ATLANTA (AP) 鈥 Some security officers at a jail in Atlanta that is under federal investigation walked off the job after the Fulton County sheriff's office failed to pay money owed to the third-party contractor that employs them.
The Fulton County Sheriff's Office said in a news release that it is facing 鈥渁 significant budget crisis鈥 and owed an outstanding balance of more than $1 million to Strategic Security Corp. The company notified its employees Thursday afternoon that the contract had ended, that they would be clocked out at 2:15 p.m. and that they should not report to work at the jail going forward.
The sheriff's office said that 鈥渃reated an immediate safety issue鈥 at the county's main jail and employees from all divisions were sent to staff the jail.
There were 17 contract officers working at the time, 13 at the main jail in Atlanta and four at the south annex in Union City, sheriff鈥檚 office spokesperson Natalie Ammons said. There are three shifts in a 24-hour period and there were a total of 74 contractors working on rotation to cover all of the shifts, she said.
Joe Sordi, CEO of Strategic Security Corp., told reporters Friday that his employees were hired to do jobs that did not involve direct contact with people housed in the jail. From the start of the contract in July 2023, the sheriff's office immediately fell behind on payment and never fully paid what it owed in any single billing cycle.
Ammons said the sheriff鈥檚 office did pay some bills in full during the life of the contract and that the current invoice is 90 days past due.
Under the terms of the contract, the company could have suspended services once the sheriff's office defaulted on two billing cycles, Sordi said. But they didn't do that because of a 鈥渕oral obligation鈥 to the officers and to the sheriff's deputies working in the jail. Instead, he said, they continued to pay their employees and tried to engage the sheriff's office, which kept making small payments to 鈥渒eep us at bay鈥 but never paid the entire principal due.
The sheriff's office has been 鈥渟everely delinquent鈥 since February and Sheriff Pat Labat kept making excuses for why the money hadn't been paid, Sordi said. The CEO said he kept extending deadlines but gave the sheriff a final date of this past Wednesday to provide an answer about whether he could come up with the money.
Sordi said that Thursday was the 鈥渇irst time in several months鈥 that the sheriff returned his calls.
鈥淲e spoke and his answer was that, 鈥榃e simply just don鈥檛 have the money,'鈥 Sordi said.
Sordi said his company is 鈥渁ctively pursuing formal measures to reengage Fulton County鈥 if the sheriff's office wants to continue services. But he also said he is 鈥渆xploring any method possible鈥 to secure payment of the money owed.
Board of Commissioners Chairman Robb Pitts released a statement Friday saying that the sheriff's office signed the contract to provide staffing for watchtowers within the jail without the involvement of the county purchasing department. He said the commissioners approved funding as part of the fiscal year 2024 budget, allocating $1.3 million based on the contract usage at the time and with input from the sheriff's office.
It wasn't until this month that the sheriff's office notified county management that it had already spent more than a $1 million over the budgeted amount, Pitts said. Funding for the sheriff's office and the jail has increased by 66% since 2019, but the sheriff 鈥渉as consistently failed to demonstrate basic budget management practices,鈥 Pitts said.
鈥淭he public has every right to be concerned about these issues,鈥 Pitts said. The Board of Commissioners plans to discuss the matter at its meeting next week.
Labat said that nearly 50 of the contract security officers came to the jail Thursday evening and were given conditional offers of employment and some were able to work immediately after completing paperwork.
Sordi said Labat's efforts to hire his employees and the failure to pay from the start showed that the 鈥渁greement was entered in bad faith.鈥
The U.S. Department of Justice last year opened a into jail conditions in the county, citing violence and filthy conditions. Federal authorities specifically mentioned the September 2022 death of Lashawn Thompson, one of more than a dozen people who has died in county custody over the last two years. Thompson, 35, in the jail鈥檚 psychiatric wing.
A state legislative committee formed last year to examine conditions at the jail that more cooperation was needed between top county officials.
Labat has long acknowledged the problems and has called for a new $1.7 billion jail to replace the crumbling main jail on Rice Street. But county commissioners in July voted 4-3 instead for a $300 million project to renovate the existing jail and to build a new building to house inmates with special needs.
