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Commissioners vote 2-1 to hire Ice Miller to represent them in Council litigation against them

Tuesday, November 26, 2024 at 3:00 AM

By Kathy Bottorff

Last week, the Marshall County Commissioners voted 2-1 to engage Ice Miller as their legal counsel for representation in the lawsuit filed against them by the County Council.   Commissioner Stan Klotz voted not to engage Ice Miller.    

Earlier this month, the County Council filed a lawsuit against the Marshall County Commissioners and Tamarack, the company seeking a variance to permit an industrial solar farm project in West and Union Township.

The County Council’s attorney filed a Complaint of Declaratory Judgement with the contention that Commissioner Kevin Overmyer has a conflict of interest with the solar project and that Commissioners signed the Decommissioning Plan Agreement shouldn’t have been by him.

During last week’s meeting, County Attorney Jim Clevenger reviewed the timeline of events because the commissioners have not responded to the lawsuit yet.  He explained that the case was filed in Circuit Court, and Judge Janette Surrisi recused herself and forwarded the case to Superior Court III Judge Matt Sarber. After a review, Judge Sarber disqualified himself and Tamarack filed for a change of venue. Because of these issues, the commissioners have not yet been served with the court paperwork.   

Clevenger recommended they consider hiring special litigation counsel to represent them in the court case.  Lisa Lee from Ice Miller sent a letter of engagement and Clevenger suggested approving the letter.

Commissioner Klotz said, “This is going to get it awful sticky, awful muddy and it’s going to cost the Marshall County taxpayers a lot of money.”  He said if the case went into discovery, it could cost a couple hundred thousand dollars.    

Klotz wanted to sit down with the council and see if the two sides could come to a solution without going through the courts.  He also said, “The main thing is the public doesn’t want solar and that’s basically the crux of this lawsuit.”

Commissioner Mike Burroughs asked Klotz about the farmers who have been speaking out at county meetings saying they want the solar project.

Klotz said, “I just telling you the majority of the public, I don’t believe want solar and election bore that out.”     

While Klotz felt a meeting between the council and commissioners might lead to a solution, Attorney Clevenger reminded them that Tamarack Solar is also included in the lawsuit and they along with the farmers who are going to lease their property to Tamarack may not want to settle so easily.

Clevenger said he hopes there will be a preliminary motion early on in the case, so they don’t get into extended discovery.  He believes the case should be dismissed because of the lack of standing of the council to file a suit against the commissioners when it doesn’t impact the council fiscally. 

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