The Daily Citizen, Dalton, GA

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January 5, 2012

Court discussions show why people are fed up with government

Dalton Daily Citizen

“No room for city court” was the headline on our front page last Saturday.  

The story looked at how Dalton’s Municipal Court came to be held at the Northwest Georgia Trade and Convention Center. But it also showed how, when presented an opportunity to work together for the good of the people they represent, elected officials instead looked to their own parochial interests.

City officials had asked to use the large courtroom in the Whitfield County Courthouse, which sits empty most of the time, to hold city court. County commissioners, after consulting with judges and the sheriff’s office, rejected the request.

Why didn’t the sheriff and judges want city court there?

Sheriff Scott Chitwood would only say that after talking to the judges he concluded “it would be for the best if city court was held outside the Whitfield County Courthouse.” Chitwood would not explain why.

Conasauga Judicial Circuit Chief Judge William Boyett was more forthcoming, but his reasons were hardly satisfying.

“We use it once or twice a week. It’s also the only space that we have to expand at some point when our caseload warrants a fifth judge,” Boyett said. “It’s a county courthouse, and we are the county trial court. That’s our problem with having another court use it.”

But Municipal Court only meets each Wednesday and every other Monday. We think that if the judges had really wanted to find a way to share the courtroom they could have.

Boyett also seemed to be under the impression that city court meets at night and would require additional security. City officials say it doesn’t and that concern was never expressed to them. Again, this speaks to how seriously the city’s request was considered.

But Dalton officials wouldn’t have had to ask the county to host city court if they had followed through on their own proposal to have the county’s Magistrate Court take over city court.

Magistrate Court officials were prepared to do that in return for all the fees and fines generated by the court. But both sides agree the talks bogged down, at least in part, over that money.

What all this means is instead of our government employees working for the best interest of the citizens of Dalton and Whitfield County, they are only interested in what they want, even as this community is struggling so much right now. Our government employees should value service to the citizens of our community more than their own personal interests. 

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