Attorney Fees Examined For Mahaska County Legal Work
Oskaloosa, Iowa – Oskaloosa News posed the question to both city and county officials at the first Eggs and Issues of 2020 as to their expenditures in ongoing litigation.
Oskaloosa News has obtained records showing the total dollars spent through July of 2020.
To date, the entities of Mahaska County, Mahaska County EMA, and the City of Oskaloosa have spent a grand total of $878,515.68 since the 2016-2017 fiscal year, mostly on litigation related to the 28E regional airport agreement and the Emergency Management 28E agreement with the E911 Service Board.
This total represents the attorney fees spent by each entity and would be for various needs, such as building the new radio system. The exception will be the City of Oskaloosa, who’s attorney fees represent just the regional airport litigation.
The City of Oskaloosa has spent $70,817.08 since the 2016-2017 fiscal year on attorney fees in their litigation over the regional airport.
The Mahaska County Emergency Management Commission has spent $58,859.82 since the 2016-2017 fiscal year. The Emergency Management Commission is also paying the E911 Service Board attorney fee as it would be unlawful for the E911 Service Board to spend money beyond equipment needs.
Mahaska County itself has spent $748,838.78 since the 2016-2017 fiscal year on attorney fees of various kinds.
Since July 1st of 2018, Mahaska County has paid the law firm of Belin and McCormick PC a total of $701,721.44 to represent them in various litigation.
Those numbers came from a Freedom of Information request Oskaloosa News made and then provided by the Mahaska County Auditor’s Office.
We asked for a copy of the bills from the attorney to better determine what litigation those funds were being spent on.
The Mahaska County Supervisors will discuss our latest Freedom of Information request at their regular scheduled meeting on Monday morning, August 17th, 2020.
We are also looking to report the breakdown of attorney fees for Mahaska County Emergency Management. Our request was sent to them on Friday.
We were unable to find an invoice or bill from Daniel Gonnerman when he represented Mahaska County beginning in 2017. Gonnerman was active until the county hired a new attorney in July of 2018.
Belin and McCormick were then hired in October of 2019 to lead Mahaska County’s legal affairs for the regional airport.
Gonnerman responded to a request from Oskaloosa News about why a bill was never presented to the county for his work in that litigation.
Gonnerman explained that others handled his billing, and he wasn’t aware the county hadn’t been billed.
Once more information is available, we will update this article and clarify the legal expenses of each entity if such information becomes available.
