Beltrami County board approves two public defender contracts to restore four-attorney team

The Beltrami County Board of Commissioners voted to approve contracts for two public defenders, Ellen Tholen and Joshua Knuckles, restoring the county's indigent defense team to four attorneys.

County Administrator (name not specified) told the board the contracts would run through the end of the year and were issued after a request for qualifications in February. The administrator said the county previously had four contracted public defenders, fell to three after one left the region and later to two when another died, creating coverage and conflict-of-interest pressures.

The contracts are short-term eight-month agreements to bring staffing back to four while the county studies longer-term budget and delivery options. The administrator said the two new contracts are at the original rate (about $71,000) and that the two remaining contracted attorneys currently receive a temporary increase that will revert to the original rate if the county returns to four attorneys. The administrator told the board the change would not increase the overall budget because the temporary pay increase in existing contracts was written to expire when the county reverts to four defenders.

Commissioner Carlson moved to approve the contracts and Commissioner Winger seconded. Commissioner Gould asked that the board consider voting on each contract separately because of budget concerns and questioned whether bringing a fourth attorney back now would increase costs; Gould also asked whether the existing contracted attorneys had been told about the pay adjustment that would follow. The administrator said the contract language requiring a reversion to the original rate already exists in those agreements and that staff would notify the incumbent attorneys immediately.

Several commissioners argued restoring four defenders improved coverage, reduced the risk that a single case would create conflicts requiring outside appointments, and made workloads more manageable for existing attorneys. The county's Public Defender Committee reviewed court-appointed attorney costs and preliminary timesheet data and reported that, based on the county's available data, court-appointed counsel costs were slightly lower than expected; the administrator said that finding merits further study.

After debate the board approved the motion 4-1. The minutes and the contract documents placed in the meeting packet show the contracts are intended to run through the end of the year; staff said they expect to return to the board with budget implications and any contract renewals or changes later in the budget process.

The contracts approved name the two incoming attorneys as Ellen Tholen and Joshua Knuckles and are intended to restore Beltrami County's public defender capacity for indigent defense coverage.