OK TN, let's talk... Let's talk about another issue because you are unwilling to listen to reason... You are so quick to defend Mr. Dunn, what defense do you have for him tearing down a perfectly constructed building (the former County Library/Magestrate Court) to construct a berm, (erected to provide a landscaping screen) between Jimmy Mayfield and the Sheriff's Office?

The former County Library was gutted and redesigned, with approval from the Commissioners, to house Magestrate Court. When the new HUGE County Courthouse was built, the Magestrate Court moved into it, thus leaving the building empty. This building could have been used by other county departments, instead, DUNN HAD IT DEMOLISHED so the landscaping would be more pleasing to the eye! WHAT A WASTE OF TAXPAYER'S MONEY! But the landscapping sure does look good, and I can't see the Sheriff's Dept. from the road anymore... Please tell me, since you have so much info on other subjects, WHY DID DUNN SPEND OUR MONEY ON A BIG PILE OF DIRT?

Natural, since we are now on a first name basis, I'll reply... Yes, I am VERY focused on DUNN. Dunn is the Chairman. If he doesn't make the rules, he certainly has to approve them.

Dunn has been in office for 8 years, and these "requirements" were NOT in place before he came on the scene. This is the FIRST YEAR Finance has asked for a detailed list of cell phone numbers. We all agree that a proper process and "generally accepted accounting principles" should be in place... so are you telling me that for the last 7 years, when no detailed phone list was required, those principles weren't in place??? If Dunn is so set on "accountability", then why hasn't he asked for the detailed list before this year??? I'll tell you why; it's because he has a vendetta against the Sheriff's Dept.
He can't hide under the pretense that he is doing this to "protect the tax payers" any longer!

I wonder what will be next? First it was the helicopter(s), then the hanger, then the drug seizure money, then trading seized cars, now the cell phone bill... stay tuned, I'm sure next week we'll have something else to add to the list.

Dunn has bit off more than he can chew for the last time! One of Dunn's own commissioners (Frady) REFUSED to go along with the phone number request and stated, "It is wrong". The election is approaching and the number of "anti-Dunn" voters is growing. Melear's isn't the only place to hear the latest "gossip".

So let me see if I understand this Hamster. You pay your credit card bills without the back up information attached? I have never worked in the public sector, but when I had responsibility for accounts payable functions in the private sector I knew this. If my superiors had a requirement that I have all the back up data before I pay the bill, and I pay it without that information, I would have been fired.
Is that not what the county employees are doing. Following long standing procedure? Doing their job? I will buy the Sheriff's department some markers so they can cover up the confidential numbers, and then submit the info. But they would probably not take the time to use them because they would then be just like everyone else and not special as they perceive themselves to be.
And before you go crazy, this is not about their ability to protect the county and its citizens. It is about doing the paperwork right like everyone else. As may Dad says "the job is not finished until the paperwork is done"....all of it...correctly.

And Hampster...what is that Visa number of yours again??

Your analogy to your experience in the private sector is inaccurate. Neither the county commissioners nor the county finance director are the Sheriff's "superiors." The sheriff is elected, just like the commissioners. The finance director is a mere appointee. If anything, the finance director "works for" the sheriff by keeping the books and sending out the checks. It makes no difference what's in the back up to the cell phone bills; the county finance department has to pay it if the sheriff tells them to. The commissioners have a right to see records as necessary for auditing purposes, but they can't approve or disapprove how the sheriff spends his budget. So what earthly reason could the commissioners or finance department have for wanting to see who the sheriff's deputies are calling on their cell phones? Or is this just another example of Dunn trying to exert authority where he has none?

The reference to superiors was in relation to the finance director and the County Manager to whom he reports. If I failed to make that clear then please accept this as clarification.

I grant you, from what I read (and hear) Dunn is probably a bit too close to the action sometimes. I also grant you that he has been known to be verbose. But that does not make him wrong.
You are absolutely, right the sheriff can spend his budget as he sees fit,and he obviously does. I never said that county employees should not pay the bills. My point is simple...follow the logic....long standing procedure says provide backup data, all other departments provide backup data ( I admit this is an assumption)and bills are paid. The sheriff does not comply with the same..long standing procedure, not wanting to compromise confidentiality. Fine, I have already volunteered to buy some markers. Spend 10 minutes marking out stuff and send it over. Jeez... Either someone does not understand the procedures (unlikely) or they are simply choosing to ignore it...because they are either unable...or unwilling...to do so. What makes them different?
If we follow your logic we do not need anything but a rubber stamp on any and all expenditures by any constitutional officer. They are elected to provide law enforcement, collect taxes, administer the courts etc. and do a great job. But along with that comes the obligation to be good stewards of your tax dollars. You want your tax dollars spent with no checks and balances? I don't and I really believe most people in Fayette County prefer a process where someone is helping "mind the store" so all these good people can go about the business of doing what they were elected to do.
I say again...Trust...but Verify...why is that so hard?

