By Rebecca Dopp
Times-News Correspondent
County commissioners considered a resolution to support constitutional standards for indigent defense—something that the county is already obligated to insure—to take advantage of the grant process that's been made available through the Indigent Defense Commission, and that the county is committed to upholding those standards.
Jared Eldridge, county attorney, said that this grant application would go to the Indigent Defense Commission the same day as the county meeting, which was held on December 19.
"My expectation is that it will be approved," Eldridge said.
He said that if this went forward the county would continue to spend the budget amounts they had spent in years past, about $130,000 plus the additional $10,000 they had earmarked to set aside, and the IDC would fund the balance that would make the project work.
The county would be contracting with the public-defender's office in Utah County.
"According to them," he said, "their figures are that they would need $273,464 to make it work financially. The IDC is going to make up the difference, about $183,000 that we anticipate they will grant for this project."
Eldridge said one of the questions the county should consider was how it would be paid to Utah County's public-defender's office. Todd Means, a director in the office, told Eldridge that payments could be made quarterly. However, he would need some of the money up front to get up and going. Eldridge suggested the county make the quarterly payments at the first of the quarter instead of the end so Means would have money to work with.
The commission approved the resolution and the grant application was sent to the IDC for consideration.
At that meeting, held the same day, the IDC discussed the grant application, the first that had come before them. The grant sought a portion of the $1.5 million in funding set aside by state lawmakers during the 2016 legislature.
According to an article in the Salt Lake Tribune, once the contract was secured with the Utah County Public-Defender's Office, Juab County would cease their previous methods of hiring private attorneys to accept flat-fee contracts to provide representation to those who can't afford it. In their application, Juab County officials wrote that they needed more separation between the public-defender and the county's executive branch in order to "provide more independence" and an environment that will allow defense attorneys to vigorously defend their clients. They also cited the need for more oversight of the county's public-defenders, the need for better communication between the lawyers and the clients, and the need for better data gathering and reporting.
However, there was a problem that the IDC members ran into—Juab County traditionally lumped adult and juvenile cases into the same public-defender contract.
The law passed by the legislature earlier this year only covers indigent adults who are facing possible jail time.
According to the Tribune, Juab County reported 115 juvenile court cases filed in 2016, a cost of over $72,000.
The commission ultimately voted to approve the grant funding of more than $110,000, with a provision that would allow the county to seek the additional $72,000 if the state legislators amend the law this year to include juvenile court cases. Juab County will now need to accept the "counter-offer" before it receives any money.
Juab County was the first in the state to fill out a "critical needs" grant application because their contracted public defender, Milton Harmon, had retired and there was no one hired to take on his cases.
The IDC is a state-funded commission created to tackle problems with Utah's public-defender system.
