County Attorney soon to be a staff employee

The Oconee County administrator has been given final approval to hire a staff attorney, to be answerable to the administrator.  That approval came last night on a 3-2 vote of the County Council.  With the action, the council relinquishes its annual authority of approving a county attorney.  And two councilmen—Joel Thrift and Reg Dexter—believe that’s a mistake.  Other council members initiated the move months ago as an attempt to reduce legal costs.  But District Five’s Dexter predicted the move will come back to bite the county because it has been receiving outstanding services from Tom Martin.