The Richmond County Sheriff’s Office recently held a community forum addressing the growing homelessness crisis Augusta is facing. During the forum, the sheriff presented commercial property owners with a document that would allow the sheriff to have property access, for the purpose of removing homeless encampments, without the owner’s direct involvement. As of Friday, July 14, only 17 property owners signed off on the document.
During the meeting, employees of the sheriff’s office were aggressive with property owners, trying to get them to sign the document. I previously stated in last week’s column that it’s unreasonable to ask a property owner to sign a document that could have legal ramifications without first having a lawyer review it. I stand by that statement. However, since then, The Augusta Press has done its due diligence and hired a lawyer to review the document. According to that lawyer, the document gets a passing grade.
After discussion with counsel and further review of the document, I would like to encourage the relevant parties to sign.
I have been provided a clearer explanation on the substance of the document and what it achieves, and I concur that it’s a positive development. I would encourage property owners to fill in the “specific directions” portion with plenty of detail. The more notes that are provided, the lower the chance for abuse by the sheriff’s office.
The key for me is that the sheriff is only allowed to act if there is an indication of “unauthorized human habitation.” As long as access isn’t abused by the sheriff’s office, I can get on board with the document.
Despite our counsel’s blessing the document, I still have reservations about the language “designated representatives and the employees of any other department of the Augusta-Richmond County, Georgia government.” It seems to me if there is going to be abuse, this is where it will occur. The last thing property owners want is city employees, in particular code enforcement officers, nosing around their property looking for violations under the guise of removing homeless encampments.
In an interview last week with Chief Deputy Pat Clayton, I actually suggested that the sheriff’s office do outsourcing to contractors when dealing with homelessness. If the sheriff’s office has a budget surplus for payroll that is going unused due to nobody wanting to work there, why not use the funds to hire private security contractors to help with the homeless issue. It should still fall under the payroll category for budgeting purposes. But who the sheriff hires for this work matters a lot, and it’s something the media needs to monitor closely.
What to do with the budget surplus
In addition to discussing the homeless crisis last week, Clayton spoke about how the Augusta-Richmond County Commission is part of the problem with hiring. He stated that the last two raises they received were in 2017 and 2022, and the average salary for a deputy is $43,000 just under the $45,000 in Columbia County.
Since the commission sets salary rates and apparently won’t raise them high enough to be competitive, the sheriff gave $3,500 bonuses to officers from the payroll surplus last year and plans to do the same this year. That equates to roughly $1.75 million per year. What will the sheriff do with the rest of the budget surplus?
If the sheriff’s office is down 100 employees (the number is over 100), and the average salary is $43,000 per year, the sheriff should have a budget surplus of roughly $4.3 million per year. After the $1.75 million in bonuses, the sheriff should have roughly $2.5 million left over.
The sheriff should use that $2.5 million to hire private contractors. He should use every penny of the money rather than let it go back into the city coffers at the end of the year.
If allocated properly, he could hire a specialized team of 25-30 contract employees making $80,000 to $100.000 per year and have them solely focused on dealing with the homeless issues the city is facing. Hiring deputies for $43,000 might be difficult, but hiring a private contractor for $80,000 per year would be easy, plus the money is sitting there to do it.
The Jail needs an expansion
According to Clayton part of the problem is where to house homeless people after they are arrested. Clayton claims the commission keeps refusing to fund a new expansion of the jail that would house upwards of 250 people at the cost of $40 million. Clayton stated the money is sitting there from SPLOST still and could be used, but the commission won’t approve it. If approved the construction would take two years.
Augusta can’t wait two years to solve the problem.
I have another solution for the sheriff that I presented to Clayton. The sheriff’s office can buy a fully functional hotel for roughly $5 million that would house 70-150 people. Instead of waiting two to three years for a jail expansion, they could buy a hotel and house non-violent homeless people in it while they await their court dates. It gets them off of the street, prevents future crime, reduces the homeless population immediately and reduces strain on the jail. Perhaps part of that $2.5 million budget could be spent hiring a couple mental health professionals to help deal with some of the issues as well.
There are likely bureaucratic hurdles to these practical solutions. However, if the surplus is available, why not think outside of the box on how to use it to solve the crisis. I would be all for a real homeless task force of armed private security who are paid well and who also include some mental health professionals. The public would fall in line behind the sheriff on that proposal as well as buying a private hotel to get them off the streets.
We just have to ensure we don’t go the way of California, which spent $17.5 billion from 2018 to 2022 trying to fight homelessness only to watch the homeless population increase. Throwing money is not always the solution. In this case the money could help to provide some relief for the citizens dealing with the homeless crisis on a day-to-day basis.
