Fulton County Commissioners rejected an effort Wednesday to restart animal control services in the City of Atlanta without an agreement between the two governments.
Fulton County ended those services Friday because of the lack of intergovernmental agreement, which has been the case since the beginning of the year.
Commissioner Marvin Arrington, Jr., led the effort to restart services without a finalized agreement, stating that the city had a letter of intent.
“I just pray no one gets hurt. I just pray no one dies. Right is right and wrong is wrong. But life is life. Life is life and this isn’t about right and wrong. This is about saving lives. We operated without one from January to now. So what’s the problem with giving them time to have another council meeting?”
Moments later, Arrington looked over at fellow Commissioner Khadijah Abdur-Rahman and yelled, “SHUT UP.” It devolved into a 15-second screaming match between the two.
Earlier in the debate, Commissioner Abdur-Rahman pointed out that the City of Atlanta has had months to finalize an agreement like other cities in Fulton County.
“We cannot go back and go cut a deal, so to speak, because somebody didn’t meet self-employed, self-imposed deadlines and we send the wrong message to the other 14 cities and we send the extremely wrong message to the Fulton County taxpayers.”
Some commissioners also raised legal and liability concerns about the county delivering animal control services without a finalized agreement.
The commissioners voted 4-to-3 against Arrington’s proposal, with Commissioners Natalie Hall and Chairman Robb Pitts joining Arrington and Commissioners Bridget Thorne, Bob Ellis, Dana Barrett, and Abdur-Rahman voting against the motion.
In an interview with WABE News before Wednesday’s meeting, Fulton Commissioner Dana Barrett rebutted complaints about higher estimated costs for cities, pointing out that the county is operating out of new shelters.
“We are not charging any of the cities for the cost to build the new facility. We are just charging the operational cost but it is a bigger facility. So it has more fixed costs for maintenance, air conditioning, heat those kinds of things. It holds more animals so it requires more staff. And we’re also getting a lot more calls to come pick up dogs.”
Barrett added that over half the calls animal control calls are for services inside the City of Atlanta.
In a previous statement, the City of Atlanta accused the city of reneging on a tentative agreement on animal control services.
Monday is the earliest the Atlanta City Council could take up an intergovernmental agreement.
Both sides accuse the other of bringing other issues into play, including Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens’ comments about the Fulton County Jail and the city’s claims that the county owes millions in past-due water bills.
For now, animal control calls in the city are being handled by Atlanta Police.