I. Mission Statement
To provide quality legal services to the Board of County Commissioners and to County Administration in a timely, professional and cost effective manner.
II. Profile
The Office of the County Attorney represents the Board of County Commissioners and its Administrator in all civil legal matters arising in the discharge of their official duties.
The County Attorney is responsible for the prosecution and the defense of all lawsuits brought by or against the County, the representation of the County at administrative hearings, the drafting or review of ordinances and resolutions, approval of all contracts, bonds or written instruments as to form and legal sufficiency and the rendering of legal opinions upon request to the Board of County Commissioners, constitutional officers and the County Administrator.
In addition, the Deputy County Attorney and the Assistant County Attorneys, upon request, provide legal support for County Boards and Advisory Committees.
With its staff of highly trained and experienced attorneys, and skilled support staff, the Office of the County Attorney is committed to carry out its mission. All systems and policies of the County Attorney's Office will be developed to support this commitment.
III. Areas of Law
A. Administrative Law
The Office of the County Attorney represents Escambia County, its officials and employees, at all levels and in all issues that are subject to the Florida Administrative Procedure Act, Chapter 120, Florida Statutes. This representation involves all aspects of administrative law, including the investigations, administrative hearings and appeals. (Janet Lander, Fred Wagner, Alison Perdue Rogers)
B. Appellate Law
The Office of the County Attorney represents the County in all appellate proceedings brought in an administrative forum in state or in federal courts. (Charles Peppler, Alison Perdue Rogers, Stephen West, Ryan Ross)
C. Civil Rights
The Office of the County Attorney defends civil actions brought against the County, or its officers and employees, involving violations of an individuals constitutional rights and certain federal statutory rights, such as, claims under the 4th, 8th, and 14th amendments, claims under ADEA, ADA, FMLA, Title VII, Florida Civil Rights Act of 1992 and EEOC and FCHR administrative complaints. (Charles Peppler)
D. Code Enforcement
The Office of the County Attorney prosecutes select Notices of Violation brought before the Special Master as established by Chapter 162, Florida Statutes, and Chapter 30, Article II, Section 30-31 through 30-38 of The Escambia County Code of Ordinances. Notices of Violation are issued for violations of the County Code provisions governing health, environment, noise, nuisances, land use and zoning regulations. (Ryan Ross)
The Office of the County Attorney is also responsible for filing of nuisance abatement liens to recover the County's costs in clean-up of violations. (Stephen West)
E. Contract and Construction Law
The Office of the County Attorney reviews all contracts to which the County is a party, including contracts for professional services subject to the CCNA, construction projects, special events, leases, use permits, grants and public works. The contract review process entails an initial review of the contracts for form and correctness and, if necessary, modification before execution. With respect to contracts for professional services subject to CCNA, the office represents the County in all phases of solicitation, ranking, selection, negotiation and dispute resolution. As to construction contracts, the office represents the County in all phases of construction including dispute resolution. All contracts wherein the County is a purchaser are reviewed for consistency with state and county procurement law. (Fred Wagner, Charles Peppler)
F. Election Law
The Office of the County Attorney, upon request, represents the Supervisor of Elections in all legal matters, including contract review, statutory interpretation and litigation. The office also monitors all canvassing board activities. (Alison Perdue Rogers)
G. Eminent Domain
Upon a determination of public necessity by the board, the Office of the County Attorney institutes condemnation proceedings under the Florida Eminent Domain Law. Condemnation proceedings arise when negotiations to purchase property to be used for roads and other public facilities have been unsuccessful. (Charles Peppler, Stephen West)
H. Franchise
Escambia County grants franchises to private entities, which provide water, solid waste and cable television services to the citizens of Escambia County. The Office of the County Attorney assists staff in the preparation of ordinances and contracts relating to the granting and operating of such franchises and renders legal opinions on matters relating to these franchises. (Stephen West)
I. General Government Practice
The Office of the County Attorney advises the Board and County departments in local government matters such as the Florida Code of Ethics for Public Officials, dual office holding restrictions, government in the sunshine laws, financial disclosure laws and other statutes or regulations pertaining to local government officials. The Office of the County Attorney also serves as counsel to the Value Adjustment Board. (Janet Lander, Alison Perdue Rogers, Fred Wagner, Stephen West, Ryan Ross)
J. Intergovernmental Agreements
Escambia County has interlocal agreements with the City of Pensacola, the Town of Century and other governmental entities such as ECUA and the School Board. These agreements address a wide range of issues.
