Notable cities and counties with low population

As discussed in class today

- Carbonate, Colorado. - 0

- Monowi, Nebraska. - 1

- Loving County, Texas. - 64

From the Texas Tribune: A ballot box found weeks after Election Day has flipped a $569 million school bond vote in Midland

Wow

For our look at how elections are actually run.

- Click here for the article.

County officials found the missing box in early December. Taking into account those 836 votes, plus one stray ticket found separately from the box that had also been misplaced, the results flipped again. The new version of final results, which Land said should finally lay the issue to rest, was 11,800 votes in favor of the bond and 11,826 against. The result means that Midland ISD will not receive the authority to build two new high schools.

For those scoring at home, the bond passed, then failed, then passed and then failed again. Political groups on both sides of the bond vote will now ask the Midland County judge to cement the most recent results so all sides can “go forward,” Land said.

"Though this is not the result that supporters of the 2019 school bond worked for, it was what we expected and were prepared for," We Choose Our Future, the group in favor of the bond, wrote in a statement on Facebook. "Today’s exercise was an opportunity to build trust in the process for future elections and bring closure to this election so that the work on another bond plan can begin."

From Governing: How Many Local Governments Is Too Many?

- Click here for the article.

It’s not uncommon for one metropolitan area to be home to dozens of local governments. In lots of those places, mayors and other local officials often lament the difficulties of having to coordinate with so many cities, towns and counties.

There’s no agreed-upon definition for this local government "fragmentation," but most researchers measure it by the number of governments per capita. We used that measurement, along with the number of governments per square mile, to see which metro areas and counties are the most fragmented.

Our calculations are based on the latest Census of Governments survey, which is conducted every five years and counted 38,779 cities, counties, towns and other general-purpose local governments (excluding special districts).
According to the study, the Houston metropolitan area has 133 local governments.

From the Texas Tribune: Can Texas Republicans hold America’s reddest large urban county?

Tarrant County - Fort Worth - is the only large county in Texas not dominated by Democrats.

The author tries to find out why. Demographics seems to have a lot to do with it.

- Click here for the article.

Among the state’s five biggest counties, Tarrant is the only one that hasn’t backed a Democratic presidential candidate in the past decade. The 2016 presidential election heightened Tarrant’s status as an outlier. Even as the rest of the state’s big-city territories moved deeper into the Democratic column, Tarrant steadfastly emerged as America’s most conservative large urban county.

President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office this week, won the county by an 8.6-point margin. It was the narrowest win for a GOP presidential nominee in decades in Tarrant. But among the country's 20 largest counties, Tarrant was only one of two that swung Trump's way in November — and it had the wider margin.

Across Tarrant County, Democratic pockets are fewer and less powerful than their Republican counterparts. All four of the state senate districts that fall in Tarrant County are represented by Republicans. The GOP also holds eight of the county’s 11 state House seats. Four of the five county commissioner court seats are held by Republicans.
Residents, elected officials and experts here point to a nuanced union of demographic, cultural and political forces to explain why.

. . . Tarrant’s minority population, which tends to lean Democratic, hasn’t caught up to the state’s other big urban counties. At the same time, many Tarrant voters have a storied history of preferring practical governance to partisanship, according to officials and political observers. They say that helps support the moderate faction of the GOP, especially in Fort Worth, the nation's 16th-largest city.

Then there’s the county’s development pattern. A lot of Tarrant remains rural. And, unlike Harris, Dallas and Travis counties, many of Tarrant’s affluent suburbs and conservative bedroom communities lie within its borders, not outside them. That’s helped give rise to the NE Tarrant Tea Party, a passionate and organized group that simultaneously supports far-right local candidates and serves as a powerful base for statewide Republicans.

County Magazine

Just in case you can't get enough about county government in Texas, there's a magazine dedicated to them.

Its published by the Texas Association of Counties.

- Click here for their current issue.
- Click here for archives (I know you'll want to read them all)

From the Texas Tribune: Austin Poised to Become First "Sanctuary City" In Texas

A look at an issue likely to dominate the next session of the Texas Legislature.

It also allows a look at the complications that result from our federal system, including conflicts involving the fact that county sheriffs are elected, and implement the law in accordance with the desires of the local community. If the community if Austin, then those decisions can put you in the cross hairs of the much more conservative state legislature.

