Huge New Indigent Defense Grant Would Expand Public Defender's Office to Include Abilene Area Counties

 

SAN ANGELO – The new Concho Valley Public Defenders Office could expand to include several Big Country Counties including the Abilene area if Tom Green County Commissioners accept a new Texas Indigent Defense Commission grant Tuesday.  

The creation of the Concho Valley Public Defender's Office was made possible in the summer of 2021 by a Texas Indigent Defense Commission (TIDC) Improvement Grant award in the amount of $2,276,676.00.  The grant provided funding not only for start up costs to renovate space for the office but also for salaries and benefits. 

As we reported earlier, Tom Green County joined with Coke, Concho, Irion, Runnels, Schleicher and Sterling counties in the historic shift away from the assigned counsel model where private attorneys are assigned to indigent defendants to the Public Defender model where full-time, salaried attorneys are appointed, supervised, and paid by an office that includes investigators and support staff.

The Commissioners Court agenda for Tuesday calls for the Court to, "Consider accepting the grant from the Texas Indigent Defense Commission to expand the Concho Valley Public Defender's Office into Taylor, Callahan, Coleman, Jones and Shackelford counties, creating the newly authorized positions and adopting the budget." 

The amount of the grant to expand the Public Defender's Office was not published in the agenda.  

The Court will also consider accepting the modification of the Sustainability grant from the TIDC for the Concho Valley Public Defender's Office, creating the newly authorized positions, and approve a budget amendment to fund it.  

According to information from the county, the TIDC grant covers 80% of the cost the first year and 66% of the cost each following year.  

The Tom Green County Commissioners Court meets in regular session at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday in the court meeting room on the second floor of the Keyes Building downtown.  The court hearing is open to the public.  

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