City court judge: New law boosts Morgan City's public defender funding

Morgan City’s city court judge expects a new state law to ensure city court always has a public defender due to recent funding concerns on the district court level.
On June 17, Gov. John Bel Edwards signed House Bill 689, which requires city courts in the 16th Judicial District to deposit 30 percent of the fees they collect into a special fund from which they can hire their own public defenders.
The law goes into effect Aug. 1 and includes the city courts of Morgan City, Franklin, New Iberia, Jeanerette and Breaux Bridge.
City Court Judge Kim Stansbury of Morgan City asked state Rep. Sam Jones, D-Franklin, to file the bill during the regular session. That request was in response to the 16th Judicial District Public Defender’s Office announcement that, beginning March 31, all defendants who were charged with a crime and not currently in jail would be put on a wait list to receive representation due to lack of funding.
City court collects adequate funds to be able to run its own public defender’s board and hire a public defender, Stansbury said. In 2015, city court sent $68,934 in fees to the district defender’s office.
District Defender Cecelia Bonin, who runs the 16th Judicial District Defender’s Office, said in an email earlier this month that the bill was completely unnecessary as the office has always provided one misdemeanor attorney and one juvenile attorney to each city court and intends to continue that through the 2017 fiscal year.
Bonin said the bill also violates the state constitution, which mandates the establishment of a uniform system of indigent defense.
The bill diverts 30 percent of statutorily dedicated funds meant to go to the district defender’s office, Bonin said. That reduction in the district’s funds could be $80,000 to $90,000 per year, Bonin said.
Stansbury and other city court judges had requested the bill be amended to give them the option of depositing fees into the special fund rather than requiring those funds be set aside. Stansbury only wanted city court to hire its own public defender if district court didn’t have adequate funding to provide a defender, he said.
However, in its final form, the bill states that city courts “shall” put 30 percent of fees into a public defender fund, instead of saying they “may” set aside the money.
The only place the bill says a city court “may” deposit 30 percent of fees into a public defender fund is when referring specifically to Franklin City Court, after Sen. Bret Allain, R-Franklin, added an amendment to the bill.
Allain said this morning that he intended the amendment to include all city courts referenced in the bill. But the amendment was incorrectly recorded, he said.
Allain said he’d be happy to change “shall” to “may” during the 2017 session, if the city court judges want the change. Stansbury said he is in favor of changing that language next session.
“But, in the interim, they have to deposit in their individual indigent defender funds,” Allain said.
City courts are still able to contract with the district defender’s board at city courts’ discretion, Allain said. Stansbury said the city courts could choose to take the 30 percent of fees and use them to contract with the district defender board to provide a defender.
The new law also created public defender boards to govern each city court defender’s office. In Morgan City, the board will consist of one member appointed by the City Council, one member appointed by the St. Mary Parish Council and one member appointed by the legislative delegation from nominees from the Louis A. Martinet Legal Society.
Though Stansbury wanted the bill to allow city courts the option of whether to set aside 30 percent of fees collected, he intends to follow whatever the law says. Regardless, the language of the law won’t have any effect on city court’s ability to provide representation for defend-ants, Stansbury said.
Stansbury plans to discuss the situation with Bonin and the other city court judges in the district.