Commissioners may have to leave meeting space sooner than expected

Published 8:00 am Tuesday, June 26, 2018

DALTON, Ga. — The Whitfield County Board of Commissioners has 30 days to decide what they are going to do with the building where they hold monthly meetings.

Building and grounds director Gary Brown told commissioners at their Monday work session that the city’s building inspection office looked over Administrative Building 2 on King Street and found that the fire alarm did not meet state standards. He said that office had given commissioners 30 days “to present them with a timetable” for correcting the problem or vacating the building.

“We realize that you just can’t go in and spend $60,000 to install a new fire alarm,” Dalton Fire Chief Todd Pangle said Monday afternoon. “We also know they are discussing what to do with that building, so we are willing to work with them and let them go in and install hardwired smoke detectors. But that is just a temporary solution. If they come back and tell us they are going to remain in that building, they will have to install an alarm system to be compliant with state code. This is not a local ordinance. It’s the state fire code.”

Commissioners agreed at a May strategy session that they would continue to meet in Administrative Building 2 until they decide what to do with the building, which has numerous other issues including plumbing that often stops up, lack of handicapped accessibility and poor acoustics in the commissioners’ meeting chamber.

But after hearing Brown’s remarks, some commissioners indicated that may not be possible.

“There’s only us and drug court in there now, right?” said Commissioner Roger Crossen. “We need to vacate that building.”

Board Chairman Lynn Laughter said she did not believe that commissioners should put a large amount of money into the building until they decide what they are going to do with it. She noted that when the county bought it several years ago, it was to be used only temporarily until the expansion of the Whitfield County courthouse was complete.

Commissioners had discussed moving their meeting to the courthouse or to the Edwards Park community center until they decide what to do with the building. Laughter indicated that may have to reopen those discussions.

Commissioners also heard from Superior Court Judge Scott Minter about a state grant of some $160,000 the court has received to operate a mental health accountability court. Commissioners would need to vote to accept that grant.

Minter said the court would function in a manner similar to drug court, with a focus on those whose crimes might spring in part from mental illness. Those accepted into the court would have to take any drugs and take part in any counseling or treatment they have been prescribed. They would also be subject to regular drug tests and would have to meet with Minter weekly to make sure they are meeting those requirements. Those who complete the program would not have a conviction on their record.

Crossen asked if the court could help reduce the population at the Whitfield County jail.

Minter said the court would have someone in the jail screening inmates to see who might benefit from the program.

Some commissioners asked what would happen when the grant expires. Minter said commissioners would decide then whether to fund the court. But he said the state has made a high priority of accountability courts and he doesn’t anticipate funding for the grant to dry up.

District Attorney Bert Poston also briefed commissioners on his efforts to reduce the jail population.

Commissioners gave Poston $30,000 in his 2018 budget to change a part-time position to a full-time post that would complete paperwork for inmates sentenced to probation. That had been done by the state Department of Community Supervision. At the time, Poston said there was a two- to three-week delay between someone being sentenced and the paperwork being filed. Those inmates remained in the jail that entire time at $50 a day, Poston said.

Poston said that employee started in mid-February and by May the paperwork was being filed on the same day of sentencing for all inmates being sentenced to probation.

He said he expects that $30,000 investment to save the county $250,000 annually for housing inmates.