Friday, February 8, 2002
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Friday, February 8, 2002 |
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Mayor fumes over delayed delivery of letter Dev. Auth. chairman
weighs in on issue By JOHN
MUNFORD Peachtree City Mayor Steve Brown is upset that a letter reassuring employees of the tennis center and amphitheater that their jobs were safe wasn't immediately delivered to them. In a letter to the editor in Wednesday's Citizen, Brown chastised Development Authority Executive Director Virgil Christian for not delivering those letters immediately after receiving them Monday. But Tate Godfrey, the chairman of the authority, told The Citizen Thursday that holding the letters was his decision. "It was my call, not Virgil's, to do it this way," Godfrey said. The decision was made so the letters could all be distributed at the same time to employees, which would eliminate various rumors spreading, Godfrey said. Brown called that reasoning "a lame excuse." Godfrey pointed out that the employees of the tennis center and amphitheater are not city employees. He compared the mayor's wishes to immediately deliver the letter to the mayor asking the CEO of a local company to do the same thing. "Virgil's recommendation was to present the letter to the two staffs during staff meetings," Godfrey said. Godfrey said he told Brown that the decision to withhold the letter was his and not Christian's during a meeting Tuesday morning. But the letter accusing Christian appeared in Wednesday's paper. In the letter, Brown accused Christian of "milking the employees' anguish in the hopes that 20 more tennis participants might send the mayor an angry e-mail." The Peachtree City Development Authority runs both the tennis center and amphitheater although both facilities are owned by the city. Brown contends that a separate sports and entertainment authority should manage the facilities, leaving the authority to focus on economic development. When asked how the move would improve the operations of the tennis center and amphitheater, Brown immediately pointed to the under-construction $2.5 million addition of the tennis center, citing the increased operating costs the new building and courts will have. "I certainly don't want the city paying for that," Brown said, referring to the increased operating costs. Brown also said he felt the facilities could benefit from being run by a body that could focus on them alone and not economic development. Brown has stated before that he opposed the way the expansion project was bid. Fellow Councilman Steve Rapson also opposed the expansion previously, claiming the project was so large that it should listed as a question on the ballot in November's bond referendum so citizens could decide if it was a worthwhile project. Brown said the only benefit of having covered courts he has been told is the ability to attract tournaments. But he feels the economic impact of the tournaments is dramatically overstated.
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