A. For the purposes of the exempt salaries plan prepared pursuant to Section 10-9-5 NMSA 1978, each district public defender shall be considered an assistant in the offices of the chief.

B. All employees of the department other than the chief, assistant chief public defenders, appellate defender and district public defenders shall be subject to the provisions of the Personnel Act [Chapter 10, Article 9 NMSA 1978], unless the employees are exempted from the Personnel Act by the commission.

C. Before the commission may exempt the department from the Personnel Act, the commission shall develop and adopt personnel policies for the department; provided that no employee of the department, except the chief, assistant chief public defenders, appellate defender and district public defenders, shall have fewer rights under these policies than under the Personnel Act [and under administrative rules applicable to state employees on the effective date of this 2014 act.

D. No chief, assistant chief public defender, appellate defender, district public defender or attorney hired on a full-time basis as an assistant to the chief or to a district public defender, while holding that office or employed in that capacity, shall engage in the private practice of law. Attorneys who serve as counsel for indigent persons under contract with the department may engage in the private practice of law.

History: 1953 Comp., § 41-22A-11, enacted by Laws 1973, ch. 156, § 11; 1977, ch. 257, § 61; 2014, ch. 78, § 5.

The 2014 amendment, effective May 21, 2014, required the public defender commission to develop and adopt personnel policies before it exempts the public defender department from the Personnel Act; in Subsection A, after "offices of the chief", deleted "public defender"; in Subsection B, after "other than the chief", deleted "public defender" and added "assistant chief public defenders, appellate defender", and after "Personnel Act", added the remainder of the sentence; added Subsection C; and in Subsection D, in the first sentence, after "No chief", added "assistant chief public defender, appellate defender".