The Office of the County Attorney routinely reviews or prepares new interlocal agreements and amendments to existing agreements and provides assistance as requested by administration. (Janet Lander, Fred Wagner)
K. Labor/Employment Law
The Office of the County Attorney represents Escambia County in employment matters before the Merit System Protection Board and provides advice to Administration regarding employee grievances, personnel policies, internal disciplinary actions and due process hearings. Additionally, the County Attorney=s Office works in conjunction with the County Administrator to emphasize preventative law. The County Attorney represents the County in all employment related litigation unless there is a conflict of interest. (Charles Peppler, Ryan Ross)
L. Land Use and Planning
The Office of the County Attorney advises and represents the County in all land use, planning, zoning and land development regulation matters including: County initiated rezonings; administrative appeals before the Board of Adjustments (upon request), special exceptions and variances (where the County is the applicant); the development, amendment and implementation of the Comprehensive Plan and land development regulations. The Office of the County Attorney serves as counsel to the Board of Adjustment, the Planning Board and the Board of County Commissioners during public hearings on land use matters. The office represents the County in proceedings before state agencies on these issues. The office provides legal counsel to the Department of Growth Management Development Services, and Neighborhood and Environmental Services for matters involving the County=s Comprehensive Plan and Land Development Code. (Janet Lander, Alison Perdue Rogers, Stephen West)
M. Real Property Law
The Office of the County Attorney routinely drafts and reviews legal documents relating to easements, dedications and conveyances and represents the County in all real property transactions as well as lawsuits arising from real property matters. The office reviews all contracts and instruments on behalf of Neighborhood Enterprise Foundation, Inc. (Stephen West)
N. Risk Management
The County Attorney provides legal support and counseling for all functions of the County=s Risk Management, Workers' Compensation, Managed Care, Safety and Loss Control Program, including the acquisition and management of the County's insurance policies, bonds, negotiations, settlements, and subrogation of property and liability claims as requested. The Risk Manager serves as a part of the Board of County Commissioners' senior executive service management team, regularly participating in decision-making sessions and is accountable for the legal and financial efficacy of the assigned areas of the Risk Management and Safety Program. Work is performed independently with latitude of judgment within the boundaries of the law. (Charles Peppler)
O. Torts and Contract Actions
The Office of the County Attorney defends civil actions brought against the County under state law for alleged intentional or negligent conduct that causes injury to a person or damages to property. These claims include allegations of negligent operation of a motor vehicle and negligent maintenance of improvements to public buildings, roads and other infrastructure.
The County Attorney's Office represents the County in suits authorized by the Board of County Commissioners to recover damages to public property as well as the recovery of damages or losses as a result of a breach of any contract by a vendor, supplier, contractor or other party. (Charles Peppler)
P. Workers' Compensation
The County Attorney's Office provides professional services in the processing, administration, litigation and settlement negotiation of workers= compensation cases for all employees of the Board of County Commissioners and all employees of the Santa Rosa Island Authority. These services include advising the insurance carrier (or Third Party Administrator) and the Risk Manager of the applicable laws in adjusting claims and rendering legal opinions to effectuate the proper administration of workers= compensation claims.
This office also advises the Risk Management Office regarding reimbursement for workers= compensation benefits paid when an employee's injuries were caused by a third party and, when necessary, will institute and litigate such claims against the party at fault or pursue reimbursement for any workers= compensation lien assessed in favor of the County. (Ryan Ross)
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GOALS
& OBJECTIVES - AT RECOMMENDED FUNDING LEVEL
FISCAL
YEAR 2007-2008
1. Continue to upgrade its library in a cost effective manner in order to be able to provide accurate and timely legal advice to the Board of County Commissioners. Regularly evaluate our use of the Westlaw databases as to attorney’s needs or whether other databases would be more effective. As more and more publications are becoming available on the internet, the County Attorney’s Office is reducing the amount of print volumes that are kept on hand in its library. For example, the Florida Statutes and Laws of Florida are available on-line from 1997 to present. The County Attorney’s Office has removed the volumes from 1997 through the present from its shelves and has been able to increase the amount of shelf space for newer publications.
