Wednesday, October 31, 2001
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Wednesday, October 31, 2001 |
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My choices for the best people for the people By CAL BEVERLY Voters, on your mark. Three posts on the City Council of Peachtree City and one slot on the Fayetteville City Council await your pleasure. Next Tuesday, many of you choose among 12 candidates for public office. Please don't shirk this high duty. Flag-flying is nice, but I prefer a more substantive form of patriotism: Vote. Fly all the Old Glories you want, but back up that display by shouldering your responsibility for maintaining our grassroots liberties in our democratic republic: City voters, get out and vote next Tuesday. If everybody who waved a flag these past few weeks showed up at the polls, we would have near-record turnouts. I hope that will be the case. We have some good people who have offered to serve you the next four years. Some differ on important points, but, I believe, most have good intentions on your behalf. I commend all 12 for aspiring to be public servants. In addition, many of you get to say yes or no to five bond proposals to borrow $7.14 million in Peachtree City. That said, choices have to be made. Here are mine, and some reasons why.
PEACHTREE CITY For mayor: Steve Brown. For Post 3, City Council: Steve Rapson. For Post 4, City Council: Murray Weed.
Bond referenda Question 1: YES. Question 2: NO. Question 3: NO. Question 4: NO. Question 5: NO.
FAYETTEVILLE For Post 3, City Council: Walt White.
Why Steve Brown? You may remember he and I were joint defendants in a libel lawsuit brought last year by Jim Webb and his law firm, the city attorneys for Peachtree City. (The suit was later dismissed by Webb. Brown is still seeking to recover expenses from Webb.) Brown saw a plain conflict of interest and pursued justice via letters to the editor in this paper. Brown has consistently been the voice of the average concerned citizen, concerned about the direction being taken by the entrenched power structure of Peachtree City. He has fought for the average homeowner, the everyday working dad and mom with kids to get to ballgames and mortgages to pay and yards to cut. He is a true grassroots champion of the people. It pains me that my choice for Brown means that I cannot choose Dan Lakly, a good guy who has served the city and people of Fayette County in the past. Dan is a straight-shooter, and would make a good mayor. I just believe that Steve Brown is the right man for the job at this time in Peachtree City's history and will make the best mayor of any of the candidates available. Frank Murphy, also a good man, also has a history of service to the city as director of EMS. He is handicapped by an uncertain grasp of a broad range of issues facing us. He's just not up to speed. Gary Rower, a very able pilot and volunteer, is the establishment power structure candidate. With him as mayor, it would be business as usual at City Hall, meaning all the things we've come to dread about the current crew in charge. Peachtree City can't afford another four years of Mayor Bob Lenox-style leadership. I face a dilemma in Post 3 between incumbent Steve Rapson and former City Clerk Nancy Faulkner. I'm going with Rapson because he has been a tough-minded breath of fresh air at City Hall. He knows the city budget inside and out and will watch our tax dollars carefully. I disagree with his support of the bond issue for Braelinn Baptist Church as a city arts center. But he is the best candidate for the job. Faulkner is articulate, sharp and smart and would be a hands-down choice were she running against Carol Fritz in Post 4. But she chose to oppose Rapson, and I have to oppose her. Here's hoping we haven't seen the last of Nancy Faulkner in politics. The Post 4 race features a failed incumbent, Carol Fritz, running again on a platform of more of the same. On her watch, Fritz has helped give us traffic gridlock, higher taxes, big box stores, huge apartment complexes, annexation warfare, and unstinted support for questionable ethics in city officials. We can and must do better. Murray Weed is something of a question mark to me. He is focused and knowledgeable about city issues, and I agree with him on several items. But he has left himself more wiggle room than I'm comfortable with on matters of annexation, rezoning and sewer expansion. I'm voting for Weed, but I've got a jug of Roundup in my holster, just in case. The other two candidates we wish well in their future endeavors. In Fayetteville, Walt White has done a workmanlike job, low-key and colorless. He deserves another term. His opponent needs to expand his range of issues and address specific local problems and tell how he would solve them, rather than just being against "intrusive government." As for the Peachtree City bond issues, only one will actually save us taxpayers any money. The refinancing of airport bond debt save money and should get a YES vote. The others are nice things to have, nice monuments to affluence and better economic times. Those times have passed. Since Sept. 11, airline troubles and a shaky local economy make these tax increases laughable. These are optional luxuries in a suddenly grim season. Vote NO against those million-dollar questions 2,3,4 and 5. We can bring them up later, when we all can afford such luxuries again.
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