Howard retires as city attorney

A decade-long era of legal guidance to Clinton’s City Council has come to an end after longtime attorney Tim Howard recently stepped down from the position.

Howard had served City Council for 10 years, but as matters continue to stack up at his law firm, Howard & Carr, his availability, he noted, is steadily decreasing. So shifting his focus to those matters helped prompt his decision to finally step away from the council table.

“I have served exactly 10 years as city attorney and, incidentally, with me, there’s only ever been three city attorneys for Clinton in the last 50 years or so,” Howard acknowledged. “The lawyers tend to stay a long time. Miles Fowler was city attorney for 35 or so year and then Dale Johnson did it for several years, then I did it. So again, there have been only three of us in the last 50 years.

“As for stepping down, primarily, my partner, Alison Carr, and I here at Howard & Carr, we just have so much private business going on. We do mostly farm-related real estate and wills and estates, and again, we have so much business going on, I just decided that I don’t have enough time to devote to the city attorney position.”

Howard took the role from Johnson after being approached by council members about his interest in filling the vacancy.

“Well, when Dale Johnson, my predecessor, resigned for health reasons, I was called and asked if I might be interested in it,” Howard said. “So I submitted a proposal to City Council, then they interviewed me and decided to hire me as the city attorney.”

That hire would turn into a 10-year stint where his duties and knowledge far expanded those focused on at his firm. Providing legal advice to the mayor or City Council, along with the various department heads, was his primary role and the scope, he noted, was vast.

Reviews and interpretation of the North Carolina Constitution and the state’s general statutes, preparation of city ordinances, lending legal assistance on annexation and street closing matters, assisting in zoning, special use permits and other planning and zoning matters and civil suits just touched the surface, he said, of the areas he was responsible for as city attorney.

“A city attorney gets paid so it’s not a public service in the strict sense of the term, but, to a certain extent, it is as it’s working with city officials and department heads,” Howard said. “It’s kind of a community service in a way, it’s not exactly like being a member and devoting your time for free to something but it is something of a public service.

“That said, there are just an assorted amount of matters that are too numerous to list being a city attorney and it covers a wide variety of stuff. It’s hard to be an expert in all of those areas so it’s a difficult job because most lawyers these days specialize in two or three or four areas, but county, city and municipal attorneys are expected to know a wide variety of things.

“My job as a city attorney requires me to give priority to city business, so a lot of time I have to drop other things that I’m doing to attend city business. I was kind of always on call which is one of the reasons I thought the 10 years was long enough.”

As Howard exited the post, City Council voted to fill the void with another Sampson County attorney, Joel Starling, who Howard lauded.

“Mr. Starling, who’ll be taking my place has been the county attorney for several years so he’s used to this wide variety of things that come with being city attorney,” Howard stated. “He’s very smart and competent; I’ve met with him several times just to transition and I explained to him what issues we have pending. He’s unusually intelligent, very level headed and hard working. I think he’s done an excellent job with the county and he’s the ideal person to do the job, plus he’s quite a bit younger than I am.

“I’ll also say this, while the job was definitely difficult, I enjoyed my time serving as city attorney. We have some of the best council members and department heads in Sampson County. When looking at other municipalities, board members argue and have disagreements all the time, but I’ve never had to see that in my 10 years of service.

“Naturally, they don’t always see eye-to-eye but they always work through it in the most respectful and professional manner. I have to say, I’ve been truely blessed to have served them all throughout these last 10 years.”

While he did love the job, when considering a future where Howard & Carr could allow him to work as another municipality’s attorney Howard simply said, “No, I don’t think I’ll ever see myself doing this again. I enjoyed it, but, again, 10 years was enough; I’m 70 after all.”