Wednesday, September 4, 2002
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Wednesday, September 4, 2002 |
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PTC ex-mayor seeks to jail current mayor By JOHN MUNFORD
Former Peachtree City Mayor Bob Lenox wants current mayor Steve Brown arrested for theft of city services for requiring city employees to supervise his children and maintain his personal schedule. It may be an unprecedented situation in Fayette County's political history: a former mayor accusing a sitting mayor of criminal wrongdoing. A hearing on the matter is slated for Friday at 9 a.m. "This is the most abusive use of the judicial system for political reasons I have ever seen," Brown said. "... It's really ridiculous and I am absolutely astounded that he would sink to these depths." Lenox chose not to comment on his actions "because it is a legal matter." Lenox applied for a criminal arrest warrant on Brown with the Fayette County Magistrate Court earlier this month. Several key city employees are expected to be called as witnesses in the case, including City Manager Jim Basinger and City Clerk Jane Miller, who is also the director of administrative services. In his three complaints filed with the court, Lenox accuses Brown of: Requiring a city employee to "update and maintain his personal schedule" on Friday, July 19; (Brown said this is simply a matter of notifying his secretary about personal obligations so city staff would not scheduled city appointments for him on those occasions. He does so by linking up his Palm Pilot handheld computer to the secretary's desktop computer.). Permitting a city employee to provide child care services to him during paid working hours by supervising one of his daughters the morning of Wednesday, July 24 (Brown previously has admitted to a lapse of judgment on this instance and has requested a formal ethics hearing be held on the matter. He has also offered to reimburse the city for the employee's hourly wage.); and Requiring several employees to supervise his two children "while he attended prescheduled meetings" the morning of Monday, July 29. (Brown replied that the situation was caused when an air conditioner repairman was late to his home, causing him to take his girls with him to City Hall so he could meet with local church officials and Department of Transportation officials since taking them to a preschool program first would cause him to be late. Brown added that he never asked a city employee to watch the children; he merely set them at a table to color while he conducted the meetings. After the meeting with the DOT, Brown took the girls to the preschool program, he said.) Noting that the job of mayor only pays $6,000 a year, Brown noted that he must maintain a personal life, and that the scheduling conflicts with his children came on occasions when his wife was out of town and he was responsible for taking them to preschool. "I was trying to do the city a favor by holding meetings with some important people," Brown said. "The air conditioning repairman was 45 minutes late. What am I going to do? Has no one ever had an emergency at home?" Brown has previously criticized former Mayor Lenox, alleging that Lenox signed hotel-motel tax contracts with the city's airport and development authorities last year without council's approval because of changes to the two documents. Lenox took umbrage at the allegations and responded that he did everything above board in regard to the handling of the contracts. Lenox filed ethics complaints against Peachtree City Councilman Steve Rapson in connection with Rapson's votes on the contract issues this year. A special attorney later ruled that the contracts were invalid because the copy of the agreements council voted on did not include those changes. "I'll fight anybody on any issue on the merits of the issue," Brown said. "But you start at people's families and their financial lives and have them involved, that's well beyond the limits of what I call acceptable behavior."
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