Franklin BOC Reviewing County Attorney Contract

The Franklin County Attorney’s contract is almost up for the year and the Board of Commissioners is now considerding whether to renew it.

County attorney “Bubba” Samuels contract renews in January, but County Manager Beth Thomas told the board at their work session Tuesday, she wants them to review it well ahead of time.

“Each January the Board is to appoint the County attorney,” she said. “So before we get into January I thought this would be a good time to review his services so that you will be ahead.”

Thomas put together a request for bid proposal for the board members to review that she said she received through the Association of County Commissions of Georgia.

Commission Chair Thomas Bridges noted he’s in favor of sending out RFP’s every few years.

“It’s my philosophy to put it out to bid every so often to make sure we get the best bang for our buck and to make sure our citizens are being served well,” Bridges said. “I personally don’t have any problems with the current county attorney, but this is a formality in order to see if we have any alternatives with local attorneys who might want to put in their bid to be our county attorney.”

Commissioner Jeff Jacques noted there was no pricing structure on the RFP the County manager had handed out and asked that one be put in so the board could make comparisons.

However Jacques said he has no issues with the current attorney Samuels and praised his work over the past year on behalf of the Franklin County.

“This is not about his performance,” Jacques said. “He has done an outstanding job and has actually won every case where he represented Franklin County as our attorney.”

Commissioners are expected to take a vote on whether to renew Samuel’s contract sometime before the first of the year.