Wednesday, May 9, 2001

[Editor's note: Peachtree City Councilman Dan Tennant read the statement below to the council at the May 3 meeting. He provided a copy to The Citizen and asked that it be printed as a letter to the editor. The Tennant-sponsored motion to reserve spending power to the full council after a public vote passed 4­0. Council member Annie McMenamin was absent.]

The Peachtree City Council Contingency Fund is part of the city's budget, to be used at council's discretion, on unbudgeted and unforeseen expenses. It has always been my belief and understanding that this public money could only be spent with a public majority vote of council.

Unfortunately and remarkably, I have evidently been mistaken in my assumption, according to a recent interpretation of the law by City Attorney Rick Lindsey.

So, we have a problem to fix and a loophole to close, all because Mayor [Bob] Lenox, in my opinion, abused his privileges and betrayed the public's trust by unilaterally authorizing expenditures from the Council Contingency Fund without the express approval of council.

Allow me to briefly explain how this subject has been brought to the surface. As most citizens know, our former city clerk, Nancy Faulkner, entered into a severance package agreement with the city that was astonishingly generous and totally unprecedented. Ms. Faulkner's severance package included three components: six months' salary which amounted to $22,179, six months of health insurance, valued at $887, and $7,500 in tuition costs for paralegal training. The total costs of this deal was in excess of $30,000.

The $7,500 expense was paid with council contingency funds despite my vehement objections I provided in writing to the mayor, and despite the lack of any express consent by councilmembers [Carol] Fritz or [Annie] McMenamin. Parenthetically, council was composed of only three councilmembers at the time of the mayor's authorization of the expenditure of the $7,500 since Dr. [Bob] Brooks had resigned but Council member [Steve] Rapson had not yet been appointed.)

When I made some inquires about the legitimacy of these expenditures with our city attorney, Rick Lindsey, I was provided with the following legal interpretation (among others) of the mayor's actions by Mr. Lindsey:

"The mayor had the authority to expend funds from the Council Contingency Fund without council approval and specifically had the authority to expend $7,500 from the Council Contingency Fund for the paralegal training for Ms. Faulkner."

I was very surprised to read that legal opinion until I thought more about the source of the opinion. It is essential to understand that the author, City Attorney Lindsey, was appointed as such at the suggestion and urging of Mayor Lenox when troubling issues arose with partner Jim Webb early last year. From May 4, 2000, when we appointed Rick Lindsey to be our city attorney through March 31, 2001, we have paid Mr. Lindsey over $206,000.

This very substantial amount of taxpayer money has been paid in the span of less than 11 months. We are a big customer to Mr. Lindsey, by anyone's standards.

While I certainly respect Mr. Lindsey's legal expertise, abilities and credentials, and have no personal animosity toward him whatever, he is only human, and in my opinion is not in a position to render a completely objective legal opinion on these matters. In light of that, I highly recommend that council seek at least two additional legal opinions regarding these financial matters from independent and objective legal observers.

I am not a lawyer, nor do I claim to be a legal scholar. But I'm not stupid. Council contingency funds belong to the people and should be spent only after a majority vote of council in a public meeting. That is clearly the intent of the fund. Until such time that we create a Mayor's Contingency Fund, the unilateral expenditure of funds from this account by Mayor Lenox is, in my opinion, the ultimate exhibition of arrogance and disregard of good judgment, and only fosters the continued erosion of the public's confidence in their elected representatives.

The mayor is fond of stating that each citizen's city tax bill is roughly the equivalent to one's cable TV bill. Well, for about 25 families, your annual city taxes went to pay for a paralegal school for a fomer city clerk all because Bob Lenox decided to spend your money at his own discretion. This is wrong, immoral, unfair, and has to stop right now.

From a much broader perspective, we must rectify the imprecise wording of our ordinances governing city expenditures, specifically section 34-118 of the Peachtree City Code. I understand that fortunately that subject has been placed on our next meeting's agenda by Council member McMenamin.

In the meantime, it is imperative that we make it crystal clear that funds expended from the council contingency fund be authorized only by a majority vote of council in a public meeting.

It is a sad day in Peachtree City history for me as an elected representative to feel compelled to sponsor legislation to clarify what by any reasonable standard should be considered obvious, but in order to prevent what I believe is the further abuse of the expenditures of the public's money, I am prepared to make a motion.

I move that we add Section 34-118.1 to the Peachtree City Code of Ordinances as prepared by Mr. Lindsey, subject to the following changes....

Daniel R. Tennant

Councilman

Peachtree City

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