Darryl Brown
Murphy – If Cherokee County government attorney’s request to be fired earlier this month rather than simply resign left some people scratching their heads, they need look no further than his contract to find his motivation.
It amounts to a $151,615 payout and another 10 months of expensive health insurance.
Darryl Brown, the board of commissioners’ attorney since 2018, asked to be fired at the March 9 meeting, according to board Chair Alan Bryant. Bryant said Brown felt like he completed his obligations, and his duties were done.
“He felt like he didn’t have anything else to give,” Bryant said. “He wanted to ease on out, and we made it possible.”
Bryant said Brown advised that it would be in the county’s best interest to fire him. Brown could not be reached for comment by the Cherokee Scout’s press time.
His employment contract – approved by the board on June 26, 2023 – set his starting salary at $156,000 with an expiration date of June 30, 2028. It also gave him just over four weeks paid vacation per year along with health insurance coverage and a 401(k) plan.
On Feb. 20, Brown was granted an additional $15,000 for extra duties he had taken on and agreed to a contract extension to July 1, 2029. Just two weeks later, he asked to be fired.
In the 2023 contract, the board agreed that if Brown “is terminated at any time while the attorney is ready, willing and able to continue to perform the duties of county attorney then, in that event, the county agrees to pay unto the attorney in a lump sum to be paid within 30 days of termination, an amount of 12 times the gross salary of the last full calendar month of employment.”
The contract also requires the county pay his health insurance cost until Feb. 4, 2027. If the county takes him to court, it agrees to pay his legal expenses.
County Manager Randy Wiggins said he was unaware of any attorney other than Brown looking over the 2023 contract before it was presented to the board for approval. Whether another attorney looking at the contract would raise questions about the termination payout is unanswered.
Bryant said he was unaware of the payout provision at that time. Whether a $151,615 payout for an attorney who asked to be fired is in the county’s best interest also remains unanswered.
The impetus
What spurred Brown’s request to be fired has not been revealed, but at a February candidate forum then-commissioners Cal Stiles and Dan Eichenbaum disclosed that the county let its moratorium on high-impact industries, including crypto mines, expire following Brown’s advice.
Eichenbaum and Stiles admitted that the board of commissioners allowed a moratorium on new high-impact industries in the county to expire, saying Brown advised them that defending against violations by billion-dollar corporations would cost more than the county would collect. Brown was quoted as advising the board that the “juice wasn’t worth the squeeze.”
Brown also reportedly failed to follow up on paperwork necessary for the county to request a new state park. Both issues pestered commissioners over the past year, with Brown also taking heat from the public.
Since the 2023 contract was signed, four commissioners from that board lost re-election bids – Cal Stiles, Eichenbaum, Randy Phillips and Jan Griggs – with Adams choosing not to run. Neither Mark Stiles nor Alan Bryant were on the board in 2023, but Adams was, and over the past week he has been taking enough flak to prompt a Facebook post.
“I have never lied to the people of this county about anything that’s happened in the commissioners’ business, and I’m not going to start now,” Adams wrote. “I’m going to be honest – I did vote to have the county attorney terminated. Everything happened very fast, and I didn’t have time to fully think through the consequences of my actions.
“With that said, people can say what they want, but I am not resigning and turning my back on the citizens of Cherokee County who elected me to serve. there is a lot of work that needs to be done, and we have the people in place to get it done. Let’s stop focusing on this and start moving forward. If we keep dwelling on the past, we’ll never move toward the future. …
“As far as continuing to dwell on this issue, that’s not something I’m going to do. I’m focused on the future.”
Stiles and Eichenbaum lost re-election bids in the March 3 primary. Both resigned from the board of commissioners at the March 9 meeting as a result of their poor election performances and after firing Brown.
At a March 11 emergency meeting to respond to simultaneous resignations by two commissioners and the county attorney, remaining board members Bryant, Adams and Mark Stiles approved Brown’s payout and an additional $32,000 to pay for interim legal services from Asheville-based law firm Teague Campbell Dennis & Gorham LLP.
The board of commissioners is awaiting recommendations from the Cherokee County Republican Party Executive Committee for replacements for Cal Stiles and Eichenbaum. Decisions on those vacancies are expected in the next few weeks.
Bryant predicts a “rough next 30 days” finding two new commissioners and a county attorney, with budget deliberations for the county’s spending plan and priorities coming over the next two months.
About Brown
Former county attorney Scott Lindsay was terminated on Feb. 5, 2018, for his role in the Cherokee County Department of Social Services placing children in foster homes without court orders. Subsequent lawsuits cost Cherokee County taxpayers millions of dollars in judgments and settlements.
Brown, who has been a prosecutor as well as a civil lawyer in private practice, was hired part time on April 2, 2018, to replace Lindsay. He went to work full time for the board with the contract that was signed on June 26, 2023.