A. The “public attorney workforce capacity building fund” is created in the state treasury to support efforts to increase the available workforce of public defenders and prosecutors, including initiatives to recruit and retain public defenders and prosecutors. The fund consists of appropriations, gifts, grants and donations. Money in the fund is subject to appropriation by the legislature. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining in the fund at the end of a fiscal year shall revert to the general fund unless an appropriation provides a different period for expenditure.

Ask a legal question, get an answer ASAP!
Click here to chat with a lawyer about your rights.

B. The department of finance and administration shall administer the fund to: (1)     provide grant disbursements pursuant to Subsection I of this section;

(2)     fund administrative costs necessary to carry out the provisions of this section, including such administrative costs that are necessary to evaluate the efficacy of initiatives implemented by grantees to increase the available workforce of public defenders and prosecutors; provided that the amount expended for administrative costs shall not exceed three percent of the total appropriations to the fund; and

(3)     fund statewide initiatives to increase the available workforce of public defenders and prosecutors undertaken by the public defender department or the administrative office of the district attorneys or in collaboration between both agencies, as approved by the committee, including conducting workload studies, the results of which shall be used by the committee to improve the structure and criteria of the provisions of this section and to develop recommendations from the committee for policy or program measures to be considered by the legislature; provided that the amount expended shall not exceed six percent of the total appropriations to the fund.

C. Disbursements from the fund shall be made on warrants drawn by the secretary of finance and administration pursuant to vouchers signed by the chair of the committee.

D. The “public attorney workforce capacity building fund committee” is created and is administratively attached to the department of finance and administration. The committee consists of the following four voting members:

(1)     two members who are employed by the administrative division of the public defender department, to be appointed by the chief public defender; and

(2)     two members who are employed by the administrative office of the district attorneys, to be appointed by the director of the administrative office of the district attorneys.

E. The committee shall elect a chair from among its membership. F. The committee shall:

(1)     conduct meetings once per year or more often as necessary to carry out its duties at the times and locations that the committee designates;

(2)     develop criteria for the awarding of grants as provided in Subsection K of this section;

(3)     periodically review the award criteria and recommend any amendments to the criteria based on the results of any workload studies or evaluations of grantee initiatives;

(4)     award grants to local offices of the public defender and local district attorney offices as provided in Subsection I of this section;

(5)     review and approve proposals for statewide initiatives as provided in Paragraph (3) of Subsection B of this section;

(6)     collect information about initiative expenditures from grantees as provided in Subsection N of this section;

(7)     report applicant and grantee information as provided in Subsection O of this section; and

(8)     disseminate information regarding the program and application process to all eligible entities.

G. A majority of the members of the committee constitutes a quorum for the transaction of business.

H. Administrative and other necessary support shall be provided to the committee by the department of finance and administration.

I. The committee may allocate:

(1)     up to twenty-five percent of the money in the fund, less administrative costs as provided in Paragraph (2) of Subsection B of this section and funds expended for statewide initiatives as provided in Paragraph (3) of Subsection B of this section, for grants awarded to entities whose primary jurisdiction is within a judicial district having a population of at least five hundred thousand according to the most recent federal decennial census;

(2)     up to twenty-six percent of the money in the fund, less administrative costs as provided in Paragraph (2) of Subsection B of this section and funds expended for

statewide initiatives as provided in Paragraph (3) of Subsection B of this section, for grants awarded to entities whose primary jurisdiction is within a judicial district having a population of at least two hundred fifteen thousand but less than five hundred thousand according to the most recent federal decennial census; and

(3)     any amount of available money remaining in the fund for grants awarded to entities whose primary jurisdiction is within a judicial district having a population of less than two hundred fifteen thousand according to the most recent federal decennial census.

J. For purposes of Subsection I of this section, if applicants whose primary jurisdictions are within different judicial districts apply jointly for a grant, the applicants, if awarded a grant, would each receive an award amount based on that individual applicant’s judicial district.

K. The committee shall develop grant criteria to guide its determination for the awarding of a grant, and the criteria shall:

(1)     take into consideration an applicant’s attorney vacancy rate; (2)     take into consideration an applicant’s attorney caseload;

(3)     take into consideration cost of living and comparable market compensation for an applicant’s locality;

(4)     take into consideration crime rates in an applicant’s locality;

(5)     take into consideration the number of attorneys employed by an applicant; (6)     prioritize, in its consideration, an applicant’s proposal for initiatives that target the recruitment of candidates who are law school students, attorneys who are not currently employed or contracted by the state or attorneys who are not currently employed in New Mexico;

(7)     prioritize, in its consideration, an applicant’s proposal for initiatives that include collaboration among public defender offices, district attorney offices and other criminal justice entities; and

(8)     prioritize, in its consideration, an applicant’s proposal for initiatives that will take place within a judicial district having existing pre-prosecution diversion programs or a plan to implement those programs within two fiscal years.

L. A grantee may use a grant award to:

(1)     provide a recruitment differential disbursement to newly hired attorneys, including a recruitment differential disbursement for relocation expenses; provided that the attorney remains employed as an attorney with that same agency for one additional year;

(2)     provide a retention differential disbursement to attorneys already employed by the applicant; provided that the attorney remains employed as an attorney with that same agency for one additional year;

(3)     implement professional development initiatives designed to recruit, train and retain attorneys; and

(4)     implement campaigns to recruit in-state and out-of-state candidates. M. A grantee shall not use a grant:

(1)     for recurring initiatives, except the grantee may use a grant for a recurring initiative if the grantee has provided a plan to replace nonrecurring funds with recurring funds to fund that initiative;

(2)     to create new attorney positions or fund the base salary of existing attorney positions; or

(3)     to contract with private attorneys for prosecution or defense services, except if the initiative is focused on increasing the number or capacity of private attorneys available to provide prosecution or defense services in a county or judicial district.

N. A grantee shall provide to the committee within ninety days of receiving a grant, and then every ninety days thereafter until the earliest of either the completion of the grantee’s initiative or all funds are expended, a report of the grantee’s expenditures for the grantee’s initiative. Any unexpended money remaining after the completion of the grantee’s initiative shall revert to the fund within sixty days of completion of the initiative.

O. The committee shall provide at least one annual report by November 1 of each fiscal year to the department of finance and administration and the legislative finance committee that contains:

(1)     applicant information, including information about the applicant agency, the grant amount requested and the title and description of the applicant’s proposed initiative;

(2)     individual grantee information, including information about the grantee’s judicial district location, the grant amount awarded and the title and description of the grantee’s initiative;

(3)     data collected and evaluations made by the department of finance and administration about the efficacy of the initiatives of prior award recipients; and

(4)     the status of any ongoing workload studies and the results of any workload studies completed since the time of the prior report.

P. As used in this section:

(1)     “committee” means the public attorney workforce capacity building fund committee; and

(2)     “fund” means the public attorney workforce capacity building fund.