The Oregon Legislature passed a pair of bills Tuesday and Wednesday that will devote more than $90 million to restructuring the state’s public defense system and creating financial incentives for existing public defenders to stay. But key details – such as how much of a pay increase the money will fund – are unclear.
Senate Bill 5532 and Senate Bill 337 include millions for increasing attorneys’ hourly or yearly contract wages, but – in an odd display of leadership that has befuddled public defenders – lawmakers haven’t explained how the money will translate into actual raises for individual lawyers.
Increasing compensation has been a critical piece of solving the public defender shortage because many public defenders, especially in the Portland area, make tens of thousands of dollars less than prosecutors. Many are thinking of leaving for higher paying jobs.
As of Wednesday, more than 300 criminal defendants languished in jail without a public defender assigned to them because they couldn’t afford to hire a lawyer on their own and more than 2,000 were out of jail but without lawyers.
The legislation is headed to the governor’s desk for her signature.
Autumn Shreve, a spokesperson for the Office of Public Defense Services, which oversees payments of money to independently contracted public defenders, said she hopes in the coming weeks that dollar amounts of any pay raises will become clear.
Instead of talking about pay raises, lawmakers talked about one-time bonuses and ways they’ll restructure the public defense system:
– The state will give longevity bonuses that could amount to around $20,000 for existing public defenders. New public defenders might get what works out to be a $10,000 signing bonus. But the numbers still haven’t been nailed down.
– The legislation will force many public defenders who work in law firms or conduct business as groups of unaffiliated attorneys known as consortia to be paid by the hour instead of through yearly contracts. That’s left many unhappy.
– The state will create a pilot program with a total of almost eight full-time public defenders to represent defendants in need in the Portland area and in southern Oregon.
– The executive director and members of the commission will serve at the pleasure of the governor from Jan. 1, 2025 to July 1, 2027, at which point the commissioners will oversee the executive director. The governor will be able to remove commissioners only for inefficiency, neglect of duty or wrongdoing.
– Aimee Green; agreen@oregonian.com; @o_aimee