Wednesday, November 8, 2000

City Clerk Faulkner apologizes . . .

After reading about Dan Tennant, Susan Brown and Annie McMenamin and myself in the newspaper I have received many phone calls and heard many rumors. I think it is time for a truth telling session and a public apology.

In summary, for those of you who only read the headlines I do not believe Dan Tennant was guilty of sexual harassment, nor do I believe Annie McMenamin and Susan Brown have conspired to destroy him for political reasons.

This is an example of what small-town gossip can do to damage reputations, families, friendships, and careers. There is a valuable lesson to be learned here, and it is time to acknowledge that, apologize and move on.

To do so, I must publicly apologize to Annie McMenamin, Susan Brown, and Dan Tennant. I admire and respect all of these individuals for different reasons, but I do not always agree with them.

Annie and Susan are close personal friends and I owe them a debt of gratitude for sharing their family with me and teaching me the true meaning of friendship. But that debt of gratitude stops short of ever compromising my integrity or doing something I do not believe in. They are true friends and would never ask nor expect such from me.

I was dragged into Mr. Tennant's divorce because I got caught up in the gossip of this town, just as many of you have. That certainly doesn't make it right. It was wrong and embarrassing, but I do not know of any intentional plot to damage Mr. Tennant's reputation or political career.

His allegations that Susan and Annie conspired against him are wrong. But, I can certainly see things from his point of view and understand how he came to that conclusion.

Susan has never denied that she told Mrs. Tennant's attorney things I had told her about Mr. Tennant. But, those comments had nothing to do with sexual harassment.

It was Mrs. Tennant's attorney who kept investigating the matter and represented her client with a vengeance and didn't care who she hurt in the process. You can't fault her for that because that is what attorneys do.

But, I must publicly apologize to Dan for repeating some things that he said to me in the first place. Truthfully speaking, some of the things he said to me were inappropriate. But, people need to give it a rest. Who hasn't said something inappropriate? He was not harassing, threatening, nor trying to use his position of power to receive sexual favors. I was neither offended nor flattered by the comments.

Does Dan have political adversaries? Absolutely. All politicians do. 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. And, unfortunately, that same dissention makes it difficult for them to reach their goals even if they do want to move in the same direction.

The irony in all of this is that Dan and Annie are very much alike when it comes to their political beliefs. For many years Annie was the single vote against many of the issues that Dan opposes now. Both of them represent their constituents and both of them vote for what they believe in.

In closing, 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.

Nancy Faulkner

Peachtree City

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