The commission overseeing Colorado’s has launched an investigation into the agency’s new leader amid mounting complaints from attorneys and staff about her leadership.
The investigation comes after more than 200 people attended a May 22 public meeting in which nearly two dozen people described a culture shift at the small state agency that they worried is undermining Colorado’s indigent criminal defense community.
In a statement Friday, the commission called the concerns “serious and consistent” and said it will investigate the complaints and determine “what, if any,” action should be taken.
Joanna Landau, executive director of the Office of the Alternate Defense Counsel, told The Denver Post in an interview Monday that she welcomes the commission’s probe.
“I support the commission’s decision to open an independent and impartial investigation,” Landau said. “I stand by my leadership choices at the ADC, but I am also responsive to feedback. I expect the investigation to show that while my leadership style differs from the previous executive director, my actions have been consistent with what I am hired to do.”
Landau defended her nine-month tenure at the state agency, which employs about 41 people and contracts with about 1,200 attorneys and support staff statewide to represent indigent defendants. The office pays private defense attorneys to represent people who cannot be represented by the , typically when public defenders have conflicts of interest.
Contracted attorneys raised concern about Landau’s leadership both during the May 22 meeting and in conversations with The Post, saying she created a culture of fear within the agency. They said Landau is so focused on cutting costs that they worry attorneys will not be able to mount complete defenses for poor clients.
Landau was hired in September and replaced former executive director Lindy Frolich, who led the agency for 20 years.
On Monday, Laundau described the complaints as expected pushback to change and said she was not hired to “maintain the status quo.”
“It is important to acknowledge, first of all, that any leadership change after two decades of someone‘s leadership would create discomfort and uncertainty among longtime staff, contractors,” Landau said. “I was hired to come in and do things differently. And it doesn’t mean things before were done wrong, it is just, this is the way we are moving forward with the ADC.”
Landau said she sat down with staff when she started the job for “candid” discussions and “extensive listening” about what needed to change at the agency. Her approach since then has been based on those conversations, she said. She declined to discuss specifics, citing the need to ensure staff can speak to her confidentially.
“It was clear (that) whoever the new executive director was, Joe Schmoe to me to anyone, there would be changes,” she said.
The agency has for years worked with a largely relationship-based structure, she said, an approach that left some contracted attorneys without the same access to support from the central state office as others. That is part of why she has put in place new structures and policies aimed at formalizing that support.
“A small, relationship-based structure isn’t inherently equitable to everyone,” she said. “So a more organized communication structure does help to create that equity. What I am trying to do is create professional guidance so that the contractor who is brand new and only knows whoever they interviewed with to get on the panel can still have the same level of support that a longtime contractor has.”
Part of that has been a shift toward group roundtable events and trainings, she said. Attorneys complained during the May 22 meeting that they can no longer get staff on the phone to answer questions, and some said their emails to the office went unanswered. One employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity said staff were told to stop answering contractors’ questions.
“I haven’t told anyone to stop talking to contractors,” Landau said. “I just want every contractor to have the same level of access to support. So that is part of my leadership goal.”
Jim Castle, a longtime Denver defense attorney who has been a vocal critic of Landau, said Monday that roundtables do not offer the confidentiality that contracted attorneys need to have helpful, substantive discussions about their cases.
“Now, really, the problem is the contractors don’t have any resource to talk to confidentially for assistance,” he said. “And that is what the agency is supposed to do.”
He also dismissed Landau’s suggestion that the broad critique of her leadership is a knee-jerk reaction to change.
“None of this was a problem until everybody got to see for nine months what is going on,” he said. “Itap not like people were trying to run her out of town the moment she walked in.”
Landau also denied staff and contractor complaints that she’s created a culture of fear of retaliation in the office, and denied that the ouster of longtime ADC employee Jonathan Rosen was retaliation. She declined to discuss the specifics of his situation.
“But I will say that I followed legal and HR protocols in every personnel decision I have made,” she said. “And I firmly deny the suggestions that any of my actions have been retaliatory.”
She reiterated a stance she took with the legislature that the office needs to be fiscally responsible while providing constitutionally sound defenses to clients charged with crimes.
“It was clear we needed to make a targeted argument to get every dollar we could for our contractors so they could represent clients,” she said of the budget process. “That was my duty. It is also my duty to make sure we use taxpayer money effectively.”
Landau said that the office is working to overhaul the billing system and said issues with timely payments predate her tenure. Between November and mid-February, 97% of invoices were paid within 30 days, Landau said. She also acknowledged that she splits her time between Colorado and Utah, where her teenage children live, and said that both the commission and hiring staff were aware of her parenting arrangement when she was hired to head the state agency.
“I work remotely and fully when I am there,” she said. “It was negotiated when I accepted the job.”
She added that her “main focus is the work of providing the indigent community with high-quality representation.”
“That’s behind everything I do here,” she said.
The scope of the investigation by the nine-member volunteer commission that oversees the Office of the Alternate Defense Counsel was not immediately clear Monday, nor was it clear whether the commission would conduct the investigation itself or hire an outside investigator. A co-chair of the commission declined to provide more information Monday.
The commission solicited “complaints” in its statement Friday and said it would investigate any complaints received and issue written findings. The timeframe for the investigation was not clear.
