VALDOSTA — After two hours of talks – often combative – city and county officials still do not have a state-mandated service delivery agreement but appear to have made progress.

Every 10 years, Georgia counties and cities are required to forge a service-delivery agreement, which is meant to eliminate duplication of services and competition among local governments.

Here, the cities and county missed their state-mandated deadline because they couldn’t agree on several key issues.

All sides met Monday afternoon inside the Valdosta-Lowndes County Parks and Recreation Authority headquarters.

They agreed on principles of cooperation to add to the framework of the existing agreement. Those principles include better communication and shorter negotiation times between city and county officials.

Strained communication between the five municipalities and the county was on full display as the representatives debated Service Delivery Strategy, which determines how resources will be distributed and funded.

The meeting began with introductions around the table with representatives stressing the need for everyone to come together and figure out a solution.

“We all in the same boat,” Valdosta City Councilman Joseph “Sonny” Vickers said. “If it sinks, we all sink. This is foolish. We need to get together and solve this.”

County Commissioner Scottie Orenstein said he was disgusted with himself and everyone involved that the issue hasn’t been resolved after all this time.

Commissioner Clay Griner led the meeting, walking around the large, echoing room, passing the only microphone to representatives. He said the point of the meeting was for everyone to lay out their issues and express their points of view.

Valdosta City Manager Mark Barber said one of the city’s main issues is drawn-out service delivery negotiations. With the current SDS, there is a 30-day maximum time available for the city and county to reach agreements when disputes surface around service delivery.

He said it is too long of a period of time and has cost the city new businesses.

Barber said if a business wants to move to the community with the stipulation of using city water and sewer services while located in an unincorporated area of the county, negotiations need to happen sooner than 30 days.

Everyone agreed with this point, and Griner suggested a five-day time limit to negotiation with an added stipulation that an agreement be reached within 24 hours if needed in those kinds of situations.

Griner committed county staff to prepare a draft document to submit to the cities by the end of the week for their consideration.

“We need to do this more often,” Griner said about city and county officials meeting in the same room.

Thomas Lynn is a government and education reporter for The Valdosta Daily Times. He can be reached at (229)244-3400 ext. 1256