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‘Mayor’ Munford: Hack budget, settle DAPC loan In the throes of covering Peachtree City’s mayoral campaign, and this being Thanksgiving Eve, constituents in Cart Path town should thank their lucky stars I can’t run for mayor. Imagine, if you will, that I’m mayor and I’m charismatic enough to get at least two folks on council to agree with me on the following issues. Say we want to spend money on cart path repairs. Where will it come from? I have a few ideas. 1. Ax the parking lot plans for both Meade and Riley Fields. Save $450,000 ... and that’s just for phase 1! Recreation is one of the crown jewels of Peachtree City. But what’s wrong with a gravel parking lot, other than it just ain’t fancy enough to attract regional and national tournaments? Sure, it’s more challenging for people to park in a gravel lot. That can be fixed easy on the cheap: Spend a few thousand dollars to lay down concrete wheel stops. As for the “wear and tear” on family vehicles? I’m sure it’s such a hardship on all these sport utility vehicles to roll on the gravel for a little bit. 2. Sell the “bridge land” at the entrance to the Wynnmeade subdivision. Put the money towards cart path maintenance. The city paid $840,000 for the 5.1 acres in 2002, under the theory that citizens in the “west village” needed to be able to go across Ga. Highway 54. Guess what? The city and the Georgia Department of Transportation are building a bridge a little further to the east that will do the same thing: get them across the highway. It’s a cloverleaf design, the brainchild, I believe, of City Planner David Rast, with tunnels and ramps to maneuver carts across the road. That bridge will be done by this summer, and it’s less than half a mile further down the way, accessible by the golf cart path that will be installed along the newly widened Hwy. 54. The only catch is golf carts have to cross in front of the driveway leading to the Best Buy shopping center. That could be fixed with a special “first of its kind” stop signal on the cart path. Wire that golf cart path light into part of the traffic flow governed by the light so carts, joggers, walkers, dogs and all others who use the paths will have a safe time to cross the road. Sure, it would irk those who drive full-sized autos to shop, but this town needs to take a stand sometime in favor of golf carts and the like, even if it means snubbing cars, trucks and SUVs for a few extra seconds on a traffic signal cycle. The purchase of the Wynnmeade site wasn’t just for a bridge, either. It was also to “protect” the residents of the Wynnmeade subdivision so the site couldn’t be developed commercially. Time and time again, normal citizens come to various planning commission meetings and city council meetings, absolutely appalled that someone owns land near their home that’s zoned for commercial use. Truth is, they did so without checking the local zoning map to determine what else could be built around them. It is not the city’s responsibility to buy up tracts of land to protect citizens from development. 3. Sack the expansion of the Gathering Place senior citizens center and all other similar non-necessary projects. Save $700,000 on the senior center alone. It used to be that some folks, the current mayor included, howled if you dared to build a construction project in the city without a voter referendum. The expansion of the tennis center comes to mind. Now it’s acceptable to spend $700,000 (estimated cost, including design) without asking the voters. I’d become a one-term mayor with this one, assuming I’d even win the election at all. You shouldn’t upset the dedicated senior citizenry, who always show up at the polls. But surely many of them don’t want to see their property taxes rise this year ... again! Instead of constructing the expansion, we should encourage senior groups to meet for coffee, cards and fellowship in some of the various subdivision “clubhouses” around the community. They’d only be using them during the day when they’re normally not used anyway. If not, I’m sure there are more than a few churches that have some usable space during the daytime, when the majority of seniors get together. The harsh reality is that the impact fee cash cow is running dry, and the city needs a reality check in terms of significant expenditures, and even the smaller more frivolous ones. If you think Peachtree CIty lacks sports fields with paved parking lots and bigger, better senior citizen’s centers, then I suggest you find another comparable city that has more ... and move there! 4. Settle the lawsuit involving the $1.5 million in loans owed to Peachtree National Bank by the Development Authority of Peachtree City. Use hotel-motel tax money to pay back the loans over a newly renegotiated time frame. The lawsuit filed by the bank has already cost taxpayers untold thousands in attorneys’ fees. Remember, the city has its own attorney, the development authority has its own attorney and the Tourism Association has its own attorney. Then there are the bank attorneys. I don’t have a legal degree but I have a pretty good feeling about where this lawsuit is going. In the end, bank attorneys will argue that the DAPC had the city’s blessing to incur the loans, and at the very least the city council and city staff should have known about the loans, and thus the city will be liable to pay for them. It is utter folly to say, “Whoops, we spent the money already but oh gosh darn-it-all, the law says we don’t have to pay you back.” Maybe another mayor would be hell-bent on having a day in court, just to say, “I told you so!” Not me. I’d rather stop paying the attorneys, instead paying the money to cover the loans. Do you think the bank would reduce the figure owed in an effort to get the money back as soon as possible? Darn right they would! I have a checking account at Peachtree National. Is it legal for city officials to ask me and other bank patrons to essentially pay the cost for the poor judgment of their predecessors? I think not. Attempting to shift the blame to bank officials is pointless because the DAPC was a city-appointed body, an arm of the city if you will, that sought the loans. When the loans were issued, the bank had no reason to believe that the development authority would lose its revenue stream, i.e., the city’s hotel-motel tax payments of $250,000 a year. That happened and someone will pay for the fallout, whether it be bank customers and stockholders or the citizens themselves. *** There you have it. If there were such a thing as “Mayor Munford” this is what you’d get, like it or lump it. I’d try to have an open mind of course, in case circumstances warrant a serious review of the above concepts. That’s the best part about writing this column instead of running for office. No one will have to hold me accountable for any of the aforementioned hare-brained schemes, even if some of them have merit. If those of you in elected office want to adopt some of these concepts, by all means feel free. Just be prepared to suffer the political repercussions, as just about every special interest group will be out to get you. login to post comments | John Munford's blog
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