County Attorney Challenges Board of Supervisors’ Attempts at a Power Grab Designed to Thwart Stapley Investigation

Board Denies County Officers Representation in Challenge to Board’s Illegal Public Records Policy And Tries to Replace the County Attorney with a New Legal Department under Its Control

County Attorney Andrew Thomas is challenging a series of actions the Board has taken to dismantle the checks and balances of County Government. The Board took these actions immediately after one of their own, County Supervisor Don Stapley, was indicted on charges alleging perjury, forgery, and false swearing.

On March 16, the Board voted to de-fund the resources for outside counsel. In response County Attorney Thomas is seeking a Temporary Restraining Order (see attached). The Order also seeks the disclosure of the names of the attorneys the Board has hired and how much the
Board is paying these attorneys.

County Manager David Smith also claimed the Board could deny the County Attorney the ability to hire outside counsel to assist in investigating and prosecuting Supervisor Donald Stapley and his connections to business associate Conley Wolfswinkel. Smith, who works for indicted Supervisor Stapley and the four other supervisors, asserts the right to de-fund outside counsel for the investigation despite the County Attorney’s need for specific outside counsel to fend off legal challenges from the Stapley and Wolfswinkel criminal defense teams.

This is the latest in a series of attempts by the Board to consolidate power at taxpayer expense. The Board has illegally hired private attorneys who make more than $250 an hour to essentially deprive other elected officials such as the Sheriff and the County Treasurer of their legal rights when they have a dispute with County Government. The Board has also attempted to illegally change its Public Records policy when dealing with County Elected Officers.

In fact County Manager Smith threatened to personally sue County Attorney Thomas and Mrs. Thomas if Thomas attempts to fund lawsuits by other county officers who seek to challenge the Board’s unlawful actions in court. Smith specifically threatened to sue Thomas and his wife to seek reimbursement, even for internal staff time (see accompanying memo), despite clear authority in statute and case law for such a lawsuit. Counsel for the three elected officials responded that the County Attorney has a legal right to challenge unlawful actions by the Board in court and to represent other county officers, including the Sheriff and Treasurer, when their rights are infringed.

In recent years, the Board of Supervisors has conducted a series of power grabs resulting in a wave of lawsuits against the county. These include suits by the County Treasurer (appointed by the Board itself), the County Medical Examiner (likewise an employee of county management), and multiple suits by the Superintendent of Schools, Sheriff and County Attorney. All of these suits have challenged alleged power grabs by the Board. By dismantling the Civil Division of the County Attorney’s Office, the Board is attempting to fast track these power grabs and illegally go around a system of checks and balances designed to keep the Board’s powers in check.