- Click here for the article.

Conservatives already love to bash Austin — that bag-ban loving, Uber-hating, Democrat-electing enclave in the center of the most Republican mega state in the country.

Now the Texas capital city is poised to get the biggest target yet on its back: it is likely to become the first true “sanctuary city” in GOP-ruled Texas.

In a move that would defy not just Republican orthodoxy but also the Obama administration’s policy on deporting criminal immigrants, the county where Austin sits is on the verge of ending cooperation with the federal government on immigration matters.

That’s because the Democratic candidate for Travis County sheriff, Constable Sally Hernandez, has promised to get U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, out of the county jail. More specifically, she says she won’t hold inmates for ICE when the federal agency seeks to remove them from the country.

“I just don’t think you solve the criminal justice process by deporting them,” Hernandez told The Texas Tribune during a sit-down interview in her office this week. “We talk about being progressive. I believe we need to lead the way.”

Hernandez has a GOP opponent, Joe Martinez, who favors cooperating with ICE by holding immigrants the agency wants, as does the current sheriff of Travis County, Democrat Greg Hamilton. But with Donald Trump at the top of the Republican ballot and local politics being what they are — i.e., heavily stacked against anyone with an R next to their name — Hernandez is all but a shoo-in.

For his part, Martinez said if elected he would tweak current rules at the jail and only hand over the worst offenders to ICE, so changes are coming no matter which one of them is elected.

Groups mentioned in this article

- Travis County Sheriffs Department
- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
- Sheriffs Association of Texas
- Texas Legislature
- Austin City Council
- Travis County Commissioners Court

From Governing: Can Counties Fix Rural America's Endless Recession? The inability of most rural places to recover from the economic downturn is fueling political and social problems around the nation.

For our look at counties, as well as the unique problems rural America faces as the economy continues to change.

- Click here for the article.

While some metro areas are thriving, two out of three rural counties have experienced a net loss in their total number of businesses since 2010, after the recession had technically ended. According to a recent report by the Economic Innovation Group, half the new businesses started throughout the nation since 2010 were created in just 20 counties, out of more than 3,000 nationwide.

Urban America recovers from recessions, but rural America no longer seems able to. “You look all across this country and some of these places are dying,” says Seth McKee, an expert on rural politics at Texas Tech University. “They’re either going to be wiped off the map, or they’re getting smaller and smaller and there’s nothing to sustain them.”
That may be overstating the case, but it’s no longer far-fetched to talk about permanent, Appalachian-style poverty spreading across rural America. There just aren’t enough jobs. By now, it’s a familiar story that many manufacturing plants have shut down or moved and taken their jobs with them. The prevailing fear of the moment -- that robots are going to take over all the work -- has already happened in agriculture. A machine knows more about the exact fat and protein content of the milk from every cow it touches than a human hand ever would. Farmers are becoming almost as likely to plant sensors as seeds, helping them map out where their drones should apply fertilizer. Already, farms account for less than 1 percent of employment, but the number of agriculture jobs is projected to decline another 6 percent by 2024.

The old notion that jobs in timber, farming and small-town manufacturing are secure and will last for life is not just outdated but antique.

. . . Lincoln County actually has a lot of things going for it. Local officials have been able to leverage the presence of the coast not only to promote tourism and maintain a sizable fishing fleet, but also to develop marine science as an economic driver. What was at one time home to a single oceanographer’s lab has become the nexus for a range of enterprises that constitute a growing share of the local economy. Oregon State University (OSU) runs the Hatfield Marine Science Center, which houses an alphabet soup of state and federal agencies. There’s an aquarium next door that pairs well with the town’s beaches as a tourist magnet. A few years ago, Newport’s harbor became the headquarters for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific fleet, nabbing the ships from Puget Sound.

All of these projects, along with many others, came about because the Newport area has managed to build a collaborative culture, with city, county, port and state officials pulling together with private-sector actors to make things happen. “This cluster didn’t happen by accident,” says Gil Sylvia, an economist at the Hatfield center. “You start with something small and you build out the components.”

From the Texas Association of Counties: GUIDE TO TEXAS LAWS FOR COUNTY OFFICIALS

This won't make the responsibilities of counties any simpler to understand, but it lays them out. This will be useful for the classes where we're walking through local governments

- Click here for the document.

