County counselor reports surge in mental-health hearings, council trims legal professional-services line

Councilors on Wednesday debated how to balance the county counselor’s workload and the council’s own need for outside counsel.

Lede: The county counselor reported a sharp increase in statutorily-mandated mental-health ("Mercy") hearings — from a few per year to two or three per week — each requiring several hours of preparation and representation.

Nut graf: That workload growth, the counselor said, has strained staff resources; the council approved removing $65,000 from the counselor’s professional-services request and moved $28,000 into the county-council salary line to fund a legal assistant post. Council and counsel discussed the risk that cutting contingency for outside counsel could leave the council without a ready fund for conflicts of interest or specialized outside litigation.

Counsel said some professional-services spending is unpredictable (condemnations, special litigation) and is sometimes covered via a dispute process with the Judicial Finance Commission when court budgets are at issue. Councilors noted prior instances when emergency legal-bill funding produced difficult payment disputes and recommended keeping an external-litigation contingency if feasible.

Ending: The council reduced the professional-services line and directed the counselor to fill a vacant attorney 2 position and to return if extraordinary outside counsel needs arise.

Attributions are limited to speakers appearing in the transcript; no external counsel was retained during the session.