Austin Attorney Jo-Christy Brown Resigned As Bastrop’s Attorney Due To Controversy Over “Outsized Legal Fees” Is Lampasas Getting Fleeced, Too?

Jo-Christy Brown has caused me a lot of headaches over the last 5 years. The Austin attorney is constantly being used by the City of Lampasas to deny me records I feel should be made available to the taxpayers.

She has made a LOT of money doing it, too. We’ll know exactly how much soon when my Open Records Requests are answered. But I guarantee you it is in the six-figure range. She is CONSTANTLY in the city council packets for $8,000 here and $7,000 there (see page 34, see page 48, see page 50, etc).

But what I DIDN’T know until recently was that she “resigned” as attorney for the City of Bastrop due to public complaints about her “outsized legal fees.”

Here is part of the article:

Bastrop’s attorney quits, Pine Forest case on hold

THURSDAY, JULY 28, 2016 BY JO CLIFTON

Seeing the proverbial handwriting on the wall, Bastrop’s longtime attorney, Jo-Christy Brown, resigned, effective immediately, at Tuesday night’s Bastrop City Council meeting. Brown’s tenure has been controversial since at least last December, when the public began to complain about the outsized legal fees the city was paying.

City records indicate that Brown personally received more than $400,000 in legal fees from Bastrop in 2015 and at least $150,000 so far this year. She also oversaw the hiring of other outside counsel to litigate the city’s numerous lawsuits. As the Austin Monitor pointed out in April, Bastrop spent more than $1 million on legal fees over the 15 months starting on Jan. 1, 2015.

Brown’s departure was a victory for Council Member Gary Schiff, who advocated for hiring in-house counsel this winter and spring but could not get fellow Council members to second his motion prior to the May election. It was also a victory for new Council Member Deborah Jones, who promised to work to reduce the city’s outside legal fees when she was elected in May.

Jones had put an item on Tuesday night’s agenda to consider, discuss and possibly take action “regarding JC Brown, city attorney.” However, Brown handed Council her resignation following an executive session before that item came up.