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Committee approves placing DCJS grant funds into assigned-counsel budget and contracts with two legal providers
Summary
The committee voted to amend the county budget to allocate Division of Criminal Justice Services grants to assigned-counsel services and approved contracts with the Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York and the Rural Law Center to receive Distribution 14 ILS funds; approvals were by voice vote and tallies were not specified in the transcript.
The Warren County Public Safety & Emergency Services Committee approved by voice vote a pair of actions to allocate state grant funds for indigent defense services.
Brian Plattsky, the assigned counsel coordinator, told the committee the county had received two grants from the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) and asked that the already-received funds be recorded in the assigned-counsel budget so they could be used to offset assigned-counsel costs for county residents. "These requests relate to two different grants we've received from the division of criminal justice services," Plattsky said. The committee moved and approved the budget amendment by voice vote; the transcript records 'Aye' but does not provide a roll-call tally.
Plattsky also explained the county received Distribution 14 funds from the New York State Indigent Legal Services (ILS) program that are specifically earmarked for two outside agencies. He said the Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York would serve as the conflict family-court defender and the Rural Law Center would provide appellate representation. The committee moved to execute contracts with both agencies to distribute the ILS funds and approved the contracts by voice vote; the transcript does not record individual vote counts.
Committee members did not raise further substantive questions about the contracts during the meeting. Plattsky said the county maintains existing contracts with these agencies for other funding sources and needs new agreements to accept Distribution 14 funds specifically allocated by ILS.
