Liberal Arizona Republic denounces Supervisors' spending on high-priced attorney Irvine

We were surprised to see the editorial in the Arizona Republic today entitled "Spare the lawyer and the expense" which was highly critical of the Board of Supervisors' excessive payments to high-priced former Democrat Party attorney Tom Irvine. If the liberal Republic finds a problem with government spending, alarm bells should be going off.

Some excerpts -

Paying one of Phoenix's most expensive lawyers to sit through construction-planning meetings for the new county courthouse, however, isn't one of those justified expenses.

The Arizona Republic's Craig Harris reported Monday that supervisors have paid the Polsinelli Shughart law firm at least $267,000 in the past several months to monitor the progress of the county's $340 million court tower on behalf of the county Superior Court.

Even in flush economic times, this would be categorized under "excessive expense."

The meetings in question have little or nothing to do with contractual issues, the usual bailiwick of lawyers.

The Superior Court should find someone more familiar with a hard hat and a tape measure to represent their interests at construction meetings.