‘Politics above protection’ is charged
Yolanda Jones
The Commercial Appeal
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Mayors of DeSoto County’s incorporated cities agreed Tuesday to pay a $20 per day fee to the county to house city prisoners at the county jail, heading off a showdown today if the cities had not met the deadline to begin payments.
Charging that county officials were putting “politics above protection,” officials in Hernando, Horn Lake, Olive Branch, Southaven and Walls all agreed to the fee. They plan to look at recovering the money in other ways that may affect the county, however.
Walls, the smallest of the cities, had agreed previously to pay. The others agreed after meetings of their boards of aldermen Tuesday.
County officials had said Monday they would begin imposing the fee today, which is the beginning of the new fiscal year for cities in Mississippi. Without payment of the $20 per day plus medical expenses, the county said it would not house city inmates at the Hernando jail.
County officials have termed the rate more than fair, saying it actually cost the county more than that amount to house prisoners.
“The county caught us off guard when they said they would no longer take our prisoners. They really put us over a barrel,” Hernando Mayor Chip Johnson said Tuesday. “We are being forced into this agreement. But we are agreeing because we will not put protection above politics - something the county has obviously done.”
Johnson - along with Southaven Mayor Greg Davis, Olive Branch Mayor Sam Rikard and Horn Lake Mayor Nat Baker - held a press conference Tuesday morning at Southaven City Hall to address the jail fee matter.
Walls Mayor Gene Alday did not attend because his town has already agreed to pay.
The other mayors had offered to pay the county $10 a day plus medical to house its prisoners, but the county shot down that offer Monday.
City officials said they heard about the decision to impose the $20 fee through the media and still had not been contacted by the county about its decision to stop accepting their prisoners without the payment.
The mayors said they didn’t budget for the $20 fee and must find a way to recoup it.
Southaven’s Board of Aldermen said based on 2007 figures, it would cost the city $290,000 to pay the $20 fee for its prisoners.
For that reason, aldermen voted Tuesday to create a tax collection department to collect its own property taxes instead of the county doing it. The move is expected to save the city $100,000, Davis said.
Davis said Southaven could also collect the property taxes for the other cities.
Other immediate savings the board approved include shifting traffic control at DeSoto Civic Center events back to the county. That would save $117,000.
Davis said the city will also cut funding to the county’s law library at a savings of $15,000. The library is used by prisoners and attorneys to research their cases.
Additionally, the city will begin to charge the county a building permit fee, saving “several thousand dollars,” Davis said.
He said Southaven also spends $400,000 a year providing school crossing guards, school resource officers and police officers directing traffic at school events.
Davis said the city will notify the county that it needs to take over those police services in a “timely manner to fulfill obligations to county facilities.”
Horn Lake Mayor Nat Baker and Olive Branch Mayor Sam Rikard said their cities will also look at “every avenue” to recoup their money and increase revenue.
“We need to study these options without all the pressure of a deadline and without the emotional buzz we have right now,” Baker said. “We might consider fees for park use. We just need to look at all the options, then coolly, deliberately make our decisions.”
Rikard added: “One-third of the users of our city parks come from unincorporated areas of the county. We will also take a look at the park fees.
“This is just a really sad day that the supervisors have chosen to draw a line in the sand,” Rikard said. “We are agreeing to sign the contract because public safety is of the utmost importance.”
- Yolanda Jones: (662) 996-1474
--------------------
What will it cost?
Mayors of DeSoto County’s cities have agreed to pay the $20-a-day fee plus medical expenses to house prisoners in the county jail.
Here is a breakdown of what it is expected to cost the county’s four largest cities per year. Figures were not available for Walls.
Hernando, $130,000
Horn Lake, $325,000
Olive Branch, $190,000
Southaven, $290,000
“We are being forced into this agreement. But we are agreeing because we will not put protection above politics - something the county has obviously done.”
Copyright 2008 The Commercial Appeal, Inc.