Commissioners’ fight costs local taxpayers.

When a turf battle between public officials escalates to the point of their hiring private lawyers, guess who gets stuck with the legal bills? Unfortunately, it’s taxpayers, not the officials who can’t work it out on their own.

For that reason alone, Seminole County taxpayers have a right to be annoyed and frustrated by a legal battle between the county’s commissioners and its clerk of courts, Grant Maloy, over who’s in charge of investing surplus county funds.

Taking sides in this dispute is like picking a winner among frogs in a beauty contest.

Commissioners and the county’s staff attorney, as well as a pair of private lawyers, contend the law gives commissioners, not the clerk, ultimate authority to dictate the policy for investing surplus county funds. Naturally, the clerk and a couple of private lawyers on his side stoutly disagree.

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As Maloy is quick to point out, there are clerks and/or comptrollers in other Florida counties whose job description includes investing surplus funds. In Orange County, the comptroller makes investment decisions with the guidance of a five-member committee. In Lake County, the clerk fulfills the same function based on recommendations from a six-member advisory team.

Those examples don’t necessarily settle the legal argument in Seminole, but they suggest a possible compromise for the warring commission and clerk. How about a joint advisory team for investments, with some members chosen by the commission and some by the clerk?

Seminole commissioners have a well-earned reputation for good management and thoughtful leadership. Maloy has a record of fierce advocacy for taxpayers. Neither should be comfortable with the idea of waging a battle with private lawyers at public expense.

Surely there’s enough room for the two sides to make a deal of some kind that would pull the plug on the lawsuit — before the bills for taxpayers really start to add up.