Highlights of the November 21 Board Meeting
Executive Director Alice Paine reported that the KCBA has been asked to consider a study of compensation to public defenders for representation in persistent offender (“three strikes”) cases. Trustee Anne Daly noted that the current compensation is based on each defender spending 150 hours per case, per year. The King County Council passed an ordinance authorizing the current funding mechanism for 2008, but would like to study the actual hours required per case to determine the appropriate billing system and payment for defense services. Daly will provide a copy of the budget proviso document to the Board.
In conjunction with the quadrennial Judicial Evaluation Survey (please see story on Page 1 and results on Pages 16 and 17), the Board voted to approve a recommendation from the Judicial Evaluation Committee to provide anonymous comments by survey respondents to individual judges and to provide all comments to the presiding judge with all identifiers of respondents removed. No record of the comments will be kept by the Board in order to ensure confidentiality.
The Board accepted the recommendation that Michael Ditchik join the Board as the South District Trustee. Ditchik is a family law practitioner with Hanis Greaney PLLC in Kent and succeeds Mark Hillman, who resigned from the Board after being named a King County Superior Court commissioner. Ditchik joined the Board at its December 5 meeting.
The Board selected the Grand Hyatt Seattle Hotel as the site for the 2008 Annual Dinner on June 26.
Highlights of the December 5 Board Meeting
The Board passed a motion to adopt the Resolution on the Control of Marijuana, as written, recommending that marijuana should be regulated and taxed, and most criminal sanctions should be eliminated. (Please see the November issue of the Bar Bulletin for more information.)
Outgoing King County Superior Court Presiding Judge Michael Trickey and incoming Presiding Judge Bruce Hilyer presented a report regarding the court budget, facility and security issues.
President Eileen Concannon noted an expressed interest in the continued monitoring of the situation in Pakistan and maintaining the Board’s involvement in efforts to support the judiciary and to promote the rule of law. Nasir Saeed Sheikh, one of Pakistan’s three deputy attorneys general until his resignation in protest of President Musharraf’s suspension of Pakistan’s chief justice, and Professor Tayyab Mahmud of Seattle University School of Law presented the historical context and current insights into the crisis.
In other KCBA news, as requested by ABA President Bill Neukom, KCBA sponsored a march around the federal courthouse on November 6 in support of the Pakistani judges and lawyers, corresponding with marches held in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere around the U.S. There was significant local and national media coverage. (Please see related story and photos on Page 32.)
The Board held a meet-and-greet with KCBA’s new Executive Director Andy Prazuch on November 29, welcoming him to Seattle and to KCBA.
These selected issues were before the Board of Trustees at its November 21 and December 5 meetings. Complete minutes of these meetings are available from the KCBA office.
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Joan Tierney, KCBA secretary/trustee, is the associate director of the Seattle University School of Law Center for Professional Development.
