EDITORIAL: City and county — time to get SDS done

Published 8:37 am Monday, June 24, 2019

If any of us needed a reminder of the magnitude of the impending June 30 Service Delivery deadline, we got it this week.

The Twin Lakes Library System is considering closing its Lake Sinclair Branch and, more drastically, shuttering main library branch operations in the fall due to cuts in funding and the city and county failing to reach an agreement on SDS.

In a statement, Twin Lakes system director Stephen Houser also outlined the significant grant funding the local libraries will lose out on if an agreement isn’t reached by the deadline. 

Talk about foreshadowing. 

Yes, the mounting legal fees are reason enough to implore local officials to come to terms on SDS, but there are other factors as well. The impact of losses for the local library system on this community is just the tip of the iceberg. 

All signs point to no SDS resolution in sight before the deadline, which could have very significant consequences for the local community with regard to access to state grant funding. Cutting off the pipeline for these resources could have dire effects for Milledgeville and Baldwin County.

But truth is, we simply can’t put a price tag on the cost of what we’ve lost in the months this matter has dragged on. Public trust in local government, reputation, not to mention community perception, have all faltered during this SDS stalemate. 

City and county leaders must move past the rhetoric and take a more reasoned approach to these SDS negotiations so that the community can move forward. 

It is utterly ridiculous that the city and county cannot forge a broad agreement without ending up in mediation or a courtroom. 

Every 10 years every county and city in the state of Georgia must craft, draft and ratify a basic SDS agreement designed to eliminate, or a least mitigate, double taxation and the duplication of services. 

And every 10 years almost every county and the cities located in it ratify the agreements with little fanfare.  

Baldwin County and the City of Milledgeville are among the very few exceptions and it seems like ratifying this 10-year agreement here has been next to impossible. 

The Georgia Service Delivery Act was intended to get local governments to work together, instead, here it creates a toxic, adversarial tug-of-war. Without a Service Delivery Strategy verified by DCA, local governments may not be eligible to receive state permits or financial assistance, according to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs.

The agreement must include: 

* elimination of unnecessary duplication

* elimination of arbitrary water and sewer rate differentials

* elimination of double taxation

* compatible land use plans

* water and sewer extension: consistency with land use plans

* resolution of annexation disputes over land use

City attorney Jimmy Jordan noted last fall during mediation on SDS that city and county officials, “don’t necessarily not get along, we just tend to disagree on certain issues.”

And yet, here we are — the same place we’ve been for nearly two years.

Surely everyone in leadership in the city and county has to agree on one thing: This impasse has gone on far too long. 

It’s time to get it done — once and for all — or at least for the next 10 years.