Moats calls for Polk PD referendum, pastors speak for Chief Dodd

Polk County Sheriff Johnny Moats told the County Commission that he wants the board to let voters decide on whether there should be two law enforcement agencies locally.

That came after two different pastors voiced their support for the county police department during Monday night's county commission work session ahead of tonight's regular meeting to cast votes on several i ssues before t he Board of Commissioners.

Before Moats could make his call for a vote on whether to keep the

county police, up first to speak before the Commission was Rev. Dave Warriner of Rockmart Second Baptist Church, who wanted to speak out in support of the Polk County Police Department.

Warriner, who is senior pastor at Dodd's church where he is a deacon, said that he felt the police department was doing an excellent job.

"I would not only like to thank them for their great work, but the way that they do it," Warriner said. "Clearly they achieve these outstanding results that we see in their department through outstanding leadership they have from Chief Kenny Dodd."

He called Dodd "one of the finest men I know" and that Dodd has previously filled the pulpit for him at church.

Warriner also said he was glad the results of the Polk County Police Department audit came back with a positive review of the command staff.

"They are deserving of the stellar reputation that they hold in this community," Warriner said. "The only people who I hear bad mouth Chief Dodd or the Polk County PD are the same who bad mouth all law enforcement, but then 911 is the first call they make when they need assistance."

Warriner added that others who complain have a specific agenda, and that it is revealed when more than a brief look is taken at the issue.

"Commissioner Tillery, I had the privilege of meeting you at a concert I attended with Chief Dodd last year, and there I heard you say that you have Kenny's back and that he's one of the most honest men you knew, and that you wish he could be over all law enforcement for Polk County. And Scotty (Tillery) I must say that I completely agree with you," Warriner said. "I think Kenny (Dodd) is well deserving of all of our support. He is one of the most honest men I know as well. And I too would like to see him as the head of all law enforcement in Polk County."

Warriner ended his time before the board by calling on the commissioners to continue their support for Dodd and the officers at the Polk County Police Department.

Rev. Blake Dodd, who is Dodd's nephew and pastor at Young's Grove Baptist Church in the Cedartown area, came before the board to say that he didn't come before the board to make any enemies, and that he didn't seek to offend. He did however call upon commissioners to say that he was troubled and ask questions about the Polk County Police Department's audit.

"My statement is taken from what I think is the finest deputy sheriff to ever wear the badge, Barney Fife, when he said 'nip it in the bud,'" Dodd said. "And then I want to ask two questions, 'why' and 'to what end.'"

He said that he's been studying the news articles during the past years, and found several items that bothered him.

"I don't like innuendo," he said. "Innuendo splits churches apart, and innuendo creates bad morale in the workforce. Innuendo is a bad thing, and statements without facts is a bad thing. I think we can all agree with that."

He pointed out that accusations have been made on all sides, and wants to see any evidence of wrongdoing that has been done, especially when it comes to allegations made against Chief Kenny Dodd.

"I just don't understand why this thing, as Barney Fife would say has been 'nipped in the bud,'" Dodd said.

He also cited Moats' May 5 letter where Moats said the situation at the County Police Department was a "pressure cooker" and that the 18 anonymous officers would walk off the job if changes weren't made at the department.

"The investigation showed that there were two who had negative things to say, and he said that they are asking him to get them out of the purgatory that they feel they are in," Dodd said. "I happen to be a preacher and well versed in religious matters, and I feel confident that if someone found themselves in purgatory, and if there was a door there that said "quit your job," they'd hit that door running as fast as they could."

Dodd also pointed out that no officers had walked off the job en masse by the end of July as Moats' letter stated would happen if changes weren't made in the department.

"Here we stand on July 31 and we are still waiting," Dodd said.

Dodd also called upon the Sheriff to get involved if he feels there are activities within the department that could be considered criminal.

"If there's criminal activity in the police department, I think the GBI needs to be down here tomorrow and investigating," Dodd said. "And I read that on Facebook a lot of times, and it gives people the wrong impression if they don't follow politics that the GBI is sitting up there in Atlanta waiting for somebody who has some accusation off the top of their head to investigate and see if it's true. They're fighting a lot of serious crime, and I imagine their manpower is pretty stretched as far as it can."

