Greg Dunn makes no bones about

the fact he thinks he has his work cut out for him.

"It's not going to be

easy," he said this week after being named chairman of the Fayette

County Commission during the group's 2001 organizational meeting last

week. It was the panel's first official action of the year.

Commissioner Linda Wells was

named vice chairman.

"You didn't tell me this

was going to be like herding cats, Harold," Dunn quipped to outgoing

Chairman Harold Bost after presiding over his first meeting.

Among the most difficult issues

the chairman will deal with are the ongoing battle between the county

and local cities over tax equity, and the stalemated discussions over

impact fees to help pay for the new county jail.

Tomorrow night, Dunn will deliver

to fellow commissioners his attempt to answer a Dec. 14 letter from Peachtree

City Mayor Bob Lenox, Fayetteville Mayor Kenneth Steele and Tyrone Mayor

Pro Tempore Lisa Richardson, concerning the jail issue.

Whether the county can charge

the cities to house their misdemeanor prisoners in the county jail is

the sharp division that has halted progress on using impact fees for the

jail. Impact fees are charged to developers to defray the costs of new

government facilities and services made necessary by growth.

County leaders maintain that

city courts sometimes sentence people to jail time for minor offenses

when they can't pay their fines, often costing more in housing costs than

the fines would yield.

It just doesn't happen all

that often, city leaders respond, adding that even if it does, their residents

already pay more than enough in taxes and court surcharges to cover the

costs. They refuse to approve an impact fee agreement unless the agreement

includes a guarantee that their prisoners will be housed.

The Dec. 14 letter reaffirms

the cities' position. "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 letter

says.

The letter was addressed to

Bost, who was chairman at the time, but as new chairman Dunn said he felt

obligated to answer it. He copied commissioners with his planned response,

but commissioenrs last week balked.

Vice Chairman Wells said she

is concerned that the public will think the letter states the position

of the entire commission, when it's really only the chairman's position.

"I'm really not comfortable

with the way these things are taking on a life of their own," said

Wells.

But Dunn said he doesn't like

the idea of not responding to input from city leaders.

Commissioners voted to have

Dunn draft a new response and bring it back to the other commissioners

to sign if they see fit.

Meanwhile, Dunn set the tone

for the year in a brief acceptance speech, saying he wants the commission

to be professional in its handling of such disputes.

"It may be that some sort

of intervention is necessary," said Dunn, referring to proposed mandatory

mediation of the dispute between Fayette and its cities over tax equity.

"I would say that that's OK as long as we do it professionally and

without a lot of hostility."

"I would ask of the board

and the city governments that we work very hard on eliminating all sarcasm,

that we eliminate all hyperbole, that we eliminate all ad hominem attacks,

and the political pandering that sometimes associates with some of these

things," Dunn added.

The tax equity dispute concerns

Fayetteville, Peachtree City and Tyrone's contention that their residents

are charged more in county taxes than they receive in services. After

commissioners recently issued a final statement in the dispute, saying

they don't believe any such inequity exists, city leaders said they are

prepared to go to Superior Court and ask for mandatory mediation.

Fine, said Dunn.

"We believe we are right

about certain things, and other people believe they are right," he

said,a dding that if those differences must be resolved in the courts,

then the same leaders will have to swallow their differences and implement

whatever solutions are ordered by the courts.

"If we don't get through

this right," he said, "we're going to put [Fayette's basic goodness]

at risk, and I don't want to put at risk the goodness of Fayette County."