Wednesday, February 20, 2002
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Wednesday, February 20, 2002 |
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County, Peachtree City reach agreement on jail dispute By DAVE
HAMRICK Fayette County and Peachtree City have reached agreement on housing the city's prisoners at the Fayette County Jail, and Fayetteville Monday night signaled its willingness to join in that agreement. County commissioners last week unanimously authorized Chairman Greg Dunn to sign the agreement that Peachtree City Council approved late last month. Under the agreement, the county will charge $43.70 per day for holding Peachtree City's prisoners. But the agreement allows for a certain number of inmates to be charged at a reduced rate of $30 based on the city's average daily inmate population for the previous fiscal year. Following Fayetteville's approval of the agreement, county officials continue to negotiate with leaders from Tyrone in attempts to reach a similar agreement. Dunn said this week the county hopes to put the same agreement in place, making it retroactive to Jan. 1. If no agreement is reached, the county will begin billing Tyrone at the $43.70 daily rate "within a few weeks," he said. A sharp dispute over the matter arose early in 2001 when the County Commission put the three cities on 12 months notice that it would not renew a 1994 contract that obligates the county to house municipal prisoners those sentenced to jail time by the municipal courts at no charge. City leaders, already embroiled in a dispute with the county over how tax money is divided, reacted angrily, saying their residents already pay for operation of the jail through taxes paid to the county, and the city courts contribute as well, through surcharges. County officials countered that the surcharges are set aside for construction and don't contribute to operation of the jail, and said taxes paid by residents don't cover the costs of daily operation completely. Several attempts during 2001 to write a new jail agreement in joint meetings with officials of all three cities broke down, and the county declared that it would no longer negotiate in joint sessions but wanted to talk with each city individually. As the expiration date for the agreement Dec. 31, 2001 approached, city leaders made known their intention to include the jail dispute in court-ordered mediation talks on the larger tax equity dispute. County officials said they had no intentions of combining the two debates, but last month an agreement surfaced at a special called Peachtree City Council meeting. In ordering mediation of the tax equity dispute, Judge Stephen Boswell had ordered that the talks be conducted in secret and that none of the participants talk about the discussions. Commission Chairman Dunn said Monday that the jail dispute was negotiated as part of the tax equity mediation. The Citizen had filed a lawsuit asking that the mediation be halted until it can be determined whether the mediation hearings should be open to the public, but a hearing on that case is not scheduled until Feb. 21. State law allows only 60 days for mediation, and that deadline passed Friday with no agreement being reached.
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