Wednesday, July 24, 2002
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Wednesday, July 24, 2002 |
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Attorney's report on PTC's hotel-motel tax contract dispute not yet complete
By JOHN
MUNFORD
The results of an investigation into the propriety of hotel-motel tax contracts between Peachtree City and its development and airport authorities are not yet in. Even if the report by council's special appointed attorney, Winston Denmark, is finished soon, it won't likely be considered by the City Council until its Aug. 15 meeting. That's because Councilman Steve Rapson will miss the next meeting, Aug. 1, because he will be out of town. Rapson, who joined a 4-0-1 vote to begin the investigation months ago, was recently admonished for doing so by the city's ethics board since his wife Kristi has filed a suit against the Development Authority. Rapson has not decided whether he will appeal the ethics board's decision. If he does so, the matter will be considered by his fellow council members per the city's ethics ordinance. The ethics complaint against Rapson was filed by former mayor Bob Lenox, whom Rapson has accused of signing those hotel-motel tax contracts with changes that weren't approved by council last year. The most significant change requires that both the city and authority must agree if it is ever necessary to lower the funding of the authorities. Lenox contends that the changes were made to the contracts before council voted to authorize him signing the documents. City Clerk Jane Miller also said those revisions were in the contract that council voted on last year because the amended version of the contract was placed on the dais for each council member. It is also claimed that the changes were e-mailed to each council member before the meeting by City Manager Jim Basinger, but Rapson and councilman Dan Tennant argue they did not receive such a document via e-mail.
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