Fayette County Attorney Shows His Stuff…

Thursday night after the Fayette County Commission meeting the County Attorney, Scott Bennett, came over to the press area and said he wanted to talk with the press. I didn’t catch the entire statement so I asked one of the other reporters what he’d said. The reporter indicated he wanted us to stick around so he could talk to us. We immediately “assumed” it had to do with the lawsuit filed by former County Administrator, Chris Venice.

We chatted a bit about the lawsuit, then Bennett walked over and said to meet in his office. One reporter followed immediately, I had to grab my pen and paper. As I walked into the hallway leading to Bennett’s office I overheard him talking to the first reporter about me in a tone that made my ears perk up. Hmmm, not very professional for the County’s legal spokesperson to be disparaging someone to a reporter… But it got better, or worse, depending on your point of view.

He caught my entrance out of the corner of his eye, whirled around and bluntly stated that I was not invited. At first I thought he meant only press could come, and knowing that some had problems with a “newspaper” that was strictly on-line, I nicely said that I was press.

Ah, but that wasn’t his problem.

Turns out he didn’t like some of the things I wrote back when the county was in the process of firing their long-term attorney and hiring him. Given the fact that he had sued the County on behalf of one of his friends on the Commission, and that friend was one who was part of the decision making process, I had problems with the entire process, not just Bennett.

Oh darn, there I go again. Just seems that I keep letting those pesky facts from the past get in the way of trying to be friends with the County Attorney. I bet he’s going to be mean to me again.

Yep, he was mean.

He told me in no uncertain terms that he could talk to whoever he wanted and he did not want to talk to me. He said I didn’t trust him, I wrote bad things about him and he didn’t have to talk to anyone if he didn’t want to. “So there you mean old reporter, and let me stomp my foot for emphasis, take that.” OK, OK, he didn’t say “so there”, nor did he stomp his foot, but the effect was the same.

Quite frankly, I was astonished. The more I thought about it the more amazed I was that an attorney, especially an attorney serving in a position that requires interaction with the public, didn’t know how to handle the press. Gosh, even I tread lightly with my fellow reporters. Tick ‘em off and they can get a whole lot of ink working against you and those you represent.

But then I thought back to some of the reasons I’d originally had problems with Bennett. I’m not the only member of the press on his list to snub I’d guess.

Seems that back when he worked for the city council in McDonough, he got on the wrong side of the press there, too. He advised the City Council that citizens didn’t have the right to film or record public meetings. One of those banned citizens happened to work for a local television station. Not a good choice and completely wrong from a legal standpoint to boot. The sunshine law that governs public meetings and elected officials clearly states that anyone can film or record public meetings. It doesn’t even use the typical lawyer-eeze that makes a lot of laws so difficult to understand. Knowledge of the Sunshine Law is part of lawyering 101 basics, especially if you’re working for the government. Bennett managed to end up being the focus of a TV expose as a result of the issue.

Another issue that bothered me at the time the County was considering hiring him was the fact that he had sued Fayette County reference the county’s sign ordinance. He represented a national sign company that wanted to get multiple billboards along our county roads. I would bet I’m not the only one who was not the least bit surprised when the county recently cut a deal with that same billboard company to allow billboards in our county?

When I wrote my first little blog about Bennett way back when, I started getting phone calls from people who knew him or knew of his work. I didn’t share the things I was told in subsequent blogs or op-ed pieces simply because there wasn’t any supporting documentation. I think Mr. Bennett should be relieved that I didn't share some of the information, and that I chose not to go digging further. The impression I had of Bennett was not very favorable as a result of the calls from his “past” associates.

Now that Bennett has had his little hissy fit, we have a problem, or two or three. See, Mr. Bennett has put me, and the County Commission, in a difficult position. Instead of asking and getting his canned responses to questions, I’m going to have to ask his boss. If that doesn’t work then I’m going to have to go the old open records request route and/or get most of my information from the opposing viewpoints.

Bennett is in a public position that requires him to interact with the press and the public. In his position he actually has a higher accountability to the public than those in private practice. My tax dollars, along with yours, are paying his salary. Based on some of the news that was reported about him previously, if he stops talking to everyone in the press who writes things he doesn’t like there aren’t going to be very many left to talk with sooner or later.

