CONWAY — A local lawyer will help Faulkner County with legal matters at no charge until the county judge hires someone to replace the civil attorney who resigned last week.
Joe Don Winningham of Conway said Monday that he had agreed to do the work pro bono for the time being but said he doesn’t want the job permanently.
“We actually asked him, but he turned down the job due to the politics and the nature of this,” County Administrator Jeff Johnston said ofWinningham on Monday.
Winningham, a former deputy prosecuting attorney, said part of his reluctance to take the job was politics.
“It sure is,” he said. “I’ve got little kids, and I know how it is around here.”
Winningham said he also has a good private practice.
“This isn’t a deal where I’m lobbying for the [county] job,” he said.
Stephan Hawks resigned Friday from the county civil attorney’s job, which he had held since August 2008. Critics had contended that Hawks, who made $104,000 a year, was overpaid and thathis job was not needed.
Complaints escalated after County Judge Preston Scroggin granted Hawks a twomonth paid leave.
During that time, Hawks went to Malibu, Calif., to enter a drug-and-alcohol rehabilitation facility. Hawks said he left the facility after 36 or 37 days but continued to see his therapist there and participated in group sessions.
In a resignation letter, Hawks assailed “evil-doers” and the “downward spiral of Faulkner County’s political offices.” He also said he had been “subjected to harassment, ridicule and false accusations.”
Johnston said Monday that he also has talked with several other attorneys, including Conway lawyer David Hogue, who did some contract work for the county during Hawks’ leave.
“I think he [Hogue] enjoys his ad-litem work for children” but indicated he would “think it over,” Johnston said.
Johnston, who plans to talk with more lawyers, said the main reluctance among most of them has been that “they’re afraid of basically the politics.”
Last week, Prosecuting Attorney Cody Hiland said hisoffice stands ready to help the county if needed. If the arrangement became permanent, he said, his office probably would need to hire another employee with a salary ranging from roughly $65,000 to $70,000 a year.
Johnston said the county attorney’s office isn’t planning to take Hiland up on that offer “because there would be some legal conflicts in that.”
If a road dispute arose between Van Buren and Faulkner counties, for example, “the prosecutor would be conflicted out because he covers for both of those districts.”
Hiland represents the 20th Judicial District, which includes Faulkner, Van Buren and Searcy counties. Prosecutors, like judges, sometimes recuse from cases in which they have a conflict of interest and someone else is appointed to handle those cases.
Johnston noted, though, that the county has previously relied on the prosecutor’s office for help. Hawks, in fact, handled county legal matters when he was a deputy prosecutor before he took the civil job. But Johnston said Hawks’ certification was in business law.
Besides, Johnston said, “This is someone who would have to be a county judge employee.”
Still, many Arkansas counties rely largely on their prosecuting attorneys’ offices for help, though an exact number was unavailable.
Told of Johnston’s comments, Hiland said, “Whether or not to have a county civil attorney is a decision for the Quorum Court, and that’s a policy-level decision that they’re entitled to make.
“From a prosecuting attorney’s perspective, if the county would like to avail themselves of our services, we stand ready to assist if asked,” Hiland added.
Hiland said the Quorum Court, which meets tonight, has not formally asked his office for help.
Arkansas Code Annotated 16-21-114 says each county’s Quorum Court may select a county civil attorney or county attorney.
The section further states in part, “All civil duties provided by the laws of the State of Arkansas or the ordinances of the several counties to be performed by the prosecuting attorney shall be performed by the county attorney in those counties which have established the office of civil attorney.”
In September 2011, the Arkansas attorney general’s office issued an opinion saying in part that the county judge, not the Quorum Court, could neither hire nor fire a county attorney. That opinion said the Arkansas Constitution empowers the county judge with that responsibility.
But the opinion also said the law “clearly empowers a quorum court to provide for engagement of a county attorney as a county employee and to appropriate funds to pay the attorney’s salary.”
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 06/19/2012