Opinion - Fulton commissioners: Lay off the pork and deal with the jail

Never take tips on setting priorities — or following a federal judge’s orders — from the Fulton County Commission.

When members of the dysfunctional seven-person commission in charge of the state’s most populous county aren’t quibbling with one another on the dais, they’re brokering deals to win votes for poorly conceived vanity projects. An “aviation cultural center,” for one, was built at a cost of $5 million at the county’s remote airstrip, and a $6 million open-air concert space opened this June a few miles from Lakewood Amphitheater and in Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport’s flight path.

That combined $11 million of taxpayer funds could’ve been spent expanding the county’s long-overcrowded jail, where thousands of inmates have been forced to sleep on the floor in a clear violation of a federal consent order signed by Federal Judge Marvin Shoob in 2006. On Sept. 1, the fed-up judge told county officials to buy Atlanta’s downtown jail — on the market for the low, low price of $85 million — or else he’ll lock them up. As CL went to press, county commissioners had rebuffed the city’s offer.

Whatever action county commissioners decide to take — buy the city jail or build an entirely new facility for at least $150 million — it’s gonna hurt Atlantans, the majority of whom are Fulton County residents. Atlanta City Councilman Michael Julian Bond, who says the county’s purchase of the city’s jail would essentially amount to local taxpayers buying the same building twice, thinks the two governments instead need to reduce overlap and integrate their criminal justice systems. He makes sense on both points.

But why stop there? Fulton officials need to explore integrating more of its services with the city of Atlanta and downsize its operations. At the least, the county needs to develop a capital improvement program like other governments so that wasteful, district-specific pork projects like those mentioned above — which also require ongoing operating funds — would become less common.

Finally, voters need to remember the pitiful job the Fulton Commission has done in addressing the overcrowding jail problem when re-election time rolls around. Some of the blame for the situation can arguably be shared by the district attorney and previous sheriffs’ administrations. But it’s the Commission that ultimately holds the county purse strings. Commissioners should have seen this kerfuffle coming, made proper arrangements, notified the judge and avoided this latest embarrassment. By failing to do so, they’ve only handed more ammunition to North Fultonites who say Milton County needs to rise again.