While the Potter County Commissioners’ Court approved a resolution earlier this month, authorizing the submission of a grant application to the Texas Indigent Defense Commission (TIDC) to support the implementation of a public defender/managed assigned counsel program from Neighborhood Defender Service (NDS) for Potter and Armstrong Counties, Potter County Judge Nancy Tanner stated she plans on withdrawing the resolution this week, not seeing NDS as a good match for the county.
This comes after the court approved the submission of a notice of intent to apply for the TIDC grant in late March, according to previous reports from the Globe-News. The process began after the Sixth Amendment Center conducted a report surrounding Potter County’s indigent defense system, stating it found issues with clients having access to counsel as well as excessive workloads by attorneys, supervision and oversight issues and organizational independence issues.