Council rejects amendment that would have exempted public defender from municipal residency requirement

The Indianapolis City-County Council voted against an amendment to council proposal 236 that would have created an exception to the municipal residency requirement for the Marion County Public Defender’s Office.

Councilor Hart, a sponsor of the proposal, moved an amendment to remove language that would have broadly eliminated the residency requirement and instead to create a targeted exception so the public defender could hire staff from outside Marion County without filing exception requests. Hart said the change was intended to allow the public defender’s office to recruit on par with the prosecutor’s office.

The amendment — to exempt the Marion County Public Defender’s Office from the local residency requirement — was seconded and debated. Supporters said the exception would help the public defender recruit needed staff; one councilor noted state rules set caseload thresholds and said Marion County receives about $11,000,000 annually in state reimbursement because the county stays below that threshold, arguing maintaining adequate staffing helps preserve those funds.

Opponents urged caution. Councilor Ali Brown (identified in the meeting) said the public defenders seeking to unionize had outstanding demands that the chief public defender had not yet addressed and said altering the code would not resolve those labor issues.

On the amendment vote, the motion failed 7 to 18. Later in the meeting, the council recorded the final action on proposal 236 as not passing (following the committee recommendation). The effect is that the council did not adopt the proposed change to the residency requirement and no exception for the Public Defender’s Office was enacted at this meeting.

Councilors emphasized the staffing difficulties reported by the chief public defender and other department leaders, but the council declined to change the municipal code at this time.