Why The County Attorney Does Not Attend Every County Board Meeting

As your elected County Attorney, the duties of my office are defined by Minnesota Statutes. The primary function of a County Attorney’s Office is to prosecute crimes within the County. This work involves reviewing hundreds of law enforcement investigation reports during the year and charging hundreds of people with various crimes. After persons are charged it is the duty of the County Attorney’s Office to prosecute those persons which involve numerous pre-trial hearings and, while most cases result in a plea of guilty, numerous jury trials occur throughout the year.

Jury trial dates are scheduled a year in advance of actual trials. In Freeborn County jury trials are held twice a month, beginning on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month. These dates are the same as the regularly scheduled County Board Meetings. Therefore, there are days when I am simply in court trying a case.

A second duty of the County Attorney’s Office is to provide legal advice to County Departments and to the Freeborn County Board of Commissioners. The County Attorney’s Office can be contacted at any time and asked to provide an opinion, either orally or in writing; to review contracts; draft contracts; or to review and consult with any County Officers or the Board of Commissioners on any legal item affecting the County.

County Commissioners regularly contact the County Attorney’s Office asking for legal documents, opinions, advice, or for consultation on issues involving aspects of County business. These contacts are made well in advance of most County Board Meetings. The County Attorney regularly provides legal advice and drafts documents for the Freeborn County Administrator.

Based upon my experience and my observation of County Board Meetings for more than 30 years as an Assistant County Attorney, lawyer in the community and as the elected County Attorney, it is rare that an issue comes up during a County Board Meeting that has not already been addressed by my office. Those rare, unexpected issues that come up during a County Board Meeting do not usually require an immediate response from the County Attorney.

I am reluctant to give extemporaneous oral legal opinions during County Board Meetings based upon very limited factual information being presented. Without sounding too jaded, I have become wary of the games that a few members of the public can play at public meetings when they seek to obtain commitments without providing all the facts and without consulting the actual employees who are engaged in the day-to-day duties of providing governmental services. Whenever a question is directed at the County Attorney by a County Commissioner or a member of the public and is prefaced by the comment, “You should know the answer”, I am especially wary.

I have confidence in my skills as a lawyer. I also know my limitations. I am capable of providing well-reasoned, accurate legal research. However, sometimes legal questions do not have absolute black and white answers. That is why Appellate Courts exist and why I provide legal opinions. An opinion often points out how slight changes in facts can effect an outcome.

If a legal question is significant, then time to prepare a written legal opinion or memorandum is required.

Keeping the public informed, and in some instances educating the public about issues, is a duty of Local, State, and Federal Government. County Government is not impersonal. County elected Officials and County employees are citizens who live, work, and vote within this county. County Government personnel are immediately present and concerned about what is happening in their community.

It is my observation that from time to time individual members of the public sometimes seek to portray local government as though is was nameless, faceless and wastefully spending of taxpayers’ money, or that County employees are uninterested in doing their work and are discourteous to the citizens of the county. This is not true. This is truly a lie.

What must be kept in mind is that county employees are governed by state laws and county ordinances, state and county rules and regulations which govern the conduct of their duties. Many times people do not understand or refuse to accept that there are laws and rules that control our actions.

Finally, we must accept that people have differing opinions about how to do something, or that people can be mistaken. If a person does not have “all the facts”, a different result can in fact be the correct result.

Freeborn County is a medium-sized Minnesota county. Yet, this County Attorney’s Office has fewer employees than any other comparable sized county. I am especially conscious of prioritizing my time in relationship to the services that I am mandated to perform. I cannot attend every County Board Meeting because I have other duties that must be performed at the same time on the days the County Board meets.

Respectfully Submitted,

Craig S. Nelson

Freeborn County Attorney