A disagreement between the governments of Pierce County and the City of Blackshear about when and how Blackshear will begin issuing its own building permits and doing its own code enforcement has evolved into a question of who has not just the power but also the legal right and responsibility to do so.
Citing a letter from interim County Manager Thomas Sauls to The Blackshear Times, published in the August 5 edition, members of the Blackshear City Council present at the August 4 work session discussed the precise meaning of a paragraph toward the end of Sauls’s letter. [Editors note: The print date of The Times is the Wednesday of each week, but copies are typically available on local newsstands by Tuesday afternoon.]
The specific passage in question reads as follows: “If you live anywhere in Pierce County and you would like to continue receiving permits and inspections from the Pierce County Planning and Codes Department, know this, we are here to serve you. We do not have any intergovernmental agreements with any city within Pierce County that will prevent us from serving you when it comes to building permits and inspections. However, we do have a zoning/land use ordinance for Pierce County and the cites of Blackshear, Offerman and Patterson that was approved November 10, 2020 with the assistance by the Southern Georgia Regional Commission.”
Meanwhile, city officials point to the Georgia state constitution, a portion of which was printed and distributed along with the agenda for the August 4 meeting.
Article IX, Section II, titled “Home rule for counties and municipalities”, Paragraph III outlines supplementary powers, the twelfth of which is “Codes, including building housing, plumbing, and electrical codes”. Further on, it reads “Unless otherwise provided by law... no county may exercise any of the powers listed in subparagraph (a) of this Paragraph or provide any service listed therein inside the boundaries of any municipality or any other county except by contract with the municipality or county affected.”
The generally understood purpose of such a provision is to prevent cities and the counties they reside in from competing for the same service.
The Blackshear City Council contends this is exactly what the paragraph in Sauls’s letter proposes—the county can and will duplicate services the city offers to its residents. They also say there is no agreement in place allowing the county to offer the services in question to city residents.
Mayor Keith Brooks (Pierce County) don’t have an inter-governmental agreement saying they would do it, so we don't need to have an inter-governmental agreement saying they won't” Sauls doesn't see it that way. He feels the city not only needs to present signed documents saying they no longer require the county to handle permits and code enforcement for them, but also that it would be irresponsible and a disservice to Pierce County citizens to cease doing so before it has been legally established Blackshear has everything in place to do the job. “We don’t know the names of the people doing the inspections and enforcement. We don’t know what the fees are,” said Sauls.
In the words of one city council member, “They probably aren’t talking to an attorney over there.” But Sauls says making sure everything is legal is his priority, “We’re going to be meeting with the county attorney and were going to make sure we’re legal, but I’m not pulling the plug out of the bathtub until I know they (Blackshear) are 100 percent.”
At the heart of the issue is the proposed start date for Blackshear to begin their own permitting and code enforcement. Sauls says he wrote his Aug. 5 letter to The Times to clarify where and how he arrived at the July 1 start date. He points to official documents provided to the county with Mayor Brooks’s signature giving a July 1 date, and reiterates the point from his most recent letter, “neither the Chief of Police nor the Mayor of Blackshear never informed the Pierce County Board Commissioners of said information in a newly revised formal written notice with an effective starting date of August 3.”
“If you say somebody over here isn’t doing their job you come to me and I will make it right, and I did,” says Sauls. “I tried to get them (Blackshear) to rescind what they had done and redo this whole thing.”
So far, he city seems content to continue quietly moving forward. Beyond the discussion at their work session, they have issued no further public statements on the matter and stand by their previous public notice informing both the county and the public of their intention to assume direct control of zoning, permits and code enforcement. Until the city’s own zoning board is in place, the city is content for the county to legally continue handling zoning requests. As it takes two readings of an ordinance prior to an actual vote to establish a city zoning board, it will not be until at least September such a body can be established.
As for building permits, city officials say things are ready to go. As previously reported, any parties wishing to build within the city limits should now inquire about permits at the Blackshear Police Station, 219 Nichols Street in Blackshear.
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