The latest development in the controversy over changing how poor Philadelphians get their lawyers was City Council’s passage Thursday of a legislative package to establish financial and quality-control auditing requirements for some contracts.
The next question is whether Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter will veto the legislation.
If Nutter signs the legislation, then one piece of legislation involves a ballot question to be put to Philadelphia voters on whether City Council should have to approve contracts for indigent representation of more than $100,000.
Nutter’s administration wants to change from a model in which individual attorneys get court appointments in criminal and family-court cases in which the Defender Association of Philadelphia, the Support Center for Child Advocates or Community Legal Services have a conflict of interest. Instead, Nutter wants to contract with a new for-profit law firm to handle the work.
Councilman Denny O’Brien, the main opponent to the mayoral plan, said in his official remarks “I do not believe that every contract should require City Council approval. However, I do strongly believe that any contract dealing with an individual’s constitutional rights is important enough to require Council approval."
The plan to award the contract for a new Office of Conflict Counsel to Philadelphia attorney Daniel-Paul Alva was scuttled because Alva not have the same name in place at the start of the process as at the end of the process. So the contract couldn't be issued legally.
By making the legislative threshold $100,000, O’Brien’s legislative package would not involve review of the contracts with individual private attorneys. The Defender Association, the Support Center and CLS also were carved out because they have been contracting with the city for many years, O’Brien said.
The Legal Intelligencer’s P.J. D’Annunzio and the Philadelphia Inquirer also reported on the development.
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