Minutes of the Meeting of the Board of Commissioners of the Office of the State Appellate Defender

              MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
OF THE OFFICE OF THE STATE APPELLATE DEFENDER
February 5, 2010
Office of the State Appellate Defender
Conference Room
203 North LaSalle, 24th Floor, Chicago, IL
The following matters were covered at the February 5, 2010 meeting of the Board of
Commissioners of the Office of the State Appellate Defender.
Present - Board Members: Thomas Breen, Honorable Thomas Rakowski, David
Reid Clark, Honorable Scott Drazewski, Honorable David Donnersberger, and Thomas
Sullivan, Jr. Present via teleconference: Honorable Charles Hartman and Honorable
Dennis Middendorff.
Present: Agency Staff: Michael J. Pelletier, State Appellate Defender, Tonya
Janecek, Chief Fiscal Officer and Human Resource Director, and Sue Ryan, Administrative
Assistant. Present via teleconference: David P. Bergschneider, Deputy State Appellate
Defender and Daniel D. Yuhas, Deputy State Appellate Defender.
The meeting was called to order by Chairman Tom Breen. Justice Thomas
Rakowski moved to approve the minutes of the September 25, 2009 Board meeting, and
Tom Sullvan seconded the motion. The minutes were approved unanimously. As Board
Secretary Ed Burnette was unable to attend the meeting, a motion was made by Tom
Sullivan to appoint David Reid Clark as the temporary secretary and Judge Scott
Drazewski seconded the motion. The motion was approved unanimously.
New Business
A. Report for First Six Months of Fiscal Year 2010
Michael Pelletier announced that Deputy State Appellate Defender Daniel D. Yuhas
would be retiring at the end of February after nearly 40 years with the Agency. Dan began
his career with the Office of the State Appellate Defender as a law student in the Third
District office. He then joined the Fourth District Office and served as an Assistant
Appellate Defender and later as their Deputy Defender. Dan was appointed Deputy State
Appellate Defender in February 2008. He has done a tremendous job contributing to the
Agency and wil be greatly missed.
Michael Pelletier reported on the activities of the Agency for Fiscal Year 2010:
. The backlog of unbriefed cases has been reduced by 104 cases from last year in part
because of a decrease in appointments by 68 cases.
. Due to the budget, there were a number of staff vacancies in Fiscal Year 2010. A