Tax money to pay for legal fight
08/10/2005
By Arielle Kass
Staff Writer
arielle.kass@gwinnettdailypost.comWINDER — Nearly two years after an anonymous resident sued the county to remove a framed copy of the Ten Commandments from the courthouse breezeway, Barrow
County commissioners authorized a payment of $150,001 to the American Civil Liberties Union and the resident to be paid today with taxpayer dollars.Commission Chairman Doug Garrison said the county will write two checks, one for $1 to John Doe and the other to the ACLU. The identity of the person who sued the county has remained a secret.
“I hope he signs it and endorses it so when it comes back, we’ll know who he is,” Garrison said of the check to John Doe. “I don’t expect it ever to be cashed.”
The county has spent $414,748.54 on the lawsuit, including the settlement. Garrison said attorney Herb Titus has not sent the county a bill since April, but they may still see one, adding to the county’s total fees. Titus charges $300 an hour.
Of the total funds spent, $213,436.14 has been paid by Ten Commandments-Georgia Inc., a group dedicated, in part, to funding the county’s court case. The county has used $93,747.49 in taxpayer dollars and Ten Commandments-Georgia has pledged to reimburse all of it, though President Jody Hice has said previously that they will not pay for the settlement.
Two county commissioners voted against paying the bill. Commissioner Jerry Lampp said he wanted to continue the fight to the end, while Commissioner Isaiah Berry said he thought taxpayers already had a big enough burden to bear.
The funds for the settlement were not budgeted, Garrison said, but would come out of the county’s reserve funds. Chief of Operations Keith Lee said the county had about $7 million in reserve.
