Why hasn't Walton County hired an in-house attorney?
- Thread starter Smiling JOe
- Start date
-
Trouble logging in? Send us a message with your username and/or email address for help.
A County Attorney would not be putting his or her BAR license on the line, unless he or she was giving bad legal advice. As long as the attorney is acting within the legal scope of the position, the County Commissioners are on their own with regards to their actions.
I read it the same way as you. However, this is not a full-time position for the interim attorney, and I think that there are many qualified attorneys who would love to work a part time job and be paid a salary of $100,000 per year plus benefits. I am not at all suggesting that the County skimps on the cost of an attorney.
Generally those lawyers aren't all that competent anyway. Most lawyers that make money aren't on TV hawking their wares.
It's not $120K - that's just the retainer. I had a problem with the part of the contract where the "contractor" is responsible for supervising the employees of the legal department. That's just a no-no for contractors, and I've employed plenty.
I asked Cindy Meadows about six months ago how the search for a new Director was going, and she said they were working on it.
My real issue with using contract legal services is that it is impossible to avoid conflicts of interest. This is a small "town", and this firm has many clients who are doing business with the county and are asking for decisions from the BCC on their requests for development orders, variances, etc. This firm, Burke and Blue, represents many, many developers in Walton and Bay counties. You would have to, in order to be a successful firm here, since real estate law represents the bulk of the work here.
I think we deserve an attorney who does not have to balance those interests, who is concerned only with the interests of Walton County. The contract states that any legal work which has a conflict of interest will be handed off to another firm, but that sounds unwieldy and I cannot remember ever hearing of the other firm in connection with BCC business.
Understand, I have never had an issue with anything Mr. Burke says.
It seemed to me that the last attorney left because the commisson was ignoring his advice. I would prefer to have someone giving these commissioners advice that they might not agree with, rather than someone who is protecting a nice contract for their firm.
I asked Cindy Meadows about six months ago how the search for a new Director was going, and she said they were working on it.
My real issue with using contract legal services is that it is impossible to avoid conflicts of interest. This is a small "town", and this firm has many clients who are doing business with the county and are asking for decisions from the BCC on their requests for development orders, variances, etc. This firm, Burke and Blue, represents many, many developers in Walton and Bay counties. You would have to, in order to be a successful firm here, since real estate law represents the bulk of the work here.
I think we deserve an attorney who does not have to balance those interests, who is concerned only with the interests of Walton County. The contract states that any legal work which has a conflict of interest will be handed off to another firm, but that sounds unwieldy and I cannot remember ever hearing of the other firm in connection with BCC business.
Understand, I have never had an issue with anything Mr. Burke says.
It seemed to me that the last attorney left because the commisson was ignoring his advice. I would prefer to have someone giving these commissioners advice that they might not agree with, rather than someone who is protecting a nice contract for their firm.
Here4Good, you bring an important issue to the table, which I had not thought about with the potential for conflict of interest. I sure hope that the offices of Burke, Blue, et al, haven't been giving legal guidance to the BCC regarding conflicts of interest with the law firm's clients. I wonder if there is any way to know if a firm is the legal council for a particular client.??? I have one or two people whom immediately come to mind for checking this info, (purely out of curiousity).
Exactly my point .. key loyalty to the County not any other employer, law firm or client!
Aggie, are you quoting yourself again. lol. I must have missed your post above, or else I would have given you credit for bringing it up as well. Thanks.
Hey Full Time What do you know about lawyering...?
I know that in court, you wear something appropriate, preferably made of cloth.