From Governing Magazine: County Migration Data

Here's an interactive data sheet that let's you see how many people are moving into each county in the nation and which counties they are moving from. Aside from giving a clear indication of internal migration patterns in the US, its a nice time suck.

- Click here for it.

I checked out Harris and Brazoria Counies - of course. Most people who moved into each came from other parts of Texas - ways donw the list came places like Miami and Los Angeles. In 2013-2014 94 people moved to Brazoria County from Miami-Dade County and 93 moved from Los Angeles.

For more from Governing Magazine on Counties:

- What America’s Biggest Counties Have in Common.
- The Counties Where Wealthier People Are Moving.

The Galveston County Tax Assessor and Collector defends herself

There apparently snafus regarding registration in the recent election. She offers an explanation.

- Click here for the link.

The article “Amid concerns, county rechecks voter registrations” in The Daily News on Oct. 28 fairly well reported the situation with regard to the Galveston ISD election but, sadly, the entire story was not told. Clarification is necessary for the benefit of all Texas registered voters, voter registrars, county clerks and election administrators.

What was not included in the story is that the Galveston County Tax Office Voter Registration team knew in advance of the GISD election that there were issues with the state’s new system. What we did not know at the onset of that election is that only three system generated reports were working properly.

Over the summer, GCTO created a new election district for League City’s sales tax election. My staff worked overtime creating the new district. During this process, lists were being generated to insure everything was working properly. As we uncovered system errors, they were reported to the Election Division of the SOS’s Office for investigation. Workarounds were implemented to help us complete our task as new issues arose.

We discovered during that time that streets previously coded odd and even located on boundaries of every precinct (county commissioner, state representatives, justice of the peace and constables, city, school district and community college single-member districts, etc.) had been merged into the single category “both” during the state’s conversion. We began working with the EDSOS to identify affected streets and to request assistance correcting them as the existing process is manual and time consuming. Just recently we were provided a listing of more than 6,000 affected streets and a test environment through which the EDSOS will assist with untangling these streets and properly coding the districts.

In the interim, with an important local election underway, we focused on GISD and the League City elections. Another important piece missing from the article is that, for the first time in six years, the County Clerk’s Election Division and the GCTO Voter Registration Department were working in partnership — not at odds — to insure the integrity of the elections was preserved.

Of much greater interest statewide is that Galveston County is not alone. At the September SOS Election Law Conference, county clerks, voter registrars and election administrators from across Texas stood together in communicating to the EDSOS our concerns. Generally, no one could understand why a state agency with such impact on Texas voters prematurely went live in a system that was not ready and continues not be to ready for this election, for 21 million voter registration certificates being mailed out and for 2016 primary and presidential elections.

I have asked the head of the SOS Elections Division to notify other officials of potential issues and to speak to what is being done to correct them. I am still waiting for that communication. In the meantime, I will continue to work with them to correct those in Galveston County.

From the Houston Chronicle: Texas counties turn to voting centers to boost turnout

County officials are using apps to help voters find places to vote. This is from September, so there's no feedback yet on whether these actually worked.

- Click here for the story.

Just in time for the November election, Galveston County has launched the first mobile app of its kind in the state, called "Galveston Votes." It uses GPS to direct people with lightning speed to the closest voting center.

Fort Bend County in November will make its first foray into using "voting centers" that are open to all voters countywide, rather than restricting them to their neighborhood precinct.

Montgomery and Harris counties are studying whether to do the same thing.

These efforts are part of a growing trend to counter Texas' low voter turnout - ranked nationally in 2014 third from the bottom. More and more counties across the state are moving toward using these voting centers. They are looking for any way they can to make voting more accessible and entice voters to the polls.

The centers, which can be located anywhere from grocery stores to shopping malls, may be used by any eligible voter within a county. Voters will no longer be restricted to one precinct site.

The National Conference of State Legislatures says the possible advantages include convenience, financial savings and increase in turnout. Possible drawbacks include a loss of the tradition of neighborhood voting, confusion if the scheme isn't properly explained to voters and the cost of new equipment and technology.

Harris County will give these a trial run in March.

Harris County, like Montgomery, is studying the issue. Harris County Clerk Stan Stanart plans to test new infrastructure at a few polling locations during the primary next March that could be used for future voting centers.

