photo by: Rochelle Valverde

Douglas County Commission Vice Chair Shannon Reid, Commission Chair Shannon Portillo and Commissioner Patrick Kelly listen to public comment about indigent defense as part of the commission's meeting Nov. 10, 2021.

Two local attorneys are voicing concerns about a potential conflict of interest related to a proposal for Douglas County to adopt a new model for public defense services for those who cannot afford attorneys. County commissioners involved said that although there is overlap in involvement for those working on criminal justice reform, the proposal came to them independently.

As part of its meeting Wednesday, the Douglas County Commission received a report from the Indigent Defense Services Work Group that outlines some issues with the current county-funded system, which assigns attorneys to cases from a panel. The work group and subsequent report came after the county received a proposal to adopt and fund a different model of indigent misdemeanor defense services from a new nonprofit attorney group, Kansas Holistic Defenders. The chair of KHD was a volunteer and donor for the coordinated campaigns of Commission Chair Shannon Portillo and Commission Vice Chair Shannon Reid, who both ran on criminal justice issues.

Greg Robinson, who said he formerly worked for years as an attorney on the panel, questioned both KHD’s proposal and the county’s process. Robinson asked whether the fact that Cooper Overstreet, who is on KHD’s board, also campaigned with Portillo and Reid had ever been “talked about in this room,” referring to the commission’s public meeting room. Robinson also questioned why the county hadn’t done a request for proposals, and ultimately said he thought the issue should be tabled and put out to voters instead.

“A lot of this is about process,” Robinson said.

In February, KHD proposed that it help provide indigent defense for misdemeanors using a different model that offered broader, holistic support to those accused of crimes. KHD requested $425,000 in county funding for 2022 to provide another option in addition to the existing panel. The commission set aside that funding as part of its 2022 budget, but the allocation has not yet been finalized. The county recently received another proposal to provide a similar service from another attorney group, Douglas County Defense Services. The group includes some attorneys who previously criticized KHD’s proposal and some who have also served on the panel.

Following Robinson’s comments, Portillo acknowledged that Overstreet did participate in her and Reid’s campaigns, and added that KHD’s chair, Sam Allison-Natale, also volunteered on both campaigns. She said in part that the conversation about indigent defense overall has been happening for some time, as have discussions about other criminal justice reforms.

Questions about Allison-Natale’s connection to Portillo and Reid were raised to the Journal-World earlier this week. Hatem Chahine, an attorney involved in the DCDS proposal, contacted the newspaper Tuesday after he said someone had anonymously mailed him resume information regarding Allison-Natale that said he’d worked on two recent successful county commission campaigns. Ahead of the commission’s meeting Wednesday, the newspaper had spoken to Allison-Natale and confirmed that he was a volunteer with both campaigns, but had not yet contacted anyone else. Chahine said he thought Allison-Natale’s involvement in the campaigns was an issue of “ethical transparency” and that the timing of Portillo’s disclosure was “questionable.”

“It’s unfortunate,” Chahine said. “It’s a very expensive contract for the community and for it to only come out a week before this proposal is being voted (on) is very concerning.”

The commission is scheduled to review both proposals as part of its meeting next Wednesday. Following the meeting, Portillo said that unlike the DCDS proposal, which she said was a for-profit organization, none of the KHD board members — Overstreet included — would receive a salary. Portillo, who was a member of the indigent defense work group, said that she had previously disclosed Allison-Natale’s involvement with her campaign — she believed during the work group meetings — and that she didn’t see it as a conflict. Both she and Reid said that Allison-Natale is part of a broad group of community members concerned with criminal justice reform who supported their campaigns.

“A big part of this is that Sam has been a part of community members who have been pushing for criminal justice reform, not just thinking about this proposal and this contract,” Portillo said. “We have been transparent that he was a part of our campaign, he donated to my campaign.”

Reid also said she didn’t believe it presented a conflict, and she thought Allison-Natale’s involvement just spoke to the fact that he is one of many community members organizing around criminal justice issues. She said his proposal came to the full commission independent of his work on their campaigns.

“Any decisions to make proposals came out of Sam and other community members who were organizing independently, and came to us once we were seated as commissioners, as a whole commission, with that proposal,” Reid said.

Allison-Natale said that in addition to the campaigns of Portillo, Reid and Overstreet, he had volunteered for the campaigns for several other local candidates, including City Commission candidate Joey Hentzler, City Commission candidate Ma’Ko’Quah Jones, and school board candidate Andrew Nussbaum, among others. In a statement, Allison-Natale said that his work on the campaigns of Portillo, Reid and Overstreet — who collectively ran as the “Justice Ticket” — was about wanting to make long-overdue change.

“I volunteered for the Justice Ticket candidates because I believe that poor and working class people deserve much, much more from our broken justice system — including a public defender office, which is long overdue,” Allison-Natale said. “These candidates spoke to the need to invest in services, not handcuffs, and because I’ve similarly devoted my life and career to justice reform, I was happy to support their campaigns.”

The county reviewed KHD’s funding proposal as part of its 2022 budget process over the summer, using the same process as it does for other outside funding requests from nonprofits. Portillo noted that once the second proposal was received, the commission agreed on the upcoming process to review both proposals.