Sheriff responds to ‘dog-whistle politics’ in Fulton commission’s overtime pay resolution

A resolution approving overtime pay for detention officers at Fulton County Jail facilities was derided by Sheriff Pat Labat for what he reported were inaccuracies Provided by Fulton County The Fulton County Board of Commissioners will fund quarterly million in overtime funding for sheriff s office staff providing detention services at the Fulton County Jail but with strings attached A one-time million fund to assist in recruiting and retention of detention officers was also approved in the resolution passed during the commissioners May meeting As part of the conditions Sheriff Pat Labat s office must provide a complete roster of his employees with job titles and indicate whether an employee s full-time role is for detention services in Fulton County jail facilities The overtime payments will be reviewed quarterly and the overtime funding ends at the end of the year according to the resolution approved by the commissioners So given the hiring and the retention stuff the issues that we have seen and the operational and supervisory issues that we ve seen within the DOJ investigative statement and that we ve read about on our own we realize that specific stop-gap measures do now need to be applied Fulton Commission Vice Chair Bob Ellis explained The commissioner and the sheriff agreed to enter a consent decree with the U S Department of Justice in January to resolve problems at jail facilities The consent decree came after a -page description from U S Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia Ryan K Buchanan was disclosed on Nov The document noted poor conditions at the Fulton County Jail violate incarcerated persons constitutional and statutory rights and have led to injury and death Commissioner Dana Barrett explained she didn t agree with a lot of the language and unnecessary commentary in the resolution She requested for a copy of the revised resolution as several changes were made to the original Commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr also disagreed with what he called unnecessary commentary in the resolution I think we re digging a hole for ourselves We re trying to point the finger at someone else and I think we wind up digging a hole for ourselves because even if we point the finger at the other person we still have to write the check Arrington reported Labat sent out a response to the resolution disagreeing with its wording This resolution reeks of dog whistle politics is utterly tone-deaf to the realities our squad members face every day and intentionally and falsely mischaracterizes the budget and operations of the agency Labat stated While we share the BOC s concern for staffing and safety in the jail effective solutions require honest assessments not misleading figures and oversimplified narratives Labat disclosed proposes that the sheriff s office received a percent increase in annual funding from to is inaccurate He mentioned the operating budget increased by percent reflecting countywide raises and inflation Largest part of what was labeled as an increase was caused by moving the inmate vitality care expenses fund into his office s budget in Before that year those multimillion-dollar expenditures were in an account outside of his agency s budget Labat also questioned why the commission funds the Fulton County Police Department which has no statutory obligations The resolution passed - with Arrington abstaining Commission Chair Robb Pitts was absent from the meeting The post Sheriff responds to dog-whistle politics in Fulton commission s overtime pay resolution appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta