Commissioners set date to take action on Public Defender’s contract

A contract for a Hays County Public Defender’s Office (PDO) could be approved as early as November, marking a milestone in the county’s ongoing efforts to streamline criminal justice proceedings.

Commissioner Debbie Ingalsbe, Pct. 1 said at Commissioners Court on Tuesday that the court has been working with its vendor, Neighborhood Defender Services (NDS), to finalize the contract and processes, and NDS is “extremely anxious” to get started.

“I understand that it has been a long time, but I think we’re very close to finishing the contract,” she said.

Local advocacy group Mano Amiga and the Public Defender Alliance began the push for a PDO in 2019. Hays County Commissioners selected NDS from two RFP candidates, and in May 2022, unanimously approved allocating $5 million in ARPA funding toward the office.

During the public comments portion of last week’s, representatives from Mano Amiga and the Vera Policy Institute urged commissioners to speed up the contract’s approval.

Mano Amiga Policy Director Eric Martinez said establishing a PDO will be “[a] groundbreaking change in this community.”

“I can’t say that there’s a lot of people in this room who might not agree with one another,” said Martinez. “But what we can agree on is that we all want to live in a more safe and just society.”

Sara Minion of the Vera Institute also spoke in favor of moving the contract forward with “all due expediency.”

According to Minion, there are currently more than 600 defendants in the Hays County Jail, 83% of whom are being held pretrial.

“That’s nearly 500 people … Who are sitting, waiting, their freedom hanging in the balance, based on whether or not they are going to be given access to adequate and effective counsel,” she said.

Minion concluded her thoughts saying, “We know that across the country, a holistic public defender’s office like NDS is the gold standard.”

“Hays County can be a leader along with the many other Texas counties that they are establishing offices within, so we want to support that effort,” Minion said.

According to Hays General Counsel Mark Kennedy, there are three main facets to work through before the contract can be finalized, including the contract itself, addressing judges’ concerns, and “working through the practical issue of how these PDOs get adopted and routed into the system.”

Kennedy clarified that there needs to be “clear, identifiable triggers” to determine whether a public defender or a private defender is appointed to a particular case.

One example of a trigger, according to Kennedy, is Chapter 16.22 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, which requires the sheriff or municipal jailer to inform the magistrate if he or she “receives credible information that may establish reasonable cause to believe the defendant has a mental illness.”

Kennedy also said NDS will manage between 20 and 30% of the total case docket for Hays County, “about half of which would be mental health cases.”

Commissioners agreed to come back with action on the POD contract on Nov. 22.