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Committee amends and continues immigrant legal‑defense proposal after extensive presentations and public support
Summary
After hearing SF agencies, the Budget & Finance Committee accepted BLA staff recommendations to cut the initial appropriation and FTE count for a proposed Public Defender immigrant defense unit, accepted amendments to reflect BLA numbers and salary savings, and continued the item two weeks for final ordinance drafting amid strong public support and questions about caseload, residency and CBO roles.
The Budget and Finance Committee on Feb. 14 held a lengthy hearing on a package of items (4 and 5) to create and staff a Public Defender unit to provide deportation defense for detained immigrants and to add the related positions to the salary ordinance. The hearing included presentations from the Office of Civic Engagement and Immigrant Affairs, the Budget and Legislative Analyst (BLA), the Mayor—s Office, the Mayor—s Office of Housing and Community Development, the Human Rights Commission, nonprofit partners, and San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi.
Sponsor Supervisor Sandra Fewer framed the proposal as an immediate response to increased immigration enforcement and described amended staffing and fiscal amounts after BLA review. Adrian Pond (civic engagement) detailed federal executive orders and local immigrant demographics; BLA staff surveyed peer jurisdictions (Alameda County, Los Angeles, New York City, San Jose, Chicago, Boston, Washington DC), summarizing various models and funding mixes. MOHCD and three named CBOs described existing and recently funded legal‑services capacity for non‑detained and some detained clients; MOHCD said the recently funded collaborative could serve roughly 190 additional clients to June 30 under an existing $1.2M supplemental.
Public Defender Jeff Adachi argued the case for a Public Defender‑led detained defense model based on courtroom staffing and criminal/immigration expertise: his office proposed 10 deputy public defenders (each handling an estimated 40–60 detained cases annually) plus support staff; total original budget requests in the ordinance were larger but Supervisor Fewer proposed reduced counts given the current six‑month surplus reported in the controller—s report.
BLA reviewed its recommended reductions in personnel and appropriations to reflect a more conservative startup schedule (hiring to begin April 1) and an initial FY16‑17 partial year cost: it recommended reducing FY16‑17 positions from 17 to 13 (and FY17‑18 to 15), cutting total requested appropriations from $6,945,965 to $2,441,797. Committee members pressed on residency (whether representation would be limited to SF residents), actual number of detainees who are SF residents (no definitive published figure; estimates vary), and priority criteria for which detained cases would receive representation.
Nonprofit representatives — including Dolores Street Community Services, Pangea Legal Services and partner organizations — strongly supported the Public Defender model as a complement to community providers and cited capacity constraints among CBOs for large volumes of detained cases.
After debate, the committee accepted the BLA-recommended amendments (including using roughly $200,000 in salary savings to reduce the FY16‑17 appropriation) and voted to continue items 4 and 5 for two weeks so city attorneys could prepare ordinance language that reflected the agreed amendments. The committee did not adopt a final funding resolution at the hearing; members said they expected continued negotiation over the balance of city funds and private philanthropic support.
