Letter to the Editor

Editor,

This week our Hays County Commissioners must decide how to most prudently invest residents' tax dollars by finalizing the 2022 budget –– when it comes to the long-discussed and regrettably delayed pursuit of a Public Defender Office, the solution is obvious.

Simply put, a Public Defender Office is a superior model of providing high-quality legal defense for impoverished citizens in our community.

This is not a partisan issue. I am not only a longtime court-appointed attorney in Hays County, who has witnessed firsthand the injustices visited upon our county's poor from the current system's inefficiencies, I am also a member of our county's Republican Executive Committee.

In March, in unanimous fashion, our Commissioners Court, primarily composed of members of my political party, saw fit to pursue a grant from the State of Texas in order to create a Public Defender Office. It was the right decision.

Unfortunately, the grant required judicial signatures to move forward. For reasons unbeknownst to the public, nor to me, the vast majority of judges refused to sign.

However, I believe Commissioners Lon Shell and Debbie Gonzales Ingalsbe, who serve as chair and vice-chair of the county's Criminal Justice Commission respectively, have studied our local legal system closely and realize our expensive, inefficient and unjust operations in Hays County need urgent transformation. I believe that change is a Public Defender Office.

Following three years of examination of the Public Defender model, a few months ago the county Criminal Justice Commission also voted overwhelmingly to pursue the office.

It's sad that until now, commissioners court has been content to misspend several million dollars annually on jail outsourcing for a population that is almost entirely individuals awaiting their day in court, those simply too poor to afford bail, instead of people actually convicted of a crime.

Until now, our commissioners court has proven unwilling to invest public monies into actually fixing our detestable de facto wealth-based detention system.

A Public Defender Office is an exceedingly more prudent use of taxpayer dollars, and it's simply the right thing to do for the people and taxpayers of Hays County.

This week, we look to Commissioners Shell and Gonzales Ingalsbe to exhibit real leadership by correcting our misguided path and fully funding the $2.2 million Public Defender Office proposal, which will pay considerable dividends, both morally and fiscally, in the days to come.

Michael M. Lee, Esq.

San Marcos