Wednesday, December 25, 2002

It is a pleasure to work with businesses and industries in Peachtree City. I am grateful for the support that I have received from our local businesses.

Peachtree City is a great location for a new business. Our businesses prosper because we have created a unique environment with an exceptional quality of life that attracts quality, high-income families. These quality families bring tremendous spending power.

The city's commitment to nice tree buffers, quality commercial architecture and non-offensive commercial signage makes us strong. I welcome any efforts that would help us strengthen our position. We imposed a building moratorium to allow the new administration to work on some items that would enhance our quality of life position and create even more quality business opportunities.

Even though I opposed big-box-style development, once they were approved by the previous administration, I devoted myself to making the stores attractive and safe for our community. The styling of our big box stores is wonderful. The Home Depot is a prototype with a clean, off-white interior and tasteful fluorescent lighting. The Wal-Mart management met with me prior to construction to hear my concerns, and we now have one of the most secure stores in the nation. We do not want crime in Peachtree City.

You will also notice that there are no huge piles of merchandise outside our big box stores like you might see in other cities. I led the way for an ordinance to prohibit such situations, and now we have nice, clean stores that are more pleasing to the eye and blend better with the community. The quality of the trees on the site is exceptional. Had an effort not been made to protect our interests, we would have ended up with unsightly and unsafe stores like is found in other areas.

Mr. Michael Hofrichter is an attorney and chairman of the county Chamber of Commerce. I appreciate the Chamber's position in the county scene. The Chamber has supported quite a few positions that the voters have voted down in various referendums in the past. We have to remember that the Chamber represents a certain niche in our county and that is why their particular views may not coincide with the voting public at-large. Mr. Hofrichter's letter came as no surprise and his opinions carry his own unique slant, to which we are all entitled.

I do not understand why Mr. Hofrichter is against any type of tax improvement district. The fact of the matter is that the businesses and landowners themselves actually vote on whether to enact the district. These districts known as CIDs, TADs and TIFs are common in metro Atlanta.

The CID in Midtown Atlanta pays for the ambassador force that provides security, pedestrian assistance and keeps the streets and sidewalks clean. The Midtown businesses voted to enact the CID and tax themselves, with great results.

The Cumberland, Town Center and Perimeter Center areas are using their business-approved districts to improve traffic flow.

We were planning on using our district proactively to incorporate badly needed enhancements to the Ga. Highway 54 West corridor. Why is this a bad idea? Peachtree City has assessed impact fees for years on businesses to make infrastructure improvements. PTC citizens should ask, Does Mr. Hofrichter oppose impact fees that allow new development to pay for their impact on our community?

I am somewhat surprised that Mr. Hofrichter is fuming about the TDK Extension. Our city's number one priority is the Hwy. 54 West widening. Recently, we had to remove $1.8 million out of our city's beleaguered budget. Following that, we were forced to move or eliminate $635,000 worth of additional scheduled projects just so the Hwy. 54 West widening could take place in June 2003.

We all need to ask Mr. Hofrichter, Where is the money coming from for the $1.2 million TDK Extension? Is he willing to support large tax increases on the Peachtree City business community to pay for it? You can't eat the cake if you can't afford the ingredients.

Our second priority is the widening of Ga. Highway 74 South. Some of our industrial residents on Hwy. 74 South take their lives into their own hands pulling into and out of their parking lots daily. If we want to keep these industries that pay substantial taxes, we had better get to work on that widening project. If we lose industry, the residential taxes will go up.

Do we really want the cars from a new TDK Extension feeding onto a crowded two-lane Hwy. 74 South? The TDK Extension project will happen eventually and the City Council likes the project. For the record, neither state Senator Mitch Seabaugh nor incoming Chamber Chairman Jim Pace tried to extort the TDK Extension project out of me in exchange for providing badly needed funding for Hwy 74 South.

Unfortunately, I had to go tell officers from Peachtree National Bank and Regions Bank about the Development Authority's $287,000 tennis center overage, the additional $200,000 line of credit that they picked up to complete the center, the $879,000 balloon loan due in 2005, the $75,000 borrowed to pay the employees and the fact that they finished the year in red ink, etc.

I told the financial institutions, and the news media has correctly reported, that I vowed to pay the debt back, put out the fires and work to create a new authority for the venues. I view Mr. Hofrichter's comments as an attempt to exacerbate a situation that is on the verge of a workable, permissible solution.

Mr. Hofrichter stated that the cost overruns on the tennis center project were for the Continuing Education rooms. This is not true.

The City Council approved a specific plan with a specific budget for a city-owned building. The council was adamant about that project staying on budget, especially in a difficult budget year.

Besides, the Development Authority is expressing a willingness to work with the City Council, and it is best not to allow Mr. Hofrichter to cause any more friction on this issue while he disregards the accountability owed to taxpayers in Peachtree City.

For the record, our city planner has not resigned and is still in the employ of the city. We reorganized the way we are handling our city attorney and city solicitor positions and expect a savings to the taxpayers in the neighborhood of $70,000 per year while maintaining a high standard of service.

The situation with the city manager has been thoroughly covered in the news media, and let's not pull another one of Mr. Hofrichter's favorite issues through the wringer. We should respect the privacy of these individuals.

The city began declining in industrial tax collections before I took office. In fact, I am steadily visiting our local industries, and they are telling me that a local elected official has not visited them in nearly a decade. That will not happen on my watch and I am pulling hard for our industrial residents on Hwy. 74 South.

For the record, I took office in January 2002 following one of the worst American tragedies (Sept. 11) since Pearl Harbor, in the midst of a failing economy, and Peachtree City still landed over 300 new businesses. In addition, our local option sales taxes actually increased while other counties across the state suffered losses.

An interesting fact is that the only time I ever read about Peachtree City being a negative business climate over the past 12 months was when Mr. Hofrichter was roaring about it in the news media. Go look on the websites for the newspapers and do a search under "Hofrichter" and see for yourself.

An interesting aside is that Mr. Hofrichter, an attorney, was a strong vocal proponent of making Fayette County its own judicial circuit. The state rejected the idea because it would have cost taxpayers millions of unnecessary dollars. Yet again, what about my taxpayers?

In case the reader does not know, the Peachtree City government is a member of the Chamber of Commerce. As every member is free to participate in a committee of his or her choice, I am on the Legislative Action Committee with the Chamber.

Mr. Hofrichter recently announced that I was being thrown off the committee. Why? Guess who the next chairman of the Legislative Action Committee is going to be: Former Mayor Bob Lenox. By the way, Mr. Hofrichter does not live in Peachtree City.

I am a very fortunate mayor that is incredibly blessed with smart constituents that can see through questionable intentions. I am looking forward to a better relationship with the new incoming officers of the Chamber in 2003.

I love being your mayor and I am fighting for the interests of all my citizens. Happy holidays!

Steve Brown

Mayor, Peachtree City

sbrown@peachtree-city.org