We are hopeful that mediation between the City of Tifton and other municipalities with Tift County will work.

But it’s a shame it has come to this. 

In the past few weeks, the city and county have had differences regarding local option sales tax allocations.

The city claims the county issued an ultimatum to reduce municipal LOST allocations. The county claims the city walked out of a meeting. The city scheduled a joint city-county meeting which the county did not attend. 

And while LOST has dominated these recent events, they also boil down to the unresolved service delivery agreement between the municipalities and county.

As Tift County Commission Chairman Tony McBrayer said in a county-issued statement, the legal battle involves the long-standing disagreement between city and county leaders regarding the service delivery agreement.

The service delivery agreement is a state-mandated plan designed to consolidate duplicate services between cities and counties.

Despite the city’s claims of LOST and the lawsuits being unrelated, he said determining adequate LOST allocations would require negotiating the lawsuit.

McBrayer asserted the county would not conduct negotiations unless the city agreed to discuss both LOST and the service agreement lawsuits and declared he is invoking state law to require a mediator at any future meetings to assist in the negotiations. 

Tifton Mayor Julie Smith asserted the county’s call for mediation is a promising step forward.

“After an airing of our differences in recent weeks, I think it’s great news that Tift County commissioners are willing to work with us on a good faith plan for how we share LOST revenues over the next decade,” Smith said. 

The problem is the state-mandated service delivery agreement is not supposed to be a be-all and end-all procedure between cities and counties. It is simply supposed to be a working plan to reduce overlapping services.

The vast majority of cities and counties in Georgia reached mutual service delivery agreements years ago. But Tifton, Omega, Ty Ty and Tift County have been unable to reach a mutual understanding of identifying and rectifying duplicate services.

Like most Georgia city-county governments, Tift-area city and county officials should have reached an agreement years ago, without help of a mediator. And if mediation is necessary, the move should have come years ago rather than years after the deadline when most Georgia governments reached similar agreements.

But, better late than never.

During the past few decades, Tifton and Tift County have been blessed with positive growth – new businesses, national franchises, restaurants, etc., that improve the quality of life here.

Meanwhile, progress in some other South Georgia counties stalled due to the inability of city and county leaders to work well together. Or at least the perception that city and county leaders could not get along.

Tifton and Tift County officials should heed the examples experienced by some of these other South Georgia counties.

If you think business and corporations don’t monitor city and county government relations long before ever touching base with developers, you’re mistaken.

Tifton and Tift County leaders need to do all within their powers to effectively resolve both the LOST and service delivery disagreements as quickly and as efficiently as possible – for the good of the city and county and all of Tifton-Tift County residents.