Chuck Kitchen was removed as Durham County Attorney this afternoon and immediately replaced by former Deputy County Attorney Lowell Siler.

The reason for Kitchen's termination is that he is named in a lawsuit against Durham County by Southern Durham Development Inc., county commissioners Chairman Michael Page said.

"We want to keep this thing clean and we want to make sure that, because the [former] county attorney is named in that, that he is totally aside from the county," Page said.

Earlier this summer, Kitchen had announced his retirement Nov. 30. He remains on the county payroll until then, as an adivsor to Siler and to handle two other cases unrelated to the Southern Durham suit.

Durham County Attorney Chuck Kitchen is retiring Nov. 30 after 13 years on the job.

Kitchen says he will work with the Board and County administration to “help make the transition as seamless as possible.”

Kitchen began his legal career with Durham County Government as a law clerk while a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law School. Upon graduation he was named as Assistant County Attorney.

He held that position until 1986 when he was hired away by Alamance County Board of Commissioners as County Attorney.  In 1996, Kitchen returned to Durham County as County Attorney.

Durham County had seven issues on the legislative wish list it presented the Durham delegation Friday.

• Two pertain to handling of erosion-control violations;
• another would shift the burden of proof from property owner in tax appeals;
• another would maintain counties' right to jury trials in tort claims.

The other three items are also backed by the N.C. Association of County Commissioners: restoring public-school systems' access to sales and use tax refunds; allowing information sharing between the juvenile and adult criminal-justice systems; and blocking portions of the proposed Jordan Lake Nutrient Strategy regulations.

The Jordan rules, which would require local governments to bear the cost of retrofitting existing developments with new stormwater controls, could cost Durham taxpayers more than $210 million, County Attorney Chuck Kitchen said.

"It's a classic case of an unfunded mandate," commissioner Ellen Reckhow said. "We don't know how we're going to get the money."

Kitchen said, "We think it's just wrong."