Politics & Government

Commissioner Applauds New Process of Handling Drug Funds

Douglas County Commissioner Kelly Robinson applauds forfeiture fund compliance with Georgia state law.

At the conclusion of a regular county commission work session, Douglas County District 2 Commissioner Kelly Robinson released a press statement in response to inquiries about a new process of handling forfeited drug funds.

Commissioner Kelly Robinson stated that “today’s publicly expressed intention by the Douglas County Board of Commissioners to begin accepting and monitoring drug proceeds that have been decreed as forfeited is a major step in bringing local forfeiture funds in our county into compliance with existing GA state law.”

Up until this point, the flow of physical drug money in Douglas County went from seizure by the Sheriff’s office into a pre-forfeiture bank account controlled by the County’s District Attorney. Once a Superior Court Judge decreed those funds as forfeited, then according to a 90 percent to 10 percent split for non-multi-jurisdiction seizures, after any costs, the proceeds are distributed directly into postforfeiture fund checking accounts controlled solely by the Sheriff and the District Attorney, respectively. This non-compliant practice totally by-passed the Board of Commissioners’ systems and controls and undermined their fiduciary duty to exert proper financial oversight.

However, state law requires the BOC to audit all public money, not just taxes, fees, fines and grants received but including forfeiture funds, as the governing authority at a local level. Robinson goes on to state that “the historical no visibility, rubber-stamping of drug money through our annual audit is finally ending in Douglas County. The full cooperation of the constitutional officers to provide the Board of Commissioners with more fund flow visibility as well as procedural changes should start a process of improving public confidence, recognizing ultimate discretion of fund usage will continue to rest with those elected officials of public trust.”

“At this time, the BOC has not been presented with an internal final findings report and respecting an active GBI investigation of certain media assertions, I have no comment on those matters,” Robinson said.


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