Plan puts child advocates, DA at odds

A nonprofit group that helps abused and neglected children finds itself in the odd position of opposing Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard’s attempt to help young victims of crime.

Representatives of the Georgia Center for Child Advocacy say that Howard’s plans to rent the long-mothballed Fanplex complex across from Turner Field —- to create a one-stop shop for helping children victimized by physical, sexual and emotional abuse —- is an unneeded duplication of their efforts.

And, they note they get only about a quarter of their nearly $2 million annual budget from public sources. The majority comes from private grants and fund-raising efforts.

They plan to attend today’s commission meeting to oppose commissioners’ approval of Howard’s lease agreement for Fanplex.

“Paul Howard knows very well what we do here,” said Nancy Chandler, chief executive officer for GCCA. “Why he wants to duplicate it at taxpayer expense is beyond me.”

The one critical difference between what Howard’s proposing and what GCCA already is doing is that Howard wants to locate all of the agencies that deal with children in a single building —- Fanplex.

The district attorney said the number of child-abuse cases in Fulton —- about one-tenth of all the cases in Georgia —- means there’s room for multiple agencies.

“If there were 50 agencies doing the same thing, that would be great,” Howard said. “I don’t see it being an issue. This problem is so great.”

Howard said he had commitments from Atlanta, East Point and Fulton County police, Department of Children Services and the county mental health department to join his center. He also added the center he’s organizing would include a high-tech unit to focus on those who use the Internet to solicit sex crimes involving children.

Howard’s $21.7 million budget request for 2009 makes no mention of his proposed Fulton County Center for Child Safety or Fanplex.

Howard, so far, has offered to pay $2,000 a month to rent the building through 2010.

The district attorney said Tuesday he will devote existing staff to avoid personnel expense. He plans to use money from an existing account to repair, renovate, operate, staff and maintain the 11,000-square-foot building.

After a brief, unsuccessful run as an entertainment center, the facility has been empty for about five years.

Several county commissioners and city officials said they did not know about Howard’s plans.

The nonprofit GCCA operates from a former school on Woodland Avenue in southeast Atlanta. Children’s services, court agencies and police all come to the center to work on cases but do not maintain full-time offices on site.