A spat between Louisville’s Ethics Commission and the Jefferson County Attorney’s Office over who gets to hire the commission’s lawyer has ended up in court.
The Ethics Commission filed suit against Louisville Metro Thursday, asking a judge for a restraining order against the city. At issue is whether the Ethics Commission can choose its own legal counsel.
The commission’s lawyer provides guidance to elected officials on potential conflicts of interest and helps the commission determine whether officials have violated local ethics law. The attorney also helps the board conduct ethics trials, like the high-profile case involving a sitting Metro Council member two years ago.
Ethics Commission Chair Craig Dilger said allowing Jefferson County Attorney Mike O’Connell to decide who its legal counsel is presents significant “problematic issues.”
He said O’Connell is himself subject to the city’s ethics code and potential investigation by the Ethics Commission. The County Attorney’s Office also represents other elected officials in court, including Mayor Craig Greenberg and Metro Council members.
“Every Metro officer, technically and probably realistically, would say that the County Attorney’s Office is their lawyer,” Dilger said in an interview last week. “Who do we regulate? Every Metro officer.”
Dilger said the commission needs to choose who its legal counsel is in order to remain independent. And he said the commission cannot function without its lawyer.
“What the commission does all relates to a statute, an ordinance or some other law,” Dilger said.
It relies on its lawyer to interpret law and make decisions.
The Ethics Commission is responsible for handling complaints against local elected officials and some city employees. It decides whether officials have violated the Ethics Code, which covers everything from conflicts of interest to retaliation.
The County Attorney’s Office has argued that the Ethics Commission is part of Louisville Metro Government and doesn’t have the authority to create its own contract with an outside lawyer or the budget to fund it. And it’s promised not to interfere in the commission’s business.
In the lawsuit, the Ethics Commission accuses the city, through the Jefferson County Attorney’s Office, of trying to “impede the independent functioning of the Ethics Commission” and/or trying to usurp its independence through “an illegitimate takeover.”
Sub-hed: ‘An entity within Metro Government’
The disagreement over who picks the Ethics Commission’s lawyer started last year.
In a series of letters dating back to Oct. 2024, the Jefferson County Attorney’s Office and the Ethics Commission argued about whether the county attorney could end the contract of Todd Lewis, who’s served as the Ethics Commission’s legal counsel since 2023. The County Attorney argued Lewis had a conflict of interest.
First Assistant County Attorney Jeff Derouen wrote in a Nov. 2024 letter that the Ethics Commission is “not a separate entity from Metro, but rather a quasi-judicial commission that enforces Metro’s Ethics Code.”
“Importantly, the Ethics Commission is entirely dependent on Metro for all of its administrative needs,” Derouen said, pointing to the commission’s reliance on Louisville Metro for security badges, meeting places, IT services and website maintenance.
In follow-up letters, the County Attorney’s Office argued that selecting the commission’s lawyer is “entirely appropriate.” The County Attorney has contracted with outside attorneys to oversee some Ethics Commission hearings and represent people who file complaints, if they request a lawyer.
“None of this support has even been controversial,” the County Attorney’s Office wrote.
The Ethics Commission, meanwhile, says it has control over who it hires as legal counsel and the city’s only role is to draw up and pay out the contract.
In various meetings, commission members and Lewis have pointed to Louisville’s Ethics Code, which says, “The Ethics Commission shall employ Legal Counsel on contract.”
The Ethics Commission has selected its own attorney in recent years, with the contracts being drawn up by the city’s Human Resources staff. Mayor Craig Greenberg’s administration recently moved all legal contracts to the County Attorney’s Office.
The back-and-forth between the commission and the Jefferson County Attorney’s Office came to a head last month.
Annale Taylor, agency chief for the County Attorney’s Office, showed up at the Ethics Commission meeting with a new legal counsel the office selected for the commission.
Taylor reiterated the County Attorney’s position to the commissioners.
“The independent nature of the Ethics Commission comes in the form of the complaint process, the hearings, the cases and the issuing of advisory opinions, but for every other purpose you all are tied to Metro Government,” she said. “Therefore, you don’t have that authority to renew a contract.”
Taylor promised the County Attorney’s Office would not “interfere” with the relationship between the commission and their legal counsel. She said the county attorney was also open to taking recommendations from commissioners.
Many Ethics Commission members weren’t convinced.
“You don’t think picking counsel would be part of the interference?” one commissioner responded.
The commission rejected Taylor’s arguments. They also declined to take the outside lawyer, local attorney Michael S. Jackson, whom Taylor brought to the meeting and attempted to impose on the Ethics Commission.
During the June meeting, and again at a meeting last week, the Ethics Commission voted to renew Lewis’ contract. The commission also authorized Lewis to initiate the lawsuit against Louisville Metro.
Now that the Ethics Commission has sued Louisville Metro, it will be up to Jefferson County Circuit Court Chief Judge Ann Bailey Smith to sort through the competing arguments.
Dilger, the Ethics Commission chair, said he did not intend to sue the city when he took his leadership role earlier this year. But he said, at this point, commissioners feel they have no other option.
“We’re at the point where the County Attorney’s Office will not back down,” he said. “I don’t know what other option there is besides file a lawsuit and let a judge sort it out.”
The commission is asking for a temporary injunction, barring the city from interfering in its hiring of legal counsel, as soon as possible. It could take months, or even years, for the issue to be fully resolved.