But Stanart warns that converting a county as large as Harris, with its 4.3 million people and 769 polling stations, would be logistically challenging and costly. Each polling station has to be electronically linked to update in "real time" the names of those who are voting at various stations.

"We do that now in early voting with 41 stations, but don't have the ability to do 769 yet," he said.

About 13 percent of all Texas counties are now using countywide voting centers and the number keeps rising, said Alicia Pierce, spokeswoman for the Texas Secretary of State, who said many voters enjoy the convenience it affords.

From the Houston Chronicle: Harris County should stop jailing small-time drug offenders

Here's an opinion piece arguing that the Harris County District Attorney should use her discretion to restrict how it implements one of the laws on its books. I offer this since it illustrates a point made in the section on counties in the state. While they are administrative units, the actual administration is done by locally elected officials, which means that it is done in a manner that is in sync with local public opinion - or at least the opinion of people who show up at the polls.

- Click here for it.

While the state of Texas has not yet reformed its drug laws, many local jurisdictions, frustrated with the lack of results from locking up citizens for nonviolent drug offenses, have begun to exercise discretion in their enforcement of drug laws. In the interest of saving valuable taxpayer dollars and conserving scarce law enforcement resources, these jurisdictions have sought out alternatives to jail that allow them to hold drug users accountable without saddling these individuals, many of them young, with a criminal record.

Increase the initiative now

Harris County is one of these places. Faced with an overcrowded jail and a criminal justice budget that will account for more than 75 percent of the county's total general revenue budget in the next fiscal year, Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson instituted the First Chance Intervention Program in October of last year. The program allows those arrested for possession of small amounts of marijuana with no criminal record to avoid starting one through cognitive classes or community service. However, because the program targets first-time offenders only, its reach is limited. We argue that the full potential for economic and social improvements cannot be realized with the program in its current form.

The initiative has been effective so far. From its rollout through August 2015, more than 1,800 individuals enrolled in the program, with 85 percent of those enrolled completing the program or still actively participating. The program is reaching a diverse audience, with blacks and Hispanics making up over two-thirds of the program's enrollment - a positive sign since arrest numbers show that blacks and Hispanics are overrepresented for all marijuana arrests relative to their populations. Further, the median age of program participants is 20 years, indicating that the program is furnishing opportunities for young people to avoid a lifetime of consequences that come with a drug conviction. So far the evidence shows that the county's initiative is a promising avenue for reducing the collateral costs that accompany a criminal record and the race and age disparities in drug arrests, all while saving taxpayer money.

Won't endanger public

The success of this pilot program should encourage Harris County to expand eligibility to all marijuana offenders, regardless of past drug arrests, as well as to offenders facing felony charges for possession of less than a gram, or a sugar packet's worth, of other controlled substances. The problems associated with misdemeanor marijuana arrests - high costs, racial disparities and collateral consequences - are only exacerbated in the case of felony drug arrests.

Statewide officials in Texas push back against the gay marriage decision - but seem to accept that it is here to stay

As 2306 students learned - the state of Texas delegates the handling of the bulk of its paperwork to the counties, much of this is handled by the county clerk's office. This includes the processing of marriage licenses, which now have to be open to same-sex couples in addition to opposite sex couples.

State officials have written rules providing opportunities for clerks to not due so if they argue that this conflicts with their religious convictions.

A few items along those lines:

- Paxton: County clerks may refuse — on religious grounds — to issue same-sex marriage licenses.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican social conservative, offered at least moral support Sunday for county clerks and their employees who feel their religious beliefs dictate that they decline to issue same-sex marriage licenses.

In a nonbinding legal opinion, Paxton said religious freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment “may allow accommodation of their religious objections to issuing same-sex marriage licenses.”

The clerks who balk at licensing gay marriage “may well face litigation and/or a fine,” Paxton warned.

“Importantly, the strength of any particular religious accommodation claim depends on the particular facts of each case,” he concluded.

“But,” he added in a press release, “numerous lawyers stand ready to assist clerks defending their religious beliefs, in many cases on a pro-bono basis, and I will do everything I can from this office to be a public voice for those standing in defense of their rights.”

- Can a Texas county clerk refuse to issue a gay marriage license? It’s complicated.

