Hamilton County: Wastewater authority agrees to produce legal bills
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
WHAT’S HAPPENED
Hamilton County’s Water and Wastewater Treatment Authority previously has produced two sets of legal bills — one with many redacted items, one with fewer — that Commissioner Curtis Adams found unsatisfactory. Commissioner Adams said he wanted documents that showed the costs and times of each individual line item.
After nearly two months of prodding, Hamilton County Commissioner Curtis Adams said Tuesday he finally is satisfied with documents the county’s Water and Wastewater Treatment Authority plans to provide.
“We are going to get what we needed,” Mr. Adams said.
On Nov. 19, Mr. Adams and the County Commission gave the authority 10 days to provide itemized versions of attorney John Anderson’s legal bills. If the documents weren’t provided, the commission voted to take the authority to court to get them.
Authority Chairman Henry Hoss on Monday agreed to provide the bills as requested, Mr. Adams said, which negates the need to go to court.
The commission wanted records that showed not only what Mr. Anderson charged, but exactly what he did to earn the money. But those records were not available by computer, Mr. Hoss said. It will take two to three weeks for workers manually to produce records that show, line-by-line, how much Mr. Anderson charged the authority and for what, Mr. Hoss said.
Mr. Anderson also has agreed to step down as the attorney for the city of East Ridge, according to Mr. Adams, who has said he requested Mr. Anderson’s legal bills on behalf of an East Ridge citizens’ group. Members of the group were curious to see if Mr. Anderson had a conflict of interest or was charging the city and the authority for the same work, Mr. Adams said.
Mr. Adams said he had not pushed for Mr. Anderson to step down as the East Ridge attorney, but said his doing so would take care of any conflict of interest.
Mr. Anderson could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Mr. Hoss would not confirm that Mr. Anderson has stepped down as East Ridge attorney.
“We have asked John to clear up any potential conflicts that could possibly occur between him, his clients and the WWTA,” he said.
East Ridge Mayor Mike Steele said Mr. Anderson’s stepping down is news to him.
“I’ve had no discussion with anyone regarding John stepping aside,” Mr. Steele said. “It’s not a good time for us. To have to make a transition to a new city attorney and a new city manager would be difficult.”
Mr. Hoss said Mr. Anderson has been “extremely upfront and above board” about disclosing any possible conflicts of interest.
Mr. Adams resigned as East Ridge city manager in July. Deputy City Manager Eddie Phillips now is serving in the manager position.
