Rudy Giuliani's billing of his travel and security
expenses to the office in charge of assigning lawyers to the indigent brought a mix of outraged and amazed reactions from some lawyers and legal experts.
The billing practice through fiscal years 2000 and 2001 involved charging a total of nearly $1 million in expenses to various mayoral offices, including the Assigned Counsel Administrative Office, Office for People with Disabilities, the Loft Board and 10 other units, according to city records disclosed Thursday night.
A total of $407,235 was billed to the assigned counsel office, which handles what is commonly called the 18b program, referring to the local law implementing the program. The office is budgeted for about $85 million in fiscal 2008, officials said.
The expenses were shifted to the assigned counsel office at a time when the whole system of giving help to indigent criminal defendants was said by numerous judges and legal experts to have been at the breaking point, with many private lawyers leaving the program because they couldn't get paid promptly and cases were being delayed.
"If it diverted funds that would have otherwise gone to the assigned counsel plan, that would be a disgrace," said Norman Reimer, a defense attorney who was active in 2000 in overseeing the assigned counsel program. "If it delayed payments to lawyers, that would be a disgrace."
Giuliani has said the money paid out by the assigned counsel office and other units was ultimately reimbursed by the Police Department.
Joe Lhota, Giuliani's former city budget director, said the practice started when cops on the security detail complained that the Police Department was slow to reimburse them for rental cars and lodging.
On Friday, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said police on the mayor's security detail are reimbursed through the department.
The use of these small mayoral offices by Giuliani to speed up reimbursement for his small band of security cops was criticized on a number of levels.
"I am outraged," said attorney Jonas Gelb, who handled 18b criminal cases in the Bronx. "Here is a city complaining about 18b expenses and he [Giuliani] is jacking up 18b expenses."
Frank Bari, a lawyer from Mineola, said four-month waits for payments were common in 1999 and 2000. He no longer takes 18b cases.
"What is most amazing about this from my point of view is if you chose a single moment in time when the financial crisis with the assigned counsel program was more at issue, you couldn't have picked a better time," said Jonathan Gradess, executive director of the nonprofit New York State Defenders Association.
Low, $40-an-hour rates for 18b work forced many lawyers to drop out, said Gradess. The rate rose in 2004 to $75 an hour for felonies and $60 an hour for misdemeanors.
Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria), who heads the Council's Public Safety Committee, said Friday the expense shifting "is not ideal" but said Giuliani was entitled to this security "regardless of where this money came from." He thought the whole issue was a "tempest in a teapot."
But City Comptroller William Thompson remained critical.
"This is not common practice," Thompson said in a prepared statement. "It is not what is preferred. This is not a way to promote transparency and openness in government."
Staff writer Rocco Parascandola contributed to this story.