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Public Defender asks for staff growth and pay parity to meet 50% appointment goal
Summary
Chief Public Defender Alex Bunin requested funding for 50 additional assistant public defenders and support staff by FY26, plus pay-parity adjustments and increased bail-counsel funding to recruit and retain attorneys needed to reach a 50% public-defense appointment target over the next several years.
Chief Public Defender Alex Bunin presented an expansion plan to increase public-defense capacity with an FY25-FY26 investment that would add roughly 50 assistant public defenders and 19 support staff by 2026 and recommended a companion investment to bring salary parity with similarly situated prosecutors. Bunin said the office currently represents approximately 14.5'17% of cases and that a long-term ramp is needed to reach a 50% appointment rate countywide.
Bunnen emphasized internships, post-bar fellow programs and local recruitment partnerships as the primary pipelines for hiring new attorneys but said parity with prosecutorial pay is essential to stem turnover among experienced supervisors and to make county roles competitive. "There's no set standards for what you pay attorneys in Harris County and there probably should be," he told commissioners. Bunin asked for a $1.27 million parity allocation and an additional $275,000 to adjust bail-lawyer pay structures; he said the office would use targeted recruitment and a training director to maintain quality as it grows.
