An employee of a contractor working on the county's new administration building received a suspended sentence and two years of probation stemming from a stop work order violation that triggered a legal battle between the Warren County Commission and the city of Warrenton. Warrenton Municipal Judge Chris McDonough handed out the ruling at last Thursday's hearing which found Donald Kopmann, who was working for T.S. Banze Construction, a contractor hired by the county, in violation of the city's ordinance. Kopmann was issued a summons on Oct. 15, 2010, by Warrenton Building Commissioner Jim Daly for failing to abide by the stop work order that was posted that same day. The citation was issued during a second visit to the property by Daly. The stop work order was posted because the county failed to obtain and pay for building permits related to the construction of the administration building. County commissioners previously said they told Kopmann to continue working following the first site visit by Daly that morning. In addition to the two years of unsupervised probation, Kopmann must perform six hours of community service on April 21. He also must pay a $50 community service fee and $24.50 in court costs. Prior to announcing his ruling, McDonough commented to Kopmann, "I think you were put in a bad position by the county frankly. That sounds that way to me. You should have known better than to continue working in violation of the stop work order. You got some bad advice frankly. You should have known that you have an obligation to not follow that bad advice." The municipal summons led to a separate lawsuit filed by the county against the city challenging its permitting requirements five days after work was stopped on the building project. On Dec. 30, 2011, Franklin County Associate Judge David Tobben ruled that the county is not exempt from paying city building permits. The county commission has since filed an appeal opposing the circuit court ruling. Under protest, the county commission paid a total of $27,406 to the city for separate building and stormwater permits. Of that amount, $26,781 was for the building permit. Following Tobben's ruling, those funds remain with the city. Kent Munson, of the Stolar Partnership who represented Kopmann in the case, disagreed with McDonough's ruling. "I think it was wrong," Munson told The Record. "But I have to respect the court. This gentleman was doing just what he was being told by the county." When asked if he thought the sentence handed out by McDonough was harsh, Munson replied, "Yeah, I do. It's pretty steep." City prosecutor Chris Graville, however, said the length of the probation could be reduced to six months. "I told Mr. Munson it's the judge's policy of putting a person on two years' probation," Graville said. "Once (Kopmann) completes the minimum requirement of six months, the judge will consider an early release." During testimony at last Thursday's trial, Daly said at around 9 a.m. on Oct. 15, 2010, he posted the stop work order at the county property. He said he talked to Kopmann, who acknowledged that Daly was only doing his job. Daly told Kopmann to stop the grading work and gave him an hour to leave the job site. About an hour later, Daly said he returned and Kopmann was continuing to work. This time Daly was accompanied by a police officer and discussed the municipal violation with Presiding Commissioner Arden Engelage, who was then present at the job site. Daly described Engelage as being "agitated." Kopmann testified that he remained working because commissioners told him to continue doing so and felt the county had more authority than the city on the permit requirements. He admitted to being confused on the permit issue. "I believed in what (the county commission) told me," Kopmann testified. "I kept working because they told me." Construction is continuing on the county's 36,670-square-foot, two-story administration building. The facility, located on South Highway 47 and Mockingbird Lane, will house all non-court related offices. The overall project is estimated to cost $6.5 million with construction expected to be completed by April.