What a shock for Lower Merion residents who have opened their newspapers today! Montgomery County officials have fired the lawyer representing the county supposedly because they didn't know he was also involved with the Friends of The Barnes? Sheesh, we're not so intimately involved, and even most of us knew that! This smells of county politics and who gets all the toys wins, doesn't it?

The Barnes issue is one drama packed soap opera...it shouldn't be moved to Philadelphia, and there shouldn't be all this infighting. Question: why didn't Montgomery County ask outright if the attorney in question had potential conflicts before they hired him? Isn't that usual practice when interviewing potential attorneys? Does Montgomery County really want to keep the Barnes here, or is it just us in Lower Merion? This is very confusing:

Montgomery County needs to just get the job done and keep the Barnes here. Where it belongs. Here's the article:

Montco's Barnes lawyer out
By Tom Infield
Inquirer Staff Writer

Montgomery County leaders have had a falling out with the lawyer they had hired to file a lawsuit aimed at keeping the Barnes Foundation art museum from moving to Philadelphia.
Thomas Ellis, chairman of the county commissioners, said the dispute with attorney Mark Schwartz would not deter the county from going to court to block the move, which was approved by a judge in 2004.

But the conflict follows a decade-long pattern of sound and fury involving almost any issue pertaining to the billion-dollar collection of Impressionist art that collector Albert Barnes willed should remain exactly as it was upon his death in 1951.

Ellis said yesterday that Schwartz, of Bryn Mawr, had quit after being told Monday that the county intended to let him go.

Ellis said Schwartz had failed to inform the county of a conflict of interest he had by also representing a private group hoping to keep the Barnes in Lower Merion.

The county said it wanted back the $12,328 it had paid Schwartz.

"We basically feel we were misled," Ellis said.

Schwartz, in a phone interview, said the county knew full well that he also was representing the Friends of the Barnes - a group led by some of the museum's near neighbors, which also intends to file a suit.

"They better think long and hard before slandering or threatening me," Schwartz said, referring to county leaders.

Pass the pain relievers, this is one huge headache that utterly detracts from the big issue at hand: Keeping the darn Barnes art collection right where it is.

Related? This article about the dump they want to move the Barnes Art to (hope the picture remains so everyone can see it):

Youth center license is downgraded
By John Sullivan
Inquirer Staff Writer