Amends Chapter 14 of the Denver Revised Municipal Code to create the Denver County Court Municipal Public Defender’s Commission and the Office of the Municipal Public Defender to provide legal representation to indigent defendants charged with municipal offenses. a. Presentation b. 15 minutes of public comment c. Discussion/Action (HEALTH SAFETY EDUCATION & SERVICES) Amends Chapter 14 of the Denver Revised Municipal Code to create the Denver County Court Municipal Public Defender’s Commission and the Office of the Municipal Public Defender to provide legal representation to indigent defendants charged with municipal offenses. a. Presentation b. 15 minutes of public comment c. Discussion/Action The Committee approved filing this bill at its meeting on 7-1-14.
And I agree with Judge Mancusi. I think there are some concerns with our current process in our contract. I'm not quite I'm not entirely sold on if this is the right direction to go. And I'm doing some research. I've researched other municipalities that have Denver County courts for public defenders, and I'm still doing some research. So I'm I'm making this comment versus calling it out. And I would encourage my colleagues to take a look as well, because I don't think the cost estimate is as as good as it is going to be. And I think that we might just need to tweak our current process versus bringing it entirely in-house. But I do thank you for your time and sitting down with me and I have a feeling we'll be reaching out and connecting with you as well this week. So that those are my comments on Council Bill 535. And, Councilman Brooks, you have a comment? Yeah. Thank you, Mr. President. This bill came through a health and safety committee, which I chair and had an extensive conversation with Judge Mancusi. And in conversation with the committee, what this bill does is brings the public defender in-house. Currently, we contract and outsource our public defender, which causes a couple of problems. One, the outsourcing has been rising in costs every year. And we have not been a we haven't been able to get a detailed report as to why those costs have been rising this way. We have it in house and we have control over our costs. It's one, two. We can continue to train our public defenders so that our public gets the best lawyers in the business. And so that's important to have. And so, you know, I'm going to be supporting this. I encourage colleagues that were not in committee and did not get a chance to watch this session to to reach out to Judge Marcus Mackey. He will gladly sit down with you. I want to let it also be known this government team, as the city attorney, is in favor of this as well, and has had extensive conversation with Judge Marcotti as well. So thank you. Thank you. Councilman Brooks, see no other comments. We are now ready for the block block votes. All of the bills for introduction are ordered published. Councilwoman Robb, will you please put the resolution on the floor for adoption? Thank you. Mr. President, I move that council bill 604 be adopted. Council resolution.