Loganville Mayor Proclaims A New Era Of Co-operation Between The City And Gwinnett County

Loganville Mayor Ray Nunley proclaimed a new partnership between the city and Gwinnett County at the city council meeting last night.

This proclamation was read to Gwinnett County Chairman Charlotte Nash during the regular council meeting that followed a reception in her honor. Nunley also thanked Nash for her 27 years of service to the county.

And to prove it wasn’t just all talk, City Manager Bill Jones followed up with the announcement that Nash had just agreed on the first draft of an intergovernmental agreement between the city and the county that finally resolved a situation the city had been struggling with for 11 years.

“We have about 420 homes in Gwinnett County where the county provides the water and the city provides sewer and garbage pick-up,” Jones said. “We have tried to get the county to agree to let us collect on the water and then turn it over to them in one sum, but until about 30 minutes ago we had not been able to do that.”

Jones said with Gwinnett County collecting on the water, the city couldn’t turn off service if someone didn’t pay their bill. Also, when people moved out they would sometimes notify the county and not the city.

“We would continue sending them a bill for three or four months before we found out they were gone,” Jones said. “This arrangement will make things so much easier for us.”

Jones said any previous attempts to resolve the situation were simply turned down by the county.

“This is good for the county and good for us,” he said. "And it will have a positive impact on the bottom line for the citizens of Loganville.”

Nash said Jones had handed her an agreement she simply “couldn’t refuse.” At the reception earlier, she said she was looking forward to finally finding some resolution between the county and the cities to the Service Delivery Strategy Agreement that has remained unresolved for more than two years.

“I’m not going to promise not to negotiate hard, but I will be fair,” Nash said. “I’m sure we can find ways to work together.”

The cities and the county have been in and out of court since the SDS agreement expired more than two years ago. With state law requiring that counties and cities within that county have an agreement detailing how the services and payment thereof will be split between the entities, the lack of any formal agreement has resulted in sanctions on all parties. The most visible of these sanctions is the inability of the county and many of its cities to use radar to trap speeders.

However, there does appear to be a light at the end of the tunnel according to many of the officials involved in the negotiations. Nash wouldn’t give specific details since it is all still under litigation, but said she felt there was “big progress.”

“We will all be glad when we are able to talk about it because that will mean we have an agreement,” she said.

Nunley said he had high hopes for a new era of cooperation between the city and Gwinnett County.