Wednesday, June 4, 2003
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Wednesday, June 4, 2003 |
| Authority's
finances for 10 years pose questions
[Editor's note: The following e-mail was provided to The Citizen as part of an exchange between Mayor Steve Brown, members of the Peachtree City Council and the city's Development Authority.] For the record, the Development Authority: 1. Borrowed money for operating expenses - ILLEGAL. 2. Borrowed money for construction - ILLEGAL. 3. Lied to tennis center participants about the fiscal health of the facility. 4. Sheltered expenses in false line items - MINI ENRON. 5. Has failed to turn over open records request data for a period of five months - ILLEGAL. 6. For the first 10 years of operation, the accounting was poor to nonexistent. 7. Had no way to monitor productivity and gave out bonuses in periods (over 10 years) of red ink. 8. Altered city facilities without the city permission or review - ILLEGAL. 9. Took the tennis center expansion project a minimum of $300,000 over budget (possibly more like $500,000) without even warning the city - PROBABLY ILLEGAL. Why [Councilman] Dan [Tennant] defends items 1 - 9 has bewildered many of us. Why Dan would not be calling for a detailed audit of the Peachtree National Bank debt is a mystery. Why Dan would defend the Development Authority not turning over bona fide open records regarding the past financial dealings of the authority to a member of the council is shocking. When Dan made the motion to not allow anyone to speak that was going to say something negative about the authority/tennis center, we all wondered what happened to First Amendment, Dan? Is he in the midst of a cover-up? Why did Dan place a last-minute agenda item for the city to pay off the tennis center expansion debt on the meeting when I was absent? Why would Dan want to milk our taxpayers for that expense (some of which is illegal)? Direct PAC has its first candidate: Dan Tennant. I am starting see how there could be some common interest. I cannot blame Dan, I would dodge this issue and hand it off the Information Specialist and the City Manager if I were in his position too. This would be a difficult thing to talk you way out of so it is best to hide. Steve Brown Mayor, Peachtree City
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