I had pretty much put the past in the past, which I know is easier to do when you’re on the delivering side. But, while my impression of his abilities hasn’t improved after watching him in action over the past year plus, he is in the office and it’s necessary for me to deal with him politely. If he hadn’t pitched his little snit-fit I would never have brought up the past, nor would I now want to pay more attention to answering questions that have popped into my mind and been dismissed over the past year or so. He kinda forced the issue with his highly unprofessional actions.

What questions you may wonder, have popped into my mind over the past few years about Bennett? What does a full-time attorney do five days a week to earn his salary? Especially when an outside attorney has to be hired for litigation outside his expertise. How much money is being spent on legal expenses? What kind of lawsuits, aside from the one by Chris Venice, have been filed against the County this past year? What is included in his new contract? What kind of reputation has he gained working with the County? Oh, I could go on… but the list is growing longer as I think about him. Rather a shame he’s now pinged himself to the forefront of my mind. I have so many things on my list of things to do and dealing with answers to those questions wasn’t even on page ten of the list.

I mentioned Bennett’s behavior to Jack Krakeel, the County Administrator and Jack Smith, the County Chairman. I probably wouldn’t have bothered to do so if I hadn’t been after a bit of info regarding the lawsuit being filed by Chris Venice. It was kind of hard not to mention his actions when they both referred me to Bennett as the spokesperson. I don’t think it’s going to affect his job at all.

As most of my readers know I’d been taking a break from the County Commission. There’s a point where you can film and write and film and write and if no one else seems to care about what their elected officials are doing, if you have absolutely no effect on their actions, you just have to say enough and move on to other things. Bennett’s actions last night put a bee in my bonnet and now I have all the Commission meetings back on my calendar.

Guess I’m going to be seeing a lot of Mr. Bennett again.

More on Bennett?

Well, I don't want to seem like I'm hung up on one subject here, but it seems there may be yet another potential issue brewing that might possibly involve Mr. Bennett in his role as McDonough City Attorney. There’s a second recent video (October 9th, link below) on Fox 5 News pertaining to McDonough, Mayor Pro Tem Brown and legal advice he says he received from the city attorney.

It seems Brown voted to rezone properties for three investors in his restaurant on six occasions in 2004. Brown says he was advised by the City Attorney that it was OK to vote on the rezonings even though one invested $25,000 and gave him a $9,000 loan and the other two each invested $10,000 each. He disclosed his relationship in one of the six votes (but still voted in favor of the rezoning).

Bennett’s name isn’t mentioned. Dale Russell states that Brown told him a city attorney advised him it was OK to vote on rezoning.

Bennett started with McDonough as their City Attorney in 2004.

I haven’t talked to Mr. Bennett, haven’t talked to Brown, but I do have some calls out about the issue. You know I’m gonna be penning another blog soon if I find out definitely that Bennett is the city attorney referred to in the story.

Can you imagine the uproar it would cause here if one of our Commissioners got caught voting for a rezoning for someone who’d invested in their business?

In McDonough, it’s getting pretty hairy due to this issue and the other issue Bennett was involved in regarding banning recording devices at public meetings.

Me thinks Mr. Bennett might have been wise to abandon ship before someone pushed him overboard.

Link to video: http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail;jsessionid=F836213A234DF84FABE414E8AA45C9F1?contentId=4589102&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1&sflg=1

Falling on his sword...

I’ve heard a little more about Mr. Bennett’s fiasco with the McDonough city council from some folks in the Henry County area (so far none who are happy with him, but typically people who’re upset are the first to call or write…).

They’ve told me there are some so-called supporters who say he “fell on his sword” for his bosses.

These supporters are saying Bennett didn’t give the City Council the advice he admitted to giving them. He just lied to the media to cover for the guys? Fell on his sword, took the fall, took the blame… lied. Not that they use the word “lied” when they’re attempting to stand up for him.

(I’d have to ask my friends to stop trying to help me if the best they could come up with is that I lied…)

Watch the video (posted below) and see the story for yourself. Do a quick search and see what the newspaper reporter. There ain’t no equivocatin’ on what he admitted to doing folks.

