At their regular study session meeting Sept. 28, Airway Heights City Council members agreed to forward an ordinance changing how the city’s municipal court manages its public defender cases to the council’s next regular meeting, Oct. 5.
If approved, ordinance C863 would allow the court to adopt a case weighting system for misdemeanor cases handled by the public defender. The ordinance would keep the city in compliance with a state Supreme Court order to limit public defender cases in order to allow attorneys to properly provide defense services for indigent individuals without taking on too much work.
Airway Heights’ court administrator, Bree Breza, said under case weighting, some charges and processes are assigned less point values while others are given higher values. Driving under the influence cases might receive a value of 1.5, while others such as a “show cause” proceeding might carry a less value, such as .3.
Under the normal caseload management system, allowing no more than 400 cases per calendar year by any one attorney, both of those cases would carry a value of 1, meaning the case weighting system would allow public defenders to carry more of a load.
“From my research, it appears case weighting is better for the city, not for the public defender,” Breza said.
Breza said should the council approve the ordinance, which currently is in draft form only, the city would also have the ability to return to the current regular system should it find the case weighting system does not work out.
Airway Heights’ public defender Joshua Maurer, who also has a private practice, told the study session that changing to a case weighting system would “significantly” impact his office’s workload. Maurer said he projects he will exceed the currently allotted 400 cases by the end of the year, and would need more funding for the office to handle the load under the existing system.
That said, he felt it would be more beneficial for the city overall to move to the case weighting system. No matter how efficient the office becomes, it is still limited by the Supreme Court in the number of cases it can handle.
“As it is now, it’s not a one-man job by any stretch,” Maurer said. “(With case weighting) you get more bang for the buck. And, at some point in time, you will have to move to a weighted system because most jurisdictions are using it.”
Breza said the city had applied for grant funding to help cover some public defender costs. When she opened the recent award letter Airway Heights received, Breza discovered it was addressed to the city of Union Gap.
Breza said in a Sept. 29 email that the city had indeed been awarded the grant funding, albeit at an amount — $9,500 — less than received last year.
Council also agreed to move eight other items forward for consideration at the Oct. 5 meeting:
An interlocal agreement with the city of Spokane for disposal of solid waste,
Approval of a contract with SPVV Landscape Architects for park master planning services,
Resolutions establishing October as Breast Cancer Awareness and Domestic Violence Awareness month,
Appointment of a deputy mayor,
A memorandum of understanding with Spokane County to provide limited building inspection services,
A public safety enhancement proposal to make an interfund loan,
And consideration of a new information system contract.
Mayor Kevin Richey told the study session that the public safety enhancement proposal involved transferring money from solid waste to streets, and then from streets to public safety. That would allow the city’s police department to potentially hire another officer while the fire department would be able to explore purchasing new equipment.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].
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