Things got heated last week inside Plymouth County's administration building at 44 Obery St. They may soon get considerably more awkward.
Plymouth County Treasurer Thomas O'Brien works in the same building as the three county commissioners and plays a central role in the county's budget and payment process. Now, acting in his official capacity as treasurer, O'Brien has sued over actions taken by two of those commissioners in hiring County Administrator Troy Clarkson, who was scheduled to start Monday.
The lawsuit, filed September 9 in Plymouth Superior Court, challenges the commissioners' authority to pay Clarkson $185,000 after advertising the position at $100,000 to $124,000 and to enter into a three-year employment agreement. O'Brien is asking a judge to vacate the contract and to enjoin the hire while the case is decided. Commissioner Jared Valanzola opposed the hiring, while Commissioners Sandra Wright and Greg Hanley approved it.
That means officials who regularly sit together at county meetings and have offices just down the hall from one another could now find themselves on opposite sides of a courtroom.
It also raises another question: When one county office hires lawyers to fight another, who pays?
For now, the answer appears to be Plymouth County itself.
Last week, the Plymouth County Advisory Board voted to redirect $211,500 in already-approved county funding toward legal services and potential settlements. That included $61,500 from administrator-related salary accounts and $150,000 that had been reserved for potential regional services.
"We're essentially taking $211,500 and putting it into legal," O'Brien told the board.
The transfer does not represent $211,500 in legal bills already incurred, nor does it immediately require towns to pay a new assessment. It moves money already contained in the county budget so it is available for lawyers and potential claims.
But even that move is contested. County commission attorney Shannon Resnick has argued that the Advisory Board lacks the authority to make the transfers. Wright has made the same argument publicly, noting that last week's vote will likely end up in court as well. South Shore Times reported on the dispute last week.
Where Plymouth County Gets Its Money
Unlike a city or town, Plymouth County does not have a traditional property tax levy of its own. Its $14.4 million fiscal 2027 budget is supported through a combination of Registry of Deeds revenue, mandatory assessments charged to its municipalities, rent paid by the state for county-owned buildings, program revenue and other sources.
The Registry of Deeds is among the largest revenue generators. According to the county's fiscal 2027 revenue projections, Plymouth County expects $2.4 million in recording fees and another $2.65 million in deeds excise revenue, a combined $5.05 million.
The county expects another $3.21 million in courthouse rent - paid for with state budget dollars - and $1.92 million through assessments charged to its 27 municipalities. Plymouth County is also using $1.825 million in prior-year fund balance to support this year's spending plan. The remaining $2.4 million comes from program revenue, administrative fees and smaller sources.
The distinction matters when legal costs begin mounting. The money ultimately comes from public revenue, whether through assessments paid by communities, money generated when property transactions are recorded or other income supporting county operations.
And those legal expenses around the county administrator hiring began growing before O'Brien went to court.
Commissioners approved Clarkson's contract in early August, also voting 2-1 to eliminate the positions held by Assistant County Administrator Theresa Vernazzaro and Administrator-in-Training Christopher Heffernan, clearing the salary lines used to fund Clarkson's higher pay. During that meeting, Valanzola questioned Resnick about what the process had already cost.
"Would it be accurate to say that the amount of billable hours to the county relative to this process has been roughly $10,000 to $15,000?" Valanzola asked.
"Yeah, I think it would probably be about that within terms of my work," Resnick responded. She noted that her updated invoice included some unrelated arbitration work, but added: "Most certainly your legal fees have gone up from my office in the last two months."
The legal work included negotiations over Clarkson's employment agreement and the paperwork surrounding the two eliminated positions. Resnick told commissioners that without eliminating them, they would have needed to seek additional funding from the Advisory Board.
Those expenses came before O'Brien hired attorney Scott Lopez and filed suit. They also came before the Advisory Board authorized itself to retain separate legal counsel.
County Officials Among the Highest-Paid
The growing legal expenses come as compensation for Plymouth County's elected leadership has also climbed.
A South Shore Times review of county compensation found that O'Brien earned about $208,000 in fiscal 2026, making him the highest-paid Plymouth County employee and, among Massachusetts' six remaining operating county governments, the highest-paid county treasurer. Norfolk County Treasurer Michael Bellotti was the next closest at approximately $153,000.
O'Brien's pay has continued to rise. The fiscal 2027 Plymouth County budget lists his salary at $212,382.98.
Commissioners have also received substantial raises in recent years. The South Shore Times previously reported that their salaries increased 73.3% between fiscal 2021 and fiscal 2026, rising from $22,500 to $39,000 for the part-time elected positions. Each commissioner is budgeted to receive $39,780 this year. This positions are part-time with limited responsibilities, and some county commission meetings last less than one half hour.
Hanley and former County Administrator Frank Basler have defended those increases as restoring compensation that had been cut dramatically during the financial crisis.
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The new spending comes against a larger question that has followed Plymouth County government for decades: What exactly are taxpayers getting for keeping it?
Last year, South Shore Times examined that question in its multi-part series, Plymouth County: In Search of Purpose. The series traced the county's survival through a period when Massachusetts abolished eight county governments between 1997 and 2000 and transferred many traditional county responsibilities to the state.
Plymouth County survived. Nearly 30 years later, however, many of the responsibilities historically associated with county government are gone. The sheriff is a state agency. The courts are part of the Massachusetts Trial Court. What remains is a much smaller county operation centered around the Registry of Deeds, ownership and maintenance of several buildings and a limited group of regional programs.
County officials point to cooperative extension and 4-H, parking administration, dredging, mobile integrated health and water management as examples of the work Plymouth County continues to provide. They also point to the county's administration of federal CARES Act and ARPA funding during the pandemic as one of its most visible recent successes. The second part of South Shore Times' "In Search of Purpose" series also examined programs that county officials frequently cite as evidence of its value.
But some of those programs are not actually county programs. The Mayflower Municipal Health Group, for example, is an independent municipal collaborative that contracts with the county treasurer's office for financial and benefits administration. The county retirement system is also legally separate, although O'Brien serves as its chair and county officials hold roles in its governance.
County commissioners receive an additional stipend for sitting on the retirement board.
Against a $14.4 million annual budget, the county can point to only a relatively small number of direct regional initiatives. The largest expenditures are elsewhere. The current county operating budget provides nearly $2.68 million for building maintenance, about $2.18 million for the Registry of Deeds and more than $2.32 million in county contributions to the retirement system for its own employees.
That context makes the decision to move $150,000 away from money reserved for potential regional services particularly notable.
Hanover Advisory Board alternate Rachel Hughes questioned the move during last week's meeting, asking why money that could have benefited county communities was instead going toward legal expenses arising from the county's internal disputes.
"So now we're paying for legal issues," Hughes said. "Instead of actually using taxpayer dollars to provide regional programming for our community members."
O'Brien responded that the transfer would not eliminate a regional program currently operating. He said the $150,000 had been reserved for potential services that had not yet materialized, making it available to address the county's new financial exposure.
The dispute that began over $61,000 in salary above the advertised range has already led the Advisory Board to set aside more than three times that amount for lawyers and potential settlements.
And when the meetings and court hearings end, the officials on both sides still return to the same building at 44 Obery St.