Wednesday, December 10, 2003
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Wednesday, December 10, 2003 |
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Council members’ meeting attendance scrutinized By J. FRANK LYNCH The bickering members of the Peachtree City Council returned to business last Thursday, minus one. Mayor Pro Tem and outgoing Post 2 Councilman Dan Tennant was absent, but he wasn’t trying to make a political statement, City Manager Bernard McMullen said after the meeting. Instead, said McMullen, Tennant had notified him of a previously scheduled conflict with Tennant’s job as a regional sales manager for a company that provides employee identification services. Tennant and Post 1’s Annie McMenamin sat out the Nov. 20 session in protest of the way the new Peachtree City Tourism Association was coming together. Councilman Steve Rapson of Post 3 is chairman of the Tourism Association, and Post 4’s Murray Weed is vice-chairman, an arrangement that didn’t suit McMenamin and Tennant, both of whom leave office at the end of this month. Tennant was in attendance at the Nov. 30 emergency called session at which the council gave the OK for the city to temporarily hire the full-time employees of the city Tennis Center and Fred Brown Jr. Amphitheater as contract workers until mid-January, when details of the Tourism Association will be finalized. Stuart Kourajian, who defeated Tennant in his bid for reelection in November, never brought up his opponent’s attendance during the campaign. But Mayor Steve Brown, who actively worked against the incumbent last fall, claimed in a letter in the Oct. 22 edition of the Citizen that Tennant had “missed more meetings than any councilman in the history of the city.” In fact, records from council minutes show Tennant had missed just two meetings this year prior to the Nov. 20 no-show: On Feb. 6, and again on Aug. 21, both due to work commitments. His absence last week was his fourth in 2003. The Dec. 18 meeting will be the last on the council for Tennant as well as McMenamin, who leaves office on term limits after serving in Post 1 for more than 13 years. Prior to Nov. 20, McMenamin’s only absence this year was on Oct. 2 while her son, Terry, a police officer in Opelika, Ala., was still recovering from a September gunshot blast to his face received during a domestic disturbance call. Brown missed just one council meeting in 2003, according to the official minutes, on May 1, while visiting San Francisco with a group of metro Atlanta leaders in a trip organized by the Atlanta Regional Commission. Steve Rapson was absent for just one meeting this year as well, on June 5, while on family vacation. Murray Weed, who works as city attorney for Hapeville, was late twice in back-to-back meetings this fall due to conflicts with that position, on Oct. 16, and again on Nov. 6, meeting minutes show. Weed was absent twice in 2003, on Jan. 2 and again on July 3, when he was out of town.
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