Public Defender Goes Low-Tech Again -- Spends at Least $5K To Blanket S.F. In Fliers
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| Richard Bui |
| Public Defender Jeff Adachi has been vociferously publicly defending his own office |
Public Defender Jeff Adachi made another foray into public pamphleteering this weekend, firing off roughly 62,000 large, glossy fliers imploring San Franciscans to pester their supervisors into restoring his imperiled budget at tomorrow's meeting.
The PD spent at least $5,000 in leftover campaign funds printing out the mailers, and hasn't yet gotten back his postage bill -- though "the people at the post office are very happy." For Adachi, it's the latest foray into staving off Mayor Gavin Newsom's proposed $1.9 million in cuts to his office. Adachi's argument all along has been that cutting his staff and assigning cases to private attorneys will cost the city more in the long run.
A recent audit of the public defender's office by the city controller didn't exactly come to the same conclusion -- it found that the small pool of private attorneys handling cases where city representation would present a confilct of interest certainly don't save the city money, but don't cost much more than public defenders. Adachi, however, claims that his attorneys are willing to handle far more cases than private attorneys -- 240 per year, on average -- making them more cost-efficient in the long-run.
Last month, following a 4-1 vote in the Board of Supervisors' Budget and Finance Committee to re-allocate $600,000 to his office, Supervisors John Avalos and David Chiu moved to take half of that and send it to the District Attorney. "I would say that some kind of deal was made," alleges Adachi -- and he's not the only one.
If that's the case, It will be interesting to see which supervisors vote in favor of sending Adachi's office more funds -- and who doesn't -- at tomorrow's meeting.
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