Wednesday, May 22, 2002
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Wednesday, May 22, 2002 |
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How can Mayor Brown complain about letters? Peachtree City Mayor Steve Brown wants all the negative letters to stop. Seems reasonable, and if anyone should know about negative letters, it would be Steve Brown, the undisputed king of negative letters. How could anyone of us forget the three years of negative attacks on the former PTC administration (many of them bordering on slander, and one resulting in a libel suit) by none other than Steve Brown! Now that the shoe is on the other foot, Mayor Brown wants them to stop. Certainly we all would like to stop negative attacks. The problem is that anyone who questions anything Mayor Brown proposes is accused by him of a "negative" attack, and is subject to being named personally in a letter to the editor, state of the city address, editorials to the AJC, or any other public method Mayor Brown can dream up. Just ask Annie McMenamin, Kathy Cox, Gary Rower, or now, John Dufresne. Let me explain. Most of us remember Mayor Brown's campaign. If you read his vision statement on his website you will remember his call for "open government," "responsiveness to the people," etc. Does anyone remember a building moratorium, rewrite of all city ordinances, organization of a Sports and Entertainment Authority, or a CID mentioned anywhere in his campaign, website, or vision statement? Me neither. Then when these unpopular issues were discussed in letters to the editor, Mayor Brown complained of "negative" letters, then proceeded to personally attack Councilwoman McMenamin and state Rep. Kathy Cox in letters to not only local newspapers, but the AJC, and specifically in the state of the city address to local businessmen for defeating his proposed CID (this is his "vision" of "open government" and "responsiveness to the people"). And now he is "upset" by "negative" letters. We know this by his negative letter attacking John Dufresne when Mr. Dufresne questioned discounts offered by local businesses to elected city officials. Do I remember correctly when Steve Brown, defending his letters to the editor, quoted our founding fathers, maintaining that we must, as citizens, always question our government? Why then is Mr. Dufresne's questioning of discounts by city vendors to our elected officials being so vigorously attacked by Mayor Brown? Certainly if this offer occurred under the previous administration, it would have been Steve Brown who wrote the letter to the editor. How can he attack someone else for asking the very questions that he would ask if the shoe was on the other foot. Can Mayor Brown say "hypocrite"? If Mayor Brown would like to stop negative attacks, maybe the buck should stop with him. Let us not forget his recent public comments about not being able to trust the Coweta County Commission when talking about the TDK extension. Let us not forget his reported letter on city letterhead to the head of Hartsfield Airport attacking Kathy Cox. Let us not forget his personal attack during the state of the city address. Let us not forget three years of slanderous attacks on the previous administration. Let us not forget his outright lie during the City Council discussion of the building moratorium stating that a certain developer supported the moratorium, causing that developer's attorney to publicly refute the claim. Let us not forget that Mayor Brown continues with his own public attacks whenever any citizen disagrees with him. Let us especially not forget his hypocritical nature when he runs for reelection. Jim Stinson Peachtree City
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