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HomeMy WebLinkAbout4 -6039 Amend. 3 2023 LaCross and Murphy PLLC Amend 3 - OPD funding (Leg1 Public Defense Services – LaCross & Murphy, PLLC AMENDMENT 3 OF THE AGREEMENT FOR CITY OF BREMERTON PUBLIC DEFENSE SERVICES LaCross & Murphy, PLLC This Amendment specifically amends the professional services agreement made and entered into by and between the City of Bremerton (“the City”), a Washington municipal corporation and LaCross & Murphy, PLLC, a Professional Limited Liability Corporation (“Public Defender”), whose address is 559 Bay Street Port Orchard, Washington 98366, on November 19th, 2019, City of Bremerton contract number 6039. WHEREAS, the City has solicited legal services via the Public Defense Services Request for Proposal which closed on August 12, 2019, and LaCross & Murphy, PLLC is the awarded responder to this proposal, and WHEREAS the City desires to have legal services, as described in the August 12th, 2019, Request for proposal and this Agreement, performed for indigent persons legally entitled to appointed representation in the City of Bremerton, by Public Defender as an independent contractor, and WHEREAS, the City and the Public Defender agree that any and all funds provided pursuant to this Agreement are provided for the sole purpose of provision of legal services to indigent persons prosecuted with crimes in Bremerton Municipal Court, WHEREAS the parties wish to extend the term of this agreement and agree that all provisions in the Agreement shall remain in full force and effect except as expressly modified by this document; and WHEREAS, on November 19, 2021, the City and the Public Defender agreed to amend the original agreement updating the Definitions, Scope of Work, Defense Standards, Performance and Qualifications and extending the term of the agreement until December 31, 2022; and WHEREAS, on October 13, 2022, the City and the Public Defender agreed to amend the original agreement and current amendments, to update the Public Defense Standards, the Performance and Qualifications standards, the Payment requirements, and the term of the agreement extending the agreement until December 31, 2024; and WHEREAS, the City and the Public Defender further agree that a mutual benefit would arise from updating Section 2 Public Defense Standards, Section 5 Performance and Qualifications, Section 6 payment, and other employment requirements of the agreement,; NOW, THEREFORE, in consideration of the mutual benefits to be derived, the promises and covenants contained herein, and other good and valuable consideration, the parties agree as follows: 1. SECTION 2: PUBLIC DEFENSE STANDARDS is amended by deleting it in its entirety, and replacing it with the following: DocuSign Envelope ID: B3D8EF9E-0BAA-4CBD-83BF-2B1C59AA5901 2 Public Defense Services – LaCross & Murphy, PLLC The City adopts the following standards for the delivery of Public Defense Services, pursuant to RCW 10.101.030: A. Compensation of Counsel: Compensation of counsel shall be in accordance with the provisions set forth in sections 4 and 6 of this agreement. B. Duties and Responsibilities of Counsel: The duties and responsibilities of counsel shall be in accordance with this agreement. C. Caseload Limits: Public Defender will accept all caseloads for Bremerton misdemeanor cases, except cases in which there is a conflict of interest, and following six to eight months after the beginning of the term of this Agreement, shall review the case assignments with the City to evaluate and establish caseload limits, whether on a weighted basis or not, to meet the new case limit requirements set forth in Exhibit A. Case assignments are anticipated to exceed 1000 non-weighted cases per year. D. Responsibility for Expert Witness and Investigator Fees: After approval by the Court, expert witness and investigator fees will be paid by the City. E. Attorneys and Staff: The Public Defender shall provide, at a minimum, one full- time attorney and one full-time paraprofessional staff person to provide services pursuant to this Agreement. F. Supervision: The Public Defender shall provide supervising attorneys at the following standards: one supervisor for every two attorneys. Supervisors shall ensure all new associates have been properly trained and are prepared to appear at the Bremerton Municipal Court and shall appear in court to assist in training of new associates as necessary. A supervising attorney hired after the effective date of this agreement shall have at least three (3) years’ experience in criminal law. G. New Standards: The Public Defender shall comply with the current standards for Indigent Defense adopted by the Washington State Supreme Court, attached hereto as Amended Exhibit A and incorporated herein by this reference. 2. SECTION 3: TERM is amended by deleting it in its entirety, and replacing it with the following: The term of this agreement shall be extended from the thirty-first (31st) day to December 2024 until the thirty-first (31st) day of December 2025, unless extended or terminated earlier pursuant to the terms and conditions of this Agreement. The effective date of these changes shall be upon full execution of this amendment. 