ESCANABA — The Delta County Board of Commissioners abruptly reversed course Tuesday to make the controversial attorney Scott Graham the county’s primary legal counsel and the services of Delta County Prosecutor Lauren Wickman a last resort.

“I started thinking about this. Our prosecutor was elected to prosecute. I don’t know of a bunch of other counties in the state that have the prosecutor be their municipal counsel, and so, keeping personalities out of this, I want to get what I can as far as fiduciary obligations to my constituency, the whole county, the best bang for the buck for the public,” Commissioner Chair Dave Moyle told the rest of the commissioners during the commission’s meeting.

Moyle’s suggestion to change the order that is used by Administrator Ashleigh Young when seeking legal opinions came just two weeks after the commission agreed that Young should consult Wickman first; then the Michigan Municipal Risk Management Authority (MMRMA), which is primarily an insurance provider with on-staff legal counsel; and finally Graham. The change suggested by Moyle and approved in a 3-2 split vote Tuesday reverses the order, placing Graham first and Wickman last.

For about seven years the county has contracted with the prosecutors office for legal services and used an MMRMA attorney as necessary when the prosecutor has had a conflict of interest or needed special assistance. Wickman has repeatedly stated she wants to continue the practice and has raised concerns that the MMRMA would not pay claims if the county hired an outside attorney — potentially costing the county hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees.

Moyle has responded to Wickman’s concerns by saying that MMRMA is first and foremost an insurance agency and is more likely to settle. He has also argued against using the prosecutor’s office by saying that Wickman does not carry legal insurance, however, Wickman’s practice is insured by MMRMA because it is under the auspice of the county.

Wickman was not present Tuesday, but was apparently watching the meeting remotely, as she sent a text message to County Administrator Ashleigh Young during the discussion about reworking the county’s legal representation.

Despite offering to call in to the meeting to comment and Commissioner Steve Viau asking to hear from her twice, the call did not take place.

While Graham has never attended a Delta County Commission meeting or submitted a bill for any of the services he has purportedly offered the county — which include reworking the rules of procedure and reviewing more than 300 pages of documents related to the failed annexation of Escanaba Township to Cornell Township — the attorney from Portage, Mich. has become a wildly unpopular figure for many in the community.

The first time Graham was mentioned at a commission meeting was March 7, when a resident raised concerns that Graham’s contact information was include in the board packet and that Moyle had previously been a client of Graham’s. At that meeting Moyle confirmed that he had previously been represented by Graham and had reached out to him to submit a request for proposal, but at later meetings Moyle stated that it was his family that had been represented and not him personally.

At the March 21 meeting, the board voted to postpone a discussion on hiring a new municipal attorney until after a county administrator was hired, but that plan was scrapped when the commission voted in a 3-2 split vote to contract with Graham at the May 3 commission meeting despite not having hired an administrator yet.

Molye has pushed back against public comments about his support of Graham by saying he is not doing Graham a favor, Graham is not his “buddy,” and stressing that Graham is both a municipal attorney and a successful litigator in federal court.

Graham currently serves as the attorney for the Village of Mattawan, Mich., in Van Buren County according to the State Bar of Michigan. He is not listed as representing any other municipalities.

Graham’s most high-profile federal work was his defense of Kaleb Franks, one of a number of men charged for plotting to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Franks was sentenced to four years in prison last year.

Moyle again reiterated Tuesday that Graham’s federal experience was part of why he was pushing for Graham’s hire, however Moyle took it a step further to say “there’s a reason for that, why I’m pushing that” and “counsel needs to get moving on something immediately.”

The statements drew questions from Viau, who asked if Moyle was privy to information the rest of the commission did not have.

“You do know about it. In fact, you’ve communicated to people about it. But I’m not going to go into specifics on it. … Not everything is (something) we can necessarily approach in a community discussion. But you’ve been privy to it,” replied Moyle.