Friday, August 3, 2001
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Friday, August 3, 2001 |
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Solicitor, county at odds again By JOHN
THOMPSON
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 by the Finance Department. 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.
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