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LISBON -- With the pending retirement of Attorney Frederick Naragon from the Criminal Defense Corp., the Columbiana County Commissioners approved an agreement on Wednesday with a newly formed organization known as the Columbiana County Defense League Inc.
Recently formed as a non-profit corporation, the CCDL Inc. was formed with Kelly Linger as president and Jennifer Gorby as the secretary/treasurer, according to Linger. Both are current members of the CDC.
The CCDL has agreed to provide services similar to what the CDC provided starting on Jan. 1, 2018 and continuing throughout the remainder of the year. The cost is not to exceed $499,000. The CCDL will be the appointed attorneys for the majority of cases for those unable to afford defense legal counsel in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court, County Municipal Court, Juvenile Court and East Liverpool Municipal Court.
About 90 percent of those appearing on charges in Columbiana County courtrooms normally require court-appointed legal counsel, according to estimates by Naragon.
With the conversion from the CDC to the CCDL under way at the end of the year, those currently with CDC-appointed attorneys will in most cases see no change, according to Linger. Many of the attorneys currently with the CDC are also planning to be involved in the CCDL, so they will maintain their clients. However, Linger said there are some instances where new attorneys will be replacing others not coming on board and those defendants may see a change in their defense attorney.
Commissioner Mike Halleck talked about the formation of the CDC 20 years ago, when he and Naragon were talking about ways to lower the cost of providing legal counsel to indigent defendants in the county. At the time, the program developed was "very innovative" Halleck said, noting many counties have now developed similar ideas.
Commissioners had announced in November they were seeking proposals from any group of attorneys interested in taking over the public defender services. He noted both Linger and Gorby, who were present at Wednesday's meeting both have experience working in that area.
"They were very kind to keep that at the same number as last year," Halleck said of the proposal before recommending commissioners vote to approve the contract.
In other matters:
-- Commissioners did not formally comment on a lawsuit reportedly being filed by Veterans Services Commission over budgeting requests for next year. However it was noted following the meeting, the VSC still has $105,000 remaining in its budgeted amount from this year and only $30,000 in known expenses through the remainder of 2017.
-- Commissioners were invited to flip pancakes on Feb. 10 by Stevie Halverstadt representing the Lisbon Landmark Foundation, which is organizing the annual Founders Day Breakfast through the Lisbon Area Chamber of Commerce.
-- Commissioners opened bids for contracts for financial transaction devices for the treasurer's office and additional bids for the purchase of slag, gravel, crushed limestone, ice control, gas, diesel fuel and kerosene. The details of the bids were forwarded to the treasurers office and the engineer's office, which will go over the bids which each had several parts.
-- Commissioners declined to have a planned executive session noting there was nothing new to report on the opioid lawsuit litigation.
djohnson@mojonews.com