Legislature(2001 - 2002)
01/30/2001 08:04 AM House STA
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
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+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
HOUSE STATE AFFAIRS STANDING COMMITTEE
January 30, 2001
8:04 a.m.
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
Overview: Public Defender's Office; Office of Public Advocacy
TAPE
01-9, SIDES A & B
CALL TO ORDER
CHAIRMAN JOHN COGHILL called the House State Affairs Standing
Committee meeting to order at 8:04 a.m.
PRESENT
Committee members present were Representatives Coghill, James,
Hayes, Fate, Stevens, and Wilson. Representative Crawford was
absent.
SUMMARY OF INFORMATION
BRANT McGEE, Public Advocate, Office of Public Advocacy (OPA),
gave a brief history of OPA, explaining that it was established
by the legislature in 1984 because of dissatisfaction with the
previous system handled through the courts. The first thing OPA
did was to replace most of the lawyers because it was easier and
less expensive to train a child development specialist to be an
advocate than it was to train a lawyer to be a child development
specialist.
MR. McGEE said the division has 53 employees, 14 of whom are
attorneys. The OPA also contracts with 78 private lawyers and
has a pool of 214 more who are called upon occasionally. Eighty
percent of OPA's budget goes into the private sector for
attorney fees, witnesses, and travel expenses. Public guardian
cases make up 55 percent of the caseload; guardian ad litem
cases account for 25 percent; and criminal defense cases, 10
percent.
REPRESENTATIVE JAMES asked how often guardians ad litem meet
face-to-face with Children in Need of Aid clients.
MR. McGEE said they meet face-to-face very seldom, and that
face-to-face meetings with adolescents or infants are rare.
Representative James expressed concern that teens do not have an
opportunity to discuss their feelings with a guardian ad litem
(GAL).
REPRESENTATIVE FATE asked about the possibility of OPA using
telecommunications for distance delivery of services, a
direction the University of Alaska was taking.
MR. McGEE said the quality of representation by teleconference
was inferior and the court system had not yet been set up for
videoconferencing.
REPRESENTATIVE FATE asked why, if face-to-face meeting with a
GAL is not frequent, teleconferencing could not be done for
remote sites.
REPRESENTATIVE JAMES said it might be better for the defendant
to attend hearings in person. She stressed that there is a need
for face-to-face interchange with the GAL.
MR. McGEE gave a brief overview of the Court Appointed Special
Advocate (CASA) program. He said he believes the Office of
Public Advocacy is successful because of its very committed
staff. Those people believe in what they are doing, and
although the state hires them for 37.5 hours a week, most of
them work more than 50 hours a week, he said. There are three
areas of work -- guardian ad litem, indigent criminal, and
public guardian for vulnerable adults. He said in Fiscal Year
2000, Child in Need of Aid cases increased by 23 percent, not
due to an increased number of cases, but because cases are
taking longer to resolve. In the first six months of fiscal
year 2001, there was only a 1 percent increase, but the division
spent $300,000 more on litigation than it did in the same six
months last year.
REPRESENTATIVE JAMES asked if there were any cases that could
have been resolved another way.
MR. McGEE said that many cases are settled before the case goes
to court, but work still must be done to prepare the case for
trial and filing deadlines must be met, even when it is probable
that the case will be settled out of court.
REPRESENTATIVE COGHILL said the problem with court proceedings
is that the family is the only party that doesn't speak the
language that is used in the courtroom. The family often does
not understand what is happening to them and they feel left out
of the process.
MR. McGEE said that 20 percent of their cases are indigent
criminal cases referred to OPA because the public defender's
office has a conflict of interest with the client. The OPA
likewise refers cases outside its office when there is a
conflict of interest. For example, in Bethel, because it is a
smaller community, many cases need to be transferred because one
person could be the victim, the witness, and the perpetrator in
three separate cases within a short span of time.
MR. McGEE said that crime and child abuse do not feed OPA;
alcohol feeds OPA. He said he challenged his staff to find one
case in which alcohol was not a factor, and they couldn't come
up with one. He said that if alcohol were not the factor that
it is in Alaska, the state would need an OPA staff of just five
people.
REPRESENTATIVE FATE said he had heard that drugs are endemic in
the Bush. Mr. McGee said there is marijuana use and other drugs
sometimes are involved, but alcohol is the big problem.
