigent defense fund. I think we’re pretty much at square one with this. Though SF 512 hasn’t yet been sent to the Governor, I don’t think anyone expects him to sign it.

I was able to speak with the new State Public Defender on Friday for a short time. He seems nice enough, but he appears to have some sympathy with House Republicans not being able to back down, which I found disappointing. I think politicians understand this as an issue where the House Republicans have to stick to their principals and continue to block new appropriations until they get their Tax Relief Fund. Otherwise they look weak.

For those of us who do this work, and I hope many others, we see this as an issue that infringes on a person’s constitutional right to assistance of counsel, as guaranteed by the 6th Amendment to the United States Constitution. Courts across the country have found that low pay for court-appointed attorneys is such an infringement. Last year, the Supreme Court of Iowa found that strict fee limits placed on court appointed attorneys are unconstitutional. The same can be said for refusing to pay court-appointed attorneys in an effort to save political face.

The question I have is, “What mechanisms are available to try to change this situation in a swift manner?” The “swift manner” rules out any sort of lawsuit, I think, which leaves us with the political process. I can’t really think of any other desirable options.

So how do we move along the political process? I think it’s clear that House Republicans don’t believe that we court-appointed attorneys play an important role in getting them re-elected. If they did, this would have been taken care of before the money ever ran out. What I see as our best option is to find those constituents who are important to them and get those constituents on board. Perhaps you know someone who is a supporter of your local legislator. Why knot see if they would help support our cause?

In my last post I mentioned trying to have some sort of meeting of contract attorneys from across the state to discuss our options. I have heard from nine attorneys who are interested. I have not received an word back from the State Bar as to whether they would be interested in helping arrange such a meeting. I know there is a group in the Dubuque area who are trying to put together a rally at the Capitol. I’m open to suggestions as to where we go from here.

Should we have a meeting?

Click here to see Sen. Rob Hogg’s remarks to the Senate prior to the passage of SF 512 as amended by the House. Click here for a Des Moines Register article from yesterday about the Governor’s likely veto of SF 512.

There’s some talk of contract attorneys meeting to discuss our options. If you’re interested in this, please fill out the form. I have a call in to the Iowa Bar to see if they are interested in setting up such a meeting. If they are not, I will assess our options for doing something of that nature. If we do set up a meeting, I likely will only notify by email rather than through a public post here, so please be sure to fill out the form and tell others you know who may be interested but who may not read the Blog to do the same. Thanks.  

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