Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
The Jefferson County Commission underwent a major shift last week, in terms of the changing of key individuals who advise the board on legal and engineering matters.
The changes came as a consequence of the retirements of long-serving County Attorneys Buck Bird and Scott Shirley, along with the tactical withdrawal of Dewberry Engineering from this area to focus its resources on the western part of the Panhandle.
After weeks of advertising the positions and more recently interviewing candidates, the commission on Thursday evening, June 2, approved four new hires to replace the outgoing individuals.
For legal counsel, the board turned to the Tallahassee firm of Nabors, Giblin and Nickerson, which has worked with the commission previously and whose specialties include local governments, employment and land use law and legislative consulting.
More specifically, Attorney Heather Encinosa was hired to serve as the new county attorney here.
Encinosa, according to her professional profile on the law firm’s website, has expertise in several areas, including local governments, the review and negotiation of transactional documents, municipal and county home rules, constitutional and statutory interpretations and governmental finance and tax matters. She currently serves as Wakulla County Attorney.
Presented with two cost proposals from the firm, the commission opted to pay an annual fee of $140,000 for Encinosa’s service. This arrangement was in lieu of the hourly retainer rate that the board has previously paid its attorneys.
The $140,000 fee, which does not include litigation and other specified activities, will be for a six-month period, after which time the board will revisit the issue and decide if it wants to maintain the arrangement.
Encinosa will likewise be providing legal advice to the Jefferson County Planning Commission, although an hourly rate will apply for certain matters, such as the revision and update of the local comprehensive plan and other lengthy processes.
In justification of the $140,000 annual fee, Commissioner Betsy Barfield noted that the county was currently involved in series of litigations and other issues that would require legal representation.
She further noted that the record showed that despite the hourly rate, the county had paid Shirley $148,000 in legal fees in the previous year and $200,000 in the year before that.
What’s more, these amounts didn’t include the legal fees that the county had paid to other firms that had represented it on specialized matters, she said. Her point was that the $140,000 wasn’t far off the mark from what legal services were currently costing the county.
For engineering services, the board adopted a best practices model and opted to go with multiple engineering firms instead of the one that it has traditionally hired.
The three engineering firms selected, out of the seven that applied for the job, were Southeastern Consulting Engineers, AE Engineering and MLD Architects, which has an engineering component.
Founded in 2010 and based in Wewahitchka, Southeastern Consulting Engineers focuses on all facets of civil and structural engineering, including commercial and residential structural engineering, site planning, land use planning and construction engineering inspection, among other things. Jack Husband is founder and president.
AE Engineering, based in Jacksonville, lists among its core services construction engineering and inspection, construction management, civil engineering and contractor quality control, as well as asset and infrastructure maintenance, building inspections and planning. Roderick Myrick represented the company.
MLD Architects is a Tallahassee-based company whose portfolio includes projects ranging from historic restoration and rehabilitation to new design and construction of high tech campuses. Although not an engineering firm per se, the company has access to engineers and has previously done historic preservation projects here.
Engineers typically are paid on a per-project basis, with the amount calculated as a percentage of the total cost of the work, as set forth by professional standards.
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