County
commissioners decided to hold off on hiring a county attorney for another two
weeks after one commissioners said he had received threats over the issue.
The
county commission voted in December to seek proposals from attorneys and law
firms in an effort to save money on their legal costs.
Five
attorneys from around the area put in bids to serve as attorney for the Franklin County
After
the interviews commissioner William Massey said he would not make a decision
because of threats he had received by phone the day before.
Mister
Massey said he had actually made his decision about three days earlier, but
after receiving 186 phone calls on Monday, 33 of which were threatening, he
felt he could not vote on the issue this week.
Commissioner
Massey said that people had threatened to burn his house and damage his truck
and boat.
While
no other commissioners faced the same level of anger that Commissioner Massey
did, Commissioners Cheryl Sanders said in her 15 years as commissioner she has
never been as disappointed as she was in this procedure.
She
said the issue has brought family members against family members and she even
got a call from someone she knew threatening her with ethics and sunshine law
complaints if she did vote to keep the current county attorney in place.
Commissioners
said they did not feel that any of the attorneys being considered for the job
had anything to do with the calls.
There
was a motion made to keep Michael Shuler as county attorney – he has served the
board since 2003.
That
motion was voted down 3 to 2 .
Instead
the board voted to table the issue for two weeks to provide a little “cooling
off” period before making a final decision.
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