Wednesday, November 8, 2000
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Wednesday, November 8, 2000 |
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Feuding PTC parties talk, declare a truce By DAVE HAMRICK
Peachtree City Councilman Dan Tennant has withdrawn his request that the city attorney be dismissed. Tennant now says he may have been wrong in his charge that Susan Brown, a member of Lindsey's law firm, improperly passed information to Tennant's ex-wife during divorce proceedings. In a joint communique issued this week, Tennant and Brown say they have agreed "to put this matter behind us and move forward in a positive light." Tennant last month demanded the dismissal of City Attorney Rick Lindsey, who is a partner in Webb, Stuckey and Lindsey, where Brown works. He also filed a complaint against Lindsey with the State Bar of Georgia. He charged that a conspiracy existed between Brown, his ex-wife's attorneys and Councilwoman Annie McMenamin. Brown is McMenamin's daughter and a close friend to city clerk Nancy Faulkner. Faulkner was deposed Aug. 18 by attorneys Michelle Lundy of Peachtree City and Leslie Wade of Fayetteville, representing Tennant's wife, Kris, in the couple's divorce proceedings. Wade is married to John Wade, who also is an attorney for Webb, Stuckey and Lindsey. Part of the questioning focused on a conversation that took place as Tennant was helping Faulkner put some books into a city supply closet early this year. Faulkner said Tennant had asked if she had ever fooled around in a supply closet and, when she answered no, joked, "Wouldn't you like to." She also testified that she took the remark as a joke and did not consider it sexual harassment. City Attorney Lindsey attended Faulkner's deposition because he was concerned that she might be asked about city business. Afterward, at the direction of Mayor Bob Lenox and City Manager Jim Basinger, he conducted a brief investigation into the possibility that the incident constituted sexual harassment, but quickly ended the inquiry and declared the concerns groundless. Tennant's lawyer then wrote a letter to Lenox demanding that Lindsey be dismissed and suggesting that Lindsey, Brown and McMenamin were conspiring to paint him as a sexual predator. "Upon reflection of how events unfolded, I can certainly understand why Mr. Tennant was upset with my involvement in this matter," Brown wrote in the joint communique. She admitted repeating to Leslie Wade, attorney for Mrs. Tennant, conversations she had had with Faulkner, but added, "I was not determined to damage Mr. Tennant and never intended the statement to go beyond his divorce proceedings. "I apologize to Mr. Tennant for my involvement in this," she said. Tennant said he is dropping the matter and also will not pursue a complaint against Lindsey that he filed with the State Bar of Georgia. "After having discussed the matter in detail, both of us can see where the other side was coming from and how we came to the conclusions that were made," he wrote. "As of today, we both consider this matter over." Faulkner also wrote a letter to The Citizen, calling for an end to the hostilities. "Does Dan have political adversaries? Absolutely. All politicians do," she said. "But I don't believe there is a cohesive conspiracy against him because the politicians in our community are too busy fighting amongst themselves for any of them to have a cohesive conspiracy about anything." She said she was dragged into the divorce case because of small-town gossip, and considers everyone involved to be friends. She added that she did consider Tennant's comments to be inappropriate. "But people need to give it a rest," she said. "I hope that Annie, Susan, Dan and the citizens who have suffered through reading all of this can accept my apology, call a truce and move on."
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