FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat appeared before the Fulton County Board of Commissioners to request just over $2 million to pay overtime to jail staff.
The commissioners were unable to render a full decision and pushed the discussion back to a planned meeting on Dec. 4.
The overtime request was one of several budgeting items the Fulton County Sheriff has asked commissioners to approve throughout 2024, including a previous overtime need which was rejected.
Labat said issues with paying overtime due to budget constraints had caused multiple staff members and deputies to leave the department this year.
The sheriff stepped up to the podium to address the commission regarding staffing concerns.
“I actually met with a lieutenant yesterday, and his exact words were to me ‘Sheriff, I come to work for $30. I’ve topped out as a lieutenant, and if there’s anything be it retention bonuses, is there anything that we can do to make sure—because I want to stay. This is my livelihood, I want to stay,’” Labat told the commission members.
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In March, Labat requested an increased overtime budget to pay jail staff as the number of employees remained a challenge, and wanted the additional funding to help address a “difficulty in hiring and retaining employees for the Jail Unit.” That vote was tabled for a future meeting.
Then, at a later meeting in September, commissioners voted against a $6 million request to cover outstanding balances by the sheriff’s office, including for overtime pay.
On Wednesday, Labat asked for roughly $2.14 million to address and replenish overtime expenses incurred over the course of 2024.
Commissioner Dana Barrett said the funds were in the budget, and that if the funds were available and specifically allocated for the sheriff’s office use, but had not been approved to fund the overtime budget.
FCSO Chief of Staff Michael Shoates told commissioners before Labat spoke that the sheriff’s office had stopped offering overtime hours and pay to staff in October and that since doing so, 21 employees had resigned or retired, including a 15-year veteran of the office.
The sheriff also said they’d eliminated double overtime several months back, prompting about 60 employees to resign or retire rather than continue to work without the payment.
“Ultimately we continue to lose them because nobody wants to work in the jail,” Labat said. “We lose them to East Point, College Park, City of Atlanta, to again, part of the conversation we had two weeks ago was that the City of Atlanta has done a better job with their pension plan.”
Still, Labat said they’d hired more than 700 people since 2023.
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Labat said the budget was cut down from recommendations for overtime based on projections of spending and cost, and that had the money instead put into a non-agency account.
Citing conversations about managing the budget, Labat said they’d begun decreasing overtime and instead offered comp time in October.
In the request, the sheriff’s office said the funds were crucial for covering any unforeseen emergency overtime needs at the jail as well as making payments related to the Public Safety Fair Labor Standards Act for employees who had already reached their maximum compensatory time.
A sheriff’s office official said there were more than 200 employees already at that maximum.
He also cited concerns detailed in the USDOJ report about the conditions of the jail, as far as staffing and its impact on operating the jail, including budget constraints and reductions. Labat said the report highlighted retention and recruitment as major challenges to keeping the jail operating as it needs to.
“We knew we were going to need it,” Labat said about the funds. “We started out, the conversation said we got rid of double overtime because as one of the commissioners pointed out, it could not be an emergent situation for that long. At the very base, the foundation, we will need $4 million. The day of the budget ratification, it was decreased by $2 million to add an additional $362,000 to that. We were short going into the budget, knowing we would not be able to make that in terms of overtime for the rest of the year.”
Fulton County CFO Sharon Whitmore confirmed the money was available in the non-agency budget to grant the sheriff’s request, when asked by Commissioner Natalie Hall.
Commissioner Bob Ellis asked about detention budgeting and Whitmore confirmed it was originally supposed to support double overtime. Ellis said there was supposed to be a plan to handle that request, but the double overtime was tabled and was not eventually adopted.
Ellis said the commission had not received the utilization data they requested, in full, and the lack of clarity had left him unwilling to grant his approval without additional information.
The sheriff agreed to provide the information in full, but requested the particulars being requested be submitted in writing for specificity and to be properly provided.
After a prolonged back and forth with members of the commission, the vote to approve the funding for overtime failed to pass.
The Wednesday commission meeting came just a week since a report by the U.S. Department of Justice said the civil rights of inmates at the Fulton County Jail on Rice Street were being violated due to the conditions at the facility, and the actions, or lack thereof, of jail staff.
Earlier this year, both of Georgia’s U.S. senators, Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock, had requested federal officials speed up their investigation of the Fulton County Jail, which started in July 2023.
At the time the senators requested the process move faster, seven people had died in the jail since the investigation officially opened.
In consideration of the recent USDOJ Civil Rights report on the Fulton County Jail, Channel 2 Action News has reached out to representatives of both the sheriff’s office and county commission for comment on how the decision may impact efforts to fulfill the recommended changes from the federal government.
A spokeswoman for the county commission said that since the vote only received three votes in favor, it was automatically held and will return to the commission agenda on Dec. 4. However, no comment was provided as it relates to the USDOJ report.
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