The increase leads School Board members to reconsider hiring a full-time staff lawyer.
By JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK
Published December 9, 2003
BROOKSVILLE - Payments to the School Board's part-time primary lawyer, Karen Gaffney, rose 25 percent in the past year, district records show.
From December 2001 through November 2002, the district paid board attorney Gaffney $117,337.50, according to the district finance office. From December 2002 through November 2003, the district paid Gaffney $147,247.75.
Those numbers will be a major factor next week as the School Board ponders whether to move from its current arrangement to hiring a full-time, on-staff lawyer to handle the growing district's legal needs.
"Well, we're getting close to that threshold figure," board member Robert Wiggins said Monday after learning the amounts. "We're getting closer every year."
The board most recently scrutinized Gaffney's pay in 2001, after superintendent Wendy Tellone expressed concerns that legal costs were getting out of hand. Tellone also told the board at the time that it might benefit from having full-time access to a lawyer.
Board members decided to maintain the status quo, paying Gaffney $100 an hour for her first 50 hours each month and $125 an hour for additional work. But they accepted a plan to trim some of those billable hours.
The goal for 2002 was to keep Gaffney's costs under $110,000, which she missed by $7,337.50. That equates to 50 hours at $100 and 18.7 hours at $125.
Gaffney was not available Monday to talk with a reporter. She will have a chance to explain the rising costs with the board next week on Tuesday when the board considers whether to renew her contract, which expires Dec. 31.
Board member John Druzbick said he is interested in moving to a full-time lawyer, unless Tellone and Gaffney advise the current situation is working well.
"The district is growing, my goodness, and there is going to be the time, and we're very, very close, where we're going to need a full-time attorney," Druzbick said.
He expressed his continued support for Gaffney, whom he said has guided the board ably through its legal mazes. Gaffney also has an institutional knowledge of the district that few, if any, could match, Druzbick added.
If she is not interested in working solely for the district and that's what a majority wants, Druzbick suggested, then the board would have to look for someone with a strong background in Florida school law to make it worth the change.
Both he and Wiggins also noted the extra costs of buying law books and hiring a secretary as part of the equation.
"I think you could have a full-time attorney in the neighborhood of $70,000 to $80,000," Wiggins said. "But then you'd have to turn around and hire a legal assistant. By the time you add in all the extras, we're talking around $190,000."
If the board tries to come close to the salaries that Hernando County government pays lawyers, he noted, the price could be even higher.
County attorney Garth Coller earns $111,404.80 in salary annually, while senior assistant county attorney Kent Weissinger makes $74,880.
Board members Gail David, Sandra Nicholson and Jim Malcolm have said they would welcome the conversation on district legal expenses and the idea of hiring a full-time lawyer. They did not indicate which way they leaned.
