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Cowlitz County public defense seeks continued conflict-counsel panel; county to consider contract for three private attorneys
Summary
County public defense staff asked commissioners to approve a continuing contract framework to pay local private attorneys who take conflict cases; the proposed pool would retain three named attorneys at a previously negotiated rate and a total not-to-exceed amount based on projected case counts.
A representative of the Office of Public Defense reviewed plans to continue using a small panel of private attorneys to serve as conflict counsel when the county public defender’s office has a conflict.
The speaker said three local criminal defense attorneys — Ted DeBray, Josh Goodday and Dan Morgan — have for years taken conflict cases and that the office proposes retaining them under a contract that mirrors longstanding local practice. The presentation said the hourly/point-based pay formula used in Cowlitz County has evolved; a per-felony-case average rate of $1,200 (up from $1,000 pre-pandemic) was cited as the market-supported rate the county would use to estimate a not-to-exceed annual total of $144,000 for the panel.
Public-defense staff explained the contract would cover typical felony work that fits the attorneys’ contracted scope; more complex class-A felonies handled by only one contractor on the panel currently (Goodday) would fall outside the standard contract and be negotiated separately by case. The contract would also include the county’s right to audit and to terminate an attorney from the panel if a professional-licensing or disciplinary event warranted removal — language the county added two years ago, staff said.
The office emphasized that modern indigent-defense standards increasingly require investigative and expert services; county budget funds supporting the Office of Public Defense would cover investigative services billed by counsel in appropriate cases, the presenter said. Commissioners were told the contract would be brought forward for formal approval at the next agenda, giving the new board an opportunity to ask questions prior to final action.
Why it matters: retaining a small local panel of private attorneys preserves continuity for conflict representation in felony cases and sets predictable budgeting assumptions for the county’s indigent-defense obligations under state and national standards.
Ending: The commissioners indicated support for placing the contract on a forthcoming agenda for formal approval and for continued review of case assignments and costs.
