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IRON MOUNTAIN -- Dickinson, Iron and Delta counties will receive a state grant to form a regional organization to provide attorneys for indigent defendants.
The goal is to improve services and reduce administrative overhead.
Each county now receives an individual Michigan Indigent Defense Commission grant, but it's hoped that a tri-county system will make a larger pool of attorneys available to represent defendants.
Attorneys Daryl Waters and Andrea Mashak-Lassila addressed the Dickinson County Board in March to promote the regional plan and gain permission to file an application. They discussed the concept with the board again Monday, noting that counties throughout the Upper Peninsula are increasingly forced to recruit attorneys from outside the region, and in some case from Lower Michigan.
Waters, who is Iron County's chief public defender, explained that beginning Oct. 1 Iron County will serve as the administrative and compliance hub for the program. This eliminates duplicative work for Dickinson and Delta counties, which will continue to contribute only their statutorily required local share toward services, he said.
Iron Mountain attorney Mashak-Lassila said that a few years ago more than six local attorneys regularly accepted court-appointed cases, but that number has dropped to only two or three.
A regional approach should help retain more attorneys in the U.P., she said.
MIDC was created by legislation in 2013 after an advisory commission recommended improvements to the state's legal system. The MIDC Act requires the state to fund MIDC so it can provide grants to ensure that effective counsel is delivered to all indigent adults.
Waters said a regional plan should also help the counties comply with Senate Bill 81, presented this week to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. The legislation expands the responsibilities of the MIDC to include overseeing legal defense for indigent youth.
A final contract for the regional model will soon be presented to the individual county boards.
In other action, the Dickinson board:
-- Adopted a policy to establish uniform procedures for the collection of funds received for county-sponsored events and activities. The policy directs that registration fees, ticket sales, sponsorships, donations, permits, licenses and other event-related revenues be made payable to the county and not any individual.
-- Adopted a policy to establish fees as permitted by state statute when providing enhanced access to public records. It allows for fees in certain circumstances that ensure ownership of county-created intellectual property is protected and maintained, including output from a Geographic Information System.
-- Heard Commissioner Joe Stevens report that the Dickinson County Land Bank expects to put a newly built home on Lehman Avenue in Iron Mountain up for sale at the end of the year.
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Jim Anderson can be reached at 906-774-2772, ext. 85226, or janderson@ironmountaindailynews.com.