Wednesday, January 15, 2003

Last week I wrote that [Peachtree City] Mayor [Steve] Brown squandered nearly a million dollars which was intended for critical road projects. Here's the full story.

In the summer of 2001 City Council completed a line of credit/borrowing arrangement with the Georgia Municipal Association. Part of the line was used for then-current infrastructure needs. The balance, nearly a million dollars, was held in reserve specifically for the crucial road projects that we felt might finally be about to happen.

Road projects are funny in that, however much you plan and work, you never quite know for sure when all the elements, approvals and governmental entities involved will come together so you can actually accomplish something. We felt that time was close and that it would be absolutely essential for Peachtree City to be ready for its share of the financial burden. So we made sure we were ready.

Fast forward to Mayor Brown and June of 2002. Mayor Brown had an obscure item put on the agenda for the June 6 council meeting entitled "Public Hearing Lease/Purchase Financing of Land." At the meeting he rammed through approval to spend $843,775 to purchase about five acres at the intersection of Ga. Highway 54 and Wynnmeade Parkway for possible use as a "passive park, maybe a tot lot." The money for the purchase would come from our carefully planned line of credit for crucial road needs!

Prior to this council meeting no input was sought from the Planning Commission, the Recreation Commission, the Recreation Department or us citizens to see if this was a good idea or not. Unless you happened to be there that night you had no chance of knowing what was happening. In just a few moments the decision, from the minutes an obviously foregone conclusion, was made. Mayor Brown never bothered to explain the financial ramifications and horrifying consequences of his decision and in brief moments years of hard work and planning to solve Peachtree City's road problems were destroyed.

Now Mayor Brown whines, "We have no money"; "it's not my fault"; "there's nothing I can do." The fact that we have no money to finally solve our road problems, when the rest of the world is at last ready to help us, is in fact solely Mayor Brown's fault. If there is nothing he can do then it seems apparent he cannot do the very job for which we elected him. It scares me silly to think that we face three more years of this ineptitude.

The next time you see Mayor Brown thank him for our new million dollar tot lot and ask him when you can get one in your neighborhood.

Bob Lenox

Peachtree City

[Lenox is the former mayor of Peachtree City.]