With the upcoming retirement of Greene County Attorney Nic Martino, there has been a transitional period taking place within his office.

Martino has been working with Assistant County Attorney Thomas Laehn since 2017 and even more so when Laehn passed the Iowa Bar Examination this past September. Martino says he’s had Laehn taking on all civil matters for the different county offices, as well as steadily  increasing Laehn’s criminal caseload, which has made Martino’s transition smoother.

“I’m able to give a little more attention to my pending cases, the ones that I’m handling. Of course the caseload itself has been increasing ever since Thomas got here and bluntly before he ever got here. And it’s put actually a small dent occasionally in the number of hours that I’m putting in a week and that’s a good thing for me too.”

Laehn says he’s been lucky to have Martino’s 42 years of county attorney experience to tap into and to learn from. He talks about what’s been the biggest surprise for him so far.

“I have been surprised at the amount of work on the civil side with assisting with the drafting of 28E agreements between the county and other political entities, and advising public officials on public document requests. But that’s also been a rewarding experience to work with the other public officials in the county.”

Laehn adds that Martino had 290 criminal cases last year and he’s happy to help take more of that load off of him over these last few months. Martino pointed out that by December, all new criminal cases will be under Laehn’s name. To hear more from Martino and Laehn, listen to today and yesterday’s Community State Bank Let’s Talk Greene County program.