NC House speaker has new job working for Cleveland County

N.C. House Speaker Tim Moore was hired this week as the new county attorney for Cleveland County, where he lives.

Moore, a Kings Mountain Republican in his first term as speaker, will advise the Cleveland County commissioners during their twice-monthly meetings and represent the county in any legal action.

His contract, signed Tuesday, calls for him to receive a $25,000 annual retainer and bill at $250 per hour he spends working for the county.

“The county was looking for an attorney, and they know that I’ve represented different government units over the years,” Moore said Friday, adding that he sought an ethics opinion from legislative staff, who he said assured him the new role wouldn’t be a conflict.

“When I was approached about my interest, I checked to make sure it was ethically OK to do so,” he said. “I would recuse myself from any legislative deliberations or votes” in which Cleveland County government has a direct interest.

Lawmakers in North Carolina are part-time officials, and almost all have other sources of income, many from full-time jobs.

Cleveland County’s commissioners ended their relationship with the previous contract attorney, Bob Yelton of Shelby, who was paid under the same terms. A few weeks before contracting with Moore, the county hired its first full-time staff attorney, whose job title is assistant county attorney.

That employee will “be handling the day-to-day legal work,” said commission chairman Jason Falls. “We are expecting to see less hours billed by the county attorney because we hired a staff attorney,” he added.

Still, Moore’s contract requires him to attend the board’s meetings, which take place on Tuesday evenings twice a month. The House typically meets on Tuesdays and Wednesdays when legislators are in session.

“I’ll try to be at as many of those meetings as I can,” the speaker said. “I’ve driven down in the afternoon and turned around and driven back that night.”

Falls said Moore’s powerful role as House speaker wasn’t the reason he got the job.

“It’s hard to separate out the fact that he is speaker of the House,” Falls said. “That is definitely not a negative on his qualifications, but we chose him because of his expertise, because of his integrity and his familiarity with Cleveland County.”

According to the Shelby Star – which first reported Moore’s new job – the speaker joked to Cleveland commissioners this week “about having another job that gave him ‘some insight’ about what is going on in the state.”

Cleveland County isn’t the only government agency Moore’s firm represents. It has advised the Cleveland County Water public utility for 15 years.

Moore pointed out that he’s not the first legislator to serve local government. Former Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton, a Democrat, was the county attorney for Rutherford County while he was a state senator.

Rep. Susi Hamilton, however, had to turn down a town manager job offer from Carolina Beach in 2013. The Wilmington Democrat discovered that state law prohibits managers of towns with a population over 3,000 from holding elected office.

Jane Pinsky, director of the N.C. Coalition for Lobbying and Government Reform, said Moore’s dual role is legal but could raise eyebrows.

“I think the issue here is just that people’s perception is going to be that there’s a conflict of interest,” Pinsky said. “Tim Moore is a smart enough attorney that he’s not going to cross the line.”

This story was originally published July 10, 2015 at 4:59 PM with the headline "NC House speaker has new job working for Cleveland County."