"Trust...but Verify"
That seems to be the phrase for the day... I AGREE WITH YOU!!!

Dunn should TRUST that the Sheriff has VERIFIED the phone bill!

Simple, huh?

I am sure that everyone would be happy to know that the sheriff's people (not Randall obviously) had verified anything, but unfortunately there is no way to know is there.

Fayette, I admire your loyalty.

To answer your question: This is where the TRUST part comes in...

You trust....I trust and verify because it is the right and rational thing to do. You have your opinion and loyalty that does not allow you to ask the hard questions. We will never agree.

There IS verification--from the federal authorities who demand annual reports, detailed accounting procedues, etc. The Sheriff does all that, and the feds are happy. The Sheriff also submits to regular audits by the county.

The bottom line is the Sheriff is a constitutionally elected officer; he does not have to justify his expenditures to Greg Dunn. The county has to pay the bills the Sheriff submits, whether they like it or not. If they don't like it, they can cut his budget next year or encourage Fayette Countians not to re-elect him.

Motown,

How are we going to separate Randall and Mr. Dunn from the real issue here? When the County is asking for back up data, it is not Dunn who is calling Randall asking for justification. It is county employees asking other county employees to comply with written procedure based on good accounting practices. Procedures that apparently everybody, with the single exception of the sheriff seem to follow with no problem. Ask yourself why. Is this just a battle between the Commission and the Sheriff or is there another reason that there is refusal to comply? Any Fayette Countian should want to know the answer. An answer that only can come from the Sheriff.
The fact that the Federal Government is satisfied should be of concern to more people than satisfy them considering the current state of affairs at the federal level.

The sheriff is a good law enforcment officer. I have said that repeatedly throughout this discourse. It is not about that at all.

You are a real bone-head, or work there. No one in public office can ask for a check to be written without specifying what it is for with details. Now if the state wants to pay the sheriff's bills, then let them pay them ($36,000) unneeded cell phone bills. Toys to fool around with.

highgreen, Obviously you are too "high" to understand... if you ever need emergency assistance, don't call the Sheriff's Dept., CALL A COMMISSIONER instead!!!

"Call a Commissioner" ...Come on Fayette, you can do better than this. This kind of silly response does not advance your position at all. Rather, it implies that you have run out of valid arguements and must resort to name calling and insults. Neither you nor motown can separate the law enforcement responsibilities of the Sheriff from his obligations to the citizens to be a good steward of his fiscal responsibility.
I am not saying that he is not...I am saying that we....the tax payers that fund his budget....do not know. I know that you are not suggesting that we have no right to know...are you?

By the way...I do not think highgreen should have called anyone a bonehead. That is not helpful either.

I haven't run out of "valid arguments", rather I'm TIRED OF REPEATING MYSELF OVER & OVER! Either you and highgreen are not capable of understanding simple English, or you are too stubborn to listen.

Let's try this ONE MORE TIME: The county Finance Dept. is presented with a bill detailing a $ amount and usage. As a citizen, I am satisfied that this is enough information for Greg Dunn to pay the bill. BUT NO!!! Dunn wants to aggravate the situation further by requesting ALL THE INDIVIDUAL PHONE NUMBERS! Why does he need the phone numbers and what is he going to do with the information???

Natural, can you honestly tell me that you agree with Dunn's request of the individual phone numbers? This "request" goes above and beyond what is reasonable! It is this type of behavior from the commissioners that worries me. They have been paying the same cell phone bill for years... why do they suddenly want the individual phone numbers? And, where will this end? Dunn can literally tie up the clerical resources at the Sheriff's Dept. with these unreasonable requests.
Is it going to stop with the phone numbers? Probably not!

Greg Dunn wants the citizens to think he is doing this for us... when in fact his intentions are quite the contrary!

We, in the U.S., have all been trained to think that phone service is available for a fixed monthly fee, and that there is no charge for receiving calls (from anywhere in the world) and no charge for making local calls. When that's the case, there is of course no reason for an auditor to want to know anything about the calls, except for the long-distance calls for which there might be a separate extra charge.

Cellphone service is different. There's a charge (per minute or fraction) for each call made and each call received. Then it's important to have rules against making or receiving unimportant social phone calls involving girlfriends (or boyfriends), spouses, children, personal business, etc., because we, the taxpayers, have to pay for that. The rules against wasting taxpayer money through unauthorized cellphone calls cannot be enforced unless the auditor is given the ability to check the likely identity of the other party to a cellphone call to a county employee.

