SANTA ROSA BEACH, Fla. (WMBB) — Walton County Commissioners fell silent Tuesday morning when discussions turned to find a permanent county attorney.
Sidney Noyes resigned in March 2021.
The county appointed the Adkinson law firm to act as an interim attorney while searching for a new full-time lawyer.
That was two years ago and Adkinson is still warming the chair.
“We had eight applicants for that position,” Commissioner Donna Johns said. “And they are all residents of Florida, or at least were when they applied. Their applications most of them are from 2021. One of them is from 2022.”
Johns said she’s spoken to several applicants all of whom say no one has ever contacted them.
“One of the individuals said after he hit the button to put the application in, he got an automatic response an automatic email saying it was received that received nothing else from the county,” Johns said. “The other person says they received nothing from the county. They called H.R. and they were told that the interviews wouldn’t be conducted until there were enough people to interview. No one was called those two were not called back.”
The position is still posted, and scheduled to close on December 31st.
“I don’t know why we have an announcement out there or position yet. We’re not interviewing anyone for that position. And I think we need to look at that and I think we need to move forward with it.”
County commissioners are responsible for hiring the position.
But Commissioner Danny Glidewell said human resources vet the applicants.
When asked at Tuesday’s meeting Deputy Human Resources Director Gary Mattison said he didn’t know the status of the application
Johns is calling for action.
“I don’t know why we have an announcement out there. And we say that we’re trying to fill this position that needs to be filled. Yet we’re not interviewing anyone.”
Commissioners, human resources, and the county spokesperson all denied our requests for comment.
