Hiring freeze could affect county defender’s office

From the Mojave Daily News:

A hiring freeze could have an impact on the Mohave County Public and Legal Defender’s Office.

The hiring freeze was implemented because of the loss of revenue to the county including a shortfall in the state shared sales tax, vehicle license tax dollars and a slowdown in construction, Finance Director John Timko said.

The use of expensive private attorneys has also ballooned the public defender’s office budget higher than expected. Timko predicts contract attorneys will cost the county more than a $1 million more than what was originally budgeted this fiscal year. For the 2007-08 fiscal year, adopted in August, $150,000 was originally budgeted for contract attorneys.

The amount budgeted for contract attorneys for the 2006-07 fiscal year was $150,000. The actual cost to hire contract attorneys was $718,000 for the last fiscal year.

For the 2005-06 fiscal year, $125,000 was budgeted for contract attorneys and $500,000 was actually spent. For the 2004-05 fiscal year, $100,000 was budgeted for contract attorneys.

One problem is that Superior Court felony cases have increased 5 to 7 percent a year, which comes with the growth of the county. Since 2002, the number of cases increased by almost 66 percent. In 2006, there were 2,900 felony cases in Superior Court, Public Defender Dana Hlavac said.

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