Whitfield County, Georgia, the city of Dalton and three other smaller municipalities will still be able to receive millions of dollars in state funding as mediation talks continue over the county's service delivery agreement.
Superior Court Judge Ralph Van Pelt Jr. signed an order Thursday that would hold off any penalties the state would enforce to Whitfield County and the cities and towns inside the county for not coming to an agreement on a Service Delivery Strategy by the Oct. 31 deadline.
Van Pelt Jr.'s order holds off sanctions until May 1 while the entities go through mandatory mediation. That means the county will still be able to get funds for road construction and other services that the county depends on.
Last week, for the second time in a month, the two sides agreed to sit down with a judge for a mandatory meeting to negotiate the county's service delivery strategy.
After eight hours of mediation on Oct. 17, the city of Dalton and Whitfield County hit a wall and couldn't find common ground on an agreement over providing government services before the Oct. 31 deadline. The county's other three municipalities - Tunnel Hill, Varnell and Cohutta - have sided with Whitfield County and would sign the agreement as it stands now.
Without an agreed-upon strategy, the county would have lost its qualified local government status - a state designation that ensures that municipalities don't duplicate services - and likely missed out on millions in state and federal grant funds.
Bruce Frazier, communications director with the city of Dalton, said the service delivery agreement officially expired Oct. 31 and the county is still technically out of compliance, according to state law.
"Today's order simply lifts the sanctions for being out of compliance," Fraizer said in an email. "Business is taking place as usual and all of the various governments and departments are operating as they did before the Oct. 31 deadline."
Frazier said the previous agreement is being honored in that sense but is still technically not in place.
The first meeting was mediated by former Georgia Supreme Court Justice Norman Fletcher. Ralph Van Pelt Jr. of the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit was chosen to appoint a mediator after a hearing presided over by Chief Judge David Emerson of the 7th Judicial Administrative District. On Tuesday morning, Van Pelt's office announced that Senior Judge Adele Grubbs of the Superior Courts of Georgia will be the mediator.
The last time the Service Delivery Strategy agreement in Whitfield County was negotiated was 2013. The city of Dalton has been hesitant about signing off on the same deal that was made in 2013 because its representatives believe city residents have paid $4 million in taxes that should have been paid by Whitfield County residents.
Now Dalton wants - among other things - 10% more in the county's local option sales tax (LOST) distribution to help make up for that inequity.
Whitfield County officials have said they will not budge on giving the city more of the county's share of that tax collection, because the commission believes it gave up too much of that revenue when that distribution was last negotiated in 2012.
A time and date has not been set for mediation.
Contact Patrick Filbin at pfilbin@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6476. Follow him on Twitter @PatrickFilbin.