San Francisco's Public Defender Still Trying to Make His Case

Constant Readers,

Public Defender Jeff Adachi popped up at public comment yesterday to complain about being treated like a waterboy by Supervisor Sean Elsbernd. Now, this all goes back to a request to fill two paralegal positions in the Public Defender’s office that was rejected by Mistermayor's office in October 2008 and then rejected again by the Board’s Budget and Finance Committee last month. At that meeting (which was a hoot!) Adachi dramatically claimed that without the new paralegals, he would be forced to send cases to private attorneys at a high cost to the City.

Elsbernd was not buying the notion that Adachi could hold a gun to the City's head and demand funding.

And the usually calm Budget Analyst Harvey Rose, for lack of a better term, lost his shit.

After the meeting, Elsbernd publicly questioned Adachi’s management skills and toyed with the idea of cutting all programs in the Public Defender’s office that are unrelated to actual legal defense. (Yeah, there are some!) At Tuesday’s meeting, Elsbernd announced that he would not dissect Adachi’s office this year because by the time any cuts are made, fiscal year 2008-09 would be over.

Instead Elsbernd has directed the Controller’s Office to don on a plastic glove and conduct a rather impolite examination of the Public Defender’s use of City funds. That info will be used to inform the hearings for the 2009-2010 budget. (Letter to the Controller here: Download Letter to Controller re Public Defender.)

The fact that Elsbernd had not privately approached Adachi about any of this is why Adachi was at public comment demanding respect.

Then the buzzer sounded. Like other members of the public, Adachi only had two minutes to speak and his time was up. Would this department head be allowed to continue?

Only if all the members of the Board agreed to let him finish.

Guess whose “no” vote ended Adachi’s speech? Also, if you want to see Adachi's "You're an asshole" look - wait until the end.

Ouch!

--Melissa

Comments

[generic]

wow.

just ... wow.

[Sweet Melissa]

Right?