After nearly a year of waiting for a judge to rule, the lawsuit filed against Lanier County Sheriff Nick Norton has been dismissed.

In court documents dated June 2, 2011, Lanier County Superior Court Judge Ronnie Joe Lane ruled that the Board of Commission already had an effective legal remedy to curtail spending by the sheriff in place so there really was no other ruling the court could have made. The motion to dismiss, the budget and the spending reports filed by Norton’s attorney William “Bill” Stone were submitted to Lane.

In a Thursday telephone interview with Stone, he said, “The court does not micro-manage a sheriff’s office, and basically, that’s what the court would have had to do to be sure the sheriff was complying with the court’s order. The suit just didn’t make sense.”

In the Superior Court document given to The Times Thursday, it stated: The Board brought this action against the sheriff seeking only the following relief:

• a mandamus compelling the sheriff to adjust the spending of the Sheriff’s office to stay within the 2011 budget,

• a decree enjoining the sheriff from disregarding the sheriff’s office 2011 fiscal year budget and ordering him to stay within budget.

The mandamus is an extraordinary remedy to compel a public officer to perform a required duty when there is no other adequate legal remedy.

Stone further added, “It’s (mandamus) for some specific acts, not for continuous acts. Before entering the suit, the (BOC) had already told the sheriff he exceeded his budget and  would not receive any additional funds. You can’t order the sheriff to go back and redo what he has already done.”

Stone repeated what he said in a previous report that the tactics of the Board of Commissioners are in place to “make the sheriff look bad, and it’s merely for political and personal reasons.” Now that the suit has been dismissed, the attorney said the real problem is not so much what the office is going to do about funding for the remainder of June, but more importantly, what to do about the rest of the 2011-2012 budget.  June marks the last month of the current fiscal year. The 2010 fiscal year will run from July 1, 2011- June 30, 2012. With election year approaching in 2012, the citizens of Lakeland will more than likely determine a lot of what will be said and done in Lanier County.

The Times also received the following statement from Tim Tanner, attorney who represents the county commission:

“The County Commission has reviewed the order and is considering its options,” the statement noted. “However, the case is not over and the order has no effect upon the unanimous vote of the Commission to limit the sheriff’s spending for the remainder of the 2011 fiscal year.”

 The statement also added, “The order asserts that those actions are an ‘adequate remedy at law.’ Despite statements to the media complaining of the Commission’s recent actions to restrain his spending, throughout the course of this litigation the sheriff has repeatedly advanced this was a remedy available to the Commission. The Commission now hopes he will abide by it.”

As of June 3, 2011, the sheriff had reportedly spent $1,328,211.51, which Tanner stated was $238,211.51 over the budget allotted to his department.  

On May 27, Tanner, sent a letter to attorney William Stone who represents Norton. Tanner noted he had hoped to reach an agreement regarding the budget but the sheriff had already spent “what we could negotiate with.”

Prior to sending this letter, Tanner said commissioners called a special meeting to discuss the budget. In efforts to conserve funds and in accordance to the sheriff’s arguments in his motion to dismiss the lawsuit, the County Commission unanimously took the following actions:

1) No purchase orders will be granted to the sheriff’s office. If the sheriff deems there is an emergency, it will be brought up before the commission at that time for discussion;

2) The sheriff’s office account at Lakeland Oil will be restricted to $3,200 for the month of June.

3) Effective June 2, the commission will provide the sheriff’s office with $15,500 for salaries. They will be paid on a first-come, first-serve basis. The sheriff’s salary is included in the $15,500. With this, the commission has agreed to continue paying the health-insurance premiums for the month of June.

In response to the budget actions, Norton has furloughed his employees and cut back on his deputies.

In a letter dated June 3 to his staff, the sheriff said, “There have been many very good days here at the Sheriff’s Office. I have seen every one of you grow and improve as true professionals and we have shown the ‘bad guys’ that we won’t let them operate in Lanier County unchecked. We’ve improved the quality of service from that (which was) offered by past administrations… We have no real options at this point but to furlough all employees. Some of you will be able to work as much as a full week total during the month, others…none. Acting Chief Deputy Mann and Major Singletary are volunteering to furlough the entire time period to free up as many dollars as possible.”

For at least the remaining month of June, there will be two deputies on duty from noon- 8 p.m.; there will only be enough fuel allocated for roughly $100 worth of gas per day; the phones will be placed on an answering machine and re-routed to the 911 center; the on-duty deputy will only respond to life threatening emergencies…”