Hancock County’s proposed 2025 budget, discussed at the county council’s July 10 meeting, will devote more funds up front to the county defender in a move that will both bring the defender’s office in line with that of the prosecutor’s as well as potentially save money in the long term.
Currently, both deputy public defender Mark Manchack and chief deputy public defender Myron Rahn are over their maximum caseload while chief public defender Jeremy Teipen is nearing his limit. That caseload is currently forcing the county to outsource additional cases to private legal firms, which is costing the county more than it would be paying to hire an additional public defender to handle them, which the council agreed to in the proposed 2025 budget.
“I think it’s good and will release some of the stress, honestly, just from having so many cases right now, especially for [Manchack and Rahn],” Teipen said. “They just handle so much right now.”
The council also approved a pay raise for Manchack to bring his pay in line with his counterpart in the prosecutor’s office, a pay hike which, if it was not made, would set a harsher limitation on the amount of cases he could take due to existing payscale statutes.
Council president Jeannine Gray said she felt the increase in budget was necessary due to the county’s growth.
“Our county is growing, the prosecutor’s office is prosecuting more cases, which in turn is going to lead to additional needs for the public defender’s office,” Gray said.
The council pushed back on Teipen’s budget proposal initially, but after a long deliberation focusing mostly on the necessity of Manchack’s pay increase, his proposed budget was approved and passed forward to the next phase of the budgeting process. Teipen said he expected resistance when requesting additional funds.
“The council does a very good job of trying to be cognizant of the finances they have, so they get as much as they can out of each time,” Teipen said. “I appreciate them looking into things and holding us to the fire because we have to be a shepherd of county money the best we can.”
The council will meet with the county commissioners at 5 p.m. on July 30 for a joint meeting to further discuss the budget before its finalization later this year.
