Judging by the URL where I found this "local briefs" in the Tallahassee Democrat, it was posted March 27, 2008. We read:
Leon County
County will refuse to pay for conflict counsel offices: Leon County is going to refuse to pay for state-mandated conflict counsel offices, commissioners decided Tuesday. The conflict counsels were created last year as a way to handle cases where the public defenders had conflicts of interest. Previously, private lawyers would handle the cases, but now lawyers from regional offices will handle them and counties are being required to pay for their office space, phones and other needs. County Attorney Herb Thiele said each Florida county would pay different amounts for the conflict counsel office space, violating the constitution's "equal protection" clause. Commissioners authorized Thiele to file a suit against the state.
If something has happened to change Leon County's decision since that news brief, it seems certain that some county will go ahead with a suit.
This follows an earlier story in the Tallahassee Democrat that read, in part,
In the midst of a tight budget year where library hours have been cut and about 90 positions frozen, Leon County now must spend additional money housing conflict attorneys, County Budget Director Alan Rosenzweig said...Rosenzweig said the county budgeted $300,000 for running the office this year, although counties were hoping for a reprieve when the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers challenged the legislation in court. But the Florida Supreme Court upheld the mandate about a week ago.
Leon County's office is expected to have about 22 employees, but that number may increase.
"We're going to be obligated to rent them space, and provide communications and computers," Rosenzweig said.
1 comment:
All counties (vis a vis the League of Counties) signed off on a letter to Charlie Crist (prior to him signing the ROC bill into law) that SB 1088 was unconstitutional due to the funding mandate.
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