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CASSCOUNlY GOVERNMENT ... State's Attorney Birch P. Burdick Assistant State's Attorneys: Mark R. Boening Tracy J. Peters Leah J. Viste Reid A. Brady Kara Schmitz Olson Jonathan H. P. Anderson Gary E. ElIren Gary L. Delorme Kimberlee J. Hegvik Cherie L. Clark Tristan J. Van de Streck Victim/Witness Coordinators: Brenda Olson.Wray Debbie Tibiatawski Check Division/ Restitution: Linda Warkin Charlotre Eversvik Box 2806 211 Ninth Street SOllth Fargo, North Dakota 58108 PH: 701.241.5850 Fax: 701.241.5838 MEMORANDUM TO: Cass County Commission Birch P. Burdick dY1. Cass County State's Attorney ~ July 16, 2007 FROM: DATE: RE: Tele-Interpreter Contract - Consent Agenda, July 16 ********************* A few months ago the Court system let attorneys know that it will 0 longer arrange and pay for interpreters for parties, unless it is for t~e criminal defendant. Accordingly, if the State has a witness in a criminal case who does not speak English, we need to provide the interpretk whether for trial preparation or actual trial. (I am going through the Stat$'s Attorneys Association to review this new policy by the Courts.) 1 As a general rule we have a local interpreter service which covers m st of our needs. However, for some languages they are not able to provi~e an interpreter. Typically there will then be an interpreter available in the Twin Cities, but not always. We have a pending trial requiring a Dinka language interpreter. We were unable to find one in the region. We have found an interpreting comp~ny out of California which provides its services telephonically. I understahd I Cass County Social Services has also used this company from time-to- time. On Friday we received a draft contract from them (enclosure). It establishes some parameters, such as cost, for the service. It does eFt require any payment unless we ask for their services on a qiven cas . I ask for the authority to enter into this service agreement so we havelan option in the rare circumstances where we are unable to fin a local/regional interpreter. Proposed Motion: Authorize the State's Attorney to enter into an agreement with Tele-Interpreters LLC for over-the-phone interpre ing services, as those services may be needed.