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County counsel seeks extra attorney amid rising legal workload; administration recommends partial expansion
Summary
Benton County Counsel requested expansion of the office from 1.5 to 4.0 FTE (two new attorneys and a full-time legal assistant) to address higher workloads tied to health clinics, procurement, service districts and labor relations; administration recommended a smaller expansion to 3.0 FTE with a $661,000 policy package.
County Counsel Vance Crony told the budget committee the county’s legal workload has increased significantly since he joined the office and requested additional staff to reduce reliance on outside counsel.
Crony said the county counsel office remained at about 1.5 full-time-equivalent staff while county programs and responsibilities expanded: public-health clinics and a health center network, consolidated procurement, nine service districts, an RV park with landlord–tenant questions, emergency management responsibilities and complex labor relations following a recent labor disruption. He argued the breadth and frequency of legal questions has exceeded the capacity of a one-attorney office and that hiring additional attorneys would both improve response times and reduce outside-counsel costs over time.
Crony’s original policy package requested bringing the office to four FTE (two additional attorneys and an expanded support role). County finance staff recommended a smaller, phased approach: modest expansion to three FTE (an additional 1.5 FTE relative to current staffing) at a proposed cost of about $661,000 for the biennium as a recommended policy package, rather than the larger package Crony initially sought.
Krager and Crony presented supporting data showing Benton County’s current outside counsel spending averaged roughly $175,000 per year over several years and that neighboring counties generally have more in-house attorneys relative to county staff counts. Crony said that some outside counsel spending will remain necessary — for example, bond counsel or specialized eminent-domain or land-use matters — but the county could reduce recurring outside counsel expenses as the new in-house capacity ramps up.
The committee asked questions about timing and recruitment; Crony said administration aimed to onboard new legal staff in the coming months with a target early in the next calendar year, and he acknowledged that new attorneys need time to build institutional knowledge.
