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6 | 2010 Leon CountyAnnual Report

County Attorney’s office

Serv ing the legal needs of Leon County Government

• Received and processed 88 public records requests through the County Attorney’s Offce alone, not including those received and handled by other departments.

• Reviewed 323 agenda items for the Board of County Commissioners.

• County Attorney spoke on Honest Services, Ethics, and Sunshine Law at various Florida forums, including the Florida Association of Counties’ New Commissioner Certifcation Course, the Florida Association of County Attorney’s Annual Meeting, the Florida Bar’s City County & Local Government Law Section Annual Meeting, the Department of Children & Families, the Procurement Association, the Florida Association of Police Attorneys, the International Municipal Lawyers Association and the Gainesville/Alachua County staff.

• Named interim, transitioning general counsel to the Leon County Research & Development Authority’s Board of Governors, and staff provided signifcant contributions to the preparation of the Request for Proposals and hiring of a new general counsel.

• Provided legal support to the Human Relations Advisory Committee and legal counsel for the Charter Review Commission, staffng all meetings from November 2009 to March 2010.

• Collier v. Brock: fledAmicus Brief on behalf of the FloridaAssociation of Counties and the Florida Association of County Attorneys with the Florida Supreme Court.

• Participated at the Supreme Court in Leon County v. Lewis regarding regional confict counsel litigation.

• Leon County v. Petrandis: the Florida Supreme Court denied Defendant’s request for jurisdiction, upholding the lower Court’s judgment in favor of Leon County for $300,000.

• Handled the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Department of Health Investigation.

• Prepared the Fire Services Fee Collection Issues Notice.

• Closed on the Florida Gas Transmission donation to Leon County of environmentally sensitive property.

• Closed on the purchase of Huntington Oaks Plaza and handled related property swap of View Pointe property at Perkins Road, including subsequent Tenant Matters and lease agreement template for use by TALCOR.

• Copyright Program for GIS and Emergency Operations Center for the Incident Training System

• Drafted new or revised Policies, including Social Media Policy, Bid Protest Policy, HIPAA Policy and the AHAC Affordable Housing Certifcation Policy.

Herbert W. A. Thiele

County Attorney 606-2500

ThieleH@leoncountyf.gov

Herb Thiele was selected by the Board in 1990 to create the County’s frst in-house legal department and has served Leon County for more than two decades. Under Thiele’s leadership, the offce has remained small but extremely effcient with only four lawyers handling all the legal affairs of Leon County.

The FloridaBar recognized the LeonCountyAttorney’s Offce as a “high-performance” organization, and Thiele was named one of Florida Trend’s Legal Elite Government Attorneys.

Thiele is active in organizations that serve local government lawyers and advance the interests of local government law, including the International Municipal Lawyers Association and the Florida Association of County Attorneys, for which he has served as President three times.

He leads a team of skilled professionals who provide high-quality, timely and cost-effective legal representation to the Board and other offcials of Leon County, as directed.

Did You Know

The four lawyers currently on staff with the County Attorney’s Offce have more than 75 years of combined legal experience.