Search the ArchivesNavigation Contact InformationThe Citizen Newspapers For Advertising Information Email us your news! For technical difficulties |
PTC settles tennis center lawsuitsThu, 11/30/2006 - 10:59am
By: John Munford
The Peachtree City Council and the city’s development authority voted Wednesday night to settle two pending lawsuits over the city-owned tennis center for $920,000 and use a revenue bond to finance the settlement over 10 years. City officials also revealed how they calculated how much was owed Peachtree National Bank out of the $1.5 million it was seeking in the suit. Under the settlement, the city will pay Peachtree National Bank $714,000 instead of the $1.5 million sought by the bank in its suit. Also, the city will pay Foley and Group VI $206,407 of the $228,000 balance those companies sought in its suit. All told, both lawsuits sought $1.72 million in compensation. The settlement agreements were not approved unanimously, with Councilwoman Judi-ann Rutherford the sole “no” vote. Immediately after the meeting, she declined to explain her opposition to the settlements and said she would support the majority decision of her fellow council members. City Attorney Ted Meeker noted that the city took the entire amount of capital expenditures spent by the DAPC and subtracted the amount of those expenditures that were funded by the city, leaving a figure of $880,027 in capital expenditures which the authority was indebted for. A staff review of authority records determined that loans for those expenditures were paid down to $607, 179. Also, Meeker noted that Peachtree National acquired an outstanding $205,000 loan that was given to the DAPC by Regions Bank, bringing the final total of DAPC outstanding capital indebtedness to $812,179, a figure the city negotiated down with the bank to the $714,000 settlement payment. The lower figure factors in a $107,000 settlement the city had previously reached with Regions Bank before Peachtree National purchased the loan, ostensibly to gain an advantage in the suit. Council also approved a third contract that will require the city to pay $54,588 for Group VI and Foley to construct the grading and drainage improvements at the tennis center, which has flooded several times during rainstorms. The city is being allowed to withhold $32,605 of the $206,407 due Foley and Group VI from the settlement, pending completion of the drainage and grading improvements. If the improvements aren’t completed, the city will be able to use the $32,605 to get the work done, explained City Attorney Ted Meeker. Council also unanimously entered a contract with Group VI and Foley Design Associates to make additional improvements at the tennis center for $54,588. Rutherford said she didn’t want to release Group VI and Foley from the project before the drainage system could be tested with a good rain. There was no direct opposition to the settlement at the council meeting, as former Mayor Steve Brown said he agreed the settlement was a “done deal” though he wants council to reconsider a recent change that would remove a council member from the board of the city’s Tourism Association, which now runs the tennis center and amphitheater. Some citizens wondered how a similar problem could be prevented with the city’s current authorities in terms of making sure they don’t seek unapproved loans that would create city indebtedness. Meeker noted that the lawsuit has been an educational process that brought to light the problem, though there were no guarantees whether such a situation could occur again. Rutherford noted that the DAPC situation was unique since a DAPC member was a bank president and therefore was able to secure the loans and “make things happen that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. Councilwoman Cyndi Plunkett noted that council also reviews the minutes of each authority and commission meeting and can meet with those representatives if there are any questions. One resident criticized council for releasing information about the settlement over the holidays. But Mayor Harold Logsdon said the city wanted to make sure the information was available a full week before the meeting, and it just happened that “Thanksgiving got in the way.” The $1.5 million Peachtree National sought in the lawsuit included roughly $1 million that was financed for the expansion of the tennis center, plus another $200,000 loan that was initially made to DAPC by Regions Bank for finishing out the restaurant and the bottom floor of the tennis center, and interest. Peachtree National Bank acquired the Regions loan after Regions sought to acquire the authority’s assets to pay off the loan. The $228,000 owed Group VI and Foley Design Associates stems from the change orders on the project, which former mayor Steve Brown said were never approved by Council. Those change orders were signed for by former DAPC executive director Virgil Christian, who resigned shortly after the DAPC relinquished facility operation back to the city. The change orders involved finishing up the ground floor space in the tennis center clubhouse which later housed college classes offered by Clayton State University. Finishing the ground floor cost $54,000, while other items included changes to clubhouse lighting ($52,000), landscaping and irrigation design and installation ($21,000), and paving of the south parking area behind the indoor courts ($12,000). The expanded facility opened in spring 2003. In December of that year, the authority relinquished operation of the tennis center and amphitheater back to the city, which owns both facilities. When that occurred, the city stopped making monthly $180,000 hotel-motel tax payments to the authority which previously were used to pay the monthly financing owed to the bank. Without those payments, the authority had no other funds to pay the debt, authority officials have said. Although the city later created a tourism association to run both facilities, that entity did not resume making the payments to the bank. Also left hanging in the air were the outstanding bills owed to Group VI and Foley Design Associates for the tennis center expansion. login to post comments
|
Copyright 2010 - Fayette Publishing, Inc. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use Policy
Server 4
