Board approves submission of indigent defense grant application with request to MIDC to consider delivery‑model change

Mary Gantos, managing attorney for Monroe County Indigent Defense, asked the board to approve submission of a MIDC grant application for fiscal year 2025–2026. The cover letter included program cost, state and local match amounts: a total program cost of $3,880,997.03 with a county local match of $217,053.37, and scheduling of the county's match between 2025 and 2026 budget years.

During discussion a commissioner moved to make approval conditional: the county administration should submit a written request and justification to the MIDC seeking consideration of a delivery‑model change to a public defender office and request a multi‑level staff review by the MIDC. The amendment required the written request to be submitted no later than April 18, 2025. After debate about feasibility studies, costs of operating a public defender office and the propriety of bundling a delivery‑model discussion with grant approval, the board approved the amendment on roll call and then approved the grant application submission as amended.

Commissioner Asper raised concerns about statewide funding pressures for public defender offices and the likelihood a local public defender model could be more expensive than current contracts. Other commissioners sought to table a separate feasibility study request and emphasized that any move to a public defender office would require full board debate and cost justification. The board later recorded a separate motion to table related feasibility items.

The MIDC application will proceed to submission with the stated county match included in the county's 2025 budget for the October–December 2025 period; the remainder of the state fiscal year match will be included in the 2026 budget.