FISCAL YEAR 2027 BUDGET MESSAGE

Posted for Public Inspection with FY27 Budget.

  This is the Budget Message associated with the proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2027 (July 1, 2026, to June 30, 2027) for the Public Defender Office for the 29th Judicial District.

The budget and this Budget Message will be posted at the Public Defender Office and advertised as available for public inspection with the FY27 Budget. Its provisions are subject to approval by the Office of State Public Defender (OSPD) and may be amended from time to time, before and after adoption. The effective date for its provisions is July 1, 2026.

The proposed financial plan is to utilize the monthly receipts, periodic and one-time payments of grant money, if any, contributions and reimbursements from clients, and all other income sources, plus cash reserves on hand, to pay administrative and office expenses, contractual fees to attorneys and others serving the Public Defender Office on a part-time basis, and salaries of full-time and part-time staff, all to provide defense services to Eligible Clients, as defined by the OSPD, and pursuant to orders of the 29th Judicial District Court.

An assumption made annually in the preparation of the proposed budget concerns the locally generated monthly income to the PDO. The principal funding source consists of payments of court costs by persons pleading guilty to misdemeanor and traffic offenses, which is an uncertain amount that fluctuates from month to month and is entirely unrelated to PDO workload or expenses. 

  External factors, such as reduction in: enforcement activities, convictions, assessment of court costs, and effective collection of the amounts assessed, all controlled by others who are the PDO's legal adversaries within the criminal justice system, could result in some unknown and unknowable reduction of the amount of projected locally generated revenues.

 A] Significant matters regarding INCOME include the following:

1] The Office of State Public Defender is mandated by legislation to distribute a certain percentage of its appropriation to the Districts. For FY27, the State Public Defender has proposed, and the OSPD has adopted, an approach to the distribution of District Assistance Funds. As presented to the District Defenders, the plan is to distribute a recommended DAF. Thereafter, the District Defenders may seek additional funding from Level "O" Funds. The Public Defender Office expects to submit to the Staff and Board a request for Level "O" funds and apply those funds for expenses not allocated as a result of significant budget reduction and to supplement fund balance. That is a budget projection and not a certainty.

2] The projected budget proposes to use income during FY27 (estimated to be $1,033,000.00, including funds held in reserve in one certificate of deposit and in the general operating account) plus other resources to be distributed by the Board (estimated by the OSPD staff to be $ 663,966.00) to pay expenses for the fiscal year 2027, which are estimated to be $ 1,534,934.00.

3] The FY27 budget projects court cost collections, included in the CUFs, received from the Sheriff at $ 903,000 (averaging $ 75,250.00 monthly). 

This principal source of this funding for Public Defense services could be curtailed by the sudden reduction or cessation by the law enforcement agencies of their participation in the L.A.C.E. ticket-writing program at any time and for any duration OR by the excessive use of the Diversionary Program.

As this funding source (court costs) depends 100% on the whim of others, it is considered unreliable for budgetary purposes.

4] The District does not expect Federal Grant money that it received last year for CINC Social Worker.

  B] Significant matters regarding EXPENSES include the following:

 1] If only projected collections occur, including DAF funding, and all budgeted expenditures occur, end-of-year account balances will be approximately $1,027,000.00, an increase in reserves from last Fiscal Year. 

2] The Public Defendant will incur additional auditing expenses estimated at $24,000.

3] Should contingencies require unbudgeted expenditures, the payment will be from reserves to the extent that there will be any.

FENWICK A. SWANN III, DISTRICT DEFENDER