. . . For an accommodation to be made, certain questions arise. "Is their religious belief substantially burdened?" Robson asked. "Is it overridden by their status as a public employee? Where is that line? Because as a public employee, you swear to uphold the Constitution." Public employees "don't have full 1st Amendment rights," she said, "because it's balanced against the interest of their employer, which in this case is the government." 

What's not allowed, in Robson's estimation, is for a clerk to shut down the issuance of licenses across the board over a personal objection. "The question in terms of accommodation has to do with individuals," Robson said. "So if the entire courthouse closed, that would not be an accommodation."

- First same-sex marriage licenses issued in Brazoria County.

After an opinion from the District Attorney's office this afternoon, County Clerk Joyce Hudman said Brazoria County is officially issuing same-sex marriage licenses. Hudman said her offices have been issuing licenses since 1:30 p.m. and will throughout the day.

District Attorney Jeri Yenne gave the county clerk's office a one-sentence opinion that issuing same-sex marriage licenses is mandatory based on the Supreme Court's decision today.

"As a follow-up to your inquiry regarding marriage licenses, please be advised that on today's date, the Supreme Court of the United States issued an opinion indicating the Fourteenth Amendment requires a state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex," Yenne's memo reads.

Territorial History of the USA: Every Month for 400 Years

For our look at counties in 2306.

For more, click here.

Brazoria County is the most conservative of the most populous 21 counties in Texas

This probably explains a lot of what goes on around here;

- From the Houston Chronicle.

Data from eight University of Texas/Texas Tribune Polls conducted among registered voters between May of 2011 and June of 2014 allow us to estimate the mean ideological position of the voting public in 20 of the state’s 21 most populous counties — counties which combined contain almost three-fourths (73 percent) of the Texas population. Insufficient survey data exist at the present time for Webb County, the 19th most populous county in the state.

The UT/Tribune Poll contains an ideology variable based on a question asking respondents to place themselves on a seven-point ideology scale ranging from “Extremely Liberal” (1) to “Extremely Conservative” (7), with a 4 indicating the respondent considers their ideological position to be “In the Middle.” A mean ideological position for every county is calculated by averaging the valid self-reported ideological placement of its residents.

Here's the graph - we are way off to the right, literally:

The figure arrays the 20 counties from left (most liberal) to right (most conservative) based on the respective mean ideological location of their registered voters. Travis County is a clear liberal outlier, with a mean ideological position of 3.63, substantially more liberal than the mean ideological position found in the next most liberal county, Nueces, which has a mean position of 4.21. The ideological gulf separating Travis County from Nueces County is greater than that separating Nueces County from all but the four most conservative counties in the figure.

An overwhelming majority of these counties have relatively proximate ideological profiles, with a mere 0.26 separating the fourth most liberal county (Dallas) at one end (4.35) from the sixth most conservative county (a three-way tie between Collin, Denton and Fort Bend) at the other end (4.61). The mean ideological position for the entire state is located within this 4.35 to 4.61 range at 4.56.

While among these 20 counties there does not exist a true conservative analog to liberal Travis County, Brazoria County comes closest with a mean ideological position of 5.13. In fact, the Houston metropolitan region contains three of the four most conservative large counties in the state: Galveston County (4.80), Montgomery County (4.81), and Brazoria County (5.13).

It's worth comparing this graph with the one below showing the ideological differences between cities in the United States. Remember that it showed the many cities in Texas are actually liberal. Notice here that - with the exception of Travis County - all Texas Counties are conservative, at least a little. A 4 indicates moderation. This can be explained easily by pointing out the counties contain not only cities, but suburbs and rural areas, which tend to be more conservative than cities.

From the Atlantic: The Most and Least Healthy Counties in America

The good news is that Brazoria County is among the most healthy counties.

- Click here for the article.



Brazoria County is actually the 24th most health county in Texas.

- Click here for the study that details the factors used to evaluate each county.

And another red/blue image

This gives us a good idea about how counties with various population densities vote. Notice that the most populous counties vote Democrat. I was not able to find the date of this data, but Harris, Dallas and Bexar counties in Texas all went blue in 2012 - which fits the general mold.

I have past posts linking to stories pointing out that areas with high density - cities - tend to be more Democrat/liberal than suburban and rural areas. Perhaps communitarian and egalitarian values become important when people live on top of each other. Individualism matters more when one has lots of space surrounding them.

