IONIA — The Ionia County Board of Commissioners deliberated for about 50 minutes before approving in a split vote to provide state-mandated pay raises for attorneys in the county’s Public Defender Office.
The motion approved by the board will also increase the salaries of attorneys in the county’s Prosecutor’s Office so that both sides of the bench will be equally compensated.
The new salary for Chief Public Defender Walter Downes is $124,142.50 (up from the current salary of $97,911.84), while the senior public defender will get between $41.07 and $50.02 an hour (up from $34.27 and $41.95 an hour) and the assistant public defender will be paid between $37.06 and $45.38 an hour (up from $28.70 and $35.13 an hour).
According to Downes, Ionia County has been out of compliance with Michigan Indigent Defense Commission (MIDC) standards, a state law limiting attorney caseloads and mandating attorney salaries. A portion of the MIDC law dictates that public defender attorneys are paid at the same rate the Michigan Attorney General’s Office pays its assistant attorney generals. The state’s deadline to come into compliance on these issues is April 28. If Ionia County did not come into compliance by that date, the county public defender’s office would no longer qualify for the grant funding that allows them to function.
State grant money will pay for the salary increase for the public defender attorneys, but a pay increase for county prosecutors will be on the county’s tab.
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