The Clayton County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday agreed to seek state legislative approval to create a public facilities authority.
In a 4-1 vote, the board approved sending the measure to the county’s legislative delegation to propose as a bill to the Georgia General Assembly, which would have to sign off on the authority’s establishment.
It was not clear how soon the delegation would introduce the legislation.
The board was mum on the need for the authority at Tuesday’s meeting, passing the proposal without comment. But at a workshop in December, Chief Operating Officer Detrick Stanford said the county needed to find alternate funding resources for public facilities, including the Clayton County jail.
“In some of our other jurisdictions and municipalities, they have something called a jail authority or a public facilities authority” that issue bonds for department needs, he said. He said staffers also discussed issuing bonds through the urban development authority as another method.
The majority of the board backed the public facilities authority, reasoning that it would cover the jail’s needs as well as other county offices.
Commissioner Felicia Franklin, however, said information on the authority was insufficient and voted against the proposal.
“I’m not understanding the need for this,” she said.
Resident Drew Andrews seemed equally perplexed, asking during public comment, “What the heck is this public facilities (authority)? If you could give us a little more detail.”
Commission Chairman Jeff Turner referred him to earlier discussions.
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