Killpack says after internal audit, he thinks city should put role out for bid
Both Delta City and Fillmore City are looking to replace their longtime Justice Court public defender.
Delta City Councilman Nick Killpack said he came up with the idea to seek requests for proposal (RFP) from attorneys who may wish to serve as indigent counsel for defendants in Delta’s municipal Justice Court after conducting an informal audit of the city court’s operations.
Killpack said his internal inventory of the court showed the city’s public defender was “lacking.”
He praised Judge Cyndee Probert and her court clerk as well as the court’s prosecutor—the city’s own attorney, Todd Anderson—but said he felt a change was needed at public defender.
“I lined out to my colleagues here a lack of responsiveness from our indigent counsel, our public defender’s office. And a lack of rigorous defense that our, even some lack of professionalism that our public defender’s office has shown,” he told fellow council members last week. “On those merits, I suggested and recommended to council that we consider sending out an RFP to look at our other options.”
The city’s longtime public defender, attorney Lawrence Hunt, has worked in both Delta and Fillmore for many years. He’s also a conflict defense attorney for the county. He’s mostly served as an attorney for juvenile criminal defendants for the county, County Attorney Patrick Finlinson confirmed.
Hunt did not answer a call seeking comment on Monday.
Killpack said he spoke with Hunt about the plan to replace him should a solid candidate emerge.
“I had a chance to discuss with our current public defender how he’s done and what his status there is,” Killpack said at last Wednesday’s regular council meeting. “I was sympathetic to what he said to me and I pretty clearly stated for him what my concerns were. And he understood those. I invited him to send us an RFP. We would love to hear from him as well. I wasn’t swayed in my dedication to soliciting new counsel for our indigent defense.”
Killpack said the city has a Constitutional obligation to provide indigent citizens with a competent public defender.
“We as a city have a responsibility to those who don’t have the means to help them make sure they’re defended well in the criminal justice system,” the councilman said. “I feel confident our city attorney is not going to be overzealous in his prosecution…we need to make sure we have a public defender who defends the interest of all people. And I don’t think we’ve had that.”
Fillmore City Attorney Elise Harris confirmed the Justice Court there would also look for a new public defender.
“They considered and they thought it would be beneficial to get proposals and just see what comes back. There’s a chance the public defender doesn’t change. I think it’s just been a while,” she said.
Harris also said there was a chance the two cities would not have the same public defender. She said Delta’s case loads tend to be higher, “so if the same proposal came in for Fillmore for the same price as Delta, that’s not quite the same value for Fillmore, so they (Fillmore’s city council) may choose not to go with that.”
Harris said she spoke with Hunt a few weeks ago and he was aware the city was planning to issue an RFP.
Killpack said he thinks recruiting the same attorney for both cities could be financially beneficial.
“If Delta and Fillmore work together in recruiting a public defender, it could be financially advantageous to both parties,” he said.
Delta Councilwoman Betty Jo Western said she supported the plan.
“I think we should make our decision, then let Fillmore make theirs, see if we’re collectively agreeing. Or maybe have some conversation,” she said.
Anderson said the deadline on the RFP is June 15, which gives the city the opportunity to make a selection at their second June council meeting. The attorney selected could begin work as early as July 1, he said.
Anderson said the cities would have to go out of the area in search of a new public defender.
“So bottom line, there is nobody in Millard County practicing defense work. Period. They don’t exist. I don’t think there is anybody in Juab County that’s practicing defense work,” Anderson said. “So anybody you get is coming from Utah County.”
He said typically the amount of travel required for such work would cost the cities loads of money. However, since the pandemic most courts have embraced online hearings as a means to conduct even routine business. Anderson said he spoke with Judge Probert about whether she would continue this practice and she told the city attorney she would except for trials and evidentiary hearings.
Delta Councilman Robert Banks asked what a contract with the city would look like.
Anderson said he and Harris discussed that. He said the city does not have a contract for his services nor does it have one with Hunt currently.
“Everything is just kind of an at-will, handshake situation,” the city attorney said.
He favored that approach because it freed the city to dismiss an at-will employee more easily.
“And if they do make a proposal, hypothetically, if they make a proposal and say I’ll give you this rate or this flat fee, but I want it guaranteed for a year, then that’s a decision you guys will have to make,” Anderson told the council.
A motion was made to do the RFP and council members unanimously passed it.