Wednesday, January 10, 2001
|
Wednesday, January 10, 2001 |
|
Dunn: Turn down the volume on disputes
By DAVE HAMRICK
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."
|
||