Summerfield COUNCIL DECISIONS CREATED EXPENSIVE ATTORNEY BILLS

THE STORY OF THE ATTORNEY BILLS SINCE 2012

Town attorney for many years $185 an hour Resigned May 1, 2019 and worked through December 2019 $66,000 / year 2018 Plus hired additional counsel.

April 27, 2018 to March 2021 $350 to $400 an hour Approximate $181,000

Nov 2019 to present Approximate $118,000 total. Average legal fees from $3,800 to $7,100 per month.

“Bill Hill” William L Hill Frazier Hill & Fury, RLLP Greensboro NC Bill Hill was also Attorney for Sheriff BJ Barnes, whose wife Dena Barnes was Mayor or Mayor pro tem of Summerfield for many years. Her term on town council ended December 2018. BJ Barnes Mayor of Summerfield December 2018 and term ends December 2021.

Numerous attorneys at $350 to $400 a hour Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP Columbia SC 29211

Robert E Hornik Jr. $200 hour Kevin Hornik (his son) was $185 increased 8/2021 to $200/hr. The Brough Law Firm LLC Chapel Hill NC

The November 2nd town election is a choice between the three candidates who want to Keep Summerfield Rural with overall low density, Dunham, Fox, Teresa Perryman, versus three candidates who are pro high density. In fact, their leadership, Tim Sessoms, made the motion June 8, 2021 to increase the UDO to high density including quadplex apartment buildings. Now, at election time, some want the legal bills as a diversion.

Fact is that the Town initiated most of the legal actions. Scott Whitaker, Mayor BJ Barnes, and those council members need to take personal responsibility for their actions and the high legal fees. Following is a report based on extensive research into the legal bills by Scoop’s investigative journalism team.

It appears that the town and Whitaker have burdened property owners with legal expenses, and code enforcement from town legal and staff time, against some properties that were grandfathered in before incorporation July, 1995. (Town of Summerfield vs. private citizens).

Whitaker also directed town staff to reduce their time contacting the town attorneys as the staff was running up legal bills too.

April 2018 – April 2021. Nelson Mullins. This is when it got very expensive, with no legal action against the town. Legal action was Plaintiff vs. Guilford County Board of Elections and Janelle Robinson. Janelle initiated the action and no record of who paid for her attorneys. Bill Hill recommended the town had to retain Nelson Mullins with multiple attorneys billing $350 - $400 an hour. Nelson Mullins has about 750 lawyers and payment sent to their office in Columbia South Carolina.

If there was no legal action against you, would you rush to retain a group of $400 an hour attorneys that you did not know or had not met? This was not “protecting” the citizens.

May 12, 2018 Judge Anderson Cromer ruled “IT IS, THEREFORE, ORDERED, ADJUDATED, AND DECREED in the exercise of the Court’s inherent authority that the April 24, 2018 “Decision and Order” of the Guilford County Board of Elections as to Rotruck’s residence shall be stayed such that it has no present application, force, or effect pending the conclusion of Rotruck’s appeal, therefore, and any opposition to his appeal shall be filed and expedited by July 2, 2018.”

Summerfield could have complied with the Judge Cromer order, and its requirement for expedited appeal, and not immediately spent $45,000 to Nelson/ Mullins and about $11,000 to $15,000 to Bill Hill. When the town refused to comply with Judge Cromer order this was very expensive for the taxpayers, maybe $90,000, and expenses grew because of town’s decisions.

It was an injustice is to the taxpayers, when Dena Barnes, John O’Day, Reece Walker, Scott Whitaker and Bill Hill, town attorney, refused to comply with the Closed Session provisions of the Open Meeting Act to discuss compliance with Judge Cromer Order.

August 2018 there was still no legal action against the town, and Reece Walker recognized that, and stated, “We don’t have a dog in this fight….yet.” They probably spent $100,000 to that point to NOT comply with Judge’s order.

Town council refused to discuss the merits of compliance with Judge Cromer order. The town escalated the legal expenses and the issue went to Judge John Craig, and Craig ruled in favor of Rotruck, but Reece Walker and others wanted to get something to the judge to change his mind. Somehow an incomplete email got to Craig through a “back door” and Judge Craig changed his mind. Town continued through the Appeal process and prevailed after spending about $120,000 to lawyers.

October 2018 – Town may have spent $100,000 in legal fees to Nelson Mullins ($400 an hour attorneys) so that Dianne Laughlin could be a council member for a year. October 2018 - Majority of Council voted to

appoint Dianne Laughlin to town council. They were asked to wait until Nov. 2018 for the outcome of the Summerfield Referendum for voters to decide if someone should be appointed to complete a four year term or a term until the next election. Town could have agreed to expedite the appeal and possibly appoint a council member months earlier, and not spent about $100,000 so Dianne Laughlin could attend town meetings for 12 months. (She did not attend all the meetings).

The issue is “NCGS 1-521 Trials expedited. “It is unlawful to appropriate any public funds to the payment of counsel fees in any such action.” Legal action was filed for the town to comply with NCGS 1 521 to not spend town funds, public money, to defend appointing Dianne Laughlin.

The Plaintiff offered to settle with the town because the litigation was getting expensive, and it appeared Judge David Hall was not going to hear the case based on the merits of the NC Statute 1 521. Settling would have saved the town about $48,000, including a whopping $34,500 one month legal bill from Nelson Mullins. Again, violation for noncompliance of the Closed Session provision of the Open Meetings Act, and majority of council said secretly – continue to spend taxpayer money.

Two years of paying teams of lawyers the town did not know $350 to $400 an hour (with Nelson Mullins) should never have gone on – and their spending decisions were not transparent.

Finally the case was closed early 2021; but Judge David Hall did not rule on the merits of NCGS 1-521 Trials expedited. “It is unlawful to appropriate any public funds to the payment of counsel fees in any such action.” This is in reference to the quo warranto action that had been approved by NC Attorney General.

Judge David Hall ruled that Plaintiffs lacked standing (because they had not declared they were taxpayers in Summerfield.) and refused to rule on the merits of NC General Statute 1 521. The irony is that when Janelle Robinson started the legal action about March 9, 2018 no one questioned her legal

standing as Plaintiff.

December 2019 Robert Hornik was hired to be town attorney, Brough Law Firm, for $200 an hour and his son Kevin Hornik $185 an hour, (now also $200 an hour) and $650 to attend town meetings in person as he is from Chapel Hill. On town meeting days the bill is closer to $1,100 as he also does town business via phone prior to meeting in Summerfield.

Hornik’s approved contract states that Hornik’s (law firm The Brough Group) would handle all town legal business from Nov/Dec 2019. However, Scott Whitaker wanted to continue to work with Nelson Mullins, $400 an hour for another $54,000.

Hornik’s legal bills have grown from about average of $3,700 a month in early 2020 to about $7,200 a month in 2021. His bills were higher while Hornik was in direct negotiations with David Couch’s attorney for the high density planned development. Then Hornik worked out a scheme where David Couch would reimburse the town for Hornik’s bills. Taxpayers may question the builder’s attorney paying for the town’s attorney.

Scoop welcomes an opportunity to discuss how the Town and Scott Whitaker and council can comply with NC Statutes and to reduce attorney fees.

SummerfieldNCNews@gmail.com