Board approves $1.39 million in warrants after supervisors request caption-level detail on legal invoices

The Scott County Board of Supervisors voted Jan. 2 to approve warrants totaling $1,385,650.24 while discussing requests for greater transparency about invoices from outside law firms.

The warrants motion was moved and seconded and brought to roll call. Before the vote, Supervisor Sherman Maxwell asked for more information about two law-firm invoices listed in the warrants: $17,132.33 to Lane & Waterman and $1,466.35 to Bush, Motto, Crean, Cory and Halligan. Maxwell said the warrants do not identify the cases the firms are working on and asked that captions be provided so the public and board can see what matters the county is paying for.

A county attorney responded that while detailed billing entries (for example, attorney-client work-product descriptions) are protected by privilege and need not be disclosed, the office could provide case captions identifying which matters the invoices cover. "I wouldn't have any objection to identifying the cases that are being worked on," the county attorney said, while noting limits on disclosing privileged billing content.

Board members agreed to approve the total warrant amount and to request that staff provide caption-level identification for the specified legal invoices at a future meeting. The transcript records the motion to approve the warrants and the recorded amount; it does not provide a full itemized, captioned invoice listing in the meeting record.