Good morning Mr. Marshall:
            In our position as county attorney we represent the board of supervisors as a body.  When we began our service as county attorney we made some suggestions to the Board about how to most economically manage legal services. In that regard, we agreed that we would take direction from the entire board (usually through the chair) or from the County Administrator.  In this way, the County as an entity could manage its legal expenses by routing the requests for service through the administrator.  We are aware of situations in other localities and with other firms where the county was surprised by its legal expenses because department heads engaged the attorneys for expensive work outside the administrator’s knowledge.  Likewise, we agreed that requests for legal services for the board would come through the chair.   Of course, we included exceptions for situations when board members have questions regarding the application of the Conflict of Interest Act or Freedom of Information Act to them individually. 

            With that in mind, we believe that the board as a whole should ask us to weigh in with an opinion on this issue.  I hope you can appreciate our position in this regard. 

Jim H. Guynn, Jr.