By Marvin G. Cortner
Editor

The Osceola County Commission Monday voted 3-2 to go with an individual rather than an outside law firm to serve as the next county attorney and then voted unanimously to allow that individual to design a county legal department that would include outsourcing much of the work.

The person that commissioners selected with which to negotiate a contract as county attorney was Andrew W. Mai, of Sioux City, Iowa. The vote on selecting Mai was 4-1; the other individual under consideration was Celeste Adorno, of Tallahassee. Mai, currently the city attorney for Sioux City, is licensed to practice law in Florida after working previously in the Miami and Orlando areas.

Commissioners Fred Hawkins Jr., Brandon Arrington and Michael Harford all favored going with an individual to fill the county attorney role; John Quiñones and Frank Attkisson wanted a firm to serve in that capacity, paid through a retainer. Harford voted against selecting Mai as the preferred individual because he favored Adorno. And finally, all agreed to go with a “hybrid” legal department whereby the new county attorney would decide how to stay within the department’s $1 million budget by having a combination of staff attorneys and outsourcing.

Before the votes on the three issues, the commission also interviewed representatives of two Orlando law firms still interested in possibly serving as county attorney: Fowler, O’Quinn, Feeney & Sneed; and Brown, Garganese, Weiss & D’Agresta. Bryant Miller Olive, of Tallahassee, withdrew from contention.

The commission had to fill the county attorney job after terminating Jo Thacker in December and laying off all but two attorneys (interim County Attorney George Nickerson and Staff Attorney Frank Townsend) in the county legal department several months later.

The plan was to layoff attorneys and to outsource legal work to reduce costs in the department. How that was to be accomplished, however, wasn’t clear. Also, the commission was running out of time on a decision because Nickerson is set to retire July 1.

Hawkins did not support hiring an outside law firm to serve as county attorney because he said, as he has all along, that the county charter calls for an individual to serve in that role. Arrington agreed.

Harford said he saw no assurances that the firms could provide the legal work for the budgeted amount, that he is worried a private firm would not make Osceola County legal needs a focal point and because of the same charter questions raised by Arrington and Hawkins.

Last week, in order to move the process forward, the commission agreed to hire an individual as county attorney if negotiations with a law firm for that service failed. Those negotiations now, however, will not now occur. The two firms vetted today, however, could still be used for outsourced legal work if the new county attorney, once hired, would deem that appropriate.

In December, commissioners Harford, Quiñones and Attkisson voted to dismiss Thacker for various reasons, saying there were problems with the manner in which right of way purchases were handled for road projects and because the cost of running the legal department, which included high salaries, had gotten out of hand.

Adorno, however, may not be out of the picture. The county is still considering hiring her as outside counsel to handle eminent domain cases as well as being a sub-consultant on an audit of right of way purchases for the Narcoossee Road improvement project. Decisions on these two issues have not yet been made.