NORWICH – A proposition to make Chenango County Public Defender John Cameron a full-time employee of the county has been handed down to the county’s Personnel Committee after members of the Safety and Rules Committee heard the proposal at a meeting held last week.
Cameron met with the committee last week with a request that he be made a full-time employee, citing increased court activity in recent years and reoccurring conflictions in his obligations to county court and city and town courts. Cameron told the committee that – although the Public Defender’s Office is doing an “adequate job” – scheduling conflicts sometimes keep clients from getting the attention owed them.
“Throughout the week, there are very important matters that arise and the courts are getting busier and busier,” Cameron said, pointing particularly to a growing number of cases in the Town of Norwich court. “In my view, what we are able to do isn’t sufficient.”
He also explained that the Public Defender’s Office commonly assigns out cases to contracting lawyers who are then reimbursed by the county.
“We don’t have anyone to cover some of these matters ... the need is there,” he added. “Clients are entitled to my full attention and right now, they’re not getting it.”
Cameron brought two proposals to the committee for consideration. The first proposal, preferred by the office of the public defender, calls for full-time status for Cameron with a pay increase of $30,482 (from the current $59,518 as a part-time employee) and elimination of an extra hire (at $2,471) and a secretary to assistant the public defender position (at $4,821).
The second proposal calls for the same, although it also eliminates two additional part-time positions, one being an assistant public defender (at $36,702). Three such positions currently exist. Moreover, it eliminates the secretary to that position (at $4,271).
Cutting the two additional positions as suggested in the second proposal would save the county nearly $41,000 in employee salary to compensate his full-time status, Cameron said, but would put additional stress on remaining council and require an additional $10,000 for assigned council.
Changing positions would also open the public defender’s office to eligibility for nearly $30,000 in additional state grants – funding it wouldn’t be eligible for should both proposals be turned down. According to Karri Beckwith, administrator for the public defender’s office, state aid for assigned council has declined in recent years. The office is slated to lose half its $59,436 in state aid next year. This drop in state aid makes opportunities to apply for grants increasingly important, she explained.
In all, should Cameron’s preferred proposal be accepted by county officials, the county would pay an additional $12,070 more than what’s budgeted for 2014 (which is approximately $15,000 less than what’s currently called for in the budget, thanks to the additional $30,000 in grant funding available with a full-time public defender).
Conversely, the county would save $18,900 under the second proposal.
The biggest threat, Beckwith clarified, is that there’s no guarantee the same $30,000 in grant funding will be available beyond 2014, which would leave an increased burden on the county’s budget in the future.
At the meeting, Safety and Rules Committee Chair Charles Mastro asked how a full-time public defender position would affect fringe benefits. Health care would remain the same, Cameron answered, but pension would increase with salary.
The Safety and Rules Committee agreed to pass Cameron’s proposal on to the county’s Personnel Committee, which will hear it later this week.