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Grant Set To Boost Salary Of Public Defender

Left, Mark Geise, Chautauqua County deputy executive for economic development, discussing the new Chautauqua County recruitment brochure the Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency has created to better market what the county has to offer people. P-J photo by Dennis Phillips

Along with the more than $15 million Chautauqua County will receive from the state Office of Indigent Legal Services for the Public Defender’s Office, Public Defender Ned Barone will receive a substantial pay increase at no cost to the county.

On Thursday, Barone discussed with the Chautauqua County Legislature Audit and Control Committee the supplement he will be receiving as part of the $15,539,475 grant county officials will receive from the state Office of Indigent Legal Services.

The grant is effective from April 1, 2018, through March 31, 2023. The grant from the state Office of Indigent Legal Services is from a lawsuit known as the Hurrell-Harring Settlement Act that was brought against five New York state counties in Central New York for ineffective representation of the indigent.

Barone said the $75,000 total supplement, which includes a $62,100 salary increase and $12,900 hike in benefits, is at no cost to the county and county officials are under no obligation to continue paying the supplement increase once the grant expires in 2023.

Barone said the increase is all part of the state Office of Indigent Legal Services’ goal of equality between the Public Defender and District Attorney offices.

He said the district attorney gets paid $188,000, which isn’t all funded by the county, while his county funded salary is $80,000.

He added with the supplement, his salary will be around $142,000, which is still lower than the district attorney.

Chuck Nazzaro, D-Jamestown, questioned how the salary figure was calculated by the state Office of Indigent Legal Services. Barone said the salary figure was created based on his case load and how much the county district attorney gets paid.

“This is not an arbitrary number,” he said.

Pierre Chagnon, R-Bemus Point and committee chairman, said he doesn’t disagree with the supplement for the public defender, but voted against the resolution because it was submitted late. He said the pay increase is retroactive to the start of 2019 so it doesn’t matter if the resolution is passed this month or next. The other three members of the committee who attended the meeting, Kevin Muldowney, R-Dunkirk, Terry Niebel, R-Sheridan, and Nazzaro approved the resolution. The full legislature will vote on the resolution at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday on the third floor of the Gerace Office Building in Mayville.

In other business, the committee approved the resolution to fund $72,000 in cash and $52,000 through in-kind services as a local supplement to the potential reinstallment of Essential Air Service subsidy for commercial air service from the U.S. Department of Transportation at the Chautauqua County-Jamestown Airport.

Brad Bentley, county public facilities director, said even when there is no Essential Air Service subsidy for commercial air service, which is currently the case, the county still has to fund $72,000 for the airport’s capital plan. Even though it wasn’t included in the resolution, Brentley said the plan is to also receive $75,000 in cash and $87,000 through in-kind services from the local business community to also be a part of the local subsidy for commercial air service. The final model for how the business community would fund the cash hasn’t been finalized, but he said it would be similar to someone purchasing season tickets for a sports team where local businesses would prepurchase tickets.

“It’s their show of support,” he said.

Bentley discussed how Boutique Airways, who county officials have partnered with to provide the commercial air service if approved by the U.S. DOT, has recently improved flights at the Johnstown, Pa., airport. Last November, Boutique Airways took over the commercial air service from Southern Airways, former commercial air service provider at the Chautauqua County-Jamestown Airport, at the Johnstown, Pa., airport, with the number of passengers increasing to meet their contractual goal.

Ron Almeter, county airport manager, said by the end of July, county officials want a finalized plan in place with the business community. He said the goal is to file a new submission with the U.S. DOT to reauthorize Essential Air Service subsidy to the airport by the end of August.

Niebel asked why Boutique Airways will work as a commercial air service provider while others have failed in the past. Almeter said because they have a different aircraft, a better schedule and a business relationship with United Airlines that will allow passengers flying out of the airport to purchase only one ticket. He also said there will be an additional route to Baltimore Washington International Airport as well as the Pittsburgh International Airport.

“(Boutique Airways’) service model is substantially different,” Almeter said.

Nazzaro said hopefully this new proposal will work, but said if it doesn’t county officials might have to realize commercial air service will never succeed from the Chautauqua County-Jamestown Airport.

“The community is going to have to get behind it,” he said.

All four members of the committee approved the resolution.

The committee also discussed the development of a new marketing brochure developed by the Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency. Mark Geise, Chautauqua County deputy executive for economic development, said the IDA worked with the Chautauqua County Visitors Bureau and the Chautauqua County Chamber of Commerce to develop the new brochure. He said they spent eight to 10 months and spent around $20,000 to develop the brochure. He said 15,000 copies will be made and given to the hospitality industry, realtors and local businesses who can use it to provide information about the wonderful qualities of Chautauqua County to people not from the area.

Geise said county officials also developed a “one-stop” website that will correlate with the new marketing brochure.

According to the resolution approved by the committee, $11,099 from the 3% occupancy tax reserve fund would be used to assist with the cost of printing the brochures.

The resolution was unanimously approved by the committee.

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