The Levelland Hockley County Commissioners Court held a regular meeting on Monday to discuss the potential action not to renew the amended interlocal agreement for the establishment of the High Plains Regional Public Defender’s Office (HPRPDO).
The purpose of the original agreement was to fund, oversee and improve public defense in Texas. The HPRPDO was to show that public defender offices can improve indigent defense quality, constitutional compliance, accountability and budget predictability.
The program originally included 13 counties in the potential HPRPDO. The counties included: Bailey, Briscoe, Castro, Cochran, Dickens, Floyd, Hale, Hockley, Motely, Parmer, Swisher, Terry and Yoakum. Hockley County Judge Sharla Baldridge offered her thoughts on the program going forward.
“I can not in good conscience ask y’all to keep funding this, because I don’t think it’s accomplishing what it was structured for,” Baldridge stated to the commissioners.
The HPRPDO as of late, has been having issues with staffing and when people do get hired they end up leaving. In June, the office asked to put a hold on court appointments until the end of June because they were getting too many cases. Now the office recently sent a letter to the court indicating and asking for a six month pause on appointments.
An agreement between the two states the Court does not stop paying the office for six months even if the office is not taking appointments. Meaning, when the HPRPDO is put on hold for court-appointed attorneys, the court is still paying. The interlocal agreement also states that the office must take 85% of the appointments, but the letter to the court has indicated that the office only has to take 80%. Whereas Hockley County is at 63% according to the letter.
The county entered an interlocal agreement for the establishment of the HPRPDO on October 26, 2023, with an amended interlocal agreement for the establishment of the HPRPDO on August 14, 2024.
“The law delegates that the defendants are entitled to representation and I believe that the defendants and others are entitled to consistent representation,” Baldridge said. “What I mean by that is people don’t go to that office and see a different attorney every time because there’s so much turnover.”
Marie Galindo, chief public defender of the HPRPDO, spoke to the Court in the effort to keep funding going for the office.
The Commissioners’ referred to a letter that indicated that Galindo reduced the number of attorneys that were originally agreed to her for the 13 counties so that she could continue paying the attorneys. Galindo did acknowledge the actions detailed in the letter.
The office has been taking cases since December 6, 2024 and the office claims it has lowered repeat offenders.
“It’s not just about going to court, seeing people at the jail and getting them out,” Galindo said. “It’s also about assuring the future safety of this community so that there are not repeat offenders.”
Galindo informed the court that if there is a pause in appointments there are no expenditures on certain salaries as the office rebuilds, so the court isn’t paying for salaries of the positions that aren’t filled.
Galindo specified that her attorneys are exhausted, but she does not want to stop working on cases. She wants to continue but with a six month pause in appointments.
Including Galindo, there are three other attorneys working at the office. The HPRPDO staff was to originally consist of a chief defender attorney, 10 staff attorneys, two investigators, two social workers, two support staff members and an office manager.
“They’re traveling through dead time from Terry to Yoakum then to Parmer all in one day. You can’t work as a lawyer when you’re doing that,” Galindo said. “These cases are too important to the community and people’s lives. I need data and I have an ethical obligation to have that data.”
When Galindo sent the letter to Baldridge asking for a pause the office had a total of 517 cases and now the office has 507. In Hockley County alone there’s 94 cases. In misdemeanors, there are 52 and in felonies there are 43. It was stated that in other counties since January the cases were coming in above projections.
“Part of the problem is we didn’t factor in certain formulas like travel,” Galindo said. “It was too much and now it seems like no one is showing up. Give me a chance to tinker with the numbers and give this a chance to work.”
Baldridge stated that since the office is not getting any appointments with the pause, it’s a delay in justice. She added that her rotation of attorneys will take cases everyday and outside of a trial, they don’t ask for a pause in appointments.
“That’s a delay in the judicial process, in which nobody has the right to delay the judicial process,” said Baldridge. “With rotation attorneys they keep going, you can tinker with numbers but you can’t tinker with tax payer dollars.”
Galindo stated to the Court that she was promised 20 people to work in the office, but Baldridge refuted that the agreement stated 11. Galindo noted that once she relocated to Levelland, other competitors were beating her out in salaries given to her employees. The HPRPDO was also offered a grant which was not enough to cover staffing expenses. Overall, Galindo was losing people faster than she could keep. This led to her having to cut people from her group.
“I had to slash two positions,” Galindo said. “I had to do it within budget for the fiscal year I came in under.”
Wrapping up the meeting, Baldridge emphasised that the idea alone is good on paper but in reality it just isn’t working.
“I appreciate that she goes off the data and she’s really trying. However, at the end of the day I don’t see any of it changing. If I could see it changing things may be different,” explained Baldridge.
The main concern for Baldridge and the court was losing grant funding because of the office not being able to keep up and the taxpayers bearing the cost.
At the end of the meeting, Commissioner Larry Carter made a motion not to renew the agreement, the motion was seconded by Commissioner Alan Wisdom and unanimously carried by the Court.