ATLANTA (AP) Georgia's struggling public defender system has staged an open revolt against Gov. Sonny Perdue's order to cut budgets by refusing to ratify a plan that would slash its staff and money for training.
The Georgia Public Defender Standards Council's board voted 6-1 on Thursday to reject the cuts after a daylong meeting. Attorneys and administrators warned the latest round of cuts could push the teetering system off a cliff and undermine its ability to provide adequate legal defense for Georgia's poor.
``We have a duty to push back, and push back now,'' said Wyc Orr, a council member who led the charge. ``Push back. What could they do to us? They can't fire us ... It's time for us to say 'No, thank you.' We will not cut our budget.''
It was unclear whether the vote would have any impact on the system's budget, as Perdue's office said the funds were already being withheld.
``Nobody wants to make cuts,'' said Bert Brantley, a Perdue spokesman. ``But we're in this situation and we've asked agencies to identify areas of reduction.''
Georgia's legal system, like most other state agencies, was ordered to propose cuts of at least 6 percent to help meet a $1.6 billion shortfall. But unlike most departments, the legal system must also meet strict constitutional mandates to protect the rights of defendants and preserve due process.
Most legal agencies have found a way to make the cuts, which must be approved by the governor's budget office, no matter how painful they are.
State prosecutors voted this week to order employees to take an unpaid day off each month starting in September. The Georgia Supreme Court slashed funding for travel and research. And the Council of Superior Court Judges has suspended its use of all senior judges: retired jurists who are paid a per diem to fill in.
``There's no question we're going to work really hard to try to do the people's business,'' said Stephen Goss, a Dougherty Circuit judge who is the council's president. ``But it's definitely going to slow down the courts and cause a backlog in the county jails and a slowdown in civil litigation.''
The statewide public defender system, though, is in a more dire fiscal crunch.
Since it began in 2005, it has seen its budget sapped from $42 million to $35 million over the least three years by state legislators. Some 41 staffers were fired amid the first round of cuts in May 2007, and system director Mack Crawford warned he would have to furlough hundreds of staffers until a fresh infusion of cash came in March.
Crawford's decision this summer to fire four full-time attorneys and replace them with contract staff led to a lawsuit by civil rights groups that claimed it could set an ``unconscionable precedent.''
The system's board members unleashed their frustration over the repeated cuts during the daylong meeting Thursday.
They contended the system should be exempt from the cuts because it draws funding from court fees, not taxes. And they argued cutting staff further would prevent it from meeting its duty to ``provide a constitutionally adequate defense.''
``I don't have much more patience to be pushed,'' said DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Mark Anthony Scott, who said he was ``embarrassed'' to watch the public defender office in his county slowly be dismantled.
Defense lawyers told stories of staffs stretched thin and widespread morale problems.
``Morale at this agency is at absolute zero,'' said Drew Powell, a circuit public defender in Clarkesville. ``All they hear is bad news. They don't know if they'll have a job tomorrow.''
David Dunn, a council member and a public defender in LaFayette, said the council was left with little other option but to decline the budget cuts.
``When you get backed into a corner, you have to fight with every weapon available,'' he said. ``And they have backed us far into a corner.''
Thursday
May 29th, 2025
1:12AM
