The Continuing SDS Saga

Two years ago, I wrote about the frustrations of elective office, and detailed the then 2009 state of the Service Delivery Strategy negotiations and litigation with Gwinnett County. Since that time, the trial has come and gone, and nearly a year after the completion, Judge Barrett has still not ruled in the case. There is no Service Delivery Strategy in place, and not one on the foreseeable horizon. Soon we will be making decisions that will affect your city taxes and other matters that would be easier if this issue could be settled.

As a recapitulation, let me recount the sorry facts in this matter. There is no dispute that Gwinnett County has collected taxes from 1999-2008 in some amount ($2-20 million per year) for services not delivered to residents who live inside Cities. The Cities maintain that such collections are illegal under state law and unconstitutional.

The Cities and the County have now been working on a new SDS for more than FOUR years. There are only a few areas of inequity which include police services, planning and development and transportation services and the like. Finally mediation was ordered by the Courts. On April 9, 2009 the Cities and the County agreed to mediate the SDS on April 22, 23, 24 and May 13, 14, and 15. On April 1, 2009, service delivery strategy agreements were delivered to Gwinnett County for its review. After reviewing the County’s similar documents, the Cities responded on May 14. Gwinnett County never responded to the Cities agreement documents at all.

At the end of mediation on April 24, 2009, the Cities and the court-assigned Mediator had a clear understanding that agreements had been reached on the following matters: planning, development and zoning, fire protection and emergency medical services, police, roads, recorders court and quality of life code enforcement. All those agreements have been rejected or refinagled by Gwinnett County, and they refuse to share the numbers or formulas that would allow Cities to determine the revised effects on their property owners or, for that matter, unincorporated property owners. After all this, the County and the Cities went to trial. The facts and legal precedents were thoroughly examined during the trial, and the County and Cities await Judge Barrett’s ruling in the matters at trial. As the trial ended sanctions were imposed on the County and Cities. Neither the County nor the Cities are currently “qualified local governments.”

Why should you care about this? Answer for yourself and imagine the frustrations of this office.

Should you pay any government for services you don’t receive? Shouldn’t you expect your elected officials to respect the law and uphold it? Wouldn’t you expect that your officials would be able to sit down and work out an agreement that works well for every property owner? After all, we serve the same people. Because the parties are “unqualified”, neither is able to receive state grants, radar permit renewals, street cuts on state highways, and the like. This makes serving the citizenry more difficult. So the frustration and damage remain after FOUR years.

Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?