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Defiance approves one-year misdemeanor prosecution contract for Hicksville; law staff to receive one-time stipends
Summary
The Defiance City Council approved a one-year agreement for the city law department to prosecute Hicksville misdemeanor cases for $15,000 and a separate ordinance to provide two law department employees one-time $5,000 stipends to cover added workload and administrative costs.
The Defiance City Council on Aug. 12 approved a one-year agreement for the city law department to provide misdemeanor prosecution services for the Village of Hicksville and separately approved a one-time stipend for law department employees to cover the added workload.
Council’s law director, Mister O'Donnell, told members the agreement was proposed after Hicksville’s village prosecutor resigned and that the city drafted a one-year representation agreement to see whether the arrangement would work. “The village would pay the city $15,000 for that year,” O'Donnell said during the meeting.
Why it matters: Council members said the arrangement is intended to simplify prosecution for crimes that cross municipal boundaries and to streamline plea discussions that can involve multiple jurisdictions. O'Donnell said the contract would not violate the city’s charter provisions and that neither he nor the assistant law director would represent the village in civil matters while performing the prosecution work.
Details and council direction: The contract assigns prosecution of misdemeanor cases to the city law department for a one-year trial period at a fixed fee of $15,000. Council also approved an ordinance to provide a one-time stipend of $5,000 to each of two law department employees to offset increased intake, discovery, case-management and after-hours work prompted by the contract. O'Donnell said some of the stipend funds would be used to buy administrative supports such as software licenses and to pay for mailings and discovery costs; he said the stipend portion would be charged against the contract revenue and the arrangement would be reassessed after the year.
The council asked that the law department track and report the Hicksville-related workload separately. O'Donnell said his office and the assistant law director, Mister Nees, would log cases and phone calls so the city could evaluate whether to renew or change the terms after the trial year.
Outcome: Council voted to adopt both ordinances. The one-year prosecution agreement and the stipend ordinance were approved during the Aug. 12 meeting.
What’s next: The law department will begin prosecuting Hicksville’s misdemeanors under the one-year agreement and will report back to council at the end of the term with workload data and a recommendation on whether to continue or renegotiate terms.
