Council to vote on Melton’s law team

The Clarion-Ledger, 12/17/7

The Jackson City Council on Tuesday could vote to hire an outside law firm to represent Mayor Frank Melton in two civil lawsuits.

Melton said he hoped the council would agree to hire Jackson law firm Coxwell & Associates, which represented the mayor earlier this year in a criminal case.

The Phelps Dunbar firm was hired in August to represent the city in four lawsuits in which Melton was named, but in a letter recently recommended that the city hire another firm in two of those cases. Phelps Dunbar’s letter said, “a review of the facts thus far leads us to the conclusion that the mayor was acting in a manner beyond the scope of his duties as mayor if the allegations concerning his conduct are true in each of these instances.”