Officials

of Fayette County and its cities may soon resolve

the burning question of whether you're receiving

all the services you're paying for.

In

a meeting Jan. 6 at 8 a.m., Fayette's FUTURE

Committee hopes to choose a consultant to

research services provided and taxes collected by

the county, Peachtree City, Fayetteville, Tyrone,

Brooks and Woolsey.

FUTURE

(Fayette United Team to Utilize Resources

Effectively) has been discussing the question

since last spring, when city leaders began

suggesting that their residents were shortchanged

when it came to county services.

The

committee is composed of elected and appointed

officials from the county and all its

municipalities, and is charged with finding ways

that cities and county can cooperate to improve

efficiency and save taxpayers' money. It was

already functioning months before a new state law

was passed in 1998 - House Bill 489 -

requiring that all cities and counties in the

state undertake the same exercise.

Consulting

firm DMG Maximus presented its credentials during

a FUTURE committee meeting last week, and another

firm, Governmental Solutions Inc., made a

presentation at a previous meeting.

"We've

revised and refined the scope of work that we

want to have done," said Joe Morton,

assistant city manager for Peachtree City, who is

spearheading the search for a consultant. The two

consultants will use the revised scope of work

information to submit specific price proposals

that will be available at the Jan. 6 meeting.

"I

think everyone's pretty confident with the

qualifications of both companies, so it'll

probably come down to price," said Morton.

Once

a consultant is chosen, that company will study

five areas of service: police, public works, fire

and emergency services, library services and

recreation. Once it's determined whether there

are any inequities in those services to county

and city residents, the consultant firm will

present a report to FUTURE, which then will

likely make a recommendation to the county and

city governments.

Morton

said if inequities are found, the group probably

will recommend changes in tax structure or

service delivery, or both.

"Each

entity will then have to sign off on that,"

he added.

Under

HB489, the county and cities are required to

submit their plan for service delivery to the

state, and state agencies have given Fayette a

deadline of Dec. 31, 2000, to complete that work.

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