Commission OKs ordinance limiting time of county attorney appointees
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Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell has made Kathryn Pascover, formerly with the law firm of Ford Harrison, the most recent interim county attorney.
On Wednesday, the County Commission’s general government committee approved on first reading an ordinance that would limit the term of an interim appointment to 90 days.
The intent is to prohibit the mayor from bypassing commission approval of an appointee by leaving that a person in interim status indefinitely.
The Luttrell administration has never tried to do what the ordinance attempts to protect against, said Harvey Kennedy, county chief administrative officer.
“I think, with all due respect to the drafter and supporters of this ordinance, I think it’s totally unnecessary, and I think it’s an inappropriate intrusion into the mayor’s appointment authority,” Kennedy said.
The ordinance is more evidence of the now long-standing conflict between the Luttrell administration and many commissioners who believe their authority is regularly usurped.
“I can’t understand them fighting this because basically, all this does is set a time limit and keeps the administration from appointing an interim and never bringing them in front of us for confirmation,” said Commissioner Terry Roland, who sponsored the ordinance with Commissioner Van Turner.
This levels the playing field, Roland said. He also referenced Marcy Ingram serving as interim county attorney three times and wondered why she has not been appointed county attorney.
During the debate, Pascover told the commission rules of professional conduct prevented her from advising them on this issue and that she was bringing in outside counsel.
Commissioner Heidi Shafer applauded Pascover for seeing the potential conflict and said that had the previous county attorney appointed outside counsel in the past to deal with other conflicts, there might not be the need for the ordinance.
Despite his concerns that the commission was going too far, Commissioner Reginald Milton voted for the ordinance reluctantly.
“But I have got to stress to you that I am at the end of my rope on this issue, of this constant battle between the administration and this body,” Milton said. “We’re going to have to work this out. As we have done among ourselves, we’re going to have to do it with the administration. I’m not going to spend the next two years battling.”
Commissioners did discuss amending the ordinance when it goes to the full commission on Monday to allow an interim appointment to stand for six months instead of 90 days.
The committee sent to the full commission without a recommendation of another ordinance that would reclassify all attorneys subordinate to the county attorney as civil service employees. They are now mayoral appointees.
The administration didn’t like this ordinance either, Kennedy said, and asked to commission to pull from the proposal any attorneys working in supervisory positions. Wednesday.
Fox, 42, was seated quietly with a male companion near the back of the courtroom most of the morning until Lantrip called her case shortly before noon. Lantrip, during a brief discussion at the bench with Fox, told her the case was being continued, and she and her companion left without comment.
Fox later declined to comment by phone.
Fox, a member of the DeSoto County Republican Party Executive Committee and the state party’s executive committee, was arrested in July after becoming intoxicated and swinging an ax while at a Nesbit home, according to the police report.
The report said Fox became irate, according to the owner of the home on Church Road West where the incident occurred, because another woman was at the residence. Fox believed the woman had damaged Fox’s vehicle and stolen a swimsuit on a prior occasion. No one was injured. Fox identified herself in an April posting on her website as North Mississippi director of Trump’s campaign. She was pictured being embraced by Trump. However, a campaign spokesman said after the July incident that Fox had not worked for the campaign since March.