2. Continue to develop incentives to encourage professional development of in-house legal staff such as continuing legal education (CLE) and obtaining board certification in areas of practice relevant to their positions with the County. CLE’s taken this year by attorneys/staff include: Janet Lander, 2007 Florida Association of Counties Conference; Alison Perdue Rogers, Land Use Law – 9th Annual Conference; Charles V. Peppler, Bad Construction in Florida, Served as a speaker at the 2007 Florida Association of Counties Conference; Stephen G. West, Title Examination Workshop, Florida Real Estate Law, and Construction Law; Ryan Ross, 2007 Florida Association of Counties Conference; Kristine Hill, 2007 National Association for Legal Assistants Conference, and Fact, Analysis and Interpretation for Paralegals. Achievement of board certification by staff (attorneys and support staff) will be rewarded by a salary increase.
3. Continue to improve the system for lien foreclosures of all unpaid nuisance abatement, code enforcement and special assessment liens.
4. Continue to provide in-house educational programs, such as workshops concerning the Sunshine Law to help County staff avoid legal pitfalls before they happen with special emphasis on reducing the County’s exposure to civil liability. This office appeared before the following committees to discuss the Sunshine Law: Fire Services Advisory Committee, Dirt Road Paving Committee, Soil and Water Conservation Board, Local Mitigation Strategy Committee and the Marine Advisory Committee. This office will periodically brief the Board of County Commissioners on the Sunshine Law in October and in May of each year.
5. Continue development of a computerized filing system to reduce the need for cabinetry and storage space; and are continuing the process of destruction of obsolete files in accordance with laws relating to records disposition.
Long-Term Goals: Continue to critique and develop afiling/indexing system that will reduce the need for more storage and at the same time keep valuable records and use Livelink as fully as possible; not only for access while in the office, but also to have data and documents accessible from outside the office in case of an emergency situation. Continue to work with Information Resources on using Livelink for our file indexing system and develop the use of Livelink’s records management module for records disposition; continue to transfer important documents to Livelink for both on and off-site retrieval.
Short-Term Goals: Find out from Information Resources whether Livelink’s Record Management Module is fully operational and develop a “test” file indexing system using this Module.
6. Work to retain staff of proven worth and excellence through competitive benefit packages. This office recently participated in the Fox Lawson & Associates Salary Study wherein employees were given 5% raises to bring them up to the minimum salary for their pay ranges. It is this office’s intent to retain staff of proven worth and in doing so we strive to make the office conducive for productive work by providing ergonomic chairs, keyboards, large computer screens, etc.
7. Continue providing legal assistance to administrative staff to help implement the necessary changes to Phase II of the County future land use categories. Phase I has been completed and presented to the Planning Board and the Board of County Commissioners.
8. Continue to maintain thorough communications regarding workers’ compensation petitions handled by this office. Also, continue to review all notices of injury that are filed with Risk Management and follow up if there are questions regarding compensability or if safety issues need to be addressed.
9. Continue to provide support to assist the judiciary in carrying out the requirements of the implementation of “Article V” changes by, for example, continuing membership on the Indigent Services Committee.
10. Continue to provide legal information through our in-house, email newsletter “Legal Gems” to address issues which this office believes have a general application to all departments. In FY 2006-2007, the County Attorney’s Office distributed three important issues of “Legal Gems”, two concerning County employees’ first amendment rights and one concerning immunity from lawsuit. The April 2006 newsletter addressed public employees’ freedom of speech and participation in political activities; and the June 2006 newsletter supplemented the previous First Amendment topic with a recent U.S. Supreme Court opinion that clarified a category of public employee speech that will not receive First Amendment protections. Subsequent to the distribution of these newsletters, the County Attorney’s Office received questions from other departments concerning County employees’ rights of freedom of speech, and this office forwarded these articles to use as a guideline. Next year we will publish one “Legal Gem” per month and maintain an index.
11. Continue working with the Merit Systems Protection Board attorney Keith Wells and director Kay House to resolve issues regarding the interpretation of the Merit Systems Protection Board ordinance and rules.
12. Continue to work with staff to meet the statutory timeframes for adoption of a school facilities element in the Comprehensive Plan.
13. Assist in the development of a comprehensive regulatory scheme for construction and demolition debris facilities as well as economic development.
14. Develop a “best practices” Law Office Management Plan for the County Attorney’s Office.