3. SECTION 5: PERFORMANCE AND QUALIFICATIONS is amended by deleting it in its entirety and replacing it with the following: A. Practice Standards and Records 1. The Public Defender shall ensure that all attorneys, paraprofessional staff and supervisors shall maintain contemporaneous records of all legal services provided on a specific DocuSign Envelope ID: B3D8EF9E-0BAA-4CBD-83BF-2B1C59AA5901 3 Public Defense Services – LaCross & Murphy, PLLC case. The records shall provide a factual description of the work done and shall be sufficiently detailed to allow monitoring of legal service activity by the Contract Administrator, subject to any ethical obligations of the Public Defender. 2. Upon closing a case, all attorney, para-professional and supervisor files associated with the case shall be cross referenced and accessible as a whole for monitoring by the Contract Administrator, subject to any ethical obligations of the Public Defender. 3. The Public Defender shall establish practice standards to address the following substantive areas of Agreement compliance. The practice standards shall set objective expectations for each position and shall be measurable by objective means. With each practice standard, the Public Defender shall include a procedure for monitoring compliance with the standard. Practice standards should address the following areas and be available upon request: a. Attorney practice, including but not limited to; i. Lawyer-client relationship, initial case actions, investigation and preparation, preliminary hearings; disposition without trial; trial; post-conviction or fact finding, and any other areas of attorney practice deemed appropriate by Public Defender. ii. Attorney use of paraprofessionals and expert service. b. Paraprofessional practice. c. Supervision of attorneys and paraprofessionals. 4. The Public Defender agrees that, within available resources, reasonable efforts will be made by the Public Defender to keep the initial attorney assigned to a client throughout any case in which representation is undertaken. The Public Defender is not prohibited from rotating attorneys or from assigning a single attorney to handle various aspects of legal proceedings for all indigent persons where such method of assignment is the most reasonable method of obtaining effective legal representation for indigent persons. 5. A member of the Public Defender staff shall contact any assigned in-custody criminal defendant and obtain fundamental intake information for the bond hearing within one (1) working day from notification to the Public Defender of the assignment of the case and the in-custody status of the client. This provision applies to clients in custody at any facility within Kitsap County. 6. The Public Defender office shall send an official letter to make contact with all assigned clients within five (5) working days from initial appointment date. 7. The Bremerton City Attorney’s Office or designee is responsible for making a copy of discovery available to the Public Defender. The Public Defender shall request discovery as soon as possible after case assignment but no later than three (3) business days of the assignment, whether initial or subsequent, on any case. The Public Defender shall obtain a copy of discovery at arraignment if available. The Public Defender agrees that discovery may be provided in electronic format. 8. Discovery shall be reviewed within five (5) days after receipt for purposes of determining any conflicts of interest. The Public Defender shall notify the Contract Administrator immediately of any conflict of interest as defined by the Washington State Rules DocuSign Envelope ID: B3D8EF9E-0BAA-4CBD-83BF-2B1C59AA5901 4 Public Defense Services – LaCross & Murphy, PLLC of Professional Conduct. The Public Defender shall provide the Contract Administrator with a written explanation stating the basis for the conflict in its notification, in addition to the required oral or written request to withdraw presented to the court. 9. The Public Defender shall establish and enforce policies and procedures to ensure that attorney time and other Defender resources funded by this Agreement shall only be used for work which is authorized by this Agreement. 10. The Public Defender shall ensure that a preliminary written response to any written complaints concerning services provided by the employees of the Defender or the Defender itself shall be submitted to the Contract Administrator within three (3) working days of the date the complaint is received by the Public Defender. Written complaints include e-mail communications from the Contract Administrator. The Contract Administrator shall copy the supervising attorney on any complaints sent to the Public Defender. 11. The Public Defender shall establish policies and procedures for pro-bono work provided by staff of the Public Defender. These policies and procedures shall assure that any such pro bono work is not provided to the exclusion or detriment of legal services that are the subject of this Agreement. 