Brandon Booth, the recently appointed state public defender, told the Joint Appropriations Committee that the Office of Public Defender is meeting its caseload goal overall but is under severe strain in several jurisdictions.

Booth said the agency ‘‘is a constitutionally mandated agency that was created in 1978 through article 1, section 10 of the Wyoming constitution’’ and that the office represented 13,814 criminal cases and 153 appeals in fiscal year 2024 and 13,706 cases and 162 appeals in fiscal year 2025. He reported the agency overall was at ‘‘98% of caseload maximums,’’ while some offices far exceeded that level.

Why this matters: Booth warned that concentrated vacancies can trigger a breakdown in service. He said Campbell County reached as high as 144% of caseload maximum and that, at one point, his office declared ‘‘unavailability’’ when workloads approached 200%, requiring private counsel and costing the state roughly $250,000 so far.

Booth gave a breakdown of the office’s staffing and budget. The office has roughly 92 positions (about 61% attorneys), plus contract attorneys and investigators; he said 21 contract attorneys and four contract investigators supplement field offices. The agency’s full budget request (noted in the budget book) is $30,875,358, with payroll (the 100 series) accounting for roughly $24,313,588 and contract/operational spending (900 series) making up about $5,302,538 — together about 96% of the requested budget.

Committee members pressed Booth on recruitment and pay. Representative Sherwood asked whether the move from the 2022 to the 2024 pay scale would alleviate vacancies; Booth said ‘‘I think it will help’’ recruit entry‑level attorneys but cautioned pay alone may not fully solve retention and hiring challenges in a competitive regional market. Booth said the office is expanding limited telework (two days per week in appellate) as a recruitment tool.

The committee asked about court‑appointed private counsel. Booth said judges have compiled a volunteer list and that the appointment rate was historically low; he said the rate was raised to about $150 per hour to incentivize participation. He called the private‑counsel approach ‘‘a Band‑Aid solution’’ and said it is costly and inconsistent when jurisdictions are short of attorneys.

The presentation also covered a technical exception request for TRP hardware/software (laptops and related equipment) to support remote and appellate work and a small special‑revenue local match item (about $13,890) that staff explained reflects a 15% local match in the agency’s accounting for that funding line.

Booth and staff discussed a recurring gubernatorial 'Superflex' recommendation and a budget footnote that committee members described as ‘‘sticky’’; staff traced the footnote’s origins to prior practice and noted the restriction can limit the agency’s ability to promote or shift staff within pay ranges without legislative action. Committee members debated whether the committee should preserve oversight or grant more operational flexibility.

The committee did not take formal action during this session; the public defender team left the meeting after questions and committee members called a short break.

Sources and attributions: quotes and numbers above come from State Public Defender Brandon Booth’s presentation and the committee Q&A recorded in the committee transcript. The presentation referenced the Public Defender Act and the Wyoming Constitution (Article 1, Section 10) as the agency’s legal foundation.

What’s next: Committee staff confirmed the committee will continue to consider the agency’s budget requests and exception items as the appropriation process proceeds.