A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
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.