Wednesday, October 3, 2001

To quote Steve Brown from his Aug. 1 letter to the editor: "Rolling this year's millage rate back and approving a large increase in the city's payroll plan simultaneously was budgetary suicide."

Brown further shared his observation that it was "strange" that the fire chief was present at the budget workshop but "barely uttered a word" on the subject of the construction of the Westside Fire Station.

What the community needs to understand is that our current administration controls communication and information to the City Council to the point that they are not adequately informed to make intelligent decisions.

As your former city clerk, I am aware that employees, including senior management, cannot communicate with the council without specific permission or they are expected to report every detail. I understand the need for council not to interfere with the day-to-day operations of the city, but the administration should prolifically provide information rather than impede its flow.

Our finance director was not permitted to provide council with his opinion that they should maintain the millage rate when they voted to roll it back. Nor was he permitted to express his concern about borrowing $66,000 from the cash reserve one month after the budget was adopted to help fund a compounding $500,000 salary expense. But, we can't exactly blame the administration. The City Council didn't ask for an opinion and the entire City Council, including my opponent, understand how the flow of information is impeded from City Hall.

Only Dan Tennant and Carol Fritz have made any attempt to address the matter. The minutes of the meeting of Oct. 5, 2000, reflect Tennant's frustration that unless "he asked all of the right questions at City Hall, he would not get vital information he needed to make informed decisions."

Fritz initiated the review of the city charter because she wanted to clarify our form of government and council's role with administration. She understands that our charter sets the course for our government. However, the adoption of the charter amendment fell short of its goal with many housekeeping items suggested by the administration and without ever clarifying our form of government or council's mission. [City Councilman Steve] Rapson stated it has been "beaten to death." Unfortunately, that is a true statement.

The city's pay plan is only one example of how our administration kept the city council in the dark. This was an on-going half-million dollar expenditure that was recommended to City Council for approval without any financial details being provided to the council, city clerk or even the finance director, until after I submitted an official open records request for the information.

I eventually received the information, along with a written disciplinary action from the city manager and mayor for submitting the open records request.

Additionally, the City Council might have voted to save the $25,000 consultant fee for an out-of-state consultant to conduct a "customized" salary survey if they had known that the administration had mislead them with false statements that the Georgia Department of Community Affairs could no longer provide their services for free as they had in previous years.

Until the citizens of this community elect a council who will provide clear direction to the administration that they expect an open government with a productive flow of communication, then uninformed decisions are inevitable and skepticism will continue to abound. It is time for our leaders to govern rather than be governed.

For information on how I plan to do that, please visit my website: www.nancyfaulkner.com.

Nancy Faulkner

nfau@bellsouth.net

[Faulkner is an announced candidate for City Council of Peachtree City. The Citizen welcomes letters from candidates for all local offices and from citizens commenting on the candidates and issues raised. We will print the letters from candidates and a representative sampling of others subject to standard editing practices for length and conformity to libel laws, until the week before the election.]

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