AN ACT to CREATE a new public defender DISTRICT to serve Alexander and iredell counties and to appropriate funds.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  G.S. 7A‑498.7(a) reads as rewritten:

(a)      The following counties of the State are organized into the defender districts listed below, and in each of those defender districts an office of public defender is established:

Defender District                                            Counties

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1                                                                       Camden, Chowan, Currituck,

                                                                         Dare, Gates, Pasquotank, Perquimans

2                                                                       Beaufort, Hyde, Martin,

                                                                         Tyrell, Washington

3A                                                                    Pitt

3B                                                                    Craven, Pamlico, Carteret

5                                                                       New Hanover, Pender

10                                                                     Wake

12                                                                     Cumberland

14                                                                     Durham

15B                                                                  Orange, Chatham

16A                                                                  Scotland, Hoke

16B                                                                  Robeson

18                                                                     Guilford

21                                                                     Forsyth

22A                                                                  Alexander, Iredell

26                                                                     Mecklenburg

27A                                                                  Gaston

27B                                                                  Cleveland, Lincoln

28                                                                     Buncombe

29A                                                                  McDowell, Rutherford

29B                                                                  Henderson, Polk, Transylvania

After notice to, and consultation with, the affected district bar, senior resident superior court judge, and chief district court judge, the Commission on Indigent Defense Services may recommend to the General Assembly that a district or regional public defender office be established. A legislative act is required in order to establish a new office or to abolish an existing office.

SECTION 2.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Office of Indigent Defense Services the sum of one million seventy‑one thousand two hundred eleven dollars ($1,071,211) in recurring funds for the 2023‑2024 fiscal year to be used to create 20 new positions for Public Defender District 22A created in Section 1 of this act. These positions shall include a chief public defender, up to 12 assistant public defenders, and up to seven support positions.

SECTION 3.  For the same purposes found in Section 2 of this act, the Office of Indigent Defense Services may use up to the sum of one million five hundred thousand dollars ($1,500,000) of funds available in the Private Assigned Counsel Fund.

SECTION 4.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2023.