12. The Public Defender or his attorneys shall not provide transportation to any client assigned to the public defender pursuant to this Agreement. B. Minimum Attorney Qualifications: 1. Every attorney providing indigent defense services must be a licensed member of the Washington State Bar and be a member in good standing of the Bar. 2. Every Public Defender attorney shall satisfy the minimum requirements for practicing law in Washington as determined by the Washington Supreme Court; seven (7) hours of each year's required continuing legal education credits shall be in courses relating to criminal law practice or other areas of law in which the Public Defender provides legal services to clients under the terms of this Agreement or as otherwise required by the Washington State Office of Public Defense. 3. The Public Defender may employ interns pursuant to Admission to Practice Rule (APR) 9. No more than 5% of the cases handled by the Public Defender may be assigned to Rule 9 interns. However, Rule 9 interns may not be used to supplant the services of an attorney assigned by the Public Defender to perform the services of this Agreement. 4. The Public Defender attorneys who supervise the misdemeanor attorneys must have at least three years of criminal defense experience in superior, district or municipal courts in Washington State. 5. Unless prior written approval has been granted by the Contract Administrator, no attorney may provide services under this Agreement if that attorney has been removed from representation in a case for failure to perform basic services necessary to the case or to the client, or in any manner has been found to be ineffective on appeal by either an ethics panel or by an appellate court. DocuSign Envelope ID: B3D8EF9E-0BAA-4CBD-83BF-2B1C59AA5901 5 Public Defense Services – LaCross & Murphy, PLLC C. Evaluations: The Public Defender Supervisor, or his/her designee, shall evaluate the professional performance of Public Defender attorneys and paraprofessional staff annually. Attorney evaluations should include monitoring of time and caseload records, review of case files, quality of case preparation, as well as in-court observation. Paraprofessional evaluations shall be sufficiently comprehensive to assess the quality of the actual work performed. The Contractor shall submit to the City a summary report of the annual attorney performance evaluations. The Contractor shall make available to the City its evaluation criteria and evidence evaluations were conducted, although all evaluations are to be confidential between the Contractor's director and the Contractor attorney. 4. SECTION 6: PAYMENT is amended by deleting in its entirety, and replacing it with the following: A. The City shall pay the Public Defender for the services as specified in Section 4, Scope of Work, in the amount not to exceed $292,000.00 annually. Payments will be made in equal monthly payments. B. The City will pay the Public Defender a flat monthly fee of $24,083.33 by the thirtieth (30) working day of the following month. C. In the event of failure to comply with any items and conditions of this Agreement or to provide in any manner the work or services as agreed to herein, the City reserves the right to withhold any payment until the City is satisfied that corrective action has been taken or completed. This option is in addition to and not in lieu of the City’s right to termination as provided in Section 13 of this Agreement. D. Adjustment. By July 31st of the Calendar year the Public Defender and the Contracts Administrator shall review the year-to-date case assignment numbers (including all "court time" counts) and create an estimate of year end numbers. If it appears the estimated annual case load will result in an excess of 1,000 cases (pursuant to Exhibit A and Section 2. E of this agreement), these cases will be offered to the firm of LaCross and Murphy, PLLC, the Public Defender. If the Public Defender is able to accept additional caseload, they shall notify the Contracts Administrator of the estimated number of cases they can accept. If the Public Defender is unable to accept these cases due to caseload limits, they shall be assigned to another firm. E. Auxiliary benefits. In addition to the flat fee compensation, the City will reimburse required attorney training courses up to $2,166 annually per attorney and the City will reimburse Public Defender for associated Attorney’s Washington State Bar fees and dues up to $500 annually per employee. The auxiliary benefits shall not exceed a total amount of $8,000 annually and will be paid on a reimbursement basis for actual costs incurred. Reimbursement will be provided when an invoice and satisfactory support is received by the City. The Public Defender shall submit regular billing statements detailing work performed and DocuSign Envelope ID: B3D8EF9E-0BAA-4CBD-83BF-2B1C59AA5901 6 Public Defense Services – LaCross & Murphy, PLLC amount charged on each task or portion thereof. The descriptions shall conform to and fall within