Full-Time Public Defender OK’d by City Council

The Santa Fe City Council voted Tuesday to hire a full-time public defender for Municipal Court.

It’s a break from the city’s practice of contracting with a part-time attorney.

The council approved the proposal as part of its consent agenda, when several items are approved at once with no discussion.

But councilors have said at previous meetings that a permanent public defender is probably a “better bargain” for the city and will provide the busy court with more lawyer hours.

Councilor Peter Ives told the Journal after the vote that having a full-time public defender is a win-win for the city.

“I certainly think it’s a prudent way for the city to move in terms of expenditure of funds to make that a full-time position for an amount, while not totally equivalent, nearly equivalent, to what was being paid for one-third the time before,” Ives said.

“Additionally, I think it will improve our delivery of what I would describe as requisite constitutionally mandated defender services in appropriate cases,” he said.

Under the proposal approved by the council, a full-time public defender will work 40 hours a week for a salary of $65,000 a year.

Including benefits, the total cost of the position will be $99,315. Just over $16,212 of that is for health insurance benefits.

Bea Castellano Lockhart, the current contract public defender, earns $72,000 annually for 15 hours of work a week.

She receives no benefits. She has held the public defender contract since 1986.

Nobody at the city has disparaged the work of Castellano Lockhart, who handles more than 30 cases a week.

But some city officials have expressed concern that a high number of cases handled by Castellano Lockhart are settled by plea bargains rather than going to trial.

Castellano Lockhart has told the Journal that “it’s true of any court that a lot of cases don’t go to trial” and that Santa Fe has “tremendous alternative sentencing.”

Castellano Lockhart has said that the number of cases she deals with every week is “phenomenal” and that she regularly works 10 to 15 hours a month above the 60 hours paid for by her contract.

Castellano Lockhart’s contract ends in late September.