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QuickTake:
Legal and related expenses for Lane County Commissioner David Loveall’s dispute with several commissioners and staffers have hit six figures. With a lawsuit pending, the legal costs will only grow.
On Feb. 2, a Portland attorney hired to work for Lane County made the trek to Eugene to prepare for a closed-door executive session as commissioners planned to deal with one of their own: Commissioner David Loveall.
That trip came about a month before county commissioners voted 3-1 in March to censure Loveall after an independent investigation concluded he retaliated against county staffers when they complained about him.
During his Feb. 2 visit, the attorney, Jose Klein, worked for nearly seven hours, a stretch that included traveling to Eugene and meetings with commissioners, staffers and attorneys about the executive session. At about 6:30 p.m., he ordered a fish-and-chips dinner at The Graduate in Eugene, sipping on a nonalcoholic Athletic Lite brew. The meal, including a tip, cost Lane County taxpayers $37.20.
With a $400-an-hour rate, his work and advice that day cost the county even more: $2,760, public records show.
That day alone offers a glimpse at how quickly the costs of legal investigations, attorneys and paralegals have accumulated for the county. The county’s costs tied to investigating and responding to allegations about Loveall had grown to nearly $183,500 in the months leading up to the county board’s censure vote, an analysis by Lookout Eugene-Springfield of attorney invoices and other public records shows.
To be fair, $183,500 is a small portion of the county’s nearly $179 million general fund budget. But the mounting legal costs come as Lane County navigates cost-cutting moves in other parts of its budget, including homeless services and public safety.
The county’s costs are almost certain to grow moving forward: Loveall has filed a federal lawsuit following the board’s censure vote. The lawsuit alleges the county violated his constitutional rights to freedom of speech and religious expression, all without due process or following the state’s open meetings laws.
Commissioners made the censure vote after an outside investigation found Loveall had retaliated against staffers, including County Administrator Steve Mokrohisky. For instance, the investigation found that Loveall went into Mokrohisky’s office and told him to stop the complaints and to “tell the employees to f— off.”
The original complaints from county staffers about Loveall included his use of religious language that included “blessings” and “kingdom work” when signing a birthday card, and using the word “stripper” to describe a community member. Loveall has said the “stripper” phrase didn’t originate with him.
Through a spokesperson, Mokrohisky declined to comment on the growing price tag for the investigation and legal actions. Loveall also declined to comment, citing his attorney’s advice. Other county commissioners couldn’t be reached or declined to comment due to the litigation.
Takeaways from the county’s bills
Here’s where the county is spending money and some key takeaways from Lookout’s analysis:
The county contracted out the investigation and the work of drafting the report, which included legal representation and related professional services. The county’s full report has not been released, but commissioners released a summary of the findings before their censure vote.
The vast majority of the cost thus far — some $177,000 — went to legal fees and related investigations. But the total also includes $6,401 that went to a North Carolina firm, Raftelis, which billed the county for “professional coaching services,” records show.
In addition to the North Carolina company, the work stretched from lawyers in Portland and Salem to an employment law investigation firm, Mountain Lakes Employment Investigations based in Klamath Falls.
Mountain Lakes billed the county $40,359 for 167 hours of attorney and paralegal services. That work included drafting witness summaries, reports and a “timeline of potential adverse actions” in January.
Here are a few details gleaned from the county’s legal bills:
Klein, the Portland attorney who dined at The Graduate, and his employment law firm, Klein Munsinger LLC, billed the county about $62,000 for his work thus far, not counting costs from other contracted firms passed on to the county. That’s the highest among all the firms that worked for the county.
The work began months before the censure vote, starting shortly after complaints were filed with human resources. In July 2025, Beery, Elsner & Hammond, a Portland firm, was handling the case, before handing it over to Klein. Among the tasks: “researching religious references” and compiling “religious comments research,” along with drafting memos, meeting and preparing for executive sessions. The firm’s attorneys each cost the county $305 an hour.
Sometimes, the unfolding events required the attorneys to take extra steps. For example, an attorney in that firm, spent nearly half an hour listening to Loveall’s “radio program” in August, apparently a reference to a podcast appearance in which Loveall defended himself but that drew fresh accusations of retaliation for publicly airing complaints. The time spent by the lawyer listening to Loveall cost the county a little more than $100.
The county also relied upon outside attorneys when requesters, including Lookout Eugene-Springfield, sought records related to Loveall. That work added thousands of dollars in legal fees. When Lookout submitted a public records petition to the Lane County District Attorney’s office, Beery, Elsner & Hammond personnel took about eight hours to respond to the petition and keep the requested records confidential, costing the county $2,350. That cost is included in the total.
The county consulted with multiple firms: Luke Reese, an attorney with Garrett Hemann Robertson in Salem, billed the county for 7.6 hours of work in February. Reese represented Loveall as “special counsel” for part of the process at a rate of $350 an hour. Records show his services in January included reviewing a draft of Loveall’s state of the county speech and checking in with Klein about the status of the investigation. The total costs for Reese’s firm were $5,810.
At times, the special counsels – Klein and Reese – spoke behind the scenes, which is common practice for attorneys on opposite sides of a conflict. In December 2025, Klein had telephone calls with Reese and the county’s in-house counsel, Rob Bovett, about the upcoming state of the county speech.
In mid-February, Reese no longer represented Loveall.
Loveall hired his own attorney, Jill Gibson, who represented him at a February hearing. The county doesn’t pay Gibson for that representation.
Commissioners asked Loveall to apologize at the March 3 meeting. Instead, he asked for his attorney to give a statement. Commissioners declined to allow that and voted to censure him, with the lawsuit following.
Those costs are separate from a $250,000 settlement the county made with its former counsel, Erin Pettigrew, who alleged gender discrimination and hostility from some male commissioners, including Loveall and others. The county made no admission of wrongdoing in the settlement.
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