"We're going to get there.

Be patient," said Fayette County Commission Chairman Greg Dunn as

he prepared to fire off the latest round in the battle over jail space

and tax equity.

All five county commissioners

signed Dunn's response to a Dec. 14 letter from mayors of Peachtree City,

Fayetteville and Tyrone. The mayors had written to former commission Chairman

Harold Bost expressing their disagreement with county plans to possibly

charge daily fees for housing the cities' misdemeanor offenders at the

Fayette County Jail.

The idea of charging for their

prisoners angers city leaders, who have continually argued that their

residents pay about $3 million more in taxes to the county than they receive

in services. City residents already pay more than their fair share of

the cost of operating the jail, city officials maintain, and charging

additional per diem fees would only compound the tax inequity.

County commissioners say they

want to charge the fees because city courts often sentence prisoners to

jail time in attempts to collect minor fines, costing the taxpayers more

in jail costs than the amount of the fines.

In his Jan. 11 response to

the mayors' Dec. 14 letter, commission Chairman Dunn gives the following

example:

"For example, in one current

case, we have a city prisoner sentenced to six months incarceration or

to pay a $650 fine, whichever occurs first. At $40 per day, the county

taxpayers will pay a minimum of $7,200 (medical expenses could make this

amount much higher) to try to recover $650 for a city."

But in their previous letter,

the mayors dismissed the idea of categorizing prisoners: "Because

we already pay for the operation of our jail, we fully expect the county

to house our detainees in our jail at no additional cost, regardless of

your classification of the crime or the court that sentenced the detainee

to our jail."

The disagreement appears to

have scuttled the county's plans to levy impact fees charged to developers

to help defray the governmental costs of growth to help pay for the jail.

It was during negotiations

this past fall between the county and the cities to develop an intergovernmental

agreement allowing the impact fees that the County Commission announced

plans to begin charging the cities for misdemeanor prisoners sentenced

At that time, the county was

in negotiations with the South Fulton Municipal Regional Jail Authority

to rent space in its Union City jail for Fayette's overflow, after County

Attorney Bill McNally had warned commissioners that overcrowding at Fayette's

jail was reaching dangerous levels. The county has since entered into

a contract to house 50 prisoners at Union City, for $2,250 a day.

When the county notified the

cities of its plans to charge fees, the cities reminded the county of

a 1993 agreement in which the county promised to house city detainees

for free. Any party to that agreement must give six months notice before

terminating it (see related story).

A final agreement on impact

fees was to be signed within days, but city officials quickly added a

paragraph to that agreement stating that city detainees would be housed

at the jail for as long as the impact fees are collected at least 20 years.

County officials balked at that, and the impact fee agreement has been

stalemated ever since.

For the text of the mayors'

letter and the commissioners' response, visit The Citizen's website on

the Internet at https://www.thecitizennews.com .

In a Dec. 5 joint meeting between

county and city leaders, the subjects of the jail impact fees, tax inequity

and per diem charges for municipal prisoners occupied three hours of heated

discussion with no consensus.

A series of letters followed

between various city officials and former commission Chairman Bost, but

so far neither side has budged from their original positions.

Text of mayors' letter, county's

reply

[Editor's npte: The following

are the letters exchanged between the mayors of three Fayette cities and

the county commission.]

Dec. 14, 2000

The Honorable Harold Bost

Fayette County Board of Commissioners

140 Stonwall Ave., Suite 100

Fayetteville, GA 30214

Dear Harold:

Thank you for personally taking

the time to met with representatives of each municipality to determine

the number of detainees in our jail that is under the control of municipal

courts versus those under the control of the Magistrate, State or Superior

Court. For the period of time researched, we have no reason to question

the accuracy of the numbers, but we do question their significance.

As you no doubt recall, at

the FUTURE meeting on Nov. 29, 2000, several representatives of the municipalities

repeatedly explained our position that municipal surcharges and taxes

are already paying for all detainees housed in the jail, regardless of

which court sent them there. We further explained that your position would

result in the municipalities paying twice to house detainees in our jail.

