Kansas Holistic Defenders asks for funding boost, explains caseload accounting and a $75,000 missed invoice

Kansas Holistic Defenders (KHD), the county-funded community partner that provides holistic defense services, asked Douglas County commissioners for additional funding to expand attorney capacity and explained both how it counts caseloads and why it is seeking a $75,000 supplemental payment for previously completed work.

"We have right now 90 cases per county funded attorney," said Sam Allison Natale (speaker 10), KHD’s executive director, describing how the contract’s cap equates to roughly 270 misdemeanor cases for the three county-funded attorney positions. Natale told commissioners that while the agency tracks many internal outcome measures — referrals to treatment, case-management contacts and case-resolution outcomes — the county no longer requires demographic outcome reporting as part of the contract. "We still maintain those, and so we can produce at any time, our case outcomes," Natale said.

Commissioners pressed for evidence that holistic defense produces long-term benefits (for example, reduced re-arrest rates within 12 months). Natale said KHD maintains outcome data but that large comparative research studies are costly and require randomized assignment for rigorous controls. KHD described a near-final study option funded by Arnold Ventures and a university research partner that did not proceed because treatment assignment is not randomized, leaving the agency without a funded apples-to-apples evaluation.

Separately, KHD requested a one-time supplemental payment to cover $75,000 in unpaid invoices for completed work. "This is $75,000," Natale said, explaining that monthly reports were filed but the invoices were incorrectly marked as received in KHD’s internal bookkeeping and by an outside bookkeeper; the organization said it has since corrected the process and internal SOPs to prevent recurrence.

County staff told commissioners that late invoices sometimes are paid from the next fiscal year when they are received after books close, but because this case was discovered late after year close the county sought direction from the commission for how to proceed. A county staff member (speaker 6) said paying the invoices would be a one-time expense and may not affect the mill levy.

KHD also outlined operational choices that affect counts and capacity: the agency staffs first appearances every day but accepts new unrepresented clients only one rotating day per week to avoid exceeding case caps and to protect client continuity. Natale said the agency is exploring a voucher-based payment model as one way to scale attorney slots and retain training and oversight while shifting some cost responsibility off the county.

Commissioners asked county staff and KHD to clarify how the county wants caseloads reported (individual attorney monthly averages versus agency-wide totals) so the commission and the contractor have consistent performance reporting.