PTC Councilmen stay away in protest

By J. FRANK LYNCH
jflynch@theCitizenNews.com

The two outgoing members of the Peachtree City Council have vowed not to return as long as action relative to the new Tourism Association remains on the council’s agend.

Annie McMenamin and Dan Tennant agreed to stay away from Thursday night’s meeting, which was canceled at 7:15 p.m. due to lack of a quorum. As a result, the entire Tourism Association proposal may be shelved just days before it was to become reality.

“We’re being held hostage by two lame ducks,” declared Mayor Steve Brown as he apologized to a puzzled crowd of residents Thursday.

McMenamin and Tennant, who leave office after Jan. 1, say fellow councilmen Steve Rapson and Murray Weed have locked them out of any voice or vote on matters concerning the tourism group, which was on track to take over operations of the Fred Brown Jr. Amphitheater and Peachtree City Tennis Center on Dec. 1.

Rapson is chairman of the tourism board, while Weed is vice-chairman. City Manager Bernard McMullen also sits on the panel, as does City Finance Director Paul Salvatore and Recreation Commission Chairman David Ring.

That mix of appointees, McMullen’s suggestion, “presents an ethical dilemma” write McMenamin and Tennant in a letter hand-delivered to the city manager on Thursday afternoon, just three hours before the scheduled start orf the meeting.

McMullen, who has invested countless hours into forging the Tourism Association plan to run the facilities, tried to talk the councilmembers out of their decision, but to no avail.

“We have concluded that since three members of council have apparently already decided what is going to happen, that our only ethical recourse is to refuse to attend any meetings that contain agenda items relative to the Tourism Association,” says the letter from the Post 1 and Post 2 representatives, who also questioned the legalities of the tourism board’s non-profit and tax-exempt status.

“We cannot in good conscience be a part of a process where there is even a hint of impropriety,” reads the letter.

McMenamin elaborated when reached at home Thursday evening.

“They’re asking us to enter into a contractual agreement with something that is just not there, and something that is a non-profit organization at that, which is questionable.” she said.

Rapson was clearly angered by that position Thursday night. In a response to the McMenamin-Tennant letter, he wrote:

“The two council members have refused to attend any public meeting where the Tourism Association is an agenda item,” he said. “This appears to us to be political blackmail, pure and simple.”

Approval of a management contract between the council and tourism association was among the pressing items scheduled Thursday’s meeting, along with adoption of 2004 budgets for both venues that put them in the black by year’s end.

“You show up at council meetings because that’s what you’re elected to do,” said Rapson. “It’s your job.”

“The ramifications of their decision” are great, Rapson said, suggesting that McMullen has three options if the Tourism Association idea falls through: Shut the venues down, try to run them with city employees, or call for a city council special meeting to address city business without the Tourism issue hanging over it.

McMullen was enroute to Colorado on city business and unavailable for comment Friday, but Public Information Specialist Betsy Tyler said alternatives to the tourism association were already in the works just in case.