Pima County Public Defender Joel Feinman has announced his resignation after a five-year tenure serving in the position.
Feinman will leave his post on May 2 and relocate to Victoria, British Columbia. The public defender said he doesn’t have a new position lined up but is moving to begin “a new chapter in life.”
“I’ve been the head of my office for five years, and I think that our culture and our politics all too often accepts people in leadership positions for far too long,” Feinman said. “I don’t know that anybody should have that sort of responsibility for too long. I think that a leader’s job is to train the next generation and to move over and make way for new people with new ideas and new energy when the time is right.”
Feinman was appointed as the county’s public defender in April 2017 and has advocated for criminal justice reform and “ensuring that indigent individuals who rely on the Public Defense system have access to quality, timely and fair representation,” acting County Administrator Jan Lesher wrote in a memo announcing his resignation.
Dean Brault, the county’s Public Defense Services director, will lead a team to identify Feinman’s replacement and make a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors by April 19, according to the memo.
“I hope and trust that whoever replaces me will be as concerned about representing our clients to the best of our ability and advocating for criminal-justice reform for everybody in the community,” Feinman said.
