06/12/13 Superior Court II Judge Dean Colvin appeared before the Marshall County Council this week seeking a waiver of the 90 day probationary period for the new Court Services Director, Ward Byers.
Byers has been the interim director and was recently hired as the full time director over-seeing those on home detention. Ward is no stranger to county government. He has served as the County Coroner, an officer with the Sheriff’s Department and a term on the County Council.
The County Council approved the request.
Superior Court I Judge Rob Bowen appeared before the County Council seeking an additional appropriation for pauper council. Bowen said in May they had a large expense they were not expecting.
One of the public defenders submitted 18 months worth of bills at one time drastically reducing the pauper council line item. Bowen continued by saying 60% of the cases in his court are handled with a public defender. He said the public defender rate is $60 an hour and an average case costs is currently $217.
In looking at the current case load, Judge Bowen estimates he will need an additional appropriation of $45,602 to finish out the rest of the year. The County Council approved the additional.
