Long County Commissioners voted Tuesday night to repeal a portion of the county charter that prohibited the county attorney from representing multiple entities within Long County.
At issue is having independent legal counsel for representation in county matters as well as the public perception of an attorney who represents more than one party in a single transaction. In local government matters, this has historically been an issue with SPLOST negotiations, contract executions, and even bond sales. Long County has, for several years, had an ordinance which prohibits the county attorney from also representing a municipality within Long County, the Hospital Authority, or the Board of Education. Said attorney cannot work for a law firm that represents those entities either.
Subsection (g) of Sec. 13 of the Long County Code of Ordinances states “No person who serves as county attorney or assistant county attorney and no person who is a member of the same law firm as the county attorney or assistant county attorney may represent the Long County Hospital Authority, and Board of Education of Long County, or any municipality located within Long County.”
Tuesday night, Commissioners considered a second reading to repeal this provision.
County Administrator Chuck Scraggs chose Luke Moses after the unannounced resignation of former attorney James Smith. Moses then appeared at a county commission meeting and Commissioners voted to approve his representation. Moses also represents the City of Ludowici, located within Long County.
Citizen Lisa Ruise addressed commissioners Tuesday night and pointed out that Moses represents Ludowici and a developer who, in recent months, has threatened to sue Long County. She referenced an incident recently involving a dispute between the City of Ludowici and Long County where Ludowici cut off the water to the county animal shelter.
“I spoke with Mr. Scragg today and he told me that it was an honest oversight when you guys hired Mr. Moses, that you guys overlooked that he couldn’t be the city attorney also. And then he told me that nobody wants to work for you guys as an attorney, which I get. This is a crap situation that we’re in, but you guys also didn’t put a notice about needing an attorney. There’s nothing stopping you from putting a notice in counties besides Tattnall. You can put one in Wayne County, McIntosh, Liberty county and get the word out there that you guys are looking for an attorney,” she told them.
Ruise continued on that removing an ordinance that was instituted to prevent nepotism and corruption was not in the best interest of the county. “Taking that out when public trust is at an all time low in this county is a really bad idea and I don’t think it’s a good look.”
Moses asked for the opportunity to respond, saying he appreciated Ruise’s civic engagement and agreed that it’s ‘a legitimate concern.’ He then offered a lengthy explanation on how real estate closings work.
“I understand my role here is to represent Long County and if there is a conflict between Long County and Ludowici, I would have to recuse myself in that situation.”
Moses did not elaborate on whether he would recuse himself from representing Ludowici, Long County, or both in that situation. In an instance where he recused himself, the county would have to seek outside legal counsel.
Moses said he is the only one here that had a full-time job with the federal government when he was 16-years-old. He also shared that he represents other government entities, such as Walthourville (Liberty County), and serves as the Solicitor for Hinesville (Liberty County) where he is also the assistant city attorney and the appointed representative to the Liberty County Development Authority. His law practice colleague represents Liberty County and the Liberty County Development Authority.
He said his firm representing all of those entities has been an asset to the clients, not a burden. Specifically, he said when there are two attorneys, they end up with two different interpretations of the law. He will give the same interpretation to everyone.
Moses closed by saying he makes his money at his ‘robust private practice’ and his government representation is ‘a public service.’ “There’s no great financial incentive in government representation,” Moses said.
Ruise began to respond to Moses’ comments, at which time County Manager Chuck Scragg looked at his watch and said ‘Time’s up.’
Commissioner James Craft said he is not opposed to adding clauses about nepotism to the county charter. “We recognize that there are a lot of changes we have to make. Some of that takes time and we do need an attorney to do it.”
A man, who did not identify himself ahead of his comments, asked the attorney if he represented the businesses of now-former county commissioner Robert Parker. Moses replied that his office facilitated real estate closings involving the parties and that he represented Parker in his county commission candidate capacity when Parker challenged the residency of his opponent.
“My personal views on development or not developing things is irrelevant to my legal representation to this county. My job is to tell the county commissioners what the law is, not to inject my personal views in favor or against that,” Moses said.
Scragg said no advertisement is required and the Board can simply appoint someone. He said he reached out and issues with finding an attorney included availability and experience. He said he had three candidates – one didn’t have experience, one worked for the Board of Education, and one worked for the City of Ludowici.
“I will take the responsibility for missing how it was phrased in the charter where it said no attorney working for any municipality in Long County. I missed that. On the other hand, the county has the wherewithal to appoint an assistant county attorney as well and your gentleman up here, elected officials, can do that at any time with terms and conditions that they set,” Scragg said. “Knowing that, we could have maybe someone else from the firm as a backup, we could determine, actually the commissioners could determine, what is a conflict of interest and what is not. My recommendation is to amend our charter and appoint an assistant county attorney.”
Ultimately, Commissioners voted 3-1 to approve the repeal of the ordinance with Craft voting NO.