MR. McGEE concluded by saying that OPA cannot control its
caseload, as all cases come from a court order or appointment.
REPRESENTATIVES JAMES AND REPRESENTATIVE COGHILL each commented
that their dealings with OPA had been very good ones.
BLAIR McCUNE, Deputy Director, Public Defender Agency, said he
handles Children in Need of Aid (CINA) cases. He said he was
present on behalf of Barbara Brink, director of the agency.
MR. McCUNE said that the public defender's office provides legal
representation for indigent people in criminal cases. As with
OPA, the agency does not have control over how many cases it
handles. The courts refer them after screening the defendants
and determining that they are indigent. There are 13 offices
statewide.
MR. McCUNE said that in 1995, the court system adopted a rule
requiring defendants using the public defender's office to
reimburse the agency for services rendered. The rates vary from
$200 for a misdemeanor case to $5,000 for a murder trial. At
the end of a trial, the judge issues a judgment order. A recent
audit revealed there was $7.8 million in outstanding orders with
$2.5 million collected thus far.
MR. McCUNE said that the public defender's office represents
parents involved in a Child In Need of Aid case. He said the
legislature passed legislation in 2000 that allows the public
defender's office to become involved before the 48-hour probable
cause hearing. This enables them to review medical, police, and
social worker reports prior to the hearing. He said there are
times when the public defender agrees there is probable cause
and works with client to get the best placement for the child
and a case plan for reunification. Mr. McCune said the key to
reunification is treatment and visitation. Without visitation,
the parents drift off. Public defenders work toward having the
child live with family.
REPRESENTATIVE JAMES said that in her experience with 19 foster
children, the most important factor in success was keeping the
children in touch with their parents.
MR. McCUNE said the foster parent program is overloaded. Cook
Inlet Native Corporation has relieved some of the load by
setting up a visitation program. He noted that HB 375 set a
timeline and strengthened the requirement for the state to show
that a reasonable effort has been made to reunite families.
This effort can include alcohol and drug treatment.
REPRESENTATIVE HAYES asked Mr. McCune to characterize the
relationship between the public defender's office and the
Division of Family and Youth Services (DFYS).
MR. McCUNE discussed the Balloon Project. He said it targeted
children who as of November 1997 had been in state custody 15 of
the previous 22 months. Thirty percent of those children have
been returned to their homes.
REPRESENTATIVE COGHILL again asked Mr. McCune to characterize
the agency's relationship with DFYS.
MR. McCUNE said the relationship is adversarial, but that they
work "pretty well" together. He said that the Anchorage court
system has a federally funded mediation program that works well
for open adoptions. Open adoptions are those in which the court
allows the natural parents to visit the adopted child.
REPRESENTATIVE COGHILL asked Mr. McCune to clarify that the 30
percent rate was only for Balloon Project children. Mr. McCune
confirmed that. He added that the overall percentage of reports
of harm that lead to adoption of a child is very small compared
with the percentage in the Balloon Project.
REPRESENTATIVE COGHILL asked about the power of probation
officers. Mr. McCune said the public defender's office is not
involved with the defendant after the conviction unless that
person is arrested for a parole violation. He said that
Anchorage has a pilot project, a therapeutic court. A person
convicted of a crime involving alcohol or drug abuse is not
sentenced immediately after conviction. Sentencing is delayed
and the individual is required to appear in court once a week at
the outset, then once every two weeks, etc. The delay allows
the public defender's office to continue its involvement with
the case.
MR. McCUNE concluded by saying he became a public defender in
1981 in Fairbanks, and has since served in Bethel and Anchorage.
He said his people try to do a good job in helping those with
whom they deal.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
There were no announcements.
COMMITTEE ACTION
The committee took no action.
ADJOURNMENT
REPRESENTATIVE COGHILL adjourned the meeting House State Affairs
Standing Committee meeting at 9:49 a.m.
NOTE: The meeting was recorded and handwritten log notes were
taken. A copy of the tape(s) and log notes may be obtained by
contacting the House Records Office at State Capitol, Room 3,
Juneau, Alaska 99801, (mailing address), (907) 465-2214, and
after adjournment of the second session of the Twenty-Second
Alaska State Legislature this information may be obtained by
contacting the Legislative Reference Library at (907) 465-3808.
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