Queen Creek Council set to hire first town attorney

The current town attorney for Florence may become Queen Creek’s first official town attorney.

At its upcoming meeting on Wednesday, the Queen Creek Town Council will be voting on hiring Clifford Mattice to serve as town attorney, a position he currently holds in Florence.

The hiring is on the council’s consent agenda in which all items are passed through one motion and vote. A member of the council or town staff may pull items from the consent agenda for a separate discussion and vote.

If the motion passes, Mattice, who graduated from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University in 1993, would be signed to a three-year contract at a salary of $230,000 a year, effective Oct. 6. Under the Queen Creek town code, the town attorney serves at the pleasure of the council.

Mattice, who formerly worked for Dickinson Wright, was hired by the town of Florence in July 2015, according to his LinkedIn profile.

The new town attorney’s office is budgeted at $1.1 million. Along with the town attorney, the office will have two assistant town attorneys and a legal assistant.

The creation of a town attorney’s office was included in the $627.7 million 2025-26 fiscal year budget passed in May.

“As the town has grown, it has regularly evaluated contracted services. This year, the town council has made the strategic decision to transition to an in-house town attorney’s office due to the town’s continued growth, increasing complexity of operations and evolving service needs,” according to a council staff report.

Since incorporation in 1989, Queen Creek has had a contractual relationship with Dickinson Wright, which is providing “access to a wide range of legal expertise, including utilities, personnel, zoning, constitutional law and development agreements,” according to the report.

Scott Holcomb of Dickinson Wright most recently has been handling the town attorney duties for Queen Creek.

“Once the new town attorney is appointed, they will collaborate with Dickinson Wright to modify the existing contract as necessary and begin recruiting for additional staff for the in-house legal team,” the report continued.

The Queen Creek Town Council meeting starts at 6:30 p.m., at Community Chambers, 20727 E. Civic Parkway.

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