The Butler County commissioners disagree on how to supervise the construction of a new office building along South Washington Street.

County Commissioner Jim Eckstein on Wednesday insisted he should be able to attend weekly construction meetings where contractors discuss how the project is progressing and how to proceed.

“It’s my duty,” he said at the commissioners meeting.

However, commissioners Bill McCarrier and Dale Pinkerton are following county solicitor Mike English’s advice not to go to those meetings.

English explained the commissioners’ presence at those meetings worsen the situation should litigation result from a major problem over construction.

“Everybody is a potential party to a lawsuit,” he said.

When the county built a new prison five years ago, major construction delays were followed by the first general contractor walking off the job resulting in numerous legal issues and extra costs.

In that instance, commissioners were not attending construction meetings. English said if they had, the county’s legal woes may have been worse.

After Commissioner Dale Pinkerton attended one of the construction meetings for the new office building to address the city’s concerns about street restoration, English asked him to not attend another meeting.

Pinkerton agreed.

“I thought that was the end of it,” English said.

However, Eckstein attended a subsequent construction meeting.

English then e-mailed a letter to all three commissioners recommending none attend any construction meetings.

He denied Eckstein’s claim that the minority commissioner was being singled out.

English stressed he can only make recommendations.

“I can’t control what individual commissioners do,” he said.

Eckstein vowed to keep going to the meetings.

“I will not resist arrest,” he said.

But it should not come to that. English said there currently is no way to stop a commissioner from attending.

However, English said the board could enact a policy prohibiting its members from going.

Melissa Melewski, media law counsel for the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, said in an interview such a policy would be problematic.

“It would be extraordinarily difficult to enforce,” she said.

Melewski said it’s easier said than done to prevent a commissioner from staying at a construction meeting on the grounds of trespass or any other alleged infraction.

“They can’t control each other,” she said. “That’s the voter’s job.”

During the meeting, Eckstein challenged English’s legal acumen.

“I’m allowed to go to meetings,” Eckstein said. “He is completely erroneous.”

Eckstein said there is no problem with any or all commissioners attending such meetings as long as they only ask questions and don’t deliberate.

Under state law, elected officials must make decisions in public.

English agreed, saying in an interview there is no violation of state law as long as there is no decision-making involved, but people could inadvertently violate the state Sunshine Act by speaking up.

“It’s human nature,” he said.

English said it would be natural for someone to ask an elected official what he thought about a decision, eliciting a reply.

“It’s my advice to avoid that,” he said.

Melewski concurred, saying any comments made by an elected official on how to apply the information obtained during a meeting would be illegal.

“I would believe that would cross the line,” she said.

English, who served as a solicitor to other government bodies such as school districts before the county hired him, said at the commissioners meeting that this is the first time an elected official ignored his advice on such matters.

Although Eckstein is pleased with how work is progressing, he said it’s his obligation to personally oversee discussions and contractors’ decision-making.

“I’d like to see things for myself,” he said.