Wednesday, August 21, 2002
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Wednesday, August 21, 2002 |
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PTC Council may seek accords with authorities at Thursday joint meetings By JOHN MUNFORD
In an effort to resolve questions over Peachtree City's hotel-motel tax contracts, the city council is slated to meet separately with its development and airport authorities in a special workshop session beginning Thursday at 6 p.m. A special attorney hired by the city has determined that the contracts are invalid because the versions signed last year by then-Mayor Bob Lenox were different than the versions approved by the city council. Council has taken no official action on the matter, but attorney Winston Denmark has recommended a lawsuit should be filed to declare the contracts invalid. Addressing council about the matter at a public hearing Thursday night, Lenox noted that only a court can declare the contracts invalid. "Every single bit of work done by Mr. Denmark is inadmissable (in court)," Lenox said, adding that in his opinion "the money (for Denmark's report) was wasted unless it was done to intimidate the authorities." Robert Brooks, a member of the city's development authority, told council that the authority hopes to use Thursday's meeting to "get some ideas on the table ... and it needs to go beyond the intergovernmental agreements." The contracts spell out how much of the city's hotel-motel tax revenues each authority will get for operating the city's airport, tennis center and amphitheater. The contracts which Lenox signed required that both the city and authority agree if the funding levels are to change while the original version approved by council left that up to the sole discretion of the city. Lenox and others have contended that each council member was made aware of the changes through an e-mail and in paperwork placed on the dais before the June 7, 2001 council meeting, but in the special report attorney Winston Denmark indicated that was not the case. Lenox complimented Denmark's work, however, although he said the report coincided with the "results" sought by council. "A lot of people have been accused of a lot of things to get here tonight," Lenox said. "... We need to quit inferring anything wrong was done." The most scathing words about the contract flap, however, came from a member of the audience at the meeting, Tonya Holder, who accused the council of using the dispute for political gain. "You guys should for once do something in the public's interest and stop doing things for your political interest," Holder said, noting that she feels average citizens are tired of the dispute, leading to a lack of faith in city government.
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