the categories set out in herein. Upon receipt of a conforming billing statement, the City shall promptly process payment. PROVIDED, HOWEVER, the City reserves the right to prioritize scoped work and accelerate and/or delay work tasks under the time frame set forth herein. Public Defender shall not perform work beyond the Scope of Work, nor shall be compensated for such work, unless the Scope of Work or amount of compensation is modified pursuant to this Agreement. Public Defender shall only be compensated for Auxiliary benefits if requested. If a billing statement does not conform to this Agreement, the City may withhold payment until the statement is brought into compliance. Such withholding does not relieve Public Defender of its obligations under this Agreement. Such auxiliary benefits will be contingent upon the ongoing award of the Washington State Office of Public Defense grant award for both 2024 and 2025. 5. SECTION 7: REPORTING REQUIREMENTS: is amended by deleting it in its entirety, and replacing it with the following: Case Management System: The Public Defender will use a case management system that will allow them to file the reports described below. Reporting: The Public Defender will provide the Contract Administrator monthly reports within forty-five (45) working days after the close of each calendar month in acceptable format as follows: Report Title Due Date Monthly Court Case activity reports including attorney assignments and hearings held Monthly (45 working days after the close of each calendar month) Year-end reports, Annual Case assignment review, additional summaries, other reports or documents as requested by the Contract Administrator with reasonable notice Due no later than January 31st following the year of service. These reports must contain:  Defendant’s name  Case number(s)  Criminal charges filed  Disposition of each charge  Number of court hearings  Number of appeals filed annually  Defendant’s jail custody status prior to sentencing DocuSign Envelope ID: B3D8EF9E-0BAA-4CBD-83BF-2B1C59AA5901 7 Public Defense Services – LaCross & Murphy, PLLC  Bench Trial, Jury Trial, Plea or Dismissal  Assigned Attorney(s) name(s)  Date case assigned  The number of non-public defense service cases and public defense cases provided to a different contracted entity, by attorney The City of Bremerton, or any of its duly authorized representatives, shall have access to any such books, records and documents for inspection, audit and copying. The report is due on or before the forty-fifth (45th) working day after the last day of the month of service. Payment may be withheld if reports are not submitted on time. The Public Defender will immediately notify the Contract Administrator in writing when it becomes aware that a complaint lodged with the Bar Association has resulted in reprimand, suspension, or disbarment of an attorney providing services under this Agreement. Public Defender accepts all requirements of this Amendment by endorsing below. Public Defender further agrees that this Amendment constitutes full and final settlement of all of the Public Defender’s claims for contract time and for all costs of any kind, including without limitation, costs of delays related to any work either covered or affected by this amendment, claims related to on-site or home office overhead, or lost profits. This Amendment does not limit the City’s right to bring a claim for past performance. The undersigned public defender approves the foregoing Amendment as to the changes, if any, in the contract price specified for each item, including any and all supervision costs and other miscellaneous costs relating to the change in work, and as to the extension of time allowed, if any, for completion of the entire work due to said Amendment to the original agreement. This document will become a supplement of the agreement and all provisions will apply hereto. It is understood that this Amendment to the agreement shall be effective when approved by the City of Bremerton. The parties whose names appear below warrant that they are authorized to enter into an Amendment that is binding on the parties of this contract. In addition, Public Defender warrants that it has or will inform the surety of this change, and shall take appropriate action to modify any bonds required under the contract to address this change. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, in consideration of the terms, conditions, and covenants contained herein, or attached and incorporated and made a part hereof, the parties have executed this Agreement by having their representatives affix their signatures below. CITY OF BREMERTON LACROSS & MURPHY, PLLC GREG WHEELER, MAYOR By: ____________________ DocuSign Envelope ID: B3D8EF9E-0BAA-4CBD-83BF-2B1C59AA5901 Jacob Murphy. ATTY 8 Public Defense Services – LaCross & Murphy, PLLC Its: Date: Date: APPROVED AS TO FORM: _______________________ Kylie J. Finnell, City Attorney ATTEST: ______________________ Angela Hoover, City Clerk DocuSign Envelope ID: B3D8EF9E-0BAA-4CBD-83BF-2B1C59AA5901 Managing Partner 12/26/202312/26/2023