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Chairman responds to sheriff's claims of underfunding after Fulton County Jail walkout

Published  August 30, 2024 6:14pm EDT
Fulton County Jail
FOX 5 Atlanta

Chairman blames sheriff for jail security walkout

After a third party security company terminated services with the Fulton County Jail. The county's commission chair has responded to the sheriff's claims this is all due to underfunding of his office. FOX 5's Kim Loeffler has the story.

FULTON COUNTY, Ga. - After a third party security company terminated services with the Fulton County Jail, County Commission Chair Robb Pitts is responding to the sheriff's claims that this is all due to underfunding of his office.

"It is absolutely not a question of a lack of funding nor a lack of attention by the board of commissioners that's pure nonsense," Pitts said.

Sheriff Pat Labat claims underfunding of the sheriff's office is the reason they weren't able to pay for a security contract with Strategic Security Corporation (SSC). The corporation's employees walked out of the jail on Thursday upon news of their contract ending.

"We funded that contract to the tune of about $1.3 million. We had no idea that he entered into this contract knew nothing about it," Pitts explained. "Now we understand that he has signed a contract with this firm, and it's approaching almost $4 million."

SSC CEO Joseph Sordi said since starting the contract last July, the sheriff's office has never made a full payment, only paying small amounts, and currently owes them around $1 million.

"His answer was we simply don't have the money that the money is earmarked, but the money is held up by the board of commissioners," Sordi said.

But Pitts said the responsibility falls on the sheriff, stressing that funding for the sheriff's office has increased by 66% since 2019.

"We've given him the money that he has asked for to run the jail. He chooses to use it on things that have nothing to do with running the jail. That's his primary job running that jail," Pitts said.

Security contractor cuts ties with Fulton County Jail

A security contractor for the Fulton County Jail told their employees to walk off the job and out of the jail because the sheriff's office failed to pay the contractor almost a million dollars. FOX 5's Eric Mock has the story.

The SSC employees were responsible for manning positions that didn't have direct contact with inmates.

After the walk out, the sheriff said Thursday they hired a little more than half of the SSC employees.

"They're different buckets of money and so, ultimately, we're using our vacancies, as I said, to really bring them onto a livable wage," Sheriff Labat said during a press conference on Thursday.

Sordi also said all of his employees were paid while this was going on.

We did reach out to the sheriff's office for a response to Chairman Pitts comments on Friday and were referred to the sheriff's comments on Thursday.