PORT ANGELES — Clallam Public Defender will continue to represent Clallam County citizens who can’t afford an attorney.
At least for another year.
The three commissioners Monday directed County Administrator Jim Jones to prepare a one-year, $1.14 million contract with the nonprofit law firm for the board’s expected approval next Tuesday.
Commissioners will decide next year whether to renew a long-term pact with Clallam Public Defender, which has provided indigent defense in the county for more than 30 years.
An existing, three-year agreement between the parties expires Dec. 31.
“The bottom line is we need a contract,” Chairman Jim McEntire said in a board work session Monday.
Commissioners McEntire and Bill Peach said private law firms should have an opportunity to compete to provide indigent defense in Clallam County.
‘Monopoly situation’
McEntire said Clallam Public Defender has enjoyed a “monopoly situation” in the county for more than three decades.
“We do a disservice to the bar association and the bar and our taxpayers by not having the competitive price discovery mechanism inherent in that contract,” said McEntire, who leaves office at the end of this month.
“Competition is always the best way to discover the right price for something, in my personal view. If it takes a year to do that, that’s great. I would like to see it happen sooner, but I won’t be here.”
Commissioner Mike Chapman said indigent defense is unique because it is a constitutional service.
“I’m all for competition for roads and bridges and trails and other services, but this is something that’s written into the Constitution,” Chapman said.
Clallam Public Defender is held accountable by a respected board of directors and has prevented the county from being sued by indigent clients, Chapman said.
“For me, I just think we have a system, and it’s provided solid constitutional services for our citizens,” Chapman said.
Competition model
Chapman invited Peach to pitch a competition model after Commissioner-elect Mark Ozias is sworn in next month.
In an unusual step, Clallam County this year issued a request for bid proposals from indigent defense providers.
Clallam Public Defender bid $1.19 million to represent clients in superior, juvenile and both district courts.
Former Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney William Payne bid $418,000 to represent offenders in district courts only.
Jones estimated that it would cost the county another $947,000 to set up an in-house public defense system for superior court.
Payne withdrew his proposal Monday, saying he decided that it was not in his best interest.
Payne Law had bid $418,000 to represent offenders in District Court and to handle appeals in Superior Court, Jones said in a Dec. 2 memo to the board.
Jones and Clallam Public Defender Director Harry Gasnick negotiated the $1.14 million tentative agreement.
Gasnick has declined to comment on the matter.
“Quite frankly, while this is what we had in the budget, it isn’t quite enough to cover what I believe are [Gasnick’s] very legitimate expenses,” Jones told commissioners.
“So we’re going to try and work together on finding ways to reduce his expense.”
Screening committee
Chapman last week suggested a screening committee be formed to help the board select a long-term indigent defense provider.
Peach said he wanted to know why the cost of indigent defense has doubled in the past 10 years.
“Therein lies my need for information,” Peach said.
“I think it’s responsible, I really do, just to look at and answer the question — I want everybody in the public to understand — how did we go from a $500,000 cost center to a $1 million cost center?”
Salaries for public defenders are tied to a state Supreme Court decision and the salaries that counties pay their deputy prosecuting attorneys, Chapman said.
Deal with cities
The tentative agreement reflects the recent consolidation of misdemeanor law and justice services through contracts between Clallam County and cities of Port Angeles and Sequim.
In a Dec. 2 memo to the board, Jones said the Clallam Public Defender proposal was weakened because Gasnick and District Court Judge Rick Porter have a “long-standing and very serious professional/personal dispute.”
Gasnick and Porter attended the work session but did not address the board.
Chapman said it was “completely disrespectful and very inappropriate that people are making innuendos that somehow there’s some sort of turmoil in the courts.”
“I have not read that from the courts,” Chapman said.
“I have not heard about it from the courts. Until the judges bring that forward, I think that needs to be taken off the table as well.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.