Friday, September 26, 2003
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Friday, September 26, 2003 |
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PTC Development Authority hands tennis center, amphitheater back to City Council; executive director resigns Saying the operation of the Peachtree City Tennis Center and Frederick Brown Amphitheater had become too much for a part-time board to manage, the Development Authority of Peachtree City Thursday night resigned from its management contract with the city council and handed the two venues back to the city. The DAPC also accepted the resignation of its embattled executive director, Virgil Christian, effective the end of October, when the city takes over the two operations. Unclear now is the status of more than $1 million in debts still outstanding that were incurred by the authority during expansions and renovations of the two venues. The city council is preparing to adopt an austere budget requiring a city tax increase, but no one on council had expected to be faced with picking up the money-losing operations of the tennis center and amphitheater. Vice Chairman Scott Bradshaw resigned from the board earlier this week, setting in motion the bombshell events culminating in Thursday's resignations. His resignation letter detailed surprise cash flow problems, undisclosed obligations to sports equipment maker Adidas and a pattern of ongoing financial accounting shortfalls. Chairman Tate Godfrey defended the board's handling of the cash-strapped venues, contending that fall is typically the tightest time of year for cash flow. Godfrey also said that the Adidas contract mistakenly listed DAPC as a guarantor for $366,000 in retail sales of Adidas products through the for-profit and privately-owned pro shop in the tennis center. Godfrey said that "mistake" had been rectified and that DAPC was no longer liable for the sales. After defending the DAPC's management of the venues point by point in Bradshaw's letter (available on this web site), Godfrey then read a statement calling for a motion to end the DAPC's management contract with the council, in effect handing the operations back to Mayor Steve Brown and City Council for them to run. The vote was 5 to 0 in favor of getting out of the management business. Left up in the air are the jobs of more than two dozen DAPC employees involved with operating the tennis center and amphitheater. Also in limbo is the operation of the pro shop managed by and partly owned by Christian. The shop pays no rent for its space at the city-owned tennis center currently, but Godfrey said that will change. The vote effectively ends the unique 10-year experiment of a development authority managing an entertainment and sports venues. The project was begun at the urging of then-Mayor Bob Lenox. When Lenox left office two years ago, new Mayor Steve Brown began criticizing the DAPC's management of the facilities, which involved use of a hotel-motel tax collected by the city but expended by the DAPC under a long-term contract. Controversy flared several times during the past two years as relations between the elected council and the appointed authority soured.
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