Whatcom County will use these federal relief funds to aid courts
Whatcom County approved spending nearly $600,000 of federal relief funds to address the backlog of cases burdening the Whatcom County court system.
The Whatcom County Council approved $598,319 for the county’s criminal justice and court system from the American Rescue Plan Act, the nearly $2 trillion pandemic relief measure that U.S. President Joe Biden signed in March. Whatcom County will see roughly $44.5 million from the coronavirus pandemic relief measure, The Bellingham Herald previously reported.
The council approved the funding at its evening meeting Sept. 14 with a vote of 5 to 2, with council members Tyler Byrd and Kathy Kershner voting no. The funds are able to be used for three years.
The money was part of a $1.6 million budget amendment that the council passed. At the council’s evening meeting, Byrd said he was voting no because there were specific items that he didn’t want to vote yes on.
“So I don’t want to vote for the one item, that means I can’t vote for any of them,” Byrd said at the meeting.
Councilmember Ben Elenbaas said he was voting yes, even though there were items included in the total budget amendment he didn’t want to vote for.
“On this one, I’m going to vote yes … because I feel so strongly about getting our court backlog taken care of,” Elenbaas said.
Addressing the backlog
Whatcom County’s court system is facing a growing backlog of unresolved court cases stalled by the coronavirus pandemic.
Halted jury trials, slower case resolutions and newly filed cases mean Whatcom attorneys are facing unmanageable caseloads. The money approved by the county council is an attempt to address those issues.
“I think the theory is that given the three years that these funds are available, we will get our legs underneath us again and get rid of some of this backlog,” said Starck Follis, executive director of the Whatcom County Public Defender’s Office.
The $598,319 is split will fund 18 additional positions, council documents show:
▪ Whatcom County Clerk’s Office will receive $18,611 for a specialty court clerk.
▪ Whatcom County District Court will receive $88,178 for a clerk and a receptionist.
▪ The Whatcom County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office will receive $99,419 for two attorneys, one victim-witness coordinator and one legal assistant.
▪ The Whatcom County Public Defender’s Office will receive $262,506 for four attorneys, two investigators, one behavioral health specialist and two legal assistants.
▪ Whatcom County Superior Court will receive $129,605 for a court commissioner and a judicial assistant.
Follis said adding the four additional lawyers will be a “tremendous supplement to our staff.” Follis said he intends to use the four lawyers to primarily address the backlog of felony court cases in Superior Court.
Some of the additional staff are required by statewide Indigent Defense Standards, he said. The positions are open now and will run for three years, Follis said.
“The community should know that these are federal relief act dollars, not based on local taxes. The funds appropriated are a small part of the large amount awarded Whatcom County in the Relief Act,” Follis said.
While it will be a “long and difficult process to fill these positions,” the additional lawyers will allow each attorney more time to better address their pending caseloads, each one of which represents a person, Follis said.
Due to an overload of cases, the public defender’s office has had to return cases to the county’s Office of Assigned Counsel for the first time.
From January 2020 through July of this year, the public defender’s office sent back 609 felony cases and 115 District Court cases, according to data previously analyzed by The Herald. That’s a marked increase from years prior, where in 2018, 34 cases total were returned, and 2019, 118 cases total were returned, the data shows.
The county also has 11 attorneys on contract to provide outside indigent defense, which includes lawyers from outside Whatcom County for the first time, The Herald previously reported.
The return of cases of the Office of Assigned Counsel has led to the county’s budget for contracted indigent defense being almost used up as of mid-August.
The additional public defense positions will increase the office’s capacity to accept cases, and will ultimately result in fewer cases being sent back to the Office of Assigned Counsel, said Maialisa Vanyo, chief deputy at the public defender’s office.
Whatcom County Prosecuting Attorney Eric Richey said he will also use the money and the additional positions to disperse cases among attorneys in his office. He said it will allow attorneys to be “able to focus on cases the way they should be.”
He said felony attorneys in the office are averaging around 130 open cases, compared to 100 or fewer open cases pre-pandemic. Richey said the positions are posted and they expect to be hiring soon.
“I want the community to know that this office, the prosecutor’s office, is going to handle whatever number (of cases) is thrown at us. But the ARPA funds are going to help us do a better job,” Richey said.
