BAY MINETTE, Alabama — The Baldwin County Commission added $442 in February for legal bills with a $50,000 price tag that continues to grow in defense of an ongoing FBI probe of alleged installation of audio-video surveillance of county buildings.

 Commissioners and counsel remain mum or do not have specifics about the probe which began last fall when District Attorney Hallie Dixon contacted authorities about potential improprieties involving client-attorney compromises resulting from the date-time stamp and selective isolation location of the units for specific replay of conversations. Total legal expenses for County Attorney David Connor as of Feb. 29 is $37,087, according to County Administrator David Brewer.]

 “That figure does not include a Feb. 7 Commission agreement authorizing reimbursement to Commissioner Frank Burt for $5,000 and Commissioner Charles Gruber for $2,500 for incurring legal expenses paid from their respective personal funds,” Brewer stated in an e-mail.

 “The county determined both Commissioners were acting and continuing to act within the furtherance of the corporate interests of Baldwin County related to the installation and use of said security cameras.” A team of 30 FBI agents sent from Washington interviewed judges, the District Attorney’s Office, Baldwin County Commissioners and Sheriff Huey “Hoss” Mack. Mack said earlier the investigation is not closed and that the U.S. Attorney’s Office has not signed off the case, but he has no knowledge of findings. The Commission complied with a U.S. District Court order in November to mitigate alleged legal repercussions of eavesdropping devices at the county’s three courthouses by allowing federal authorities full access to video and audio recording and county property in the wake of a perceived scandal involving attorney-client conversations and comments by citizens in range of the devices.

 Since then, Mack has approved payments of $3,135.90 to Masters, Hyde and Willford, and $1,500 to attorney David York. Last fall, former District Attorney David Whetstone was representing Mack and Probate Judge Tim Russell.

 Mack did not immediately respond to requests for updated legal bills, while Russell said he has not expended any funds personally for counsel.

The Baldwin County Commission paid $495 in legal fees in October, $30,582 in November, $5,150 in December, and $417 in January according to County Administrator David Brewer.

 Dixon said she did not know about the audio capabilities prior to October, “when I learned that a number of these audio-video cameras were placed around the courthouse — including the District Attorney’s employee break area — on a porch outside our private entrance to the courthouse. She said she has retained no counsel.