Wednesday, June 5, 2002
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Wednesday, June 5, 2002 |
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Mayor and his 'yes' men are costing city money Forgive the length of my letter but there is much to say about the situation between the Peachtree City Council and the Development and Airport authorities. It seems there is no clear consensus on what led to this situation, but I can offer a fact-based analysis as an observer of the entire process. This happened because of incompetence and paranoia on the part of the mayor and his three "Yes" men on the City Council. I was at the council meeting when [Mayor Steve] Brown decided to pull his surprise motion for a special counsel to investigate this situation. It was obvious that the mayor and his compatriots had coordinated this motion and action well in advance of the meeting and purposely left [Councilman Annie] McMenamin out of it. Much can be said about that, but the fact is that she is the mayor pro tem of our city and has served on City Council longer than the mayor has even lived in Peachtree City. She deserves more respect than Mr. Brown has shown her. Ironically, being left out of things was [Councilman Dan] Tennant's constant complaint for two years, and now he is participating in the same activities against Ms. McMenamin. I asked for and received all of the information that Mr. Brown and his cohorts used to plan this affair. What is left out of Mr. Brown's packet he circulated to his three co-conspirators is the e-mail from Mr. Lindsey sent on June 6 [last year] with the final agreement. Since Mr. Brown did all of his research in secret he never asked the relevant parties for help. This includes the city clerk who had the e-mail on her computer and could have shown it to him. So, there is the first example of incompetence and paranoia, a mayor who doesn't even trust his own staff. What is more disturbing is the rumor that Mr. Brown did actually have this information and chose not to inform his cohorts because it would ruin his grand scheme. The next example of incompetence is [Councilman Murray] Weed. If you recall, he was the gentleman who advised us that with the changes he made to the development moratorium wording that it would stand up in court. That recommendation didn't even make it through opening arguments before the whole thing was thrown out. So he is already 0 for 1 on legal recommendations. He took the research that only Mr. Brown did and wrote a sweeping memo condemning the city attorney and recommending a course of action to the mayor which will likely lead to a lawsuit and more of our tax money wasted on his fellow lawyers. Then there are the antics of Councilmen Tennant and Rapson. Both of these gentlemen have decided to pursue the "I-never-got-the-e-mail" defense for their failure to prepare for the meeting last year approving the agreements. I have seen the e-mail personally and it went to the right addresses the day before the meeting. The city clerk, Jane Miller, has stated the mail was sent and the agreement was in their books that night. Every single person on the address list for that e-mail got it and still have it a year later. The fact is that the two didn't prepare for the meeting and are now trying to cover this up and help Mayor Brown with his ludicrous attempt to discredit some very good people. Mr. Rapson has compounded his actions by actively participating in the discussions on this matter. Clearly he has violated the ethics ordinance. The first piece of information I received from my open records request was an e-mail from Mr. Tennant to Mayor Brown telling him he had gotten the packet from Steve Rapson and that Mayor Brown should at least inform the authorities of his plans before the meeting. This was a good recommendation that Mr. Brown blew off. It also proves that Mr. Rapson was a part of the decision process since he was hand-carrying the documents to his fellow council members. It also shows that Mr. Rapson was disingenuous at the council meeting when he acted like he was surprised that Ms. McMenamin didn't know about all of this. How could she know if he did not give her a packet? Even a casual observer has to wonder if Mr. Rapson is trying to pressure the Development Authority's budget so they will settle his wife's bogus lawsuit. Now we will see if the Ethics Commission can do its job fairly. Bob Lenox has given so much to this community. For 20 years every major charitable effort in this area has been supported by either Mr. Lenox, his wife or his company. Just walk into the garden at Fayette Community Hospital or the All Children's Playground and there is Robert Lenox as one of the major donors. The same is true for Rick Lindsey who was instrumental in establishing a program that gave thousands of dollars to innovative Fayette County teachers to use for educational programs for our children. These two men give to this community in clear ways every day. They are not deceitful or profiting from these efforts, contrary to what the conspiracy nuts in this city would have you believe. Mayor Brown is proud of telling everyone how he was attending a negotiations class in Boston on Sept. 11. He must have left early because he has constantly negotiated in bad faith with everyone he works with, from the Coweta County Commission to the city authorities. How can you work with somebody you don't trust? He owes all of the parties involved and the city an apology for this embarrassing event, the legal costs we are incurring and the constant bad press he is creating for our city. Good government does not embarrass its citizens. We don't need all of this drama. We need good leadership. The four co-conspirators still have a chance to provide it, but under Georgia law it only takes about 6,000 registered voters' signatures on a petition to find a new council that can. Mr. Tennant is the first one of the group facing reelection in a little over a year. Hopefully, he will start acting for the people who elected him and not for Mayor Brown and his poorly prioritized, self-serving and dishonorable ideas. This time the mayor nearly cost us over $100,000 in fees on the airport bonds. How much will his poorly thought-out acts cost us next time? Fred Wellman WellmanPTC@aol.com Peachtree City [Mr. Wellman campaigned for mayor last year, but withdrew after Sept. 11 because of his military reserve commitment.]
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