Saylor Pushes for More Equity for Public Defender’s Office

"The data coming out of the county showed a large discrepancy in the resources allotted to the Yolo County Public Defender’s Office versus the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office.

If we look at the chart presented in Monday’s article that removes the positions “that the district attorney’s office believes have little to no impact on the public defender” (a point that some would dispute somewhat, but it gives us a decent starting point) we see that the attorneys are 31 for the DA’s office versus 23 for the public defender’s office.

If we consider, according to Tracie Olson on Tuesday at the Board of Supervisor’s meeting, that the public defender’s office represents clients in about 81 percent of all criminal cases before the courts, the nearly 35 percent greater attorney staffing in the DA’s office is a little disproportionate but not terribly so.  Where the huge discrepancy comes into play is the 22-5 investigator advantage, 14-6 clerical advantage, and 8-2 other support advantage – for 75 total staff members for the DA’s office versus 36 for the public defender’s office, and that is excluding positions for things like MDIC (Multi-Disciplinary Interview Center), Victim Services, Intake and Charging and IT units..."

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