County still has not billed city for jail fees

It has been nearly nine months since the city of Cairo has received a bill from Grady County for the fees the city pays for its prisoners to be housed at the Grady County Detention Center and as of Tuesday the city still has not received a bill.
City of Cairo Finance Director Miriam Faircloth told members of the city council’s finance committee Tuesday she has yet to receive a bill for the jail fees from the county.
The last time the city received a bill was in August 2011 and according to Mrs. Faircloth, the average bill is approximately $30,000 a month.
The city finance director said up until last August the city routinely received a monthly invoice from the county for the jail fees.
“I don’t know what has changed, but we can’t pay if we don’t know how much we owe,” Mrs. Faircloth said Tuesday.
Grady County Administrator Rusty Moye was unavailable Tuesday, but early this month he told The Cairo Messenger “we should have caught this a long time ago” and “we will attempt to catch up asap.”
City Finance Director Faircloth did not discover the billing issue until last month when she presented the finance committee with the financial report for the month ending March 2012.
The city’s fiscal year ends June 30 and with electric, water and sewer revenues looking to be close or below budgeted revenues city leaders are looking closely at expenses.
Finance Committee Chairman James H. (Jimmy) Douglas pointed out that CNS Cable revenues were back up in April from a decline in March, but there is no way the city will meet its budgeted revenues in the gas department.
“I’m just glad we are not one of the cities that depends on the gas fund to finance the general fund, because those folks are hurting,” Douglas commented.
The final vote on the budget will take place next month.