Former Lawmaker Wins Plaudits For Budget Oversight Of Indigent Defense Agency

(12/3/07) Former Rep. Mack Crawford jumped into one of the hottest hot seats around this summer when he resigned his legislative post to become the new director of the statewide indigent defense system - a position that puts him smack in the middle of the Brian Nichols case.

But judging by some of the comments Monday during a House subcommittee meeting, he’s already made big strides for the agency, at least in regaining legislative confidence.

“You’ve done an admirable job of trying to rein-in a system ... that had gotten out of control,” Rep. Chuck Martin, the public safety chairman for appropriations, told his former colleague. “We’re not in a position where we’re throwing good money after bad. You’re watching the money.”

How so?

Crawford told the group he’s taken 15 or 16 p-cards away from people in his agency who didn’t need to have them. P-cards are those state-issued credit cards that made the news recently when the state auditor found suspected abuses.

And a number of cell phones also have been taken away.

Crawford said he’s not just watching the agency’s dollars. “We’re watching the nickels and dimes, too.”

Also, Crawford is requiring all of the outside lawyers to submit quarterly budgets. “We had no idea up until the last 30 days what our projected liabilities were in those cases. So we have not only asked that they present us with a budget, but their budgetary items by quarters where we know in what fiscal year they would be coming due and in what quarters ... We did not know what our liabilities were in capital cases.”