PHOTO: The Fort Payne City Council voted to seek an Attorney General’s opinion in an ongoing dispute with the DeKalb County Commission over housing inmates. (Tyler Pruett | Southern Torch)
By Tyler Pruett, Managing Editor
FORT PAYNE, Ala. — At the Special Called council meeting held on Tuesday, the Fort Payne City Council voted to seek an Attorney General’s opinion on an ongoing dispute with DeKalb County.
Resolution 2016-37 was brought to the floor by City Clerk Robert Parker and adopted unanimously by the city council.
According to the City Clerk, the resolution, “Authorizes (City) Attorney Rocky Watson to seek an attorney general’s opinion regarding the proposed $20 fee the DeKalb County Commission has stated that it will levy against all cities and towns within DeKalb County.”
The DeKalb County Commission contends that the $20 fee will be utilized for the housing of each city and town’s prisoners in the county jail. Back in 2001, there was an act passed by the legislature (Act 2001-489) which levied a $40 court cost on all court cases in DeKalb County.
According to Fort Payne, this was to be used for operating and maintaining the county jail.
“It was everyone’s impression at that time that the $40 levied was supposed to be in lieu of paying an additional amount to house the city’s prisoners,” said Parker.
“So this Attorney General’s request is simply to get some clarification on that request,” Parker said.
Act 2001-489, which applies only to DeKalb County, states, “Additional court costs in the amount of forty dollars ($40) to be assessed and taxed as cost on each civil case and on each criminal case, including traffic cases, but excluding small claims cases, filed in the circuit court, district court, or any municipal court in DeKalb County.”
The law continues to say, “The additional costs provided for herein, when collected by the clerks or their collection officers of the courts, shall be paid into the General Fund of DeKalb County to be held in a subaccount to be used by the DeKalb County Commission for the planning, designing, constructing, furnishing, equipping, and financing of a county jail and operating and maintenance costs associated with this jail and the county sheriff's department.”
According to the DeKalb County Commission, while the $40 fee can be used for operating costs, the bond issue on the new jail must be paid first.
“We use that to pay for the bond issue at the jail. It’s just a tax basically. The bond issue on the jail is $700,000.00,” said County Commission Administrator Matt Sharp.
“This court cost money brings in about half that. So the county has to come up with another $300,000 - $400,00 from another source to pay bond issue costs. None of that goes towards operating costs,” said Sharp.
“It’s just a method we use to help pay for the bond issue at the jail,” he added.
“We’re seeing an increase in the amount of municipal inmates we’re housing, and we’re getting no way of paying for those prisoners,” said Sharp. “We’re trying to be fair to the municipalities, and say you’ve got to pay something.”
“We can’t continue to fund them (municipal inmates) for nothing,” added Sharp.
