11/28/2018- There’s a change to Menominee County’s Indigent Defense Counsel contract and it could mean a few more dollar coming out of the county’s budget. The amended contract was presented to the Board of Commissioners Tuesday night and will require five hours of overtime per week for the court magistrate to complete the reporting and administrative duties associated with the MIDC state grant. County Administrator Jason Carviou says that, in turn, could raise that employee’s legacy costs by as much as $40000- only $5000 of which will be covered by state funding.
However, Carviou doesn’t anticipate the increased workload placed on the magistrate to be permanent and says the county will re-evaluate the plan in three to six months to determine if the overtime is still necessary. The revised contract from the state does increase the amount of money paid to the county upfront from 25% to 50%. The County Board unanimously approved the new MIDC contract.