NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A9916
SPONSOR: Tague TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the public officers law, in relation to waiving the
residency requirement for certain county attorney positions within
Greene county
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
This bill will allow non-residents of Greene County to hold the office
of assistant public defender of the county of Greene.
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Section one of this bill amends section three of the public officers law
to permit a person residing in Greene County, or an adjoining county, to
hold the office of assistant public defender of the county of Greene.
Section two provides the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
Greene County recently requested this legislation to allow the hiring of
an attorney from an adjoining county to serve as assistant public defen-
der. With some exceptions, current New York State law requires that
assistant public defenders reside in the county in which they practice.
As a rural county of less than 50,000 people, there are a limited number
of attorneys who practice criminal law who reside in Greene County -
those that do, would rather work in private practice. As such, Greene
County is finding it difficult to hire an additional assistant public
defender to meet caseload demand and is therefore asking that the County
be afforded the opportunity to expand its candidate pool to neighboring
areas.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New bill.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
None.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
