The Oregon Public Defense Commission told the Public Safety Subcommittee on March 18 that state funding and new systems will be necessary to address large numbers of open and unrepresented criminal cases and to stabilize the public defense workforce.

"The Oregon Public Defense Commission is a very different agency today than it was 2 years ago," Executive Director Jessica Kampey said as she opened an informational hearing on House Bill 5031. Kampey outlined the commission's governor-recommended budget and described several policy packages intended to add lawyers, support staff and technology.

The nut of the presentation: the governor's budget would add a mix of state-employed trial attorneys and hourly capacity, invest in a bonded financial and case management system, and seek rate adjustments for investigators and hourly attorneys. Kampey said the governor's plan would add the equivalent of 82 new lawyers statewide — 42 in state trial offices and roughly 40 attorney-equivalents in hourly programs — and nearly 55 non‑attorney support staff for trial offices.

Kampey described how the commission prepares forecasts with the Department of Administrative Services' Office of Economic Analysis and warned that the forecast for new-case filings does not include existing open cases or the population of charged but unrepresented defendants. "It does not include the 30,000 open cases that we expect contractors will have on their desks when the biennium started," she said, adding that cases charged in the current biennium but not represented are likewise excluded from the forecast of new filings.

Legislators pressed commissioners on the scale and prior use of recent investments. Representative Helfrich noted prior one-time funding from House Bill 4002 and asked whether that money went to attorneys or primarily to agency compliance and administrative activities. Kampey said HB 4002 appropriations were split across categories the legislature specified, including hiring state attorneys and support staff, adding case managers to contracts, funding hourly attorneys and pre-authorized expenses, and that the agency had used the money to hire seven attorneys and nine support staff in priority regions.

On provider oversight, Kampey explained the Compliance, Audit and Performance (CAP) unit's two parts: a trial support and development unit that handles complaints and monitors contract outcomes, and a policy/data unit that manages rules, policies and caseload dashboards. She said the commission currently tracks attorney-level caseload data submitted monthly and merges that with contracts to populate public dashboards, but that compliance work has been largely "spot checking and problem solving" rather than systematic audits because of staff constraints.

Budget details presented included: a proposal to add 38 MAC-equivalents in the trial resource division at an estimated $10.1 million; contracted costs the commission showed in excess of $125 million for certain program lines; and a $16.6 million policy package (with roughly $13.9 million bonded) for a financial and case management system. Kampey said the commission has issued an RFP and aims to be under contract by the end of the biennium and begin implementation next biennium.

A contentious item is Policy Option Package (POP) 104, authored from the commission's economic survey of hourly rates. The survey recommended large increases — for example, attorney hourly rates the commission modeled at $205 and $230 per hour and investigators at $75–$85 per hour — which would grow pre-authorized expenses substantially. Kampey said the commission is working with the governor's office and fiscal staff to retool POP 104 to reduce disparity between state and contracted providers while finding room in the top-line recommendation to restore a roughly 6% inflationary increase for contractors.

Committee staff clarified the budget footing: Mr. Borden, a legislative staffer, reminded members that the legislature's starting point is the current service level, which already includes a roughly 6.8% inflationary adjustment for providers and that the governor's recommended budget reflects different trade-offs. "So that is your starting point," Borden told the panel, adding that agency changes discussed were within the governor's proposal and would have to be reconciled with the legislature's starting budget assumptions.

Members also asked for follow-up data. Kampey agreed to provide supplemental information on the impact of HB 4002 investments on case trends and said the commission can report attorney-level caseloads, highest-paid invoices under the temporary program and other requested figures. Lawmakers requested detail on how many currently unrepresented defendants exist (committee members cited figures ranging from about 4,000 to nearly 7,000 during the hearing) and pressed the agency for specific implementation timelines.

Kampey emphasized risks the commission cites in its budget narrative: the continuing shortage of public defenders, growth in both volume and complexity of cases (including time-consuming discovery and body‑worn camera review), the need for investigators and case managers to lower attorney workload, and potential loss of federal funds in juvenile programs. She also noted operational changes the agency has made, such as separating procurement from compliance work and adding case assignment coordinators that the commission says have been important to assigning cases off the unrepresented list.

The hearing closed with the subcommittee deferring further questions and asking the commission to return the next day with supplemental materials. No formal action or vote was taken during the informational hearing.

Ending: The commission's budget presentation highlighted the scale and complexity of funding public defense: changes will require legislative choices among direct attorney hires, hourly rate stabilization, technology investments and carryover costs for temporary rate programs. The subcommittee asked for additional data on past investments, vendor pricing, top hourly billings and implementation timelines before making funding decisions for the next biennium.