Fulton County officials, contractor blame Sheriff Pat Labat for security contract meltdown

The CEO of a private security company whose guards vacated their posts at the Fulton County Jail on Thursday said the drastic move came after more than a year of excuses and underpayment from the office of Fulton Sheriff Patrick Labat.

County officials, meanwhile, scrambled to work out a solution and said they blamed the sheriff for keeping them in the dark until just a few weeks ago about the $1 million they owed to the company.

“The board is tired of his shenanigans,” Fulton County Commission Chairman Robb Pitts said. “We have given him everything he’s asked for.”

A spokeswoman for Sheriff Labat did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

Fulton’s jail contractor, Strategic Security Corp., on Thursday told the roughly 80 guards working in the jail to not report for their evening shifts after the sheriff for months ignored requests to pay its outstanding invoices, according to Strategic Security Corp. CEO Joseph Sordi.

Sordi said at a news conference Friday the sheriff’s office had been delinquent on payments since the company’s contract began in July 2023, and the pullout was the first time the company has taken such measures. He said the company is open to reengaging with the sheriff but has not heard from Labat since the walkout. The company will seek to recoup the $1 million it says it is owed and has not ruled out filing a lawsuit.

“In 22 years of private security and public sector service, we have never had to suspend services to any client due to nonpayment of services,” Sordi said.

The private guards work the security towers and entrances at the jail on Rice Street and have little to no direct contact with inmates, Sordi said. Still, the strained situation raised significant security concerns.

“It is with a heavy heart that we do this because we understand that it puts inmates at risk,” Sordi said.

In an apparent effort to minimize the fallout, the sheriff and the Fulton County manager’s office struck a last-minute deal Thursday that allows Labat to offer Strategic Security contractors positions as Fulton County employees. The goal is to hire away roughly 50 people, Labat said.

Ultimately, the sheriff blamed the county commission for underfunding his office.

“This is a budgetary issue that we have continually fought for,” Labat said in a Thursday news conference.

Chairman Pitts pushed back on the sheriff’s assertion, saying the county commission had earlier this year allocated $1.3 million to the private security contract, which Labat had entered into unilaterally. Fulton County spokesperson Jessica Corbitt said the county manager’s office was only informed of the shortfall earlier this month.

The $1.3 million was allocated during budget negotiations earlier this year, but the total projected cost ballooned to $4 million as the sheriff continued to bring on more security contractors.

Despite a 66% increase in the sheriff’s budget since Labat came into office in January 2021, the sheriff has continued to poorly manage county resources, Pitts said.

“The (county) manager has again graciously bailed him out for his lack of management and managing his budget properly,” Pitts said. “But to continue to say that the board has not been supportive of him is this pure nonsense.”

The security contract dispute was the latest episode in a long-running drama between the Fulton Commission and Labat as commissioners have sought to rein in the sheriff’s spending.

In October, the commission rescinded $2.1 million in emergency funding after it discovered that a jail software company, Talitrix, had underdelivered on a contract it had signed with Labat earlier that year. Talitrix sued the sheriff’s office in June, alleging the company had been stiffed out of $865,000.

In November, the commission abolished the sheriff’s inmate welfare fund after commissioners discovered the money had been used for promotional events, umbrellas and hats, a “wild hog supper,” photo booths and jugglers.

But with the sheriff serving as a constitutional officer, the county commission is limited in how much it can control Labat’s spending. While the commission can allocate funding, it cannot tell the sheriff how he can spend his office’s money. Under Georgia law, sheriffs have the power to enter into no-bid contracts without the approval of their county’s purchasing department.

The contract with Strategic Security, Pitts said, is one such agreement.

“I guarantee you there are more contracts he’s entered into that we know nothing about,” Pitts said.

— AJC reporter Caroline Silva contributed reporting to this story.