Dumfries fires attorney after short tenure, searches for interim

On Tuesday, May 19, the Dumfries Town Council will vote on whether or not to hire an Interim Town Attorney from Pandak & Associates.

At their last town meeting on Tuesday, May 5, the town council decided to fire their former attorney, Brendan McConnell. The motion was made by Councilwoman Selonia Miles and seconded by Councilwoman Cydny Neville. 

The motion ended with a 5 to 1 decision to fire McConnell, with Councilwoman Melva Willis as the only holdout. 

Councilman Charles Brewer was not in attendance.

McConnell had been working as the town attorney for about a month. When offered the chance to speak on his behalf before the vote, McConnell alluded to a disagreement as to the reason his contract was under consideration:

“I know I upset some people on the council a couple of Tuesdays ago in response to Ms. Willis’s and some of the other thoughts about whether the council could vote that night on the budget and I apologize to you for being mistaken as to my understanding of what was to take place that night … I understand Ms. Pandak disagreed … and I can assure the council I didn’t mean to upset anybody but I thought I had a duty to express my thoughts, my opinion,” said McConnell.

When asked for further details on McConnell’s firing, Mayor Derrick Wood did not respond to a request for comment. The town council is scheduled to meet in an emergency session, due to the coronavirus pandemic, during an online meeting on Tuesday, May 20 at 7 p.m.

State law allows governing bodies to hold emergency sessions if all agenda items are necessary to address the attack, emergency, crisis, or disaster, and the failure to act on these agenda items could result in irrevocable public harm.

Pandak and Associates currently provide legal counsel to the OmniRide Board of Commissioners. Pandak served as the Prince William County Attorney from 1989 to 2004.