IL: solidarity forever
It doesn't sound as though the Cook County public defenders are going to take the threatened budget cuts and lay-offs lying down:
We will fight to protect the public, our client’s rights to quality representation in the criminal justice system, and the jobs of all public defenders. As we who work here know, layoffs of public defenders would cripple an already teetering justice system...
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Perhaps not taking it lying down, but it sure looks like Mr. Burnette is rolling over. He now has decided to cut 50 attorneys, force all the remaining attorneys to take 10 days off without pay, and have some attorneys go down to a 4 day work week. He even has the gall to say, "Our 2007 budget is sound, pragmatic and will assure the high quality of service the public expects from teh law office of the Cook County Public Defender."
It is quite a change from his earlier rallying cry to his attorneys before Christmas. At that time he was not going to take it lying down ... he even said he was going to go a little "West-side" on them to show them how ludicious it was to ask for such large cuts.
Perhaps the threat of losing his own job and/or the jobs of other high ranking persons in the department changed his mind ... or ... Perhaps this is a new tact to get the union to balk at this purposed contract violations and then just blame the union for standing in the way and hurting the tax payers.
We may never know why he has done an about face, but it is obvious that he has lied to his staff and is playing a very dangerous game with the representation of the office's clients.
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