Bibb-Monroe fight reaches state Capitol

ATLANTA -- The war about the Bibb-Monroe county border reached the state Capitol on Tuesday afternoon, with Bibb County arguing that a controversial survey had to be thrown out completely and Monroe County arguing that Bibb County can’t prove its case.

Secretary of State Brian Kemp, who is ultimately expected to decide the case, said in closing remarks that both sides should try to negotiate the case.

“Whatever the decision’s going to be, it’s not going to be good for the citizens of either county. It’s going to put a lot of folks in a bad situation,” Kemp said.

Monroe County Commission Chairman James Vaughn and Bibb County Commission Chairman Sam Hart said negotiations are continuing. The governments have held several rounds of negotiations in recent years but never reached agreement.

And the stakes are high. Bibb County said about $19 million in direct costs are involved, plus about $875,000 in county government property tax revenue and about $1.3 million annually in school tax revenue.

The case could shift the line from where it’s generally believed to be now further south, effectively moving properties from Bibb County to Monroe County. The biggest change would be at the eastern corner on the Ocmulgee River, where both counties are arguing about the location of a ferry site -- or ferry sites -- that were supposed to be at the counties’ corner.

Questions about the border’s location date back at least 70 years. A judge has ruled there is no evidence showing the original border, created in 1822, was surveyed then. The border’s location has become a bigger issue in recent years as houses, Bass Pro Shops and other businesses have been built in the area.

In about two hours of hearings in the former Georgia Supreme Court chambers in the Capitol, both counties largely repeated arguments they’d made three months ago before Special Assistant Administrative Law Judge John Sherrill. Sherrill’s 16-page findings of facts essentially rejected every Bibb County argument to uphold Monroe County’s side and a survey done by Terry Scarborough.

Scarborough, who was notified of the hearing, did not attend but e-mailed reporters during the hearing. Scarborough wrote in the e-mail that the Secretary of State’s Office altered his contract, which did not originally require him to testify about his survey. Bibb County hasn’t paid its share of the survey’s costs, and Scarborough has said the lack of payment has cost him his home and his business of 27 years to foreclosure.

“I have not participated in the altered statutory due process because I have not been promptly paid the fee that was negotiated and fixed by law, as stipulated in my Contract,” Scarborough wrote in an e-mail.

In Tuesday’s hearing, attorney Carolyn “Tippi” Burch, representing Monroe County, argued that “Bibb County has constructed a complicated and unsupported story ... in an attempt to discredit Mr. Scarborough.”

“Bibb County has the burden of proving its objections to the Scarborough survey,” Burch said at another point in the hearing. “It has not and cannot bear that burden.”

Bibb County Attorney Virgil Adams argued that Scarborough’s survey and Sherrill’s findings of fact should be tossed out.

“We believe the record will clearly show that he misread and in fact missed a lot of the evidence in this case,” Adams said of the judge.

Most of the arguments surround an 1822 act of the Legislature, calling for the Ocmulgee River corner to be at “Waller’s or Torrentine’s Ferry.” The name Turrentine was spelled incorrectly.

Adams said a surveyor clearly started the line at Waller’s ferry, which was farther to the north of Turrentine’s ferry.

“Give Terry Scarborough credit,” Adams said. “He found Turrentine’s Ferry, but he found the wrong one.”

Both sides can file post-hearing briefs by June 30. Vincent Russo, general counsel for Kemp, said there is no firm timeline for a decision in the case. Kemp said if the counties can’t agree on a boundary line soon, “there will be a decision imminent.”

Kemp had asked both counties for five questions he’d ask Scarborough. Tuesday, both counties debated about what the absence of Scarborough meant.

Adams said he’d never gotten a chance to ask Scarborough about contradictory information about ferry locations. Much of what Adams said in a 45-minute presentation hinged on Scarborough’s archaeologist, Gerald Smith, who testified three months ago that Scarborough hadn’t known about the multiple ferry sites. With Smith’s testimony, Scarborough’s “whole foundation is wrong,” Adams said.

Burch said Scarborough’s absence shouldn’t be counted against Monroe County. Bibb County’s lack of payment made him suffer “incredible harm, harm that’s difficult to imagine.”

“By withholding payment, Bibb County has, intentionally or not, arranged his absence,” Burch said.

Scarborough is appealing his loss of a court case against the Secretary of State’s Office, alleging breach of contract.