Consideration and Approval of Contract:  Public Defender Services for the Flagstaff Municipal Court.

Accept the proposal of Harris and Winger, P.C. of Flagstaff, Arizona for an annual fee of $245,000, paid monthly at a fee of $20,416.66

This Agreement allows for the use of a Public Defender to represent indigent clients for all court settings, including but not limited to pre-trial conferences, evidentiary hearings, motions in limine, trials, sentencing, change of plea hearings, and revocation of probation hearings.  In addition, the Public Defender shall attend all court settings arising out of Appeals and Special Actions on Flagstaff Municipal Court decisions.  The appointed Public Defender shall be responsible for providing personal consultation with clients prior to pre-trial conferences when requested or otherwise appropriate and for interviews of all witnesses.  The Public Defender is required to maintain personal contact with the defendant until the case is terminated and is required to use reasonable diligence in notifying a defendant of official court actions resulting from defendant’s nonappearance at a scheduled court session.

Harris and Winger, P.C. has extensive experience defending the rights of people arrested and accused of criminal offenses.  This firm has served as the Public Defender for the City Court for the past 15 years.  This contract allows for the continuance of a solid relationship with the City Court administration.

The Municipal Court has budgeted $170,000 for fiscal year 2016 in expense account 001-01-016-0060-1-4205 (Legal Fees).  The City will cover the $75,000 additional cost of the contract above the budgeted amount using budgeted contingency funds.  Sufficient funding was set aside within the FY2016 General Fund contingency budget specifically for the public defender contract if additional funds were needed.

The City Council has approved the use of contract Public Defender Services for the last 20 years.

1.)  Reject proposals as submitted and provide services by other means.  This will require the appointment of individual attorneys to each case that qualifies for legal representation at least on a temporary basis.  Each attorney will in turn bill for their respective time on a particular case.  This will most likely result in a higher overall cost for public defender services. 
2.)  Reject proposals as submitted and go out with another competitive Request for Proposals.  
3.)  Bring the contract in-house with the hiring of attorneys employed by the City. 

The City's Procurement Section conducted a Request for Proposals (RFP) and there were two (2) local Flagstaff law firms that responded: Harris & Winger, P.C. and Kaiser Law Group/Antol and Hance.  The evaluation committee was comprised of five (5) evaluators who evaluated and scored each proposal according to the evaluation criteria outlined in the RFP document. 

Base on the overall scoring results, Harris & Winger scored the highest, as they provided the best overall proposal that was responsive to the RFP and was determined to be in the best interest of the City.

Harris & Winger, P.C. has extensive experience defending the rights of people arrested and accused of criminal offenses.  This firm has served as the Public Defender for the City for the past 15 years.  This contract will allow for the continuance of a solid relationship with the City Court administration.

This contract will provide Public Defender Services for individuals who otherwise could not afford legal representation.

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