COEUR d'ALENE - Kootenai County Commissioner Todd Tondee said Monday the county might not go forward with its own "comprehensive" study of its public-defense system.

"We've talked to a consultant and that consultant seems to think at this time that it might not be the correct steps to take," Tondee said. "We're waiting for his report before we move forward."

The consultant is David Carroll, the executive director of the Sixth Amendment Center in Boston.

"He's doing an analysis for us before we determine whether we're going to move forward or not," Tondee said.

He said Carroll has done several such studies nationwide.

Tondee said Carroll's view is it's not a good time for Kootenai County to have its own study conducted when the state of Idaho is having a study done already.

"Their study may revamp the whole public-defender system statewide," Tondee said.

That study is going to be completed before the next state legislative session.

"It might just be better to wait to see what they're going to do," Tondee said. "If we go forward with a study and they come up and change the whole system then we've just wasted all that time and energy."

Carroll is going to put his recommendation in writing and then the commissioners will vote to officially call the study off or not. A final decision should be made within a couple weeks, he said.

In April, Commissioner Dan Green said a preliminary estimate for a study would be a maximum of $40,000. The commissioners have been saying they wanted the study completed by this fall.

The county's study could range from a complete, comprehensive analysis on how to best provide the services and protect constitutional rights or just look at specific issues like the selection of conflict attorneys and how to contract with them.

Tondee said the commissioners would have to modify a resolution from earlier this year calling for the study.

"We still have our resolution out there, and we're still going down that path until we get information (in writing) that's going to tell us something different," Tondee said. "Now just from the conversations, we think we're going to get information that tells us something different."