Unfortunately and evidently, we did not do a very good job of communicating

to you our fundamental rationale for our position and our objections to

your position.

Further, even if we agreed

with your position at the meeting and the conclusion in your Dec. 5 letter,

and we do not, we further have a problem with the calculations in your

letter. Basically, you failed to identify and accept responsibility for

detainees housed in our jail that were arrested by the Sheriff's Department

for misdemeanors. As we understand your position, the municipalities must

pay for those municipal detainees being held in our jail for misdemeanors.

Conversely, you feel those municipal detainees being held for felonies

that must go to Magistrate, State or Superior Court will be the responsibility

of the county and paid for by the county. The inconsistency here is that

there is, no doubt, some number of detainees in our jail that were arrested

have failed to identify and calculate. Thus, we can only conclude that

you expect the municipalities to again pay twice for our detainees committing

misdemeanors and to also help pay for the Sheriff's Department's misdemeanor

detainees through municipal surcharges and taxes.

Harold, please clearly understand

that this issue is not resolved; in fact, we unanimously feel there is

no issue. Because we already pay for the operation of our jail, we fully

expect the county to house our detainees in our jail at no additional

cost, regardless of your classification of the crime or the court that

sentenced the detainee to our jail. In summary, we expect the same treatment

in this matter as the county bestows upon itself.

Respectfully,

Robert L. Lenox

Mayor, Peachtree City

Kenneth Steele

Mayor, Fayetteville

Lisa Richardson

Mayor pro tem, Tyrone

Jan. 11, 2001

Honorable Robert L. Lenox

Mayor, Peachtree City

151 Willowbend Road

Peachtree City, GA 30269

Dear Mayors:

This letter responds to your

letter dated Dec. 14, 2000 concerning your municipal court detainees in

the County Jail.

The number of detainees you

refer to from our Dec. 5, 2000, letter, while not overwhelming, is significant

and subject to change on a daily basis. It has been significantly greater

in the past, and we appreciate your recent attempt to reduce that number.

For the sake of clarity, let

me state that your discussion of misdemeanants versus felons is not the

issue here. The cities can and do remand significant numbers of misdemeanants

to our courts rather than your municipal courts. We handle those cases

without comment, for this is the reason we have a county jail, i.e. to

house felons and anyone else your court remands to us. In fact, on any

given day, significantly more than half the prisoners in the jail were

arrested in one of your cities.

All offenses could, and in

the past have been, handled by State, Magistrate or Superior courts. I

don't believe anyone would seriously challenge the premise that one of

the primary purposes (if not the primary purpose) of establishing a municipal

court is to produce significant revenues for that particular city. You

have all established municipal courts and your budgets clearly indicate

that you derive significant monies through the fines and forfeitures levied

The issue at hand is one of

fairness. Your courts collect and retain all fines and forfeitures levied

and the expense of housing the prisoner (approximately $40 per day). For

example, in one current case, we have a city prisoner sentenced to six

months incarceration or to pay a $650 fine, whichever occurs first. At

$40 per day, the county taxpayers will pay a minimum of $7,200 (medical

expenses could make this amount much higher) to try to recover $650 for

a city. The taxpayers of the unincorporated county and the other cities

should not have to pay it. If the city wants the individual incarcerated,

we are willing to do so if the city merely pays the per diem expense.

Your letter takes issue with

the fact that the county may also, at times, have similar prisoners. The

difference is that all fines and forfeitures from our courts are county

funds. If we were to place someone in jail for such minor offenses, our

courts' fines and forfeitures would be paying the bill.

We agree that the issue is

not resolved. The current agreements addressing the 10 percent surcharge

issue are still in effect and the county will honor those agreements.

However, you should assume that we will renegotiate those agreements at

the appropriate time in the near future.

Respectfully,

Fayette County Commission

Greg Dunn, Chairman

Linda Wells, Vice Chairman

Herbert E. Frady, Commissioner

Harold Bost, Commissioner

A.G. VanLandingham, Commissioner

cc: Ken Steele, Mayor, Fayetteville

Sheryl Lee, Mayor, Tyrone