Its an idea.

From the Washington Post: Another way to explain who we are: The 15 types of communities that make up America

A companion piece to the one about the 11 "nations" within the US. This looks at the 15 unique cultures of the various counties across the country.

More limits proposed on the ability of local governments to pursue environmental claims

In addition to the bill described below that would limit how counties can pay for legal representation in cases against poluuters, a separate bill would allow the Texas Attorney General "to settle environmental lawsuits filed by cities and counties without input or approval from local officials."

Like the previous legislation, the bill seems focused on limiting the activities cases in Harris County.

From MySA:

“It surprises me a little bit because there is no history of us settling cases in opposition to the attorney general or against the wishes of the attorney general,” said Rock Owens, who heads the environmental division in the Harris County Attorney's office, which historically has filed the most civil environmental lawsuits in the state.

Owens said the legislation would diminish an authority local governments have had for decades to punish environmental offenders, and also make for an uneven playing field because governments cannot afford to pay private attorneys on an hourly basis like the companies they sue.

While Harris County has been filing environmental cases for a long time, it only recently began recruiting outside counsel. Six cases have been assigned to private firms.

Not surprisingly, the Texas Association of Business is pushing these laws:

The powerful Texas Association of Business supports the bills, saying local government lawsuits have the potential to harm economic development statewide if left unchecked.

“These lawsuits do nothing but demand dollars from companies,” said Stephen Minick, vice president of governmental affairs for the TAB. “To have the county come in and attract money from these companies who are doing everything the state and federal government have asked them to do just seems to us to not be in the public interest.”

Minick said that while the association does not oppose municipal and county attorneys being able to file such civil cases, it believes that lawsuits seeking “absurd demands” for penalties “that the state would never pursue” actually harm a company's ability to help pay for cleanup and may deter other companies from buying and redeveloping contaminated land.

The Harris County Judge disagrees.

The conflict seems to stem from an ongoing conflict involving an old dumping ground dating back to 1965.

I wonder if this is also a way for the more conservative state government to restrict the power of the more liberal metropolitan areas in the state. This seems to be a trend.

From StateImpact Texas: Bill Would Stop Private Lawyers Who Help Counties Sue For Pollution

The bill is HB 3119, and it is still in a House committee which makes it unlikely it will pass, but the bill would change the ways counties pay for law firms they hire to sue companites they accuse of pollution. The bill seems focused specifically on Harris County:

Here's the report:

Some county governments have found that when it comes to suing corporations over polluted property, hiring a private law firm on a contingency fee basis is the way to go.

But against the backdrop of a multi-billion dollar dioxin case in Harris County, there’s an effort to outlaw those arrangements in pollution lawsuits. The House Committee on Environmental Regulation has scheduled a hearing today on a bill that would ban counties from using private firms, HB 3119.

. . . Harris County, which was the focus of the conservative group’s report, says contingency fee arranagements are vital to its efforts to litigate pollution cases.

“We don’t have money to go out and hire lawyers. You’re talking about, at a minimum, hundreds of thousands of dollars that we would have to spend up front just to go to court. With the contingency fee, we don’t have to do that. We only pay if we win,” said Terrence O’Rourke, special assistant to the Office of the Harris County Attorney.

The issue is nothing new to the county. In a case before the Texas First Court of Appeals, attorneys for two corporations challenged Harris County’s right to hire contingency fee lawyers in a case involving a dioxin-contaminated site along the San Jacinto River. In the 1960s, waste from a paper mill was dumped into ponds. It’s now an EPA Superfund site. Signs in the area warn that fish are contaminated and should not be eaten.

Lawyers for the companies argued in court that the case could result in $2 billion to $3 billion in civil penalties with 25 percent going to the private lawyers, according to coverage of the hearing by Law360. The companies’ lawyers reportedly said that the contingency fee arrangement created a profit incentive that would be unfair to their side, denying them a neutral prosecution of the case.

The Office of the Harris County Attorney portrays the fee arrangements differently. The county argues that contingent fee contracts are reviewed and approved by the Texas Comptroller and are governed by state law that caps payments according to the amount of work performed.

And the county points out that the big corporations fighting the suits often use very experienced, highly-paid attorneys.