I will say again that Commissioner Pfieffer did not put down the lawyers of Fayette County. Read it again if you did not get it the first time. I think there are many fine lawyers who work in Fayette County and I am sure that Mr. Pfieffer does too. But your response supports his postion rather than undercutting it.

Using your math, let's assume that a Fayette County lawyer with the same skill set as his high priced brethern up in Atlanta charges half the going rate or $150.00 per hour. Let's also say that, for the sake of this discussion, that this lawyer only bills his clients 20 hours a week. That would be 1,040 hours annually or a total of $153,000 per year. The budget is only $100k for everything. Get it?
That is a $53,000 difference and we have not even addressed the problem of hiring outside counsel for "special circumstances" which is what other counties do when their in house person cannot handle the problem.
For an in house lawyer to work for only $70k (the other $30k would be consumed in benefits) would mean that he was "billing" $33.65 per hour for a 40 hour week. Tell me this helpful lawyer, do you bill out at a rate of $33 an hour? I think that is the going rate for Pre-Paid Legal to handle a no fault divorce, not the legal issues facing growing, sophisticated county like Fayette.

Your suggestion that there be an analysis conducted to determine the actual costs savings achieved by the use of an in house attorney is valid. Unfortunatley it was not done because, in the view of Maxwell and his boys, it was not necessary. It is sufficient to stake the legal standing of the county on a "feeling" that it could be done more cheaply with an in house attorney. Of course we already know that the feeling is based on a political payoff, not any other basis in reality.

If you want to be helpful, lawyer, you should be raising cain about what is going on at the county.

Doubt it...McNally and Smith won't let it happen.

First of all Lawaboveall, you fail to understand overhead and taxes. A $100k job inhouse with the government, with benefits, is worth more than you think. I have a degree in accounting. Any professional service provider will have overhead of approximately 50%. It is nearly impossible for any professional to gross $150,000 with only a 1/3 overhead. Thus, the lawyer making the numbers you said privately would be getting a huge raise by going in house for $100k (plus insurance benefits and a cushy work schedule). Commission Chairman Jack Smith the CPA knows all this. All he says is “Gosh, it doesn’t look like a good idea. Let’s study it for a couple more years.”

The funny part is, this inhouse discussion is a red herring. Why don’t they just shoot out an RFP and see what they get for bids for the outhouse position of County Attorney ?

As far as a "study", didn't Eric Maxwell compile info from other counties?

First of all PTC, McNally has no control over the outcome here.
Smith, maybe, but only if Horgan goes along with Smith and Pfieffer.
We know which way Frady will vote.

I am fully aware of the cost of overhead in running a small business.
My point, since you missed it was, that the BUDGET, you know the thing that they are supposed to adhere to, is $100k for salary, benefits,etc. TOTAL. So if you assume a BENEFIT rate of 30% (not overhead since that is absorbed by the county) that leaves only $70k for salary. To follow your logic then, we would be getting an attorney who grosses $140k for an in house attorney. My question remains..what kind of an attorney will we get for that kind of money?
And how much more money would be spent on "outside counsel" when the in house legal eagle is either too busy, too inexperienced on an issue, or does not have the staff to do the research. The answer, until somebody can show me figures to the contrary, is more than we spend now!

Maybe Jack Smith has figured it out. (Linda Wells already knew it and could articulate to anyone who cared to know) Funny how a few months of reality can change a tune. Jack was all up in arms about the cost of McNally Fox during the campaign, now, lo and behold, it is not a good idea. I hate campaign rhetoric from the ill informed. At any rate he still needs Horgan to see the light. A challenge at best.

Lastly, it is a good thing you put the word study in quotations.

The budget was set before Maxwell REQUESTED the information about other counties. They GUESSED at the amount. Do you want either your taxes spent, or personnel decisions made on a "guess" by your government? They did get the information before they voted on the budget, but since Maxwell wasn't there, who knows what the information contains. My guess, knowing Maxwell, (and I do) the information will only see the light of day if it supports his postion. If not, it will disappear just like most of his campaign promises.
The budget has now been voted on and includes a tax increase for everyone, or did that escape your attention too?

head has indicated that the board will vote to retain McNally at approximately double the cost the study indicated would be required to bring on board an in house attorney. Also indicated that two commissioners have flip flopped on the issue.

Some county commissioners aren't confident enough to think for themselves and need a lawyer telling them everything to do. McNally loves it that way and encourages it.

Mapleleaf,

I read your response to Peter Pfieffer's letter and I want to comment.

Whether or not Coca Cola (20,000 employees and millions of customers)
Home Depot (40,000+ employees in 1200 locations worldwide and millions of customers) or the City of Atlanta (don't get me started)have legal departments is irrelevant. There is no apples to apples comparision in any of those entities and our situation here in Fayette County. So my response to the first part...so what?

Your "disgust" with feel with Pfieffer's comment's is reflective of your failure to understand the context of his statement. He was not demeaning the quality of the legal minds here in Fayette County.
He was simply questioning the quality of the representation that we could expect from an attorney who can be had for $100,000. ($70,000.00 per year plus benefits). First remember that the attorney has to have a specialty in municipal law. Not many of those in Fayette County. They have to have enough experience to be as effective as the team that now works for McNally Fox. The field is getting smaller. They have to be willing to have all of that and work for $70k a year. Now how many qualified people fit that description. Nearly zero, and the ones that can be had you do not want. So where does that leave us?
We have an under qualified, struggling attorney, whose very livlihood is dependent on the whim of the county commission. So what is the answer? A political appointment to some attorney who helped Maxwell et al. get elected.

The Board of Commissioners is entertaining this in house attorney scenario for one reason and one reason only. Eric Maxwell promised Randall Johnson that if he helped him get elected he would eliminate all the thorns in his side including McNally Fox. Now that they engineered the elimination of the County Manager who was too watchful over the continuing shenanigans in the Sheriff's office, they are moving on to the last obstacle, the county attorney. When McNally, who has served this county impeccably for a quarter of a century is gone, there will be no one who will be willing to call these people to task.

You can expect to see more activity like the elimination of Chris Venice as the County Manager despite the great job she was doing, to put in place Jack Krakeel, who coveted the job for years. If you have any doubt how much Jack wanted this control, just look at the his first budget.

It included a tax increase (because the millage rate will NOT be rolled back for the first time in 6 years), $210.0k in additional budget for Jack's own department without any public scrutiny (by virtue of the tax increase) and another $3.4 MILLION of your tax dollars to build his new HEADQUARTERS. And by the way, he also is exploring a defined benefit plan for county employees which will burden the tax payers of this county for decades to come with additional retirement benefits paid to employees.

Did I mention that Jack supported Eric Maxwell in his election bid after the previous commission had turned down both the headquarters and defined benefit plans for 4 years running?

This is nothing but vintage "to the victors go the spoils" and the county and its' residents be damned.

"Sooner or later, the in-house attorney will come. Perhaps not enough people see the light today, but they’ll see it eventually"

That sounds like a threat. Makes me wonder who is looking out for who. (Of course, I always wonder that when big changes are made in government!)