Also on today’s menu:
Keene Plane Crash Victims Identified
Audit Cites Gunstock’s Financial Strength
Renters With EVs Face Charging Problems
I was tempted to use the headline: “Better Call Saul.”
The Sixth Amendment Center, a non-partisan, non-profit organization providing technical assistance and evaluation services to policymakers and criminal justice stakeholders, released its evaluation of the state’s legal system, reporting that “New Hampshire has many well-qualified, skilled, and passionate defense attorneys providing representation all across the state. However, those attorneys are placed in an untenable situation in which they are asked to carry excessive caseloads while being undercompensated. As more experienced attorneys leave the system, the remaining attorneys are forced to take on even more cases, causing a cycle of greater frustration and burnout, and indigent defendants wait longer and longer to have an attorney assigned to represent. The onset of a worldwide pandemic exacerbated these issues.”
The executive summary of the report also noted, “[T]he judicial council has only three staff members to try to annually ensure effective representation of approximately 39,000 cases of indigent defendants heard in 42 trial court locations before 58 judges, while contemporaneously trying to find attorneys willing to take cases for inadequate compensation. That is an impossible task for even the most dedicated of employees.”
Sarah Blodgett, executive director of the New Hampshire Judicial Council, is asking for $4 million to create a backup public defender office to expand the number of attorneys for indigent defendants who cannot be represented by the New Hampshire Public Defender’s office. However, she rejected the Sixth Amendment Center’s suggestion she more than quadruple her staff from three to 14, saying this is not the right time to ask lawmakers for such a budget increase.
Blodgett also disagreed with the report’s recommendation for eliminating conflicts of interest within the Judicial Council’s 24-member group of judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys. The report pointed out that the council is charged with naming the New Hampshire Public Defender and private lawyers to represent clients who cannot afford an attorney, yet council members may be among the attorneys the council pays to defend indigent clients. Judges and prosecutors have considerable influence over the handling of indigent cases. “That’s probably the part of the report that I really disagree with the most,” Blodgett said, explaining, “We’re a really small state, and people here have to wear many hats to do what needs to be done. I think that having knowledgeable stakeholders on the Judicial Council has improved our system dramatically.”
Keene Plane Crash Victims Identified
Officials have released the names of the two men who were killed in the crash of a single-engine, four-seater Beechcraft Sierra airplane into a two-story garage attached to a four-family apartment building in Keene on October 21. Lawrence Marchiony, 41, of Baldwinville, Massachusetts, and Marvin David Dezendorf, 60, of Townshend, Vermont, died in the crash.
Dezendorf was a flight instructor at Monadnock Aviation, which owned the airplane, and Marchiony had trained with Dezendorf with aspirations of becoming a flight instructor. Both men were pilot-rated, according to Tim Monville, senior air safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board.
The airplane had left Keene’s Dillant-Hopkins Airport, heading north on the airport’s primary runway, before crashing, according to Airport Director David Hickling.
Audit Cites Gunstock’s Financial Strength
The auditing firm that reviewed the financial statements of Gunstock Mountain Resort during a year of turmoil has concluded that the county-owned recreation area appears to be in sound financial condition despite some minor problems with internal controls.
The records show that, during the 12‐month period ending April 28, 2022, Gunstock’s operating revenues increased from the prior year, with departmental gross income rising from $14.05 million in fiscal year 2021 to $18.22 million in FY 2022. Operating income also increased, from $2.35 million in FY 2021 to $3.69 million in FY 2022.
The audit by Vachon Clukay & Company, PC, included the management note which reported, “Despite continued concerns over the COVID 19 virus, Gunstock had its most successful winter season in history. The mountain had over 198,000 skier visits, which included over 16,000‐night skier visits. Grooming kept the trails in excellent shape and that continued all the way up to our last day of skiing, which was April 3, 2022.”
Renters With EVs Face Charging Problems
The Biden administration has approved plans from all 50 states to roll out a network of high-speed chargers for electric vehicles along interstate highways coast-to-coast, using $5 billion in federal funding over the next five years, but the Associated Press reports that states must wait to apply for an additional $2.5 billion in local grants to fill in charging gaps, including in low- and moderate-income areas of cities and in neighborhoods with limited private parking.
A fast charger, also known as DC Fast, can charge a car in 20 to 45 minutes, but slower chargers, known as Level 2, take several hours. Charging an electric vehicle on a standard residential outlet, or Level 1 charger, is not practical for those who do a lot of driving unless they can leave the car plugged in overnight. Renters may not have that option if they do not have a private garage where they can power up overnight. People who rent also are more likely to buy used EVs that have a lower range than the latest models, making reliable public charging even more critical for them.
The article notes, “Worldwide, by 2030, more than 6 million public chargers will be needed to support EV adoption at a rate that keeps international emissions goals within reach, according to a recent study by the International Council on Clean Transportation. As of this year, the Netherlands and Norway have already installed enough public charging to satisfy 45% and 38% of that demand, respectively, while the U.S. has less than 10% of it in place currently, according to the study, which looked at electrification in 17 nations and government entities that account for more than half of the world’s car sales.”
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Excellent article on the drastic need for representation in our courts. Please talk with Ned about the pilot program he got passed that will be starting soon.