Wednesday, May 22, 2002
|
Wednesday, May 22, 2002 |
|
Mayor wants probe of tax pact – Special counsel sought to investigate hotel-motel tax pact that directs money to 2 independent, nonelected boardsBy JOHN MUNFORD
Claiming that it "handcuffs" the current City Council, Peachtree City Mayor Steve Brown wants an investigation into the contracts approved by last year's council that dedicate hotel-motel tax funds to the city's development and airport authorities. The agreements, signed by former Mayor Bob Lenox last July, provide hotel-motel tax funds to cover the authorities' operating expenses and debt for the airport, tennis center and amphitheater. Council will meet tonight at 7 p.m. in a special called meeting to discuss hiring a special attorney to investigate the matter. At last Thursday's regular council meeting, Brown claimed Lenox signed the agreement though there was a significant change made after council voted to give him that authority. But Lenox said Monday that each council member was e-mailed a copy of that change by City Manager Jim Basinger the day before the council meeting. That was confirmed by City Attorney Rick Lindsey, who said none of the council members asked him about the change before voting unanimously to authorize the mayor to sign the agreements at its June 7 meeting. The change, which was requested by the Airport Authority, added a requirement for the authorities to agree with the city before the city can reduce the hotel-motel funds it gives to the authorities. The previous language in the contract allowed the city to reduce the funds "at its sole discretion." "There were no major revisions or changes after the fact," Lenox told The Citizen Monday. "Nothing evil happened. ... It was done in front of them," Lindsey said Monday. He added that there were no significant changes to the documents from between the time council voted to have Lenox sign it and the day he signed them: July 31. Such changes are common since the information provided to council is due so early that circumstances can change by the time the meeting is held, Lindsey noted. "This happens all the time because we do things early to put them on the books," Lindsey said. Councilmen Steve Rapson and Dan Tennant, who voted in favor of the contracts last year, also voted with Brown and new councilman Murray Weed to hire the special attorney. Ironically, Rapson made the motion at the June 7 meeting to have Lenox sign the contracts ... and Tennant seconded it. Councilwoman Annie McMenamin abstained from voting to hire a special attorney for the matter, claiming this was the first she had heard of the issue. She also argued that no action should have taken place since the item wasn't on the agenda. McMenamin was left out of the pre-meeting discussion between council members partly because her daughter is an attorney in the same firm that employs Lindsey. "Point blank, I didn't want her to sabotage my research efforts," Brown said in an interview Friday morning. Lindsey negotiated the contracts on behalf of the city. Since he participated in those negotiations, the matter should be investigated by outside counsel, Brown said. Brown said he would be happy if the authorities agreed to change the language about funding changes back to the original version, which gives the city sole control over the amount of hotel-motel tax funds diverted to the authorities. Brown's intentions are to earmark funds used to supplement the tennis center's budget for other projects such as cart paths. "I refer to it as tennis welfare," Brown said. "Why are we paying these folks $150,000 a year?" Brown said other sports associations have been critical of the city funding the tennis center. The majority of the center's revenues come from user fees and memberships. Brown said he does not want to withhold funds to pay toward both authorities' debts and operating expenses. In particular, the mayor also doesn't want to cut the development authority's economic development funds, he said. When Brown brought up his concerns at Thursday's meeting, he did so in the form of a motion before any discussion took place. The mayor also denied two requests to comment on the issue during the meeting, from Airport Authority member Jerry Cobb and Development Authority Executive Director Virgil Christian. Brown later said he disallowed comments because the matter "is a sensitive issue." He added that he had already spoken about the matter with Airport Authority chairwoman Catherine Nelmes and he made two unsuccessful attempts to meet with Development Authority chairman Tate Godfrey before Thursday's meeting. "There's going to be plenty of opportunity to speak about this," Brown said. People will have the chance to comment on the matter "once we have our findings in place." Lenox said he and council members McMenamin and Carol Fritz scrutinized the agreements before approving them at the June 7 meeting upon the motion of councilman Rapson and second from Tennant. The motion specifically required that the agreement be "substantially similar" to the document before council. Lenox alleged that several members of the current council may have violated the state's Sunshine laws requiring open meetings of governmental bodies. "They may not have technically violated the (sunshine) law," Lenox said. "... But they could've at least put on the sham of having a little discussion." Had Brown done proper research on the matter, he would have learned that there were no major changes to the agreement between the time council authorized Lenox and when he signed it, Lenox said. "If you check all the legislative requirements for intergovernmental agreements, they are perfectly legal," Lenox added.
|
||