Wednesday, October 29, 2003

Elections mean choices: Wish there were better ones available

By CAL BEVERLY
Publisher

Can we postpone the election until next year?

The one in Peachtree City, I mean. Fayetteville seems an easy choice, and Tyrone’s ballot contains only a yes or no vote on liquor by the drink.

Hard ones first.

PTC Post 1: Judi-Ann Rutherford.

PTC Post 2: Stuart Kourajian.

PTC Library expansion: No.

Now the easy ones.

Fayetteville Post 1: Paul C. Oddo, Jr.

Tyrone liquor by the drink: No.

Explanations are in order.

In Post 1, three candidates are trying to replace the term-limited Annie McMenamin.

One runs a restaurant and bar, Martinis. James Adduci is clueless on the issues.

The other two have various degrees of potential conflicts of interest attached to their candidacies.

Lee H. Poolman is a recent arrival in Peachtree City following a string of local government finance jobs in the area. He now works directly for current City Councilman Steve Rapson in the Fulton County government finance office. That’s too close a connection for my comfort.

Judi-Ann Rutherford is office manager for the Fred Brown Amphitheater, currently in the employ of the Development Authority of Peachtree City. With the venue coming under the direct control of City Council in December, that puts her in the position of working for herself, even if there is an intervening non-profit group overseeing the venue.

My thought is that Ms. Rutherford will have to choose between her job and her elected council position. I don’t think she can have both.

Post 2 represents the fireworks display in local politics. The off-stage player in this race is Mayor Steve Brown. He and current Councilman Dan Tennant, once allies, are now bitter political enemies.

Tennant has changed his alliances almost completely during the past couple of years; hard to say to what end. He makes a lot of noise about his leadership on several issues, but it’s mostly noise. Things have pretty much gone the way they were going to go, whether Tennant was involved or not.

He sounds more and more like a man with his eye fixed on higher political office and seems more and more willing to do whatever is necessary to attain those higher positions.

That’s unattractive to me. I prefer less grandiose egos for local office.

That’s not to say the mayor hasn’t got his own messianic aspirations. Convinced the city is going to hell in a dark hand-basket lest he get his way on every issue, the mayor has yet to learn the political practicality of Abraham Lincoln’s admonition to officials: Keep your mouth closed, even if people think you a fool, rather than open your mouth and remove all doubt.

The best political gift any supporter could give the mayor is a large roll of duct tape, useful for producing blessed silence.

Stuart Kourajian is an unknown on the local political scene. He is backed by Direct-Pac and many of the Old Guard, PTC’s version of the Cavaliers. He seems to lack much depth in his knowledge of specific city issues, and seems to think that corporate team-player training will serve him in the political wars of Peachtree City.

He’s in for a sophomore awakening.

That said, he also seems to be willing to listen and to learn and to cooperate. Presuming that he has no strings to be manipulated, he is my choice over political preening.

I love libraries. I love our PTC library. This is a bad time to come seeking more tax money for an optional improvement. Try again in a couple of years. Great harm will not be done by waiting.

The Tyrone liquor vote probably will involve a tiny turnout for an important issue. When our paper was founded, one of its guiding principles was to abstain from advertising any alcoholic beverage sales. We understand the arguments on both sides, and choose to say no.

Alcohol and its sale and consumption, under the U.S. and Georgia constitutions, are specifically not rights, but privileges to be tightly regulated by government. We think Tyrone will continue to be a fine town, without a martini lunch.

In Fayetteville, Paul Oddo is a genial numbers man. He demonstrates a good knowledge of the local issues and will be a good choice for the Fayetteville Council.

I worry about his Libertarian underpinnings, though. Folks who come down so hard on the side of the free market and individual property rights tend to lose sight of a counter-balancing community interest, or right, if you will.

Prick a staunch-enough Libertarian and he’ll put up a trash dump next door to your million-dollar mansion, all in the name of individual rights. Here’s hoping Paul will weigh community “rights” against individual rights and strike a balance that serves the entire community.

Wilson Price also seems to be a good guy. His depth of knowledge on local issues is the deciding vote against his candidacy.