The Richmond County Sheriff’s Office has resumed removing non-paying residents from hotels, Sgt. Cory Carlyle said at a Thursday workshop.
“If they call, you’ll come?” Commissioner Alvin Mason asked.
Carlyle, standing in for Lt. Robbie Silas, said guests who stay a day beyond what they paid for will be removed. “Theft of services,” he said.
“Then, why are we here?” Mason said.
In a third meeting with commissioners, Augusta hoteliers have repeatedly complained sheriff’s deputies refuse to assist with unwanted guests and even threatened to sue.
Short-staffed but facing a rising tide of hotel guests whose COVID-19 emergency rental assistance was running out, the sheriff’s office has claimed it was hamstrung by a U.S. Court of Appeals case. The case was remanded for a decision on whether the evicting extended-stay motel and resident were landlord and tenant or innkeeper and guest.
The sheriff’s office, meanwhile, now gives the unwanted guests a bus ticket to a shelter or to their hometowns, Carlyle said.
But, he added, at hotels allowing longer-term stays, owners “have to get them evicted.”
The group of hoteliers brought in the third of three industry lobbyists Thursday to attempt to get some relief. Interim Administrator Takiyah Douse was asked to seek clarity from the sheriff’s office on its policy.
Commissioner Bobby Williams blamed the hoteliers for accepting third-party bookings, cash or prepaid cards for payment and not requiring a generous credit card swipe to cover any unforeseen expenses.
“I understand you’re throwing bricks at the sheriff’s department,” Williams said. “You have no way of securing a payment if they stay over.”
Commissioner Sean Frantom asked if the sheriff’s office had changed its policy, but also said some hoteliers should take greater responsibility for who stays.
This week, a man died in a hotel room he’d lived in for 12 years, Frantom said.
Hotelier Andy Sharma spoke of a hotelier who was handcuffed after refusing to let nonpaying guests back into their room.