Then he’s quoted in the newspaper as saying he made a mistake in giving the advice... not that he made a mistake in taking the fall.

So, what we have is a choice of how to view Bennett. Either he lied to cover for his bosses, or he missed the class 101 on Georgia’s Sunshine laws at Georgia State University.

Neither scenario gives me any warm and fuzzies about our new attorney.

Lying to cover for your bosses? Not a good move as far as I’m concerned. I rather like a bit of moral backbone in people who’ll be representing this county. If our Commissioners do something wrong I’d prefer an attorney who’d kick their behinds and make ‘em do what was right, and if they refused he’d resign rather than cover for them.

I’d also prefer an attorney who had a bit more experience under his belt. And someone who hadn’t sued the County on multiple occasions to toss out our sign ordinances. And someone without any controversy dogging him.

If you’ve read my previous blogs on Mr. Bennett you know the Commission said he was the “best qualified”. Best qualified in what ways?

Define Best Qualified...

As promised, a little (or maybe a lot) about the ones who got away… or were turned away… or didn’t make it… whatever. I’m going to delve a little into the qualifications of the top three contenders for Fayette County’s new in-house attorney.

Wandering around on Google I found tons of information on two of the three top candidates for position. Per Interim County Manager Jack Krakeel a total of 23 applied for the position. Six made it to the top tier and were interviewed by the Commissioners. Three were selected as finalists (sounds like a beauty pageant doesn’t it?). The top three were Scott Bennett (who they ultimately selected), Gary Moore and Gia Compton.

It was a piece of cake to find out info on both Gary Moore and Gia Compton. Couldn’t find a negative word anywhere about either. When Googling Gia’s name I came up with a lot of references to adoption and child advocacy representation. She’s currently the City Attorney for Greenville in Meriwether County and lives in Conyers. I saw a reference to her holding the position as an attorney with the State Department of Health and a listing for her under “Divorce” attorneys. Overall the impression I had after glancing through some blog postings she made and the issues she chose to focus on was of a very nice lady.

I didn’t see much that would have put her into the top three though. However, it’s only a Google search. IF (big if) I found everything of importance out about Compton it really makes me wonder about the other 20 whose names will not be released per the Commission’s ruling. They must have been pretty sorry.

When I googled Gary Moore I found tons of information. Again, not one bad word. He has at least 32 years of experience, including serving as the attorney for Glynn County. His background is in civil rights, constitutional law (bet he wouldn’t make the mistake of banning recorders at public meetings!), developmental law, business and commercial law, property, government law, real estate transactions, workers compensation, etc., etc. He was the attorney for City of Darian and the Darian Downtown Development Authority. The list of companies and accomplishments was long.

You have to wonder how an attorney with only six years experience beat someone like Gary Moore out for the job. I’m not privy to the criteria for the interviews or the qualifications for the job. Could be they offered Moore the job and he didn’t like the salary. Although he had to have some idea of what the salary range was when he applied… Could be some deep dark secret appeared after he cleared the pack of 23 and then the pack of six. Nah, the Sheriff was on the vetting committee, surely a background check was done on the top tier at least. They had a tax guy on the committee, too, so it’s doubtful he had a problem with his taxes…

So, why did they choose Eric Maxwell’s attorney? What is it about a six-year attorney with virtually no positive history to be found when Googled? I checked Lexus-Nexus, the Georgia Bar and FindLaw. He’s pretty much an invisible entity.

So, why did they choose Eric Maxwell’s attorney? There were a total of 23 who applied for the position. Their names are to be forever hidden (unless one of them reads this blog and contacts me ). How come an attorney with minimal experience in the areas that matter when representing the county beats out 22 others who thought they met the criteria?

How did Eric Maxwell’s attorney make it to the top of the heap? When asked, the Commissioners parroted “best-qualified” and had nice things to say about Bennett’s personality. Best qualified? Google “Gary Moore” and look at his qualifications. You can read my previous blog for more on Scott Bennett’s qualifications. Compare the two. Tell me who’s best qualified!

