Wednesday, June 11, 2003

Council member [Annie] McMenamin called me Friday and asked that I forward her concern about the introduction to the two letters on Page 6A in last Wednesday's edition. It reads, "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."

Council member McMenamin wishes to have a clarification printed because she feels the wording indicates all of Council's endorsement of Mayor Brown's letter and participation in the correspondence. This has evidently been confirmed by conversations between Council member McMenamin and others who interpreted the introduction the same way.

She indicates that she had no part in the correspondence (I'm pretty sure council member [Steve] Rapson avoided all involvement, too), and although Council member [Dan] Tennant was the original recipient of and responder to the resident e-mail that sparked the mayor's reply, I don't think he endorses the mayor's comments either. You might want to check with Council member [Murray] Weed as well.

My recollection is that Council was copied, as they are on most correspondence, without actually being involved in or endorsing any of the views expressed by either Mayor Brown or [Development Authority attorney Mark] Oldenburg. A clarification of this may be in order so that readers do not have the wrong impression.

Betsy Tyler

Public Information Officer

City of Peachtree City