It appears that Sen. John Douglas and the city of Conyers will have to work out their dispute over the Conyers Police Department's alleged patrolling outside the city's limits to look for traffic violators between themselves as Lt. Casey Cagle and the Governor's Office of Highway Safety have refused to take sides in the matter.

"This is a local issue that is not before the state senate and the lieutenant governor will not comment as long as it remains a local issue," said Jaillene Hunter, spokesperson for Cagle.

 Conyers City Manager Tony Lucas wrote to Cagle on July 11 to inform him of actions taken by Douglas to bring about an audit of the Conyers municipal court system by the Georgia Department of Public Affairs.

 Douglas also requested that CPD be barred from participating in the Governor's Office of Highway Safety roadblocks in his five-county senate district area.

Bob Dallas, director of GOHS, said that his office has not taken a position on the dispute but was open to hosting a meeting between the two sides to work out the disagreement.

"GOHS has not taken a position on their correspondence," said Dallas. "Our door remains open for a meeting where we can sit down and talk about the issues."

No date has been set yet for a meeting between GOHS, Douglas and the City of Conyers.

Douglas' actions towards CPD stem from an October 2006 incident when the senator was pulled over well inside the Newton County boundary line by an off-duty CPD officer who believed him to be driving erratically and suspected a DUI.

However when the officer saw that the erratic driving was caused by Douglas' talking on his cell phone, the senator was let go and allowed to continue on his way without citation.

After Lucas wrote to Cagle of the dispute, Douglas fired off a letter of his own to the lieutenant governor, defending himself from accusations made by Lucas and reiterating his own desire that CPD not be allowed to participate in road blocks or other state level activities within his district.