11th PD fears privatization of some of his case load
11th PD fears privatization of some of his case load April 1, 2010 Jan Pudlow Senior Editor Regular News 11th PD fears privatization of some of his case load
But legislative leaders say there is nothing to worry about Senior EditorEleventh Circuit Public Defender Carlos Martinez is the first to admit he desperately needs help with his crushing case load — but not the kind of help he fears is roiling behind the scenes at the Legislature.Both the Florida Public Defender Association and the Miami Chapter of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers recently passed resolutions against any proposal to transfer public defender funding to private firms to represent indigent criminal defendants in third-degree felonies in Miami-Dade County. Both groups were responding to concerns of Martinez, who said he is being proactive to voice his opposition to any such plan that would further hurt his budget that has been cut by 14 percent during the last two fiscal years.But the chairs of the appropriations committees in both chambers responsible for the PDs’ budgets say there are no plans on the table to privatize any of the PDs’ operations.Martinez’ fear stems from budget proviso language that surfaced last year in a Senate committee meeting, but was never acted on.Martinez said the language turned up in the Senate Criminal and Civil Justice Appropriations Committee two days before the end of the 2009 session. It would have created a pilot project and taken money from PD-11’s budget for third-degree felonies and given it to a private law firm to handle all of those cases, estimated at 2,000 a month. The proviso, while in the meeting backup materials, was never discussed during the meeting, Martinez said.Panicked that his budget would be cut even greater, Martinez flew to Tallahassee, but was reassured no such plan was actually in the works. The PPDA and FACDL resolutions say the money would be spent on a “no-bid, sole-source contract to a private law firm” and would cost much more per case than if they remain handled by the 11th Circuit PD’s office.Martinez said he is afraid the plan for a pilot project will resurface this session, and he wants to attack the idea out in the open.“To me, it makes no sense why you’d pay more money for a case than I am already spending per case on third-degree felonies,” he said.Sen. Victor Crist, R-Tampa, chair of the Senate Criminal and Civil Justice Appropriations Committee, said he was aware of the proviso language late last year, but it was never taken seriously, and there is nothing to worry about this year.“To the best of my knowledge, there are no attempts to do this language,” Crist said March 16. “I haven’t even heard it discussed this year. We have been having open committee meetings. It has never been an issue. It hasn’t even been a whisper.“I don’t see this being an issue at all. At least not in the Senate,” Crist said. “Now, I don’t know what the House is doing at this juncture, because we’ve been focused on the Senate. But on this side, I haven’t even heard a whisper on this. Nothing.”In the House, Rep. Sandy Adams, R-Oviedo, chair of the Criminal and Civil Justice Appropriations Committee, said she has not heard of any plans to privatize any of the public defenders’ operations.The Miami Chapter of FACDL’s and the FPDA’s resolutions aim to make sure the issue stays “nothing” this year.According to the FPDA resolution signed March 4 by President Howard Babb, Jr.: “Awarding such a contract is fiscally irresponsible because the average cost per third-degree felony case for PD-11 is approximately $125, but the proposed contractual price for the private law firm would be $700 per case, a 460 percent increase over current costs. The cost of this contract would be subtracted from PD-11’s already inadequate budget.”Both resolutions address the professional standards and training at the PD-11’s office compared to “an untested law firm.”“The Public Defender’s Office handles the work more cost effectively and with higher quality because the office has the benefit of economics of scale, training, and supervision,” said the FACDL-Miami Chapter resolution, signed February 25 by President Hector Flores.Third-degree felonies became an issue when then 11th Circuit PD Bennett Brummer took his slashed budget and crushing caseload to court as a constitutional crisis, asking to refuse all new noncapital felony cases. In September 2008, 11th Circuit Judge Stanford Blake gave Brummer some of what he asked for: He was allowed to stop taking new third-degree felony cases.But on May 13, 2009, the Third District Court of Appeal reversed Blake’s ruling.“We understand the difficulties faced by PD-11. With an ever-increasing quantity of cases and a tight budget, their important task is certainly made more difficult,” the Third DCA ruled.“The office-wide solution to the problem, however, lies with the Legislature or the internal administration of PD-11, not with the courts,” the DCA said.Meanwhile, as Martinez seeks review with the Florida Supreme Court, he is going on the offensive to prevent a possible legislative solution that would farm out third-degree felonies to private firms.Martinez said that one law firm lobbying for the pilot project is the Private Defenders Clinic, in Miami, where Raul De La Heria has touted his services on billboard, radio, cable TV, and newspaper ads as “the public defender alternative.”Asked whether he was the private law firm interested in receiving state funds, De La Heria said: “I can only tell you that the Private Defenders Clinic is not involved with anything with respect to public dollars. We are a private entity that fills in a gap. That’s it.”De La Heria said his firm will represent clients on third-degree felonies for $900.“Whatever started with respect to Carlos Martinez was done by his own hand. It was Carlos Martinez who asked Judge Blake to be relieved of all third-degree felonies,” De La Heria said. “And he told the Third District Court of Appeal he could not competently handle those cases. Because of that issue, we opened the Private Defenders Clinic.”So far, De La Heria said, “We have had a lot of response. I think it’s going great.”The Private Defenders Clinic has hired lobbyist Richard Pinsky.“We are looking at stuff that possibly the state Legislature will do to address the crisis that Mr. Martinez obviously wants to be relieved of,” De La Heria said. “I don’t know of any mysterious, behind-the-scenes lobbying of anything. We are simply interested in finding out what the Legislature is ending up doing about the crisis. We want to know what they are going to look at as a possible solution.. . . We want to be kept abreast like anybody else. Now, we are on the sidelines waiting to see.”