Law Offices of the Mohave County Public Defender P.O. Box 7000 Kingman, AZ 86402-7000 PHONE 928/753-0734 FAX 928/753-0793 E-MAIL pubdef@co.mohave.az.us DANA P. HLAVAC Public Defender Internal Memorandum Date: October 25, 2004 To: Ron Walker From: Dana Hlavac cc: Hon. Robert Moon, Presiding Superior Court Judge Hon. Randy Bartlett, Incoming Presiding Judge 2005 Rod Marquardt, Chief Probation Officer Pete Byers, Chairman, Board of Supervisors Tom Sockwell, Supervisor Buster Johnson, Supervisor Re: Annual Report per A.R.S. § 11-584(A)(3) I am pleased to present this report prior to its’ December 1 due date. I am providing the attached annual report on the per weighted case cost of the three current alternative providers of indigent defense in Mohave County for fiscal year 2004. I have also provided a comparison to fiscal year 2003. The attached report was compiled using actual caseloads in each of the three alternative providers adjusted for a common weighting factor. This weighting factor is the same weighting factor utilized in establishing staffing requirements and is predicated on American Bar Association and National Legal Aid and Defender Association standards. I must make two major observations about this report. The first is that the cost of both Public and legal Defender services does NOT include non-department budgeted items. This means that intangible costs such as finance, human resources, and facilities expenses are NOT included. Private Contractor figures are all inclusive of all amounts paid to private contractors under both 100-1-2550 and 100-1-2552 for legal services. The second observation is that the original projection for caseloads for the Law Offices of the Mohave County Public Defender for Fiscal year 2004 was three thousand five hundred (3,500) cases. Actual caseload assigned was four thousand Eight hundred and fifty seven (4,857). Actual cases exceeded original projections by roughly thirty nine percent (39%). Over the last two years case filings have exceeded projections by an average of almost twenty seven percent (27%). If current trends of growth continue and result in comparative increases in criminal filings, it is anticipated that the county will need to invest in more personnel on both sides of the criminal justice system. A rough ratio of a one to one increase in prosecutors versus defenders is a fair estimate to be anticipated. By FY 2007 there is a very serious probability that the county will need to add approximately 12-15 personnel between prosecution and defense offices. Of importance in considering this year’s numbers was the fact that for this fiscal year we were the third highest homicide rate in the State, behind only Maricopa and Pima counties. Frankly we were significantly closer to Maricopa’s murder rate than we were to any of our comparably sized counties. This resulted in higher costs for all indigent defense providers. If you should have any questions regarding the attached report, or require copies of any prior memorandum, please contact me at your earliest convenience. Caseload Counts FY 2004 Raw Number Conversion Factor Weighted Cases PDO Misdemeanor * Felony * Juvenile * PCR * Appeals Probation Violations Subtotal 1769 2135 0.375 1 663.375 2135 478 90 25 0.75 1 1 358.5 90 25 360 0.375 135 4857 3406.875 Per case Weighted Cost FY '03 Budget (Actual Expenditures) $1,836,843.79 $539.16 $627,704.00 $763.86 $353,131.21 $979.90 LDO Misdemeanor Felony Juvenile PCR Appeals Probation Violations Rejected Subtotal Private Contract Misdemeanor Felony Juvenile PCR Appeals Probation Violations Subtotal 385 486 108 41 9 0.375 1 0.75 1 1 144.375 486 81 41 9 161 0.375 60.375 120 1190 821.75 52 209 120 20 2 0.375 1 0.75 1 1 19.5 209 90 20 2 53 0.375 19.875 456 360.375 * When a case was handled by more than one agency (Conflict discovered part way through) Case was subtracted from PDO and credited to secondary counsel Indigent Defense Provider Cost Per Weighted Case FY '04 Contract $979.90 LDO $763.86 PDO $539.16 $0.00 $200.00 $400.00 $600.00 $800.00 $1,000.00 $1,200.00 Indigent Defense Provider Cost per Weighted Case FY 03 and FY 04 $979.90 Contract $655.39 $763.86 LDO FY 2004 FY 2003 $721.22 $539.16 PDO $498.12 $0.00 $200.00 $400.00 $600.00 $800.00 $1,000.00 $1,200.00