Natalie Weber / Houston Public Media
Fort Bend County Commissioners voted final week to rent an out of doors regulation agency to guage the authority of the county legal professional.
The vote – which was first reported by the Fort Bend Star – was handed 3-2 alongside celebration strains, with Republicans voting in favor.
“Now we have quite a few attorneys who disagree with the county legal professional’s willpower of what all of her authority is, and all we’re making an attempt to do is search for clarification,” Precinct 3 County Commissioner Andy Meyers, a Republican, mentioned throughout commissioners court docket final week.
The vote got here after months of clashing between Fort Bend County Decide KP George, a Republican, and County Legal professional Bridgette Smith-Lawson, a Democrat, over the redistricting course of.
The county can pay the Randle Regulation Workplace as much as $10,000 to guage the scope of the county legal professional’s authority.
The regulation agency has represented a number of municipalities in Fort Bend County, together with Rosenberg, Meadows Place, Arcola, Kendleton, the Village of Pleak and the Village of Fairchilds.
Final yr, three Arcola metropolis council members sued Grady Randle, the regulation agency’s president, and one other legal professional on the agency for his or her function within the mayor’s makes an attempt to take away a council member from workplace. A decide finally dismissed Grady Randle from the lawsuit, however the agency’s different legal professional remained as a defendant within the lawsuit.
Randle resigned as Kendleton’s legal professional final yr, after variations with the town council, the Fort Bend Herald reported. Randle had been employed as metropolis legal professional by the then-mayor of Kendleton with out the data of some metropolis council members, based on the newspaper.
The commissioners court docket’s determination to rent the regulation agency comes after the county decide made a number of makes an attempt to rent exterior authorized counsel to advise the commissioners court docket.
These makes an attempt prompted backlash from Democrats, who mentioned George was making an attempt to undermine Smith-Lawson’s authority. In Texas, county attorneys are elected officers who advise the commissioners court docket on most civil authorized issues.
Harris County Legal professional Christian Menefee, a Democrat who’s working for Congress, condemned George’s makes an attempt to rent exterior authorized counsel, accusing the county decide of making an attempt to “sideline” Smith-Lawson.
Smith-Lawson spoke out towards the commissioners’ actions Thursday.
“It isn’t the obligation of this court docket to rent exterior counsel to examine or grade me,” Smith-Lawson mentioned throughout commissioners court docket final week. “I’m accountable to the voters, to not the commissioners, a separate elected official. And I need to make that very clear.”
The vote additionally got here after a debate throughout commissioners court docket over whether or not the county might pay Rogers, Morris & Grover, LLP, a distinct exterior regulation agency employed by commissioners to advise them in the course of the redistricting course of.
Precinct 4 County Commissioner Dexter McCoy, a Democrat, and Smith-Lawson argued that the county had not obtained the agency’s providers for redistricting in accordance with the regulation.
