Collins walks out of the room during the hearing on item 198!
Is Collins trying to make a statement when he walks out of the hearing on 11/6/07? Is he just too busy to listen to all of the testimony and discussions of item 198? Does Collins just not care about the Public Defenders Office or is it budget and management problems that he is not interested in? Is Collins district being properly represented when he is not in his hearing chair actively participating in possible solutions regarding item 198 or not voting on 6 separate amendments to the original proposed item 198?
Collins missed about half of hearing for item 198 that lasted for more than one hour!!! At times when he was there it looked like he was not even listening. Collins spoke up one time during the hearing with a different point of view than the other County Commissioners. Collins talked about the no tax increase pledge and how it was affecting the budget. I would guess that he means that if we could impose limitless taxes on the public, Clark County would have enough funds to hire enough attorneys for the Public Defender's office. I do give credit to Collins for bringing up the idea of who or what is causing the increased number of cases and why, but after he spoke he got up and left for most of the rest of the hearing.
No one spoke of looking into ways to speed up the disposition of the cases or are there more cases because the District Attorney's office is behind. What is an average time per case? Are cases being added that take more time per case or are more cases being added that take very little time? How could new technology speed up the process? Could the use of para-legals increase productivity? Everyone spoke of what a great job the Public Defender's Office does? Does anyone question the defendants to find out how they think the process could be better? How many cases take hardly any time because there is no activity on the case? Why does it seem that the Commission thinks that outside attorneys could not do a better job for less cost? Do all Public Defenders take the same average time per case or are some Public Defenders quicker at getting cases completed? What incentives are there for Public Defenders to finish cases faster? Who's job is it to increase productivity?
Our court system is broken and currently there seems to be no interest in really solving our court system problems.