UPDATE:
The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors announced no final actions when reconvening out of closed session today.
PREVIOUSLY (Oct. 8):
The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors will meet in closed session Tuesday to review the job performance of embattled Public Defender David Marcus.
The closed-session review comes eight months into Marcus’ tenure and about two weeks after a visiting Humboldt County Superior Court judge denied a county request to dismiss a lawsuit alleging Marcus doesn’t meet minimum state qualifications for his job. It also comes as staffing issues in the office have bubbled into public view, with the departure of four experienced attorneys in an eight-week period, which prompted a four-month continuance in a high-profile murder case. (One of the exiting attorneys, Heidi Holmquist, was highly critical of Marcus on her way out the door.)
It’s unclear exactly why Marcus is up for review this week. He underwent a closed session performance evaluation back in April, when the board emerged with a statement of support for him. At the time, county spokesman Sean Quincey said department head reviews typically occur annually in the fall but that sometimes the board will opt to do them early in a new employee’s tenure to “outline goals and objectives” soon after the hiring process. (This is apparently the case with the county’s new human resources director, Lisa DeMatteo, who’s also being evaluated Tuesday after a couple months on the job.)
We’ll update this post with any reports out of closed session on Tuesday. In the meantime, find more on Marcus’ background here and more on the lawsuit and conditions in the office here.
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This article appears in Project Censored 2017.
Something which I have not seen mentioned so far is the requirement that practicing attorneys must have completed ongoing legal training:
http://www.calbar.ca.gov/Attorneys/MCLE-CL…
“With a few exceptions, all attorneys who are actively practicing law in California must complete ongoing legal training. This requirement is called Minimum Continuing Legal Education (MCLE). The required 25 hours every three years must include credits on ethics as well as competence issues, such as substance abuse and mental health.
To make sure attorneys complete their training on a regular schedule, the State Bar requires attorneys to report their training once every three years. The bar also conducts yearly audits on a random set of attorneys to determine whether they are meeting the requirements.”
Also:
http://www.calbarjournal.com/MCLESpecialEd…
While Mr. Marcus was out of state there were changes to the MCLE
(“Some important changes to MCLE requirements will be implemented by
the State Bar starting July 2014.”) and since he was not acting as a lawyer
in Florida during his absence, I would doubt that he took any MCLE courses
there. Whether or not he has completed the 25 hours of continuing education
required only he (and the State Bar) would know.
Perhaps this is an issue Mr. Griego will be bringing up in his lawsuit but I thought
I’d bring it to your attention and hopefully the Board of Supervisors so they can take
the issue into consideration during their discussions of Mr. Marcus’ qualifications.
Why don’t all department heads meet in front of a review board of their PEERS and other educated and experienced professionals in their field? The Board of Supervisors wouldn’t know a good defense attorney if it bit them…. oh unless they’re getting your kids out of jail. How soon they forget. It all sounds like a self-review…Make self serving and unverfied claims of what you’ve accomplished and walk out with a pat on the head and a preprinted letter of support from the Board of Supervisors about how they stand behind their appointment. I have no confidence the Board of Supervisors will ever do anything to support our marginalized community.