Darr attorney billed city to prepare sheriff for council meeting, lawyer for city claims

An attorney representing Sheriff John Darr in his lawsuit against the city billed the city almost $10,000 for helping the sheriff prepare for a recent Columbus Council meeting, a lawyer for the city claims.

On July 26, Darr appeared before council as one of five department heads who went over their budget in fiscal 2016. On Aug. 3, attorney Kellye Moore of the law firm of Walker, Hulbert, Gray & Moore in Perry, Ga., sent an itemized bill for $14,831 to Superior Court Judge Philip Raymond, who is hearing Darr’s suit against the city and its leadership. Items that relate to preparing for Darr’s meeting with councilors total $9,700, attorney Paul Ivey of the firm of Hall, Booth, Smith in Columbus claims.

In a letter to Raymond, Ivey laid out the city’s objections and concerns.

“Defendants are concerned that the taxpayers are paying for the sheriff to have general counsel for ongoing, routine daily matters involving regular administrative and legislative interactions not directly in the case,” Ivey wrote. “While, certainly, the sheriff can incur these expenses if he chooses to do so with his own budget monies, other public funds should not be diverted for anything other than activities directly in the civil case.”

Ivey further expressed concern that attorney fees for Darr “may cross over into day-to-day administrative and operation issues or even impending political concerns.”

Darr is up for re-election in November running as an independent and faces both Democratic and Republican opposition.

Moore, Darr’s attorney, said the city’s attorneys are speculating incorrectly that the work related to preparing for the meeting was not directly related to the civil case. In fact, she said, because of the redacted nature of the billing, the city’s attorneys cannot possibly determine whether or not they are related.

“Their allegation that my services for Sheriff Darr aren’t related to the civil case are based solely on speculation,” Moore said. “They don’t have a copy of my unredacted invoice and they cannot see the attorney-client privileged information, attorney work product information that is redacted out of that invoice to see the legal relatedness of my work in this case for Sheriff Darr, as it relates to the case.”

Furthermore, Moore said, the city’s publicly sharing the billing is in violation of a court order declaring the billing to be “in camera” or not for public dissemination, and she plans to file a protest with the court.

“The court order on the attorney fees submissions says that we are to submit our bills to the count in camera for the court to review,” Moore said. “I am filing today a motion to strike that filing they made. It’s in violation of the court order.”

The Ledger-Enquirer filed a Georgia Open Records request in order to gain access to the billings and related documents.

Darr is one of four elected officials who in late 2014 filed suits against the city, members of Columbus Council and the city’s top executive leaders over the amount of their budgets and the process by which the budgets were produced. Most of Darr’s lawsuit has been dismissed by the courts, and attorneys for the city last week filed a motion asking the court to dismiss what remains of the lawsuit.

Similar lawsuits filed by Superior Court Clerk Linda Pierce. Marshal Greg Countryman and Municipal Court Clerk Vivian Creighton Bishop remain in Superior Court in the discovery phase after a trip through the appellate courts.

Because Darr and Pierce are constitutional officers, the city is required to pay their legal fees, even if they are suing the city. Countryman and Bishop are not constitutional officers, so they must pay their own legal fees.

This story was originally published August 15, 2016 at 2:51 PM with the headline "Darr attorney billed city to prepare sheriff for council meeting, lawyer for city claims."