Children often have differing perspectives when it comes to their parents.
When it’s birthday or Christmas time, parents can do no wrong. They are the providers of all things good.
But when parents are with their kids at the store, and let’s say they deny them a toy, they are the ultimate Scrooges.
Lately in Sunflower County it seems that many of our elected officials have begun to view the attorneys they employ for legal advice as the latter parent example, seeming to deny the officials the things they want without justification.
Board attorneys serve several purposes for counties and municipalities.
They handle the business of executing contracts for their bosses, making sure that legal notices are run properly and advising their boards as to their rights and limitations within the law.
That advice is not designed to be rain on a parade.
Those are valuable words that often keep elected politicians, who sometimes put political expediency before the law, out of trouble.
Good board attorney advice has kept many a supervisor and alderman alike out of jail and out of the headlines.
One of our municipal boards recently ignored the advice of the board attorney and voted to make what might have been an illegal payment to a local business.
The board members who voted yes on that deal are currently under scrutiny from the state auditor’s office.
Our county board was given two legal reasons by its attorney this past Monday to not take a particular action, and yet, three of those board members seem poised to go full-steam ahead against that advice.
Once again, the attorney is being treated like a fuddy duddy, denying something for the sake of denying it.
That just isn’t the case.
Attorneys are not infallible. They can be wrong.
But how much money is one willing to bet that is the case?
Some of our elected officials may be about to find out. More of them may find out further down the line.
