The Franklin County commission agreed to spend nearly 10 thousand dollar to cover legal expenses for the Franklin County Property Appraisers office.
Property Appraiser Doris Pendleton said that her office is currently facing three lawsuits and the attorney’s fees are adding up.
The Property Appraiser is facing a suit from the St. Joe Company because the company feels its property appraisals are too high.
It is also being sued by a local resident accused of homestead exemption fraud, and its involved in a class action suit along with Bay county from a group of homeowners that feels their property values should have been lowered after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Miss Pendleton said she expects that two of the suits will go away over time, but until then the county still has to pay her lawyers.
The county agreed to pay just over 9800 dollars in legal fees but said they would also like to look at the possibility of hiring less expensive representation.
The current attorney is charging 215 dollars an hour and the county commission said it should be able to find a tax law attorney that charges less than that.
The board is also looking at the possibility of making a claim against BP because of the lawsuits dealing with the Deepwater Horizon incident.
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