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Dunn walks out of Brown ‘ambush’; road tax deal eyed

By JOHN THOMPSON
jthompson@thecitizennews.com

and JOHN MUNFORD
jthompson@thecitizennews.com

All Fayette County Commission Chairman Greg Dunn wanted to do was to have a meeting with Peachtree City Mayor Steve Brown about a possible compromise on the upcoming Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax vote.

Instead, the chairman discovered the mayor had invited a local reporter to the meeting.

Brown admitted that Dunn — who had invited him to the Friday morning meeting to discuss the SPLOST — was unaware Brown had invited local newspaper reporters to attend the meeting.

“No, he did not,” Brown said.

Dunn declined to meet with Brown because a reporter was present, to Brown’s consternation.

“What is it that’s so super-secret about this stuff that we can’t have open meetings on it?” Brown asked.

Dunn said there was nothing secret about the meeting, but that it was just a meeting between two elected officials and staff. Meetings of these types occur all the time without newspaper reporters present, Dunn said.

After the meeting was called off, Brown found out from another Peachtree City council member that Dunn was offering a “compromise” of increasing the cities’ SPLOST take from 30 percent to 35 percent.

Dunn wrote each of Peachtree City’s council members a letter outlining a compromise on the SPLOST referendum. If the vote is passed in November, the county would use 70 percent of the funds for the county transportation plan, while 30 percent would go to the municipalities for local transportation projects.

But in the alternative proposed by the County Commission, the percentage for the cities would increase to 35 percent if Peachtree City signed an agreement and the SPLOST could continue for a sixth year.

“This would give Peachtree City $15 million for their projects. If the SPLOST doesn’t pass, they won’t get anything,” Dunn said.

Over six years, the SPLOST would net the county $131 million for transportation projects, compared to an estimated $106 million over five years.

That offer is still not amenable to Peachtree City, Brown noted. He again criticized the county commission for voting on the SPLOST referendum weeks before a new state law took affect that encourages fairness in SPLOST distributions between counties and their municipalities.

“If they want to rescind their referendum request and do a new one under the new fairness law, I will work with them,” Brown said. “Name the time and the place, that’s all they have to do. And let’s have an open meeting and let everybody know what is going on.”

Brown added that he felt the 35 percent compromise — which would have the remaining 65 percent going for county transportation projects — was politically motivated.

“Peter Pfeifer and Herb Frady are in jeopardy of losing the election,” Brown said. “They’re trying to salvage their re-election bids because the people of Peachtree City and Tyrone are furious.”

Brown also admitted that he opposes Pfeifer and Frady’s re-election bids.

“Peter Pfeifer and Herb Frady have done more to hurt Peachtree City than any county commissioner I know of,” Brown said, citing the city being snubbed in the county’s master recreation plan.

County and city officials have long fought over the issue of double taxation and whether or not city residents pay for county services they don’t receive.

Brown said Dunn’s comments about the commission’s SPLOST to him and Peachtree City City Manager Bernie McMullen were different from Dunn’s public comments after the commission voted for the SPLOST referendum.

Brown defended inviting reporters to the meeting between him and Dunn, saying he felt the SPLOST discussion should be publicized.

“Peachtree City has nothing to hide,” Brown said. “If you want to discuss it, let’s discuss it out in the open.”

Dunn is hopeful members of the Peachtree City Council will read his compromise effort and pass the proposal, so that all the government entities present a united effort on the SPLOST front in November.