12-18-1990 - Laserfiche WebLink

Comm. Minutes--December 18, 1990 587 motion carried unanimously. At the suggestion of Mr. Montplaisir, December 31st was set as the deadline for commissioners not on the committee to express their concerns to Mr. Montplaisir. 21. COUNTY-WIDE PAYMENT SYSTEM, Recommendation to review Mr. Shannon suggested that the county coordinator and model project coordinator review a county-wide payment system with a preliminary report to the Commission by the end of January. Mike Montplaisir said there are eight or nine places where people have to pay money to the county as obligated by State law. Consideration might be given to having a central location where people could pay a court fine or child support without going directly to that office and possibly without entering the Courthouse if they could pay through a drive-up window, for instance. Mr. Wieland asked if the statues would permit this, and Mr. Montplaisir said this is part of what the county coordinator and model project coordinator would investigate with the states attorney. Mr. Eckert said he would like some time to find out more about this, and he would like to do some research himself. Mr. Shannon said he will schedule Mr. Eckert for a report on January 8th. 22. MUNICIPAL COURT TRANSFER CASES, 1991 agreements delayed The states attorney said the accounting hasn't been completed on municipal court transfer cases, and the county may ask for a percentage increase in the agreements with Fargo, West Fargo and Casselton. He suggested delaying these contracts until a January meeting. 23. PUBLIC DEFENDER & INDIGENT DEFENSE, Contracts discussed Commissioners received a letter from County Court Judges Dawson and Racek recommending contracts with Keith Trader and Mark Beauchene for the position of indigent public defenders for Cass County at $36,000 per year each and continuation of the public defender agreement with the Ottmar Firm in Jamestown for mental health proceedings at $4,620 per year. Steve Mottinger was present and said he has served Cass County Court as public defender since 1983. He said he has never been approached by the County Judges or anyone else in regard to non-performance of contract duties. He asked the Commission to go against the recommendation of the County Judges and award him a contract for public defender for the coming year. If the problem was in scheduling or the case load, he thinks he could have worked it out. Mr. Eckert wants to know why Mr. Mottinger wasn't recommended for one of the public defender contracts. Mr. Shannon suggested approving the contracts as recommended by the judges, subject to Mr. Eckert meeting with the judges; or the Commission could ask the judges to attend the meeting at this time. Mr. Sondrall thought he would have heard some complaints if Mr. Mottinger was not doing a good job. Mr. Shannon suggested asking the county judges to attend the meeting, but they had left the building for lunch by this time. It was the consensus of the commissioners to delay the public defender contracts until after lunch to give interested commissioners an opportunity to visit with the county judges.