BERRIEN COUNTY COMMISSION ASSIGNS NEW CHIEF PUBLIC DEFENDER – SCOTT STANFORD

By DEBRA HAIGHT
BCR Correspondent
ST. JOSEPH – Action at last week’s Berrien County Board of Commissioners meeting included hiring a new Berrien County Public Defender and an outside attorney to help defend the county in a lawsuit brought by Lakeshore school district parents. Commissioners also discussed the status of a broadband expansion grant application.
Longtime area attorney and current Berrien County Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanford was unanimously picked to be the new Chief Public Defender by county commissioners. Sanford should be familiar to south county residents, he has been overseeing the public defender office at the Niles courthouse for several years.
Sanford spoke briefly to commissioners before the vote. “Thank you for placing your trust in me,” he said. “I will do the best I can do.”
The appointment resolution approved by the board noted that the position had become vacant Dec. 9, 2022 and that interviews had been conducted to fill the vacancy. The resolution noted that Sanford was the unanimous choice of the interview committee. He officially starts March 12 and his annual salary will be $115,979.
The chief public defender position became open when then Chief Public Defender Paul Jancha resigned last December after being elected a trial court judge in November. Jancha was the third person in that position after the county board created the position in 2016.
The office is staffed by a 25-member team of public defenders as well as support personnel including investigators and social workers. Chief Assistant Public Defender Kaitlin Locke had been named the Interim Chief Public Defender in December and had applied for the permanent post.
Sanford received his undergraduate degree in history and political science from the University of Michigan in 1987 and his Juris Doctor degree from the Dickinson School of Law at Penn State University in 1990. A native of Flint, he began his legal career in 1990 and was in private practice in the St. Joseph area until joining the Public Defender office in 2016.
“We are so pleased Scott has agreed to step into this leadership role with our Public Defender Office,” County Administrator Brian Dissette said in a press release. “He has extensive experience in both civil and criminal proceedings and a strong commitment to ensuring everyone who comes through our doors is treated fairly.”
The decision to appoint Sanford was criticized by three area residents at last week’s board meeting.
Niles Township resident Rick Briand spoke out against Sanford’s appointment in public comments. Briand ran unsuccessfully for Berrien County Sheriff in 2020 in the Republican primary and announced last week that he plans to run again for sheriff in 2024.
“I sat in on a case with Mr. Sanford where he had urged his client to plead guilty to fleeing and eluding police,” Briand told commissioners. “When the defendant told Judge Pasula what happened, the judge said she couldn’t accept his plea. He said he was a passenger in a car where the driver took off and he had slipped and fallen when police told him to get out of the car.”
“If you’re putting him in charge of public defenders, I would think again,” Briand said. “I wouldn’t put him in charge of the public defenders. He’s par for the course, but that’s not what they’re supposed to do. They should be providing access to justice in the courts, not just running people through the courts.”
Two others agreed with Briand. Teresa Briand of Niles said the county should be looking into other, better candidates. Adolph Peltzer of Hagar Township asked why it was all so cut and dry with no information provided to the public before the vote.
Commissioners didn’t respond to the residents’ concerns but did say they had discussed the appointment in their committee meetings.
County commissioners also acted on another legal matter at their Thursday meeting. They approved hiring the Dickinson Wright PLLC law firm to assist Corporate Counsel Thaddeus Hackworth in a lawsuit brought by Lakeshore School District residents against County Clerk Sharon Tyler.
Hackworth told commissioners last week that he had handled the lawsuit at the Circuit Court level here in Berrien County but needs help in filing the county’s responses and briefs now that it is before the Michigan Court of Appeals.
The case stems from Tyler’s rejection of recall petitions against two Lakeshore School Board members. Tyler found that there were not enough valid signatures to proceed with a recall election last November. Residents filed a lawsuit which was dismissed by now retired Berrien County Trial Judge Dennis Wiley. They are now appealing that decision to the Court of Appeals.
The Lakeshore recall stemmed from parents’ concerns about mask mandates imposed by that district during the Covid pandemic. Lakeshore was one of several school districts in the county to require students to wear masks at the height of the pandemic.
Their recall petitions were thrown out when Tyler and her office declared numerous signatures invalid which brought the total number of signatures on petitions against two board members below the required number.

Relative to broadband, County Board Vice-Chairman Teri Freehling reported that the BC Bit taskforce has met again with internet service providers and area township supervisors in advance of the deadline this week to apply for a state grant.
She reported that two internet service providers have announced their plans to apply for grants from the state’s Realizing Opportunity with Broadband Infrastructure Networks (ROBIN) broadband program. The deadline to apply for a share of the $250 million the state has set aside was March 14.
If the two companies are successful in getting ROBIN grants, she said 70 to 80 percent of the county would be covered. The county’s overall goal is to expand broadband service in the rural parts of the county so that the entire county has broadband.
The county has pledged to use the $4.5 million they’ve set aside for broadband projects from their American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds for successful ROBIN grant projects. Freehling said a number of townships are also pledging their own ARPA funds if the companies are successful in getting grant funds.
She said the BC Bit taskforce is also looking to the future beyond the ROBIN grant program to see what the county can do to expedite broadband expansion. She said some of the ideas being considered include streamlining the permitting process for broadband installation projects.
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