COVINGTON, Ga. — An outside firm will continue to represent most of Newton County government for its legal affairs after commissioners voted to keep it as their interim attorney while it searches for applicants for a new in-house position.
Board of Commissioners members recently voted 3-2 for a resolution to retain the Cumming-based Jarrard & Davis law firm as its interim attorney while it continues to take applications for the in-house position it has been trying to fill since mid-2021.
District 5 Commissioner Ronnie Cowan said the Board has "got to have an attorney" while it continues to search for applicants.
"We've got to approve a contract utilizing, I suppose, the group that we've had, which is Jarrard & Davis," Cowan said.
"I've got no problem with them until such time we make a decision to move forward with it," he said.
Commissioners' approval of the resolution includes a fee schedule ranging from $240 to $200 per hour depending on which attorney does the work.
Chairman Marcello Banes said the cap on spending for legal services during the 2022 calendar year will be $650,000.
However, County Attorney Patrick Jaugstetter of Jarrard & Davis said that amount does not include expenses for defending the county government in court.
"If you get sued, because we have no control over those fees ... the fees related to litigation would be ... separate from the cap," he said.
The resolution stated the firm would continue to work for the county until Dec. 31, 2022, despite commissioners discussing the firm's continued employment until it hired an in-house attorney. No explanation was given about the apparent discrepancy.
District 4 Commissioner J.C. Henderson, a regular vocal critic of the law firm, said he could not believe the Board was still negotiating with it after telling the public it was hiring an in-house attorney.
He said he believed hiring an in-house attorney would cost less than continuing to employ Jarrard & Davis.
Henderson regularly publicly criticizes the firm at meetings after it assisted with an audit and later investigation into questions about financial management of a Covington community center the commissioner helped manage.
The FBI later dropped the investigation and Henderson publicly considered himself vindicated.
The in-house attorney position has been posted on the county website at a salary of $185,000 since October 2021 but has seen little interest from applicants.
Henderson and commissioners Alana Sanders and Demond Mason in August 2021 voted to offer former Jarrard & Davis attorney Megan Martin a six-month contract for the in-house position — and later declined to hire her.
Martin later threatened to sue the Board in federal court after alleging they rejected her because of her age and interfered with her employment contract with the law firm after Sanders contacted the firm to complain about Martin's job performance.
The action does not affect county offices led by the sheriff and tax commissioner who employ former county attorney Tommy Craig for legal services.
