FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — The Fulton County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution Wednesday that approved a new overtime budget for jail staff.
According to the commission’s records, the resolution by Vice Chair Bob Ellis establishes supplemental funding for overtime pay and additional incentives to help increase staff hiring and retention, specifically for detention officers and deputies who work at the Fulton County Jail.
The resolution said “as of March 25, 2025, there were 144 vacant positions in the Sheriff’s Office, with the largest number of vacancies in the roles which provide detention services,” according to the county’s human resources data.
It stated the number of filled positions at the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office shrank from 906 in 2020 to 875 in 2024.
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The initial proposal from Ellis would have provided $1 million for overtime payments and a separate $1 million incentive fund.
The version passed Wednesday instead provided $1.7 million for overtime payments and $1 million for the incentive fund’s initiation.
While the measure passed unanimously, Commissioners Dana Barrett and Marvin Arrington Jr. took issue with parts of the resolution.
Arrington said some of the language in the resolution amounted to “finger-pointing,” and regardless, the county would still “have to pay the bill.”
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Chairman Rob Pitts did not vote and Arrington abstained, with the other commissioners passing the supplemental funding resolution.
After the vote approving the funding, Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat released what he called an op-ed, pushing back on what he said were inaccurate budget claims during the commission meeting related to the vote.
Labat said the vote approving “a one-time fund with quarterly reviews and limited scope will not adequately resolve this issue.”
“As stipulated by the Department of Justice, the Sheriff’s Office needs a properly funded investment strategy that addresses pay, workload, recruitment, retention, morale and training,” he said. “Without that, this measure becomes little more than a political maneuver designed by Mr. Ellis to exert control over the Sheriff while accomplishing precious little.”
References to retention issues, officer misconduct, transparency and previously approved budget increases were included in Ellis’ resolution, despite the objections of both Barrett and Arrington.
Labat’s op-ed, sent out after the vote, highlighted what the sheriff took issue with from the legislative text.
Overall, Labat said “this resolution reeks of dog-whistle politics” and ignores the realities the sheriff’s office and its staff faces every day to “falsely mischaracterize” how the agency functions and its budget.
More specifically, Labat said the resolution’s claims of increased funding annually was inaccurate, saying that claims of a 52% increase in funding from 2021 to 2024 was inaccurate, instead only having a 15% increase, he said the “bulk of the perceived increase is the result of the transfer of the existing expense related to inmate health services.”
Additionally, the sheriff said 90% of the office’s budget was committed to personnel costs.
Separately, Labat said “the issue of overtime is not new to the BOC but rather is a decades-long crisis,” that the board has not “meaningfully addressed.”
In terms of the misconduct of officers, Labat said his office does not tolerate criminal behavior from personnel and said “isolated incidents” of misconduct or contraband smuggling “are not evidence of systemic failures.”
The resolution by Ellis highlighted 28 employees arrested since January 2023, “most prominently for providing contraband to inmates in Fulton County jail facilities.” A list of those former employees was included with the resolution.
Channel 2 Action News reached out to Fulton County officials for further comment and are waiting for their response.
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