After a scathing report recommended the complete dismantling of San Mateo County’s Private Defender Program, county officials are looking for more input from the public as they decide its fate.
The report, released in December, calls for a revamp of the program to avoid possible conflicts of interest among the lawyers who run it.
In this county, the program is run by the local bar association while most counties in the state have public defender programs that operate similarly to district attorney’s offices.
The county conducted an evaluation of the program last year after the San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury reported that the PDP program lacks proper evaluation and that it cannot prove it meets with state and federal guidelines to provide competent counsel for poor defendants.
Retired judge Zerne Haning and former county counsel Thomas Casey evaluated the Private Defender Program at County Manager John Maltbie’s request.
The report offers praise for the program for the service it provides criminal defendants who cannot afford to hire their attorneys, but says the local bar association is not the right group to oversee it.
The report suggests the county hire a chief defender and oversee management and administration of the program.
The chief defender now “lacks the necessary objective autonomy to protect either the county or the PDP’s best interests since his is hired by and also serves as executive director of the SMBCA, many of whose members also serve on the PDP and derive income therefrom,” according to the report.
Since the local bar association runs the program, some lawyers sit on both the bar’s board and the PDP panel.
The PDP panel, however, completely rejects the report’s findings.
John Digiacinto is the current executive director of the program, who told the Daily Journal recently that he is bewildered by the latest report considering the last review of the program in 2012 praised it.
A five-member committee appointed in 2012 by the County Manager’s Office, which included Supervisor Dave Pine, concluded that the PDP was “a well-managed program and considered a model throughout the country for providing indigent defense,” according to a response letter sent to the county last month from the PDP.
Deputy County Manager Reyna Farrales is preparing a report for the Board of Supervisors whether to follow Haning’s and Casey’s recommendations.
The county’s current contract with the PDP expires June 30, 2017.
To help evaluate the program and make recommendations to the Board of Supervisors about a future contract, the county is asking members of the public to provide insight into their experiences with the PDP’s management and oversight. Clients and attorneys are especially encouraged to participate, according to a press release sent out Monday.
The board is expected to hear a final report by early fall. Any changes to the program will be implemented by July 2017, when the contract expires.
May 3, 2016
The Daily Journal
By Bill Silverfarb
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