Hurlbert Slams County Counsel Practices

Clay County Auditor Victor S. Hurlbert did not hold back in a Facebook post published on August 3rd, 2020 regarding wasteful spending in Clay County. In his post, Hurlbert announced that he had just finished his 12th audit, and this time he focused his sights on the role of county legal counsel.

I will not be silent, so long as I hold this position - Clay County Auditor Victor S. Hurlbert

“I do not work for the Commission or an Administrator,” Hurbert stated. “No, I work for the people of Clay County. I will not be silent, so long as I hold this position. I will keep auditing the Commission.”

Hurlbert noted that Clay County’s legal bills have increased exponentially in recent years, stemming from two main factors. The first was that the County has been involved in three high profile lawsuits, all of which have been lost. The three suits the Auditor mentions in the report all involve the ongoing antics of County Commissioners Ridgeway and Owen. Their votes consistently overrode the dissension of Presiding Commissioner Jerry Nolte, and have lead the County into these losing legal situations.

The second reason Hurlbert attributes to shockingly high legal bills, is the practice in which the County’s legal representation is no longer fulfilled by a full time county staff member or members. In fact, the Auditor has uncovered that there was an addition of 84 law firms which were paid by the hour.

In Hurlbert’s report, he revealed a spike in legal expenses in 2018 to the Law Firms of Spencer Fane and Husch Blackwell. Hurlbert reported that, to his surprise, “County government as a whole actually employs numerous other separate law firms for various reasons. Indeed, this audit uncovered some additional 84 firms who received payment from the County treasury (neither by discretionary fund under state statute nor Certificate of Participation debt) in the previous five years.”

The report continued to identify that the Commission acquired 12 of those 84 firms in the past five years, and the fees paid to those firms far surpassed the other firms. In fact, the Commission-hired firms had costs that grew 232.8% from 2015-2019, for a sum of $733,592.56. Non-Commission firms paid by the hour had expenses that rose 67.4% for $146,381.45 in that same time frame.

Hurlbert concluded by stating “County government spending for contracted legal work increased in a statistically significant manner from 2015-2020. This was largely attributable to the Commission majority voluntarily choosing this form of legal advice and its consequential lawsuits, as opposed to simply keeping Counsel on staff.”

Other topics covered in the audit include travel, meal, and hotel reimbursements submitted by these firms, accessibility of these firms, and Sunshine Requests/Custodian of Records. Hurlbert gives the overall rating of the audit 1 star out of 5. The full details of this audit and previous audits can be found in his comprehensive review.

KPGZ News - Brian Watts contributed to this story