Wednesday, February 27, 2002
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Wednesday, February 27, 2002 |
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Council shelves discussion on workshops for sports and entertainment authority until April By JOHN
MUNFORD
Peachtree City Mayor Steve Brown's wish to study the creation of a sports and entertainment authority has been sidetracked until April. After several council members said they were surprised the issue was back on the agenda, council voted 3-1-1 to table the matter until its April 18 meeting. Councilwoman Annie McMenamin was against and Councilman Steve Rapson abstained, again citing the pending lawsuit his wife, Kristi, has filed against the Development Authority over unfair pay. Kristi Rapson is the former director of the amphitheater, which the Development Authority also operates with the tennis center. Councilman Dan Tennant suggested that a cooling off period would be best since the issue has been a hotly debated topic. Brown contends that a sports and entertainment authority should be created to operate the city's tennis center and amphitheater instead of the Peachtree City Development Authority. That way, the Development Authority could focus on its original goal of economic development: attracting business and industry to the city, Brown said. The Development Authority opposes the idea, saying that both facilities are used as "economic development tools." But the authority's chairman, Tate Godfrey, told The Citizen that the authority was willing to participate in workshops on the issue. McMenamin voted against the motion to table the workshop discussion after she strongly opposed the notion that the tennis center and amphitheater should be run by a new authority. "I am opposed to this authority," McMenamin said. "I see no need to set up any meetings ... unless I can be assured of the viability and the necessity of such an authority." McMenamin, who accused Brown of being biased before the matter was discussed at the previous council meeting, also said council couldn't break the 15-year agreement with the Development Authority that provides a set amount of the hotel-motel tax to pay for the $2.5 million expansion of the tennis center and $200,000 to improve the amphitheater. Councilman Murray Weed said that agreement could be called into question since it was enacted by a previous council. Weed noted that a Georgia law forbids city councils from legally binding future city councils, and he asked for a legal opinion on the issue from City Attorney Rick Lindsey. "I will personally assure you that I will let this matter drop if we are committed to some contract that is unchangeable," Weed said. McMenamin also quoted the mayor's remarks from e-mails on the issue, one of which said that a sports and entertainment authority "will have to play by a new set of rules and funding" if the tennis center and amphitheater operations are transferred to it. "My question on that one is Steve, what do you mean by a new set of rules and funding?" McMenamin asked Brown. "And when you write letters to the editor or employees of this city or the authority, how are we the public to distinguish between fact or political theory?" Weed said he favored using workshops to study the matter, though acquaintances have asked him to give all information careful thought and to delineate how much a new authority would cost. "My agenda is solely to have this thing in a position that it can be talked about and see if there are other models or other manners of doing it," Weed said. "But we're never going to get to that point if we assume that what we have now is perfect." Brown argued that if the Development Authority "could show they were willing to work on these types of issues and if they did a good job with that, we could discuss the possibility of leaving the tennis center there. "Discussion hurts nothing," Brown added. "We only gain from talking about these things, we only gain from putting facts on the table. I'd like to see us have some open frank discussion with all the people involved at various times." McMenamin said Brown has an agenda and that it was important to note that Brown once applied for a position on the Development Authority and was denied.
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