So, how did the Board choose Eric Maxwell’s attorney? Maxwell led the charge to get rid of Bill McNally, the previous attorney. Seems like if the goal was to save costs they’d want to hire someone with at least a token amount of comparable experience. McNally has the reputation as the best County Attorney in the State so it’s not possible to come close to his level of expertise, especially when you toss in the rest of his firm who had a wide assortment of experience.

With the new in-house attorney it’s a given they’ll be hiring more help soon and that they’ll be using outside counsel to help him out. Not sure if you watched the video, but I did catch the fact that Chairman Jack Smith said Bennett was asked to be the new county attorney and to “establish the legal department”. How long do you think a “legal department” will be comprised of just one attorney and a legal secretary?

Maxwell made a big deal out of keeping out of the process of choosing an attorney at the Board Retreat in Callaway Gardens Resort earlier this year. So how’d we end up with his attorney?

A quick look at the new County Attorney... and the Commissioners who hired him

I’ve been out doing some basic research on the county’s new attorney. He’s coming with baggage.

In case you haven’t seen the Fox 5 investigative report or read the story on the Fayette Front Page or read my previous blog… our newly hired Commission attorney told his previous bosses they could stop the public from filming open council meetings (and other meetings). The Council had COPS waiting to stop one group when they showed up with a camera. BIG mistake since the guy with the camera used to work (or does work?) for Fox News…

How does any attorney advise elected officials to keep citizens from exercising their clear right to audio or video record public meetings? There’s no gray area in the law. It flat out says anyone can do it. That’s basic 101 law. According to news stories the Mayor of McDonough (who was out of town during the fiasco) even told them they couldn’t ban cameras, etc.

Our new attorney, Bennett, admitted he was wrong when the you-know-what hit the fan. Of course, you may want to excuse his blooper. I mean, he only received his J.D. Degree from Georgia State University College of Law in May of 2000. He qualified to practice about a year later on April 9, 2001. It’s not like he has a lot of experience with those kinds of things.

Yep, our commissioners chose an attorney who has six years experience to advise them on issues that could cost taxpayers millions of dollars. But not to worry, I’m sure he’s going to be getting a lot of outside help on matters. It’s gonna be interesting to see how much all that outside help is going to ultimately cost. I’m betting the first year it’ll be rather light ‘cause the Commissioners will KNOW we’ll be looking at the numbers. But you just watch. The amount we pay for outside legal experience is going to grow and grow.

OK, I could easily get sidetracked. Let me get back to Mr. Bennett’s experience…

What’s he been doing for six years? For one thing, he’s been suing to get sign ordinances thrown out so companies and individuals could have more signs. Specifically he’s been suing in part to get OUR sign ordinances tossed out. Now maybe YOU want to have signs like they do in Clayton County, Dekalb County and Atlanta (the cities Bennett practiced in prior to hiring on with the City of McDonough)… but I don’t think the vast majority of the people living in this county want more billboards and rows of cluttered signs up and down the roadways.

Yes, I understand that if our current County Commission doesn’t want more signs then the new attorney won’t get to dabble in that area. However (yeah, there’s always a however or two or three in my blogs), we already know one commissioner on the board has sued the county wanting unlimited signs on his own property (and since you can’t do for one what you do for all usually, that means everyone would have been able to stop mowing their grass and put in a carpet of signs). Did I mention that the commissioner (Eric Maxwell) who sued used Scott Bennett as his attorney when he sued? Hmmm… I’ll let you draw your own conclusions, the dots are too easy to connect.

Experience. Or lack thereof. We know Mr. Bennett can dispense bad advice and he likes to sue for signs. What else has our new attorney been doing for the past six years?

Since 2004 he’s worked for the City of McDonough in Henry County. There’s some crossover experience there. He’s been providing legal advice (stop filming our meetings!!!), preparing ordinances and contracts, reviewing zonings and other things that give him some experience (3 years) in areas the County Commission will deal with.

