Supervisors and public press for corporation counsel at committee meetings, warn of legal risk from written memos

Multiple speakers—including a public commenter who asked the full board to revisit a committee decision—argued that holding committee meetings without corporation counsel present increases legal risk and can lead to costly follow-up work. Charlie Wade requested that the matter and a memo from corporation counsel be placed on the full board agenda, arguing the written advice was "insufficient" without the ability to clarify questions in real time and using the lack of counsel as a risk point in recent committee deliberations. "I think not having our legal counsel present when we're discussing things, that get real thorny real fast is a risk for us as a county," Wade said.

Several supervisors supported re-examining the practice. One supervisor (Alice Anne) warned that written advice provided in isolation has limits and that preparing a comprehensive written legal memorandum is time intensive and not an economical substitute for counsel in the room: "Written advice provided in isolation carries inherent limitations and I cannot be fully accountable for guidance given without access to the deliberative context that would inform it." The board discussed whether corporate counsel reports to the administrator and whether the matter should be considered at full board level; no binding directive was adopted during this meeting, and members asked that it be placed on next month’s agenda for further discussion.