In a recent court decision involving Elbert County, settled almost 2 years to the day after it began, the county again went down in defeat......at a cost of $21,986.50 in attorney's fees to the opposing party. This doesn't even begin to include the cost of the County Attorney Wade Gateley's time, the filing fees the county incurred filing briefs with the court, and the initial cost of the county's violation of the Fair Campaign Practices Act (approximately $20,000 more) upon which this whole fiasco was predicated.
But perhaps even more interestingly....the opposing attorney agreed to settle this case in MAY of 2015 for $12,961. But our impotent arbitrators, Ed Ehmann and Wade Gateley knew better! They would have no part of paying these attorney's fees (even though the courts had granted the prevailing party the fees....but had not yet determined the amount) because they knew that even though Mr. Rowland had lost the initial court case AND the appeals case, by golly.....we are smarter than that, and we're just not going to pay that $12,961.
So.....more back and forth, more briefs filed. Opposing attorney proposes a settlement in AUGUST of 2015, this time for $16,861....all in, case closed. Back to the drawing board. Mr. Gateley offers to settle for $7500. Mind you, Rowland has lost his case all the way through the appeals court, the opposing party has prevailed twice, the county has zero leverage, but Ehmann and Gateley are part of the same in-crowd that Rowland belongs to.....so, by golly, the county is not paying that $16,861.
Fast forward to November of 2015. By this time, someone has figured out that Attorney Gateley and County Manager Ehmann have no clue what they are doing, the county is wasting taxpayers' money using our in-house mediators, and the commissioners vote to turn the entire case (settlement of fees is all that remains at this point) over to an outside law firm.....thereby incurring more legal fees for the county but perhaps finally putting an end to it.
This outside law firm takes a look at the case at hand, makes a feeble attempt, in one letter, to challenge opposing counsel's fees. Opposing counsel submits another letter (the legal timer is clicking ever upward, adding on even more fees), and voila! Outside firm immediately agrees to the FULL amount of legal fees submitted by opposing counsel....now up to $21,986.50. Not only is the clock stopped on legal fees, but Gateley's and Ehmann's whining for a full release for Mr. Rowland (stating that he did nothing wrong) now goes away.
So all the pointless posturing by Gateley and Ehmann was just that....pointless. Unfortunately, the approximately $50,000 cost to the county is real.....money that certainly could have been put to more constructive use.
Editor’s Note: Lest you have forgotten, all the stupidity does not lie solely with Gateley and Ehmann. They are merely moronic pawns acting at the behest of Robert Rowland. Against advice Robert Rowland broke election law; when determined to be at fault Robert Rowland refused to pay the court levied fine, Robert Rowland then pushed for (despite legal advice) and voted (illegally) to appeal the case; after losing the appeal Rowland dragged his feet again not paying the fine until once again taken to court; then Robert Rowland balked at paying the opposition’s attorney’s fees (also directed by the court). In addition to all the costs related to this case, Rowland has also instigated at least two other legal actions against the county as a result of him acting like a spoiled two-year-old during the handling of this case.
