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Mayor says he had right to appear on local cable broadcast to oppose SPLOST

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

A political action committee that has often clashed with Peachtree City Mayor Steve Brown will seek to file ethics charges against him for campaigning against the county’s Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax for transportation projects in November.

At a meeting of Direct PAC Wednesday night, the group voted to seek the ethics charges, perhaps at the state level, based on advice from its attorney, John B. Miller of Fayetteville.

The charge will center on Brown’s appearance on a local cable access channel, arguing that voters should deny the SPLOST, which was ultimately approved in the November election, said Rick Schlosser of Direct PAC.

Schlosser said Brown should have registered with the Secretary of State’s office as a political action committee, but he failed to do so by the Jan. 10 deadline.

Schlosser suggested the ethics charges be pursued on the state level. If they were brought on the local level using a city ordinance, the city would pay for an attorney to defend Brown against the allegation, said Direct PAC member John Dufresne.

Brown defended making the TV appearance to oppose the SPLOST.

“As a private individual I have the right to do that,” Brown said Thursday morning about his SPLOST broadcast. “The first amendment is still enforceable in the United States the last time I checked.”

Brown contends the Direct PAC’s ethics complaint is an attempt to discredit him because they can’t take him on regarding “the real issues.”

“I think it just shows how desperate they are,” Brown said.

Brown said he approached Comcast after the company aired the SPLOST forums offered by the Fayette County Chamber of Commerce. Brown contends the forum was one-sided and that the questions he submitted weren’t asked during the event.

“It wasn’t an open forum,” Brown said. “It didn’t allow for free speech.”

Comcast offered Brown the chance to rebut the SPLOST, and he did so, on a Comcast local access channel, he said.

“If I’d have done it on the government channel, I’d have a problem,” Brown said.

Brown opposed the SPLOST because the county commission adopted it to circumvent a new state law that requires more fairness in the way cities are compensated he said. Brown noted that he supported the use of a SPLOST for transportation projects, but he felt the city should’ve gotten a larger share of the funds.

Brown said the possible ethics complaint is on par with when he was sued in March 2000 by then-city attorney James Webb for letters to the editor he wrote about Webb having a conflict of interest because he was on the board of directors of a local bank and he was defending the city from a suit filed by one of his fellow bank organizers and directors. The suit, also filed against The Citizen for publishing the letters, was later dropped.

Brown also referred to former Mayor Bob Lenox, who filed a request for an arrest warrant against Brown for theft of city services in September 2002 because an employee picked up one of his children from a golf camp. The warrant was later denied after a brief court hearing.