Opinion: County needs to find better solution to counselor problem

By Roger Sims

Publisher, Linn County Journal

Transparency on the part of the Linn County Commission appears to be ready to take another step backward.

Commission Chair Danny McCullough at the commission meeting on Monday, Sept. 23, discussed how the commission could move forward without a county counselor. He suggested that he had an attorney that would do work for the county but did not want to attend commission meetings.

The commission has gone through two attorneys in that post just this year. First, longtime county counselor Gary Thompson resigned after Commissioner Jim Johnson accused Thompson of overcharging the county. Thompson maintained that the extra charges were covered in his contract, however, the page covering those extra charges was missing from the county records.

Next, Mark Hagen, an Overland Park attorney recommended by Johnson, suddenly quit the post after a couple of months. He said that the commission was not following his advice and that he could no longer represent them.

Other attorneys in the area have heeded that warning.

The county desperately needs a counselor whose main task it is to represent the county in the numerous upcoming legal challenges.

In the past, the county attorney has stepped in to give legal advice when a county counselor was not available, however County Attorney Burton Harding has a conflict in representing the county. At present, he is collecting evidence on an ouster complaint lodged against Johnson by a county employee.

The Journal filed a complaint that McCullough failed to turn his personal and county cell phones to the sheriff’s office to look for improper texting to other commissioners or members of an activist group under the Kansas Open Records Act.

The Journal has also alleged in a complaint that McCullough and Johnson were communicating outside of public meetings, a violation of the Kansas Open Meetings Act. An attorney from the state attorney general’s office has said both of those complaints are being investigated.

The commission is also facing potential lawsuits from solar utility development companies and landowners who will likely suffer losses on signed leases for projects when the county revoked a zoning regulation that allowed development of solar utilities and replaced it with a prohibition.

Despite advertising for a new county counselor for several weeks, no one has stepped up to fill that post. That’s not surprising. The commission meetings, which are live-streamed on YouTube, have become must-see spectacles that are part drama and part cautionary tales.

McCullough’s suggestion of using an attorney he recommends has three potential drawbacks. The most obvious one is that if the attorney is his attorney, there is a conflict of interest. Who will that attorney be representing, the county or the commissioner?

Hagen was Johnson's suggestion to fill the void left by Thompson, although it doesn't appear that there was a conflict of interest in that case. A better solution would be to continue to solicit representation by help-wanted ads or sending out requests for proposals.

How will this attorney be hired? Will the commission vote in open meeting to hire him or her, or will work just be sent his or her way at the direction of one of more of the commissioners?

Finally, when the attorney is not present at the open meetings, is there more of an opportunity for the commission to discuss policy issues out of the public view?

There are governmental entities that resort to video or phone conferences with attorneys. Harding regularly attends La Cygne City Council meeting on video conference, a fact he says he isn’t pleased about but is forced to temporarily accept for personal reasons. The Prairie View school board uses attorneys from the Kansas Association of School Board via telephone conference.

In both cases, the attorney works in the open meeting even though an executive session to discuss legal matters may be involved.

The commission needs to come up with a better solution to the lack of a county counselor. And one who works behind the scenes is not a good solution.