Friday, May 31, 2002
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Friday, May 31, 2002 |
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Last minute maneuvers mark PTC bond pact negotiations By JOHN
MUNFORD
To stave off a last-minute problem with a plan for Peachtree City to pay off debt owed on Falcon Field, the Peachtree City Airport Authority called an emergency meeting for late Tuesday night to ratify a special agreement with Peachtree City. But the Peachtree City Council held no special meeting to discuss the contract before it was signed Wednesday morning just after 6 a.m. by Mayor Steve Brown. Instead council members were briefed on the issue via telephone and in person, Brown said. Attorneys for Kilpatrick and Stockton, who represented the city for the bond issue to raise the funds to pay off the authority's debt, told city officials Brown could sign the document since council had already approved the bond resolution and a bond ordinance at its last regular meeting, said City Manager Jim Basinger. The legal opinion from Earl Taylor and Ken Pollock of the Kilpatrick and Stockton law firm said that "council, in effect, had approved what was in that contract," Basinger explained. Airport Manager Jim Savage notified local newspapers Tuesday afternoon about the airport authority's called meeting for 9 p.m. later that night as required by Georgia law. And though it was determined council didn't need to meet about the issue, Brown said he wanted to make sure the council members were all on the same page about the contract. Brown said each council member was okay with having the mayor sign the contract, noting that Annie McMenamin preferred to have all of the City Council members sign the agreement. "But there just wasn't time for that," Brown said. The new agreement was necessary because without it, the status of the city's bond sale was in jeopardy due to the questions about the validity of the current contract, explained Authority Chairwoman Catherine Nelmes. The rush was due to the fact that the bond issue was being closed on Wednesday morning, so the agreement had to be enacted before then, Brown said. In his conversations with councilmen Murray Weed, Steve Rapson and Dan Tennant, Brown said he never polled them in seeking their approval for him to sign the new contract. The contract Brown signed Wednesday morning included one paragraph added by the airport authority the night before. Brown said he was unable to run that information by each council member before signing the agreement. "And that was unfortunate," the mayor said. The paragraph added to the contract at the authority's request states that the document doesn't alter or affect the previous contract between the city and the authority, which was signed by Mayor Bob Lenox last June. It's that Lenox-signed contract that has been called into question by Brown and several other council members who allege Lenox was acting without council's consent when he signed it July 31 because of an added paragraph that was not in the draft given to council for consideration. Lenox and City Attorney Rick Lindsey contend the changes were e-mailed to all council members before the meeting. City Clerk Jane Miller has confirmed that the change was included in copies provided to each council member at the June 7 meeting when council unanimously voted to authorize Lenox to sign the contract. The additional paragraph does not hurt the position of Brown and council members Steve Rapson and Dan Tennant that the contract signed by Lenox is invalid, Brown said. The original draft of the new agreement which was authored by the attorneys representing the city on the bond issue, wasn't received at City Hall until after 5 p.m. Tuesday, Brown said. "We had such huge time constraints," Brown said. The authority approved the agreement at its 9 p.m. meeting Tuesday with the added paragraph. That agreement has been called into question by Brown and several council members who claim Lenox signed an agreement with a change that should have been brought to the council's attention after council voted to give him authorization to sign the contract. That agreement spells out how much the authority will receive annually from the city's hotel motel tax revenues in return for operating Falcon Field. The hurried approval of the new agreement The city has issued a total of $1.62 million in bonds to pay off the authority's current debt of $1.51 million. That concept was ratified by voters who approved a referendum on the matter in the November general election. "I didn't want to do anything to jeopardize them (the airport authority) not getting the money," Brown said. "... The document is fairly innocuous. There's really nothing to it."
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