He’s also been working for a city that is currently exploding in growth. There has been a lot of bitter fighting going on between those who want to manage growth and those who don’t in McDonough. The Mayor Pro-Tem Brown was in the news recently for voting on rezonings for folks who invested in his restaurant. One who invested $25,000 also gave Brown an additional $9,000 loan. He says he was advised by the City Attorney that it was OK to vote for his buddy’s rezonings (for higher, much higher, density by the way) SIX times in 2004. I’m not sure if it was OUR new attorney (who started in 2004) who did the advising or if it was the previous city attorney yet. I have some calls and emails out and will get back to you on that one…

Prior to working with pro-growth McDonough, he worked for Webb & Porter (Atlanta), area of practice First Amendment Litigation for a little less than a year (i.e., suing for signs).

He worked for the DeKalb County Law Department representing the Development Department, Planning Department, reviewed contracts, defended general litigation, etc. for about two years. Although he was just one of the group of attorneys working with DeKalb he probably did learn quite a bit as DeKalb is another county that is bulging at its boundaries and overrun with signs…

Before working in DeKalb he drafted complaints and similar, defended depositions, prepared ordinances, prosecuted municipal court dockets, etc., etc. for Fincher & Hecht in Morrow (Clayton County). I haven’t looked it up, but I’m 99% sure that the Hecht in Fincher & Hecht is Greg Hecht who ran for a couple of Democratic offices in recent years. He worked with them from May 2000 to November 2001. He didn’t pass the Bar until April of 2001 so I’d imagine he was just learning the ropes and wasn’t able to represent anyone in court until he passed the Bar. But then again, maybe law works like medical field… Doctors have Physician’s Assistants who do everything they do pretty much, the doctor just signs off on everything.

I know that throughout this blog I’ve implied that Bennett may be a pro-growth, sign-loving attorney. I don’t know that he is. Could be he’s just a hired gun who does what he’s directed to do like many attorneys. I can only make judgements at this point based on the fact that he’s made the choices to be where he’s been. He chose to litigate for tossing out sign ordinances. He chose higher density counties. He chose the field he’s in. He gave at least one major piece of very bad advice that any first year attorney would know was wrong.

I’m more concerned about our County Commission’s abilities and choices than I am Scott Bennett’s at this juncture. Eric Maxwell said he was removing himself from the process because of the political nature of the situation when the Commissioners started the process. However, when it’s all said and done the Commission walked lock-step and chose Maxwell’s attorney. Maxwell didn’t disclose his relationship with Bennett. And he voted to hire him on Friday. Worst case scenario he should have recused himself after disclosing his association with the guy. The County Commission chose a guy who fights to break the back of tough sign ordinances. They chose a guy with only six years experience.

My next blog is going to be about the other two “top-three” candidates the County Commission interviewed and rejected. The Commissioners talked to a total of six and from those six they selected the top three. The top six were vetted by a committee who looked at a pool of twenty-some-odd candidates. How’d Eric Maxwell’s sign-suing six-years experienced attorney get to the top of that heap? How’d he beat out a guy with 32 years experience? Hmmm…

County Hires First In-House Attorney

I'll post the story about the new attorney from the Fayette Front Page shortly (if you're in a hurry, the story is on the front page of the Front Page)... I'm also writing a longer blog about the new attorney. Kind of crazy right now as I'm working a booth at the Peachtree City Running Club Classic (15K race) and have to be there at yawn:30 in the morning (no later than 6:30... yuk!!!). Anyway, found this on Fox 5 News and had to share it now. It's also on the Fayette Front Page.

Gotta ask the question, too --- they just hired a guy with six, yes only SIX, years experience. He was (is?) Commissioner Eric Maxwell's attorney. He's sued the county to try and get rid of our sign ordinance. There were three in the top tier. One of the guys has worked as a county attorney. He has 32 years experience in every single category the county needed. Why did they choose a guy with lesser experience and with a controversial issue hanging over his head (see the video)? There's another issue out there that's attached to him also, we're working now to get the scoop on it and see if the info we received is accurate.

Anyway, I need to get a few hours sleep, lots of news to cover tomorrow. Here's the link I promised when I started writing this: NEW! Watch Fox 5 Video re: Citizen Muckraker and Scott Bennett (If link doesn't work, go to www.myfoxatlanta.com and do a search on "citizen muckraker" or "mcdonough")