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⚖️ Brian Kellenberger and Clay Adkinson were tapped by the Walton County Commission to take on key leadership roles, with added job security measures in place.
🧾 Debate sparked over Adkinson’s potential conflict of interest, due to his simultaneous work for multiple municipalities in Walton County.
🗣️ Citizens and commissioners raised concerns about transparency and due diligence, with a final contract decision expected at the July 22 meeting.
The Walton County Commission voted to fill the positions responsible for the day-to-day operations of the County and its legal defense.
Possession is nine-tenths of the law – and Brian Kellenberger, the new county administrator, and Clay Adkinson, who could become county attorney, held the positions before the vote on an interim basis. No other candidates for either position were mentioned at the meeting before the vote, nor did the commissioners insinuate anyone else was considered for either job.
Kellenberger became the interim county administrator last month after commissioners fired Stan Sunday.
Commissioners tasked Kellenberger and Chief Financial Officer Melissa Thomason with drawing up a contract and an offer for Adkinson to become the permanent county attorney.
Adkinson also serves as the city attorney for Paxton, Freeport, and DeFuniak Springs. He claims there is no conflict of interest. We’ll explore that a little further down in the story.
The kicker – these two will have more job security than their predecessors: the commission also voted to require a supermajority vote of the commission to fire either in the future, after their initial nine months on the job. That would mean a commission would have to vote at least 4-1 to fire either man.
Commissioner Glidewell informed his fellow commissioners that other public officials he had met at recent state meetings had expressed bewilderment about the developments in Walton County Government.
“What in the world are y’all [Walton County] doing?,” Glidewell recounted to the rest of the commission, “We owe it to the citizens of this County to concentrate on policy…and doing things for this County and the citizens of this County… I didn’t work to get elected to fight about personnel stuff. I got elected to change things and to do things…And to do all that, we have to have stability.”
After the commission voted 3-2 to fire Stan Sunday at their June 10 meeting, Kellenberger became the interim county administrator.
After a unanimous vote, he’ll be the next in a long line of Walton County administrators over the last decade.
Kellenberger has served Walton County as the Director of Beach Operations. He’s served as a Walton County employee for more than a decade.
He noted that he would take on the job if asked, but requested that he be allowed to return to his old job if the role of county administrator “is not a good fit.”
As the meeting continued and the details for Kellenberger’s promotion were hammered out, several audience members audibly stated that they wouldn’t take the job, noting that the lack of stability over the last couple of years gave them the most pause.
The commissioners devoted the majority of their time to the decision regarding the hiring of Kellenberger, specifically the nine-month ‘out’ clause that allows either party to leave the arrangement and return to the status quo ante.
Commissioner Glidewell made his case to hire Clay Adkinson as the permanent county attorney by arguing that Walton County wouldn’t be able to find anyone else to do the job anyway.
“We have looked. We have tried. Some people may not believe that, but we have,” Glidewell said. He quoted another unnamed person or people in Tallahassee whom he claims he spoke with, asking him, ‘What in the world?’
“The truth is, if Clay told us today he was not going to stay here anymore – that he was going to do something else, we don’t have an alternative,” Glidewell argued, “So, we need to move [to hire Adkinson].”
Commissioner Dan Curry seconded the motion made by Commissioner Glidewell, but offered a ‘word of caution’ saying that the BCC “should not put the cart before the horse.” Curry argued Adkinson has too many other competing interests to be able to act in good faith on behalf of the Walton County Board of County Commissioners, because of his work with every city in Walton County. “I don’t necessarily disagree with Commissioner Glidewell, I just got [sic] to see it on paper.”
Walton County resident and former Okaloosa County Commissioner John “Jazz” Jannazo told the commission, “The rank and file of the people I talk to, the citizens and different groups, are most concerned about the ‘conflict of interest.’ You’ve got Freeport, DeFuniak, TDC, and Walton County. And Mr. Adkinson might be the best lawyer for all of them, but I would have a hard time saying, ‘Wave the wand’ – and say ‘[Adkinson is] good for Walton County.’ And what if there is an issue with Freeport? What if there is an issue with TDC?”
Curry interrupted Jannazo: “That’s what I want in the contract,” he said.
“That’s a conflict of interest; I don’t know how you get around it,” Jannazo responded.
Adkinson responded quickly to the claims that his permanent role with the County would not constitute a conflict of interest, by reminding the Commission a Florida Bar Complaint had been filed against him in the last year.
“The Florida Bar dispensed with that very quickly,” Adkinson retorted, “I didn’t take this position [as Interim County Attorney], even in an acting [interim] capacity, without evaluating very carefully whether there was an actual conflict of interest to have multiple local government clients. Given that, multiple firms around the state represent multiple local government clients. It is not an uncommon circumstance. So, respectfully, I disagree that there is an actual’ conflict of interest’ that exists merely by the representation.”
RELATED: The Process Matt Gaetz Faces For A Florida Bar Complaint Against Him
The Commissioners will likely hear back from their top staff regarding Adkinson’s contract at their next regular meeting, which takes place on Jul 22, 2025.
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