EVERETT — The Snohomish County Council unanimously approved an emergency appropriation on Dec. 18 to cover public safety overages.
The move shifts $5.45 million from the county’s general fund to the sheriff’s department, corrections bureau and the Office of Public Defense. About half — $2.75 million — will cover public defense, with the sheriff’s office getting an additional $1.5 million and $1.2 million to corrections.
The approval deals with the 2024 budget, not the county’s new, biennial budget that was approved without the county executive’s signature earlier this month.
The council allocated $144 million to the three departments from the general fund when the 2024 budget was implemented. The emergency appropriation makes that number closer to $149 million.
The public defense office has already been under a manpower and budget crunch. In fact, public defenders are swamped across Washington with heavy caseloads and too few lawyers.
Jason Schwarz, director of the Snohomish County Office of Public Defense, told council on Dec. 18 that one problem is the cost of expert service, things like DNA or ballistics tests.
Cases get shuffled too, Schwarz said, because they’re often reassigned through court order.
And each time that happens, the public defenders essentially have to start the case from scratch, Schwarz told council. This leads to increased costs.
“These are not case filings, they’re the number of assignments,” Schwarz told council. “Just anecdotally, in one case that is pending still, we’ve had to assign six lawyers to that case.”
Jordan Hansen: 425-339-3046; jordan.hansen@heraldnet.com; X: @jordyhansen.
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