I am sure no auditor would check all the calls. However, certain patterns can be detected, especially where a phone number shows up repeatedly, and a few random checks could be made.

If the sheriff had an auditing system in place and would give assurances to the commissioners that all bills submitted for payment have been properly checked for compliance with county policy, there would be no problem.

With the proper attitude, the sheriff and commissioners could get along.

I don't work there. I simply stated what the law is. You may not like it, but it doesn't change the facts. The powers of the county commissioners and the sheriff are defined by state law. You show me where it says the sheriff has to justify his expenditures to the commissioners. If you can't do that, and you think the law is "boneheaded," take it up with your legislators.

What utopia are you people from? Is the county Treasurer to pay anything he gets without backup? $35,000 a year for cellphones? Doesn't the Sheriff's department have any radios or other kinds of communication? Weird! Do the kids also have one of these phones, and the wives? The Sheriff only is a Constitution officer, no deputies or other clerical help or pilots. I suppose they are civil servants if like Clayton county and can't be fired.

Utopia! Highgreen, have you been hitting the "stuff" again??? Yes, the Sheriff is "spending tax money" again! I believe that is what is required of him to get his job done...

It is the Sheriff's job to VERIFY the back-up documentation. It is the County Finance's job to PAY the bill.

I would guess that a break-down of # of minutes used would be of more importance than the phone numbers??? That is, unless Dunn now wants to start micro-managing the deputies.

If you think $35k (or whatever the budget is) is too much for cell phones, complain to the commissioners. They're the ones that set the amount!

This "free money" spread out among the counties by the state for drug arrests and confistication was bound to cause problems. We have always had trouble accounting for all of the cash and dope confisticated for years since it is so tempting to just stick some in your pocket. But to allow even the Governor to spend his budget for what he wants to without accountability by detail, when requested, is even worse in my opinion. The "secret phone number excuse is crappola. Ther must be a half-dozen ways to do that inexpensively, but if the numbers called or answered are to the wrong people we need to know that also. Just to say Sheriff Johnson is extremely honest doesn't solve $35,000 worth of cell phone calls when cops didn't even have cell phones a short time ago. It is out of hand.

Doppler: You are tempted to "stick dope and cash" in your pockets because of your lack of integrity and honesty! Please don't try to put our officers in the same category as you!!!

Also, just a reminder, a short time ago NONE OF US had cell phones... welcome to the 21st century!

Oh by the way...Fayette...you are so right...none of us had cell phones until the last few years. However, Law Enforcement has had radios for communication for....gee... 50 years or so. You are right cell phones are a new phenomenon, but as a means to communicate among law enforcement officers it is not the only alternative.

I hate to tell you, but you're wrong on this one! It is a VITAL means of communication for detectives and undercover officers. I hope you're not under the impression that cell phones are issued to ALL deputies - they're not. I'm not an expert, but could you imagine setting up undercover drug deals using a radio? Also, most radios only work within a certain range. I believe the officers use "direct link", which is free, when they need to communicate with each other. Any Fayetteville or Peachtree City officer will tell you the same thing.

If only the drug cops have cell phones, they sure talk a lot. Don't the state or feds setup 99% of these busts in a conventional manner? Our cops know nothing about what is coming through, going out, or setting here, until someone tells them. This is a dead justification process. I can't see Sheriff Johnson setting at his desk verifying the phone calls on the hundreds of pages from the phone company,can you? The Sheriff and his office serve the county citizens to run the jail and serve warrants and arrest other violators when they see them or are told to do so. We need to nip this empire in the bud and not let the Sheriff's office run the county.

It's plain to see you don't really know much about the drug operations, high, and you talk through your hat a lot. But you're not the only one posting here that does that, seems most are talking through their hats.

The phone service, Nextel, also includes two way radio connections for everyone in the sheriff's office, and that's a must. We don't want our dedicated men and women who put it on the line for us everyday to be without a means of communication.

The bottom line here is Greg Dunn is interfering with the operations of a constitutional officer and that will be his undoing come November, 2006.

I guess they do talk a lot! Did you hear about the meth lab discovered in the county last week, or the drug bust at Home Depot in PTC on Thursday, or the drug bust at the Fayetteville bowling center on Wednesday, and the illegal gambling arrest at the Phillips 66 Station in Fayetteville yesterday? I guess you & Dunn would have them "limit" their calls??? (and by the way, none of that info came from the "state or feds") Please, give our officers a little more credit when it comes to "policing" their phone calls! If you can't trust our law enforcement, who can you trust... Dunn???

Highgreen, your comments are proof of what your brain looks like when it's on drugs!