Coweta County

Administrator Theron Gay said the matter could have been settled with

a simple phone call.

Coweta County

Solicitor Robert Stokely said it's just the latest incident of county

officials trying to micromanage his department.

This week,

Gay said the county had paid a past due bill for $1,890 in furniture that

Stokely procured for his office back in May.

But the bill

wasn't paid until Stokely threatened to sue the county for non-payment

to one of his suppliers.

While Gay maintains

the Finance Department pays more than 40,000 invoices a year and this

one was overlooked, Stokely said the bill should have been paid a long

time ago.

In a letter

to Gay dated July 24, Stokely said Gay had carried the invoices to the

Coweta County Commission and they had refused to pay them.

"It is

unconscionable to think that I have to beg to have the bills of this office

paid, no less than submitting three times for bills that are more than

60 days past due," he said.

Stokely also

wants the county to pay for a $500 moving bill he incurred when he switched

offices. Gay said the county is still looking at the invoice to see if

it was in Stokely's budget.

This is not

the first time Stokely has tangled with county officials. When the County

Commission failed to approve $4,000 for an employee's raise, Stokely took

a second job as a truck driver to pay the raise out of his own pocket.

Stokely said

all he's trying to do is to serve the people of Coweta County, but is

constantly facing roadblocks.

"I'm just

a redneck who got a law degree who's liked by a lot of people. I'm just

trying to do my job," he said.

Stokely resents

the fact that he is constantly having to run into problems concerning

how he spends his budget.

"I'm allowed

to spend that budget to serve the people of Coweta County in prosecuting

cases and we have to have space and furniture to work with," he said.

The Solicitor

refutes Gay's assertion that a simple phone call could have caused the

bill to be paid.

"I had

it hand-delivered three times and it was never paid," he said.

For his part,

Gay said the situation is over and the problem was simply an oversight

Stokely hopes

the days of micromanagement are over.

"A county

with $29 million in the bank drawing interest should not shortchange this

office or the vendors that serve our needs," he said.