Under the United States Constitution, everyone who is accused of a crime is entitled to legal representation.

Government bears the costs of defending the accused who are too poor to pay for a lawyer. This practice is a vital part of ensuring equal justice under the law for Americans regardless of their income. Seattle appears to be failing in this effort and unfortunately the Mayor is not recognizing that in his administration of public defense services in Seattle Municipal Court. One third of public defenders in Muni Court have too many clients-more than 380 per year. Some public defenders are so overworked that they do not contact their clients in a timely manner before trial.

The Seattle City Council is attempting to address this crisis in the municipal courts. It does not appear that the mayor is on board with this effort since he has not followed through on the legislation that the Council passed regarding the city's obligation to have our defense contract meet minimum standards.

In doing so, the mayor is ignoring another cherished principle of our democracy: the separation of powers. No executive, whether they are President George W. Bush or Mayor Nickels, can ignore legislative authority, particularly when it comes to the administration of something as fundamental as equal justice under the law.

The problems in Municipal Court date back to 2004. That year, the City Council passed a law, Council Bill 114900, that established city standards for Muni Court that were consistent with the American Bar Association's 10 Principles for Public Defense, including a standard of no more than 380 clients per year for each public defender. At that time, Mayor Nickels refused to sign the legislation and said that it violated his executive authority. Since he did not veto the bill, however, it became law without his signature.

In 2005, Mayor Nickels made changes in the way that he hired legal agencies to do public defense. Before 2005 three public defense agencies shared the duties of defending the indigent in Muni Court. Nickels opted to give the bulk of the cases to one agency (around 6,000) and give the rest (around 450) to a second agency. The City Council heard complaints about how this new system was working from defendants, lawyers, and judges. In response, Councilmember Richard McIver and I requested the Office of City Auditor, an independent investigative arm of city government, look into the matter.

On July 22, Presiding Judge for the Municipal Court Ron Mamiya wrote a letter to Mayor Nickels saying that the 380-case load for public defenders is "obsolete and needs immediate review." Judge Mamiya recommended lowering the number of cases to 300 annually for each public defender.

On August 6, the Office of City Auditor released their report on public defense in Muni Court (www.seattle.gov/audit/). The results were disturbing. The Auditor found that one third of the public defenders in Municipal Court were handling more than 380 cases a year. The auditor found this problem was urgent and needed to be addressed immediately.

City government does not hire public defense attorneys directly. Instead the Mayor puts out a "request for proposals" for non-profit law firms to bid on the contract to represent indigent defendants - over 7,000 cases a year - in Muni Court. Since the contract between the City and the legal firms that provide public defense expires on December 31, 2007, now is an ideal time to address the caseload issue.

On August 13, the City Council responded by passing Resolution 121501 that requested that the Mayor work with the Council to establish an independent review panel made up of criminal defense lawyers, law school faculty, the King County Bar Association and other experts to evaluate the bids by public defense law agencies. I followed up the resolution with a letter to Mayor Nickels asking for his cooperation in this matter.

Unfortunately the mayor chose to ignore the City Council's direction and set up a body to evaluate the bids that is not independent, but is made up of six members all appointed by Nickels, three of whom are members of his own staff.

In doing so, Mayor Nickels chose to ignore both the continuing crisis over caseloads in Municipal Court and the authority of the legislative branch of city government. These actions are unacceptable. It's not too late to reverse them. The mayor can reaffirm his adherence to equal justice and the separation of powers by simply changing course and following the law.

Nick Licata is the chair of the Seattle City Council's Public Safety, Governmental Relations, and Arts Committee and may be reached at 684-8803or _nick.licata@seattle.gov.