Open Letter to the City of Blue Ridge Mayor and City Council

Francis X. Moore

fmoore@fxm-law.com

Honorable Donna Whitener &

City Council Members

        Re: Investigation

Dear Elected Officials,

I am a board member of the Blue Ridge Business Association and a member of the Fannin County Chamber of Commerce. I write to express my opposition to the contemplated hiring of a law firm to perform an “investigation” into your conduct and the conduct of your predecessors. First of all, there is no defined scope for this investigation. Second, the only law firm that has been proposed (Jerrard & Davis) has provided no budget. Finally, it does not appear that the law firm will report to any particular individual. These are serious deficiencies that suggest a lack of careful and thoughtful consideration of the exercise.

As a lawyer myself for nearly 30 years, I worry that the law firm given such a general charter will consider its mission to be the searching for and identification of wrong doing – – however tenuous, minor, or stale the purported misconduct might be. A law firm given such an unstructured charter could easily perceive that it should leave no stone unturned (and no expense too much) in its quest to satisfy the perceived goal of finding misconduct. If there is going to be an effective investigation, at the very least, the law firm should be asked to initially investigate only those matters as to which there has been provided sufficient evidence of misconduct. The investigation should be conducted in phases, with the first phase to include a general investigation to be concluded with an opinion from the law firm as to the likelihood that further work will result in the uncovering of substantial proof of misconduct. The law firm should be made to provide a budget up front for the first phase and, after it has concluded its first phase, it should be required to provide a proposed budget for the second phase, if needed. Before it embarks on the second phase, the Phase I report should be published and the City Council and the public should be given an opportunity for comment on the advisability of the Phase II investigation into any areas of concern.

I also object to the expenditure of funds when there are other needs that have not been met including the streetscape, storm water, toilet and sewer projects. If money is going to be diverted from these urgent needs, then it should be done in a manner that minimizes the cost and maximizes the benefit to the public.

Respectfully yours,
Frank X. Moore