The Tri-County Journal
& Chattahoochee Chronicle
PO Box 850, 71 Webb Lane
Buena Vista, GA 31803
229-649-6397
tjournal@alltel.net

By RICHARD HARRIS (From the Sept. 13, 2006 issue)
   It appears very likely that commissioners and Chattahoochee County Sheriff Glynn Cooper will be headed back to court, as they have failed to reach a compromise on the funding of the Sheriff’s Office acceptable to both parties.
   The Commission of the Unified Government of Cusseta-Chattahoochee County passed a budget earlier this year that slashed the sheriff’s funding by almost a quarter million dollars, while establishing a separate county police department. The sheriff filed suit asking for an injunction to stop the cut and restore at least most of his funding. A hearing on that issue was held on August 21 with Superior Court Judge Robert Johnston making it clear that he frowned upon the drastic cut, but stopping short of ordering a specific increase in funding. He ordered the two sides to work out their differences and gave them 20 days to do so.
   “I’m not going to let them, in effect, create another sheriff’s office because they don’t like you (Sheriff Cooper),” said Judge Johnston.
   So, commissioners and the sheriff attempted to come up with an agreement, but have not been able to do so. If all days on the calendar are counted, it’s already past the judge’s 20-day deadline. Counting only Monday-Friday, the deadline will be next Monday, Sept. 18.
   In their first two attempts to work out their differences, not enough people showed up to proceed. There weren’t enough commissioners present at the first scheduled meeting to form a quorum, and the sheriff wasn’t at the second planned meeting. They finally sat down together last Thursday, Sept. 7, but fell far short of an agreement.
   They looked over funding items for the Sheriff’s Office, with commissioners seeking ways to cut the budget in a way that Sheriff Cooper would agree with. In the end, Sheriff Cooper agreed to reduce his request for new cars to only one additional car, and said he could agree to a cut of around $50,000. A majority of the commissioners did not see that as an acceptable compromise and still want a much more significant cut to the sheriff’s budget.
   Sheriff Cooper was asked about the possibility of cutting personnel, but rejected the idea, noting that he’d actually like to add an investigator to the staff. That is a major sticking point in the negotiations.
   One of Sheriff Cooper’s arguments in court was that his office is required by the state constitution to perform certain cuties for the county, and he says he wouldn’t be able to uphold his constitutional duties if hit with a big cut in funding.
   However, the Commission argues that the new police department will be able to handle much of the general policing duties, which would allow the sheriff to get by with a smaller staff and a lower amount of funding.
   “We think if he had himself, two deputies and a radio operator, that’s all he needs to perform his constitutional duties,” said Larry Dillard, chairman of the Commission. “He wants to continue to operate the Sheriff’s Office as he has in the past. We think he should use 911 for dispatching and some other things. … We’re sort of at an impasse. We agree that with little instruction from the judge we can’t agree on anything to make much of a difference.”
   Dillard also noted that the Commission provided more money in the sheriff’s budget two years in a row and asked him to hire additional deputies, but Sheriff Cooper declined to do so.
   “That led us to the conclusion that we needed to reactivate the police department,” said Dillard.
   Sheriff Cooper is not without supporters on the Commission. Commissioner Wade Coleman noted that the sheriff always tried to “watch every nickel” and run his office as efficiently as possible, adding that if all the budgets of the other county offices and departments were as closely scrutinized it would likely save a lot of money.