HAMLIN – Lincoln County’s assessor is fighting a decision by the county commission to force his office to switch spaces with the sheriff’s department, a move he says is unnecessary and would cost taxpayers.
On February 16, Lincoln County Assessor Jamie Linville filed a verified petition for issuance of writ of certiorari and a motion for preliminary injunction in Lincoln Circuit Court against the Lincoln County Commission as well as Commissioners Josh Stowers, Maria Harless and Kimberly Blair as well as Clerk Kristy Scraggs.
In the petition, Linville says the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office filed a request with the county commission to approve several matters to foster expansion of the office. That included a request for “larger accommodations to better fulfill the duties required of the Sheriff’s Office,” which offered the solution of switching courthouse offices with the assessor.
The sheriff’s request said the change would “result in greater productivity by all parties, as well as improve employee moral (sic) and retention, and better serve the citizens of Lincoln County.”
Linville says such a change would result in great costs to his office, affecting its ability to carry out its duties. In fact, he says the move “is not efficient and it’s not possible.”
He says the cost to taxpayers would be about $30,000, and he says the current office has several custom-built shelves to ensure public access to records and general safekeeping. Also, the 12 computers for public access in the current office wouldn’t fit in the sheriff’s current office. And additional wiring would have to be installed for the space to be compliant.
But the cost to Lincoln County taxpayers could be closer to $100,000 considering funds needed to move both offices as well as legal fees required for all parties in this litigation.
Other issues with the request, according to Linville, is that it never mentions any alternative option for the sheriff’s demand and that the sheriff’s office has only seven full-time employees when it traditionally has had 12 to 15.
Still, the sheriff’s request was placed on the commission agenda for a hearing at the January 5 meeting, and another hearing was held January 19.
“There are far more pressing budgetary matters in Lincoln County to be addressed with these funds,” the petition states. “Namely, the same January 19 hearing included testimony from Lincoln County Circuit Clerk Brian Graley which detailed a collapsing roof which had ruined a $600 county printer, leaked on employees of the county while performing their job duties and posed a serious threat to injury or illness to employees and members of the public if not properly remediated.”
After briefly deliberating, the commission approved the sheriff’s request to switch the offices.
The assessor asks the court to issue a writ to review the actions of the county commission. In the accompanying motion, Linville asks the court to enjoin the respondents from removing him from his office and using taxpayer funds to do so.
On February 28, Linville filed a motion seeking a temporary restraining order to keep the parties from removing his from his office space and using taxpayer money for it.
On March 22, the defendants filed an amended answer to the petition and a counterclaim.
In that answer, the defendants deny the allegations and seek to have the petition denied and dismissed with prejudice.
In the counterclaim, they say, as commissioners, they are entitled to a full accounting of all funds from the assessor’s budget.
“Specifically, respondent seeks a full accounting of any public funds used from petitioner’s budget which were used related to the filing and prosecution of his petition for Issuance of Writ of Certiorari,” the counterclaim states. “Without full accounting, it is impossible for the respondent to determine if petitioner is using the public funds allocated to him in an appropriate manner.”
Linville is being represented by Randall L. Saunders and Jonah D. Samples of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough in Huntington. The defendants are being represented by J. Mark Adkins and Lindsay M. Gainer of Bowles Rice in Charleston. After both judges in the circuit recused themselves from the case, Cabell Circuit Judge Paul T. Farrell is hearing the matter.
Linville became assessor in 2022 after former assessor Jereme Browning resigned in June after being charged with public intoxication after he was found passed out on an office couch. His entire staff walked off the job days before he resigned. In April of last year, Browning was charged with domestic violence5t
Lincoln Circuit Court case number 23-P-9