A study has found a major expense for Jefferson County: legal fees.
Commissioner George Bowman released the study results. It shows what the county paid lawyers over the past 5 years. 50 law firms billed Jefferson County about $30-million in that period and legal costs for bankruptcy is now expected to cost taxpayers a million dollars per month. Bowman says this is not fair when the county is laying off workers.
“All of this at a time we are saying to employees ‘we don't have the money for you. We cannot afford your service. We have to shut down services. We have to lay people off.’ Some people we have to terminate their employment because we don't have the money," said Bowman.
Commission President David Carrington sees it in a different way. He says attorneys for the county have saved the county millions of dollars and calls the legal costs a good investment for taxpayers.
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