Quick Take
The Santa Cruz County Office of the Public Defender is joining a statewide protest Thursday calling for dedicated state funding. Citing workload studies and funding disparities with other agencies, Chief Public Defender Heather Rogers said systemic changes are needed to prevent burnout.
The Santa Cruz County Office of the Public Defender says it’s overworked and underfunded, and its staff is demanding that the California Legislature establish a dedicated funding stream for the constitutionally mandated service.
The Santa Cruz office will be wearing black Thursday in solidarity with other statewide offices and their supporters. The office will be open normal working hours.
“What I’m looking for is a future where we can create a sustainable system that allows us to do our best work without burning out,” Chief Public Defender Heather Rogers told Lookout. “These people are called to this work for the best of reasons and sometimes can’t stay in it because they just can’t sustain it.”
The county public defender’s office provides a range of services, but its primary mission is to provide legal representation for people accused of crimes but who can’t afford private attorneys. It also represents children accused of crimes.
The staff of social workers and investigators assists in providing clients access to support services that address challenges such as substance or mental health issues that might have contributed to the crime of which they’re accused.
Rogers said the office worked about 8,000 cases during the 2024-25 fiscal year. The public defender’s office has a total staff of 64, including 30 attorneys, administrative staffers, investigators, social workers and four client advocates funded through grants. Three of those 64 staff positions are frozen due to budget shortfalls. The office has a budget of $16,207,577 for the 2025-26 fiscal year.
The California Public Defense Workloads and Staffing Study, commissioned by the state Legislature, affirmed the challenges. The 2025 study said “excessive workloads burden most California attorneys providing trial-level adult public defense services” and that “there are simply not enough public defense attorneys to handle California’s large volume of cases and clients.”
To meet national staffing standards, Rogers says, the Santa Cruz County office would need 43 more attorneys and more than double its current budget. She acknowledged that that’s not realistic, but said if the community wants a fair system that equitably funds its agencies, something needs to change. Rogers used the National Public Defense Workload Study, administered by the RAND organization, to estimate the additional staff her office needs.
The vast majority of the public defender’s office funding is from the county’s general fund, with very little coming from other sources, such as grants and the state and federal governments. To demonstrate the lack of funding equity among local agencies, Rogers pointed out that the district attorney’s office receives a similar amount of money from the county’s general fund, but larger sums from the state and federal governments.
The district attorney’s office this year received $1.2 million from the federal government and at least $3.4 million from state sources. The public defender’s office this year received $1.2 million from state sources and about $239,000 from the federal government.
“There are no villains in this story,” Rogers said. “It’s just a systemic, historic problem that we all need to work together to address.”
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