A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to appropriate funds to establish a public defender's office in the first defender district.
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					

1	Camden, Chowan,
	Currituck, Dare,
	Pasquotank, Perquimans
3A	Pitt
3B	Carteret
12	Cumberland
14	Durham
15B	Orange, Chatham
16A	Scotland, Hoke
16B	Robeson
18	Guilford
21	Forsyth
26	Mecklenburg
27A	Gaston
28	Buncombe

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 Judicial Department, Office of Indigent Defense Services, the sum of six hundred thousand dollars ($600,000) for the 2004‑2005 fiscal year to establish a public defender's office in the First Defender District, as established in this act. The funds shall be used to establish the public defender, six assistant public defenders, one investigator, and two support positions.
SECTION 3.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2004.