Elected leaders in Fayette's

cities have drawn a line in the sand that county leaders don't seem willing

to cross.

And as long as the standoff

continues, local taxpayers are the losers.

Impact fees for a new county

jail could save about $1 million of the $4 million annual debt service

on the county's $58 million bond issue, which will pay for a complex that

includes the jail and a new courthouse.

After months of haggling, it

appeared county and city leaders were on the same page and ready to approve

plans to charge the fees, which are designed to get developers to help

pay the costs associated with growth.

But when city councils in Peachtree

City, Fayetteville and Tyrone approved the fees over the last week, they

included new language that obligates the county to house prisoners arrested

"City residents pay exactly

the same taxes for services as anyone else," said Fayetteville Mayor

Kenneth Steele after the City Council approved the new language Monday

night. "We certainly are going to insist upon housing for our prisoners...

they're not really our prisoners but prisoners that happen to be arrested

in the city limits."

The new wording in the cities'

impact fee agreement obligates the county "to provide to the governing

authorities detention facilities and related jail services for the incarceration

of their detainees," but does not state that the county must provide

those services at no charge, said Steele.

But that's not the way county

officials read it, said County Commission Chairman Harold Bost. "The

way I read it, we would not stand any chance of being able to charge them

a fee," Bost said.

Under a 1994 agreement, the

county houses all detainees arrested within the county at no charge. That

agreement is automatically renewed every January, and requires all parties

to give six months notice of plans to amend it, so the earliest the county

could charge fees for city prisoners would be January 2002.

Bost said there are no immediate

plans to charge per diem fees, but added it wouldn't be right to obligate

the county for the life of the impact fees, expected to be at least 20

years. "I cannot support getting the county into that position for

the long range, foreseeable future," he said.

If a fee were charged, the

only prisoners affected would be those given jail time for minor offenses

in the municipal courts, not those arrested in the cities but tried in

the Magistrate, State and Superior courts, he said.

Steele said city leaders weren't

even thinking about the issue until the county recently announced plans

to close the jail to new prisoners. Faced with overcrowding that brought

up the fear of lawsuits, county commissioners discussed plans to do just

that, but backed off after both county and municipal judges began to use

more alternative sentencing to reduce the pressure.

Bost said those discussions

were necessary because of the fear that the county would have to pay for

housing city prisoners in other facilities. That would have cost almost

$1 million a year, he said.

Checking building permits for

the past year in a report issued by the city's Planning Department, Steele

pointed out that about 75 percent of permits are issued within the cities,

which means the cities would generate about 75 percent of the impact fees.

"We must insist upon having

space in our county-wide jail," he said.

But the cities shouldn't equate

the impact fees with operational funds for the jail, Bost said. Impact

fees can be used only for construction. The cost of running the jail will

come from the taxpayers and court fines, he said.

"To me this is a simple

process," said Commissioner Greg Dunn. "Without impact fees,

the only impact is on the citizens, because we won't be able to give a

reduction in the millage rate. We're figuring a million dollars a year

in impact fees... those taxes are probably going to have to come from

property taxes," he said.

"The operation of the

jail has nothing to do with impact fees. We can't allow a simple document

that formalizes the rates and concept of impact fees to dictate operational

matters," Dunn said.

Bost said the impact fee issue

is likely to come up when county and city leaders gather for the next

FUTURE Committee meeting. The group, composed of both appointed and elected

officials from all local governments, will meet in room 212 of the County

Administrative Complex at 8 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 29.