7/14/1982 - Laserfiche WebLink

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JUL 141982 REPORT ON CIRCUIT COURT CONFLICT COMMITTEE 50 P,.445 Attorney Brandenburg reported that the 19th Judicial Circuit Conflict Committee met to discuss allocation of monies provided by the Legislature to help the counties pay for the mandate by the State which requires the county to provide an attorney and pay attorney's fees in cases where the Public Defender has to declare a conflict and a private attorney is appointed. The 19th Judicial District, which is made up of Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River and Okeechobee Counties, received $71,400. The committee discussed feasible ways of dividing these monies, and because no accurate records have been kept in the pastas to how much this actually costs each county, they decided the best method was to divide the funds based on population. Based on this method, Indian River County's share worked out to be $18,214. Generally in the past we have budgeted approximately $20,000 for this purpose. Attorney Brandenburg continued that the problem is that these funds are received on on a reimbursement basis; so, we still will have to budget this amount and then have the monies reimbursed later in the year. The committee further decided that if there were any surplus monies at the end of the year, they would meet again and devise a way to divide the remaining funds. They also approved a list of counsel eligible to receive these funds based on the list of those eligible for court appointments. Some discussion ensued, and William Koolage stated that he was bothered by Attorney Brandenburg's statement that if there is anything left over, the committee will meet and devise a way to spend those funds. Attorney Brandenburg felt he had not explained this accurately, and noted that if, for instance, one county should have a bigger expenditure than anticipated and a