FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Financing for Fulton County’s more than $1.3 billion jail overhaul is moving forward after a little-known regional jail authority voted Monday night to approve the next step in the process.
The South Fulton Municipal Regional Jail Authority voted 3-2 to approve financing for the project, which stems from a resolution the Fulton County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved earlier this year.
While the vote authorizes the authority to move forward with financing, officials said many details, including the exact financial impact on Fulton County taxpayers, have not yet been determined.
“I’m pleased that it was approved by the authority,” said Fulton County Board of Commissioners Chairman Robb Pitts.
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The five-member authority is made up of current and former leaders from Palmetto and Union City. According to J. Clark Boddie, chairman of the South Fulton Municipal Regional Jail Authority, and the former mayor of Palmetto, the authority’s role is to be the financing vessel for the massive jail project.
“The jail authority’s part in this is to just serve as the vehicle for the financing,” Boddie said. “Help them handle the financing on this, so that the taxpayers and citizens of Fulton County will absolutely get the best deal as far as what they have to pay back.”
When asked whether the authority knew what the financial impact would be for Fulton County’s more than one million taxpayers, Boddie said the answer is not yet clear.
“No, we don’t because this is not done as a one-time thing, this will be phased in as construction starts,” he said.
Pitts said taxpayers will ultimately pay the interest on the bonds issued to finance the project.
“Interest on the bonds will be paid by taxpayers,” Pitts said.
Fulton County’s chief financial officer, Sharon Whitmore, told Channel 2’s Eryn Rogers the project has two primary funding sources already built into the county’s budget: Tax Allocation District dollars and the county’s defined benefits pension plan obligation that will have a drop off that will be returned to the county budget.
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However, one member of the jail authority who voted against the financing said she believes the process is moving too quickly and warned taxpayers could face additional costs.
“These bonds will have to be refinanced, likely, which is another fee that is incurred and indebted to the Fulton County taxpayers,” said Palmetto Mayor Teresa Thomas-Smith, a member of the jail authority. “This is a huge project. We have to make sure that as we do this, we get it right the first time.”
The South Fulton Municipal Regional Jail Authority was created by the state in the mid-1990s to build a jail in Union City. That facility was eventually sold and is now owned by Fulton County.
Boddie said the authority only met yearly after the jail was sold for procedural obligations.
“There was actually nothing for us to do,” he said.
That changed last year when Fulton County contacted the authority around the same time the U.S. Department of Justice reached a proposed consent decree with the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office over conditions inside the Fulton County Jail.
“They go through us to get the money, the financing, but it’s a more economical route to take than any of the others,” Boddie said.
Monday’s vote does not finalize financing for the entire project. Officials said the county will return to the authority as each phase of construction is ready to be financed, and the authority will vote on financing for each phase separately.
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