Wednesday, May 9, 2001
|
Wednesday, May 9, 2001 |
|
PTC curtails mayor's spending power By JOHN MUNFORD
Peachtree City Mayor Bob Lenox contends that he had the permission of City Council members to spend $7,500 from the council's contingency fund toward a compensation package for former city clerk Nancy Faulkner. At Thursday's council meeting, Lenox said he sent a memo to each council member five days before he signed the agreement with Faulkner March 5. Lenox also said he instructed City Attorney Rick Lindsey to contact each council member to explain the settlement and answer any questions they might have before it was signed. "I took great pains to make sure that everyone on council was fully informed and had adequate time," Lenox said, adding that he knew Lindsey had spoken to each council member before he signed the agreement. Tennant has accused Lenox of spending $7,500 for the settlement from the City Council's contingency fund without council's permission. The funds were set aside to pay for Faulkner's tuition at a paralegal school of her choice, according to the settlement. "Your premise is that I alone decided this settlement agreement was acceptable and that I grossly exceeded my authority by spending this money," Lenox said. "The facts do not support that premise." Faulkner resigned in March after signing a separation agreement with the city which provided her with the $7,500 as tuition for paralegal school, six months severance pay and health insurance coverage. The entire package cost approximately $30,000. Two weeks ago, Tennant sought a legal opinion from Lindsey questioning if Lenox had the authority to spend the $7,500 from the council contingency fund. In his written opinion, Lindsey said there were no restrictions either in the city's charter or ordinances on how the contingency fund can be spent. Council unanimously adopted a new ordinance restricting the use of those at Thursday's council meeting (See related story). That action came after an acrimonious exchange between Lenox and Tennant. (Tennant's remarks are in a letter to the editor on Page 6A.) Lenox said the matter should have been discussed by council at the meeting after the agreement was signed. "If it had been an emergency item, the normal procedure would be to put that on the agenda at the next public meeting and ratify a decision," Lenox told Tennant. "Well, guess what? No one, not one soul including you asked that item be put on the March 15 agenda, and in fact that March 15 date was probably academic because the ink wasn't dry on that agreement before ... the agreement had literally been printed in the newspaper." In February, Faulkner suggested to Lindsey over lunch that she would resign if she and the city could come to a separation agreement, Lenox explained. Lindsey communicated that to council at its Feb. 15 meeting, and Lenox said he then asked if he could work on the matter and "see what I could come up with." Lenox said he later asked Lindsey to negotiate the settlement with Faulkner and Feb. 27, Lindsey presented him with an agreement that Faulkner had already signed. "Had I wished to act on my own, which I think I could have done despite your diatribe to the contrary, I would have signed the agreement right then," Lenox said. The entire city clerk issue was "a contentious and divisive subject for this council, the staff and the city for several months," Lenox said. After council denied her pay plan request in February, Lenox said the matter was "still divisive still a problem for everyone." "She (Faulkner) in fact felt the whole situation had deteriorated to the point that this was the only way to end the contention and acrimony and was actually best for her and the city," Lenox said. Tennant accused Lenox of signing the settlement because "you were sick of 10-plus years of dealing with Nancy. I've got that in writing." "... Mayor Lenox abused his privileges and betrayed the public's trust by unilaterally authorizing expenditures from the council contingency fund without the express approval of council," Tennant said. Lenox asked Tennant why he waited to question the matter, since the agreement was signed March 5. "It's been weighing on my mind heavily for quite some time and I didn't want to do anything rash or stupid," Tennant replied. Lenox also said Tennant had not talked to him about the Faulkner settlement since it was executed. "It might have been worth discussing it with me," Lenox replied. Since he has been mayor, Lenox said he has spent council contingency funds only two other times: for emergency repairs to a washed-out bridge in the Smokerise subdivision and $7,500 for the design charrette for the multiuse development planned for the corner of Ga. Highway 54 east and Walt Banks Road. "I would have placed the agreement with Ms. Faulkner on the agenda for the (March 1) council meeting, but that meeting had been cancelled, and I did not feel this matter could wait," Lenox said. That's when Lenox decided to send the memo to his fellow council members. Fritz said she did not reply to the mayor's memo because she "felt like that was what needed to happen" and she didn't have any better suggestions for how to do it. "I would like to have seen her stay, but I finally came to the realization that it just wasn't going to work," Fritz said.
|
||