Wednesday, November 12, 2003
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Wednesday, November 12, 2003 |
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Rutherford: ‘I intend to keep my job’ By J. FRANK LYNCH Who is Judi-ann Rutherford’s employer? That’s the question Peachtree City Manager Bernard McMullen has asked the city attorney to clarify by week’s end. Rutherford, a candidate in the Nov. 25 runoff election to fill the Post 1 City Council seat, works as front-office manager of the Fred Brown Jr. Amphitheater, operated by the Development Authority of Peachtree City until the end of this month when it ends its management contract. City policy forbids direct employees from running for election to the council or mayoral seats unless the employee resigns first. Rutherford, by her own admission, has not been a city employee as long as the DAPC was in charge. “My conflict is very clear: I’m not a city employee,” Rutherford said last week after failing to earn a majority in the Post 1 race, coming 20 votes short of beating the second-place vote getter, Lee H. Poolman. “I guess I needed to get that message out clearer, that I’m not a city employee,” she said. “I intend to keep my job.” It’s on that point that McMullen wants clarification from Attorney Ted Meeker following last week’s creation of the Peachtree City Tourism Association to manage the amphitheater and tennis center when the DAPC departs Nov. 30, five days after the runoff. The tourism board, which includes McMullen and councilmen Steve Rapson and Murray Weed plus two others, would present a clear conflict should Rutherford be elected in two weeks, observers concede. Poolman has challenged Rutherford to make a decision now about her intentions: If she wins, will she quit her job at the amphitheater, or decline the council seat? “The costs of the runoff are already being incurred by the Board of Elections,” said Cass Poolman, campaign treasurer and wife to Lee Poolman. “Rutherford needs to make her decision before she wastes the expense of a runoff.” Candidate Poolman has his own conflict issue. He works in the finance department of Fulton County government. His direct supervisor is Councilman Steve Rapson. There is no legal barrier to his running or being elected, and both men have assured the public that their work positions will have no effect on their independent representation of the two posts. On Friday, McMullen explained, “Two things I can say are factual: This does not make her a city employee, it makes her an employee of the Peachtree City Tourism Association, which is a non-profit arm of the city; and I’ve asked the city attorney to determine if there is a conflict of interest and if she is elected, can she remain employed and serve on council.” To her credit, Rutherford could not have known about the collapse of the DAPC’s management agreement when she qualified for the election, the week of Sept. 8-12, said McMullen and others. The DAPC’s first announcement of its intentions to quit running the facilities wasn’t made until Sept. 25, long after she had to make the decision to run for council. But even after the future of her employer grew cloudy, Rutherford assumed a private, independent group would come in and take over the management of the venues, not a commission heavy-laden with high-ranking city staff and council members. “Some people didn’t vote for me the first time because they read an article and thought I’d have to give up my job,” she said. “My conflict is very clear: In making appointments to the Peachtree City Tourism Commission, I could not vote. The other thing I could not vote on is when they determine the hotel-motel tax.” Should Rutherford be elected to council, the issue then becomes whether she could legally be appointed to the tourism board, which would in effect make her a superior to her own boss, amphitheater director Romeo. “I’d rather wait for the city attorney to give his opinion before we speculate any further on that, especially since this involves an active political campaign,” said McMullen. Rutherford came within 20 votes of finishing with a majority last Tuesday, winning 49.37 percent of the vote. Poolman was second, with 33.37 percent. They two will face each other again in a runoff the Tuesday of Thanksgiving week, Nov. 25.
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