Indigent Defense Assistance Board
Minutes
of the Board Meeting
Louisiana
State Capital, Governor’s Press Conference Room
Members Present: Duncan
Kemp, Chair; Alfred Boustany;
Ex Officio Members Present: Anthony Champagne, Vice-Chair, and
Staff Present: Edward R. Greenlee and Marsha Austtun Oliver.
Guests Present:
Call to Order and Opening Remarks. The meeting was called to order at
Review and Adoption of
Minutes from the February 24, 2005 Meeting. Mr. Boustany moved to dispense with the
reading of the minutes of the meeting held on
Proposed Administrative Rules. Mr. Greenlee briefly reviewed
the first draft of the proposed administrative rules for payment of expert
witnesses and specialized testing. Mr.
Greenlee asked the Board to review the rules in anticipation of a vote on the
rules at the next meeting. After a brief
discussion, Mr. Sanchez requested that Denise LeBoeuf and Jelpi Picou comment
on the draft of the rules prior to the Board taking a vote on the proposed
rules.
Review of Budget for Fiscal Year 2005-2006. Mr. Greenlee reviewed
his proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2005-2006.
Approximately $1.5 million had been added to the budget by the
legislature in the general appropriations bill.
The appropriations bill was still subject to the Governor’s line item
veto at the time of the meeting. Mr.
Greenlee initial recommendations included increasing the budget for the Capital
Post-Conviction Project of Louisiana (CPCPL) from $880,000 to $1,000,000 to
provide greater post-conviction representation; increasing the budget of the
Capital Appeals Project (CAP) from $464,000
to $560,000 because of increased caseload; and increasing the allocation
for the Louisiana Appellate Project (LAP) from $1,100,000 to $1,200,000 to
cover the cost of taking over juvenile appeals from the Juvenile Justice
Project of Louisiana (JJPL) and other increased costs. Mr. Goff asked about the status of JJPL. Mr. Greenlee stated that JJPL was phasing out
appeals and moving toward reform advocacy and aftercare work and was seeking
funding from the Office of Youth Development for its aftercare program. Mr. Sanchez asked why CPCPL did not receive
more funding as capital post-conviction was a mandate. Mr. Greenlee responded that in the past the
Board had never voted to fully fund CPCPL in the amount suggested in the fiscal
note attached to the post-conviction legislation and that his recommendation
was preliminary while awaiting the Governor’s signature on the appropriations
bill. Mr. Hamilton pointed out that $1
million remained to be budgeted after the Governor finalized the state
budget. Mr. Goff asked why LAP was
receiving $100,000 more than last fiscal year.
Mr. Looney, director of LAP, addressed the Board, stating that LAP had
not received any increase in funding since fiscal year 2001-2002 and that LAP had
received additional responsibilities such as providing Lexis research access
for all the LIDAB programs and hiring an additional attorney to assist with the
juvenile appeals. Mr. Looney also
pointed out that travel expenses for juvenile representation would likely be
more than that required for adult appeals.
Mr. Looney also was to provide the LAP contract attorneys with a small
pay increase with the additional funds.
Mr. Gamble asked for the cost for JJPL to handle the juvenile
appeals. Mr. Greenlee responded that
JJPL handled both juvenile appeals and post-dispositional representation for a
total of $365,000 per fiscal year.
Denise LeBoeuf briefly addressed the Board stating that CPCPL should
receive funding of a total of $1.3 million per year. After some more discussion, Mr. Hamilton
moved that the Board increased the funding for CPCPL, CAP and LAP in the
amounts recommended by Mr. Greenlee above and that other programs remain funded
at the same level pending the Governor signing the appropriations bill into
law. Mr. Smith seconded the motion which
passed without opposition.
Discussion of Proposed New Programs. Mr. Greenlee began to brief the Board about
proposed programs including an expert witness and specialized testing fund, pilot
program for juvenile representation in
Other Business.
Task Force. Mr. Gamble inquired about the status of the
Louisiana Task Force on Indigent Services.
Mr. Greenlee advised the Board that Task Force was continuing its work
and that no final report had been submitted by the Task Force other than the
recommendations that resulted in Senate Bill 323 defining a case for the
purposes of calculating caseload, requiring district indigent defender boards
to provide caseload data and changing the composition of the Board, etc. No recommendations regarding structure of the
indigent defense system or funding mechanism had been made. Mr. Greenlee encouraged Board members to
attend future meetings of the Task Force.
Adjournment. There being no additional business brought to
the attention of the Board, Mr. Kemp moved that the meeting be adjourned. Mr. Dileo seconded the motion which passed
without objection.