Sampson County Board of Commissioners listen to county manager Rick Moorefield, far right, during a session Monday. The board is expected to meet twice more in the coming days to find Moorefield’s replacement, at least in an interim capacity.
However, the firm hired, the Law Offices of Daughtry, Woodard, Lawrence and Starling, sent a letter to the county late Tuesdy afternoon withdrawing their offer after word a 3-2 vote and questions of perceived conflict of interest raised by at least one commissioner.
The county is tasked with filling two positions with the departure of Rick Moorefield, who assumed Sampson’s attorney and manager posts in a dual role in September. Moorefield accepted the head attorney’s position with Cumberland County last month and starts in that position Jan. 1.
Moorefield joined the board for nearly all of the 90-minute session Monday. Upon coming back into open session, chairman Jefferson Strickland said the board discussed conditions of appointing a county attorney and were prepared to take action.
Commissioner Billy Lockamy made a motion that the Law Offices of Daughtry, Woodard, Lawrence and Starling be hired as the county attorney. The motion was seconded by Commissioner John Blanton, who along with Lockamy and Strickland voted for the motion.
Commissioners Jarvis McLamb and Malachi Faison cast dissenting votes.
McLamb said he felt there was a conflict present with the hire and said he would look further into the matter.
“I think it might be a wrong decision,” said McLamb. “I think it will be a conflict of interest.”
He said he would be contacting the Institute of Government, a move with which Blanton agreed. “I think it would be appropriate to check into that,” he told McLamb.
On Tuesday, McLamb said he had placed calls and was awaiting their feedback. He said he is concerned with having the firm’s legal counsel be provided by a firm whose partner serves as mayor of Clinton.
“For an attorney who is mayor to write contracts for the city and county, that’s not right I don’t think,” said McLamb. “I just think it would be a conflict of interest with this firm.”
One of the firm’s partners, Lew Starling, is Clinton’s mayor and has conducted City Council meetings and other city-related business since 2002. Starling was not expected to be the attorney sitting in on the Board of Commissioners meetings for the firm, which has seven attorneys, dozens of staf and a paralegal practicing in its two locations in Smithfield and Clinton.
Annette C. Chancy was expected to be present at county meetings on behalf of the firm, which represents clients in all 100 of the state’s counties. That will likely not be the case anymore.
Called for a comment by The Independent Tuesday, Starling said he was taken aback by the situation.
The county had not even contacted the firm to inform them they had received the contract, he said late Tuesday afternoon. To hear that perceived improper actions have already been voiced in open session and to the Institute of Government was discontenting to say the least, Starling said.
“We have never been notified that we have the contract. No one from the county has notified us, and then I hear of a 3-2 vote and allegations of impropriety,” he remarked. “It’s a bad way to start out a relationship. We don’t want to start a relationship that way, on a bad foot, and that’s a bad foot.”
Starling said the firm has done business with the county for years, conducting tax collections for Sampson for the last three or four.
In September, when the county board officially designated Moorefield as county attorney, it did so with a stipulation that it would also contract with Daughtry, Woodard, Lawrence and Starling on a “case-by-case basis” as necessary, which received the board’s unanimous thumbs-up.
Starling said the firm was asked to solicit a bid for the attorney’s post and did so, then went on to interview with county officials before securing the initial contract.
On Tuesday afternoon, Starling said there would be no relationship between the firm and the county. He said a letter would be sent to the county officially withdrawing the offer to provide legal services.
As of Jan. 1, the firm needed to be named by the board as county attorney, a “separate statute designation” that brings with it certain authority necessary to the job, assistant county manager Susan Holder noted. Moorefield was in the process of drawing up formal paperwork and a contract between the county and the law firm.
That looks to now be halted.
“We want our clients to be happy and to hear of those allegations made to the Institute of Government, we can’t have a long-term relationship with that kind of talk,” said Starling.
He said the firm has worked since it was established nearly 40 years ago to develop a “reputation that was beyond reproach” and the law office takes pride in doing business for satisfied clients. Starling was incensed that the firm’s ethics would be questioned, something he said has never happened before.
“We have never had that happen and we’re not going to start now,” Starling said. “We don’t need the business that bad. We want it, but we don’t need it like that.”
No county manager either
Following its closed session, the county commissioners also unanimously voted to retain Moorefield’s services for “certain legal matters currently in process.” To that end, Moorefield was expected to draw up a contract for providing his own professional legal services.
The next county manager has not yet been hired and will be the focus of much discussion by the county board in the coming week.
“I will continue in my role here to make sure that all projects, whether legal or manager related, are in a good position for my successor,” Moorefield said in late November. “What lies ahead is a challenging budget environment. The positive aspect of this is that it presents opportunities to further evaluate county programs and services to prioritize those which are deemed most necessary. I will assist the commissioners as directed but expect them to appoint an interim manager to afford them sufficient time to find the right person.”
The board will meet at least twice more before the end of the year.
The Monday Sampson County Board of Commissioners meeting was recessed to reconvene at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 28, “for the purpose of continuing a closed session for personnel matters,” Strickland said.
On Tuesday morning, however, the board also opted to call a special meeting at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, Christmas Eve. The board is expected to go behind closed doors at that meeting, also to discuss matters pertaining to personnel. Action is expected following the Dec. 28 session but not before.
Chris Berendt can be reached at 910-592-8137, ext. 121, or by email at sicrime@myclintonnc.com.
Has anyone else noticed that he constantly delays important decisions that end up costing the County more money than if he would have originally approved something to start with? Is it ignorance or arrogance?