He said that if Chief Kenny Dodd is going to be investigated, there should be "fair treatment of everybody."

"Even the lawbreakers in this county know that Chief Kenny Dodd is above reproach, and above the law, and he's served this county to the best of his ability," Dodd said.

After commissioners heard from the two pastors and Ed Burnley to speak about landfill issues again, it was Sheriff Johnny Moats' turn to come before the board to speak on his concerns about statements made during the July meeting about his budget.

Moats said he respected the two pastors for coming to speak to the commission, and agreed with what they had to say.

"I have never bad mouthed Kenny Dodd or the police department," he said prior to a statement he read about his budget. "Officers did come to my office. They did call my phone. They did send word to other officers about these allegations. I never said any of these allegations were true. I wanted the commissioners to conduct the investigation."

He added that once he sent his May 5 letter, he thought he was done with the matter.

"I had no intentions of going any further with this, and I'm like Rev. Dodd. It needs to be nipped in the bud," Moats said.

When he got to his official statement, he cited his reason for coming before the commission is to address statements made by Commission Chair Marshelle Thaxton on the Sheriff's budget during the July regular session when the board was addressing finances at the end of the year.

At the time, Thaxton pointed out that Moats' budget was over by $300,000, a fact that Moats said in his statement he had no control over.

"Chairman Thaxton took it upon himself to talk about my budget during the last commission meeting when I couldn't attend," Moats said. "I called Matt Denton, the county manager, the day before the meeting to ask if there was anything on the agenda about me or my office. He said no. I told him I wasn't going to be able to attend the meeting and wanted to be sure that there was nothing going on that required me to be there."

Moats added that Denton told him at the time there was nothing going on in the meeting that concerned the sheriff's office.

"The reason I asked the county manager about this meeting is because I was told that Chairman Thaxton made comments at an earlier meeting that he was going to bring up at every commissioner meeting between then and election time about me being over budget," Moats said.

Moats also cited previous reporting in the Standard Journal about comments made by Chief Kenny Dodd to Commissioner Jennifer Hulsey that he might run against Moats prior to the start of the April 25 session for commissioners to vote on issues ahead of what promised to be a busy May, and denied charges of a stare down between himself and Dodd and that it never happened.

"I'm willing to release my phone records from the time to prove that never happened," he said. "That never happened."

He said he came to the meeting to see if Thaxton would ever say anything about his budget at the time, and since he didn't left after the meeting ended.

As far as Moats' budget, he pointed to increased costs of group insurance, Social Security, retirement and worker's compensation contributions among others by the Sheriff's Office as the reason his budget was over, along with needed upgrades and repairs he was forced to make when a new state fire inspector was assigned to the jail and required work to be done, or force the jail to shut down until they were done.

"There are several line items that I have no control over," he said. "The commissioners and the county manager figure what these line items will cost for the year. I can't use any of this money, and I can't determine how much money should go in these line items."

He said that just one line item for group insurance was $192,000 over what they had projected the cost to be during the 2017 fiscal year. He claimed that commissioners were responsible for those particular line items costing more than they were expected to, since they control those costs and not himself.

Moats said that if they had not spent over on group insurance and other line item areas surrounding personnel costs that are fixed annually by the county, his budget would have been less than 1 percent over for the year.

Commissioners previously approved $367,000 in costs to make the jail control upgrades in August 2015, when Montgomery Technology Systems was given the contract for the work and completed it by summer 2016.

If the county hadn't made the upgrades, Moats said it would have cost the county $3 million annually to house inmates in other facilities, not including transportation costs to and from court appearances.

Moats again stated he wasn't at the meeting to say anything negative about the police department, though he had received "several calls complaining about how the audit was handled."

Before ending his statement, Moats provided additional fuel to keep the issue in front of the public by calling on commissioners to allow for a referendum to decide on whether Polk County residents need both a police department and a sheriff's office.

"This is about taxpayers and what they deserve. It's not my decision, and it's not yours," said Moats. "It's the decision of these people out here. Let them vote, and let them decide."

Find additional stories in this week’s edition about the continued issue behind Moats’ referendum call, the Polk County Police Department audit and more.