This has been quite a month for discussing the value of telling truth. One of the most celebrated female athletes in world, Marion Jones, confessed seven years after the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games that she used performance-enhancing drugs. She formerly lied to federal agents about using the drugs and participating in a check-fraud scheme.

The real losers are the women who legally came in first and lost all of the notoriety and financial rewards because of Ms. Jones’ misdeeds.

Locally, we have Paul Henss who served as a prison guard and attack dog handler at the Dachau and Buchenwald Nazi Concentration Camps. Instead of offering an apology or asking forgiveness for being part of a program that slaughtered people on the basis of their race, religion, national origin or political opinion, he denied knowing about the mass exterminations which were widely touted among the SS.

U.S. Sen. Larry Craig from Idaho pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in connection to lewd conduct in a men’s restroom at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Months after the situation occurred, Sen. Craig said he erred in pleading guilty.

Lies are often the easiest route for many people because of the pain and embarrassment often associated with truth-telling. Lies can be serious enough to be illegal such as fraud, financial misrepresentation, negligence or false advertising. The actions of the former Development Authority which cost the taxpayers about $3 million in lost taxes and $1.5 million in additional taxes to cover things up caused a tremendous amount of lying.

Once the truth finally emerged about the Development Authority, there was absolutely no remorse from the authority members or their attorneys. However, some of the unsuspecting tennis members who bought into the authority’s false claims did apologize to me when they found out the taxpayers were, in fact, going to be saddled with the burden.

There are actually people who are professional “spin doctors” specializing in deflecting the lies of their clients and distorting what is false to make it appear true. The TDK Extension was a perfect example of spin. Several large developers associated with the project had greased the political wheels with campaign contributions and the lies began rolling about TDK being a traffic reliever road.

The countywide transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) has also turned out to be a huge fraud. The SPLOST is probably the single largest source of dishonest government financial activity in Fayette County history.

Local political action committees undertook a large campaign designed to promote a lack of understanding, create disbelief of the critics and insinuate fair planning when there was none. Unfortunately, a 51 percent voter majority bought into the propaganda.

Early this year, I had a local homeowners association president explain to me that a city council member told her there was no such thing as a “big box ordinance.” I replied it is ordinance number 875 in the city’s code of ordinances which was passed by the Lenox administration, my administration and the Logsdon administration.

Founding Father John Adams said it best, “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”

The whole Kohl’s discussion is a journey around the truth. At the Aug. 23 Comprehensive Plan meeting a local citizen asked City Planner David Rast if retail big boxes were part of the city’s comprehensive plan and Mr. Rast honestly replied they were not (The Citizen 8-31-07), so why does the mayor and certain council members continue with the charade of acting like they are following our planned community standards with the Kohl’s?

The comprehensive plan and our ordinances, the factual standard, says our position is “no.” However, some are trying to convince the public that creating a power center (three or more big box retailers in the same area) and creating a super-regional draw, debilitating traffic and harming our true traditional village retail centers is a good idea.

Mayor Logsdon promised the citizens in writing he would develop according to our planning standards and ensure those standards were met. Since all his essays are in print and on the Internet and we know how our ordinances and comprehensive plan reads, it is safe to say his assurances were not genuine.

Candidates Doug Sturbaum, Mike King and Don Haddix have publicly stated their opposition to new big box retail stores and sewer expansion.

Mike Harman conveniently left out any discussion of big boxes in his recent letter to the editor.

Thomas O’Toole is a very nice guy, but he has failed to be very specific on anything.

Dar Thompson is a conundrum. He was very open during the last election with denouncing Mayor Logsdon’s political promises as nothing more than a hoax. Then in a baffling move, Thompson publicly backed Logsdon in the runoff election. He came off as too willing to please the special interests. The special interests do not care about our quality of life.

Councilman Harman’s letter did include the overly broad statement, “I want to work to maintain the quality of life that we all moved here to enjoy.” Is following our comprehensive plan and ordinances part of maintaining our quality of life? He refused to say.

Harman also forgot to say that his leadership in Water and Sewer Authority (WASA) tried to purposefully circumvent a signed governmental agreement which stated the city government had to approve all sewage capacity extended beyond our borders. Harman and WASA insisted they did not need the city’s approval to sell 2 million gallons per day of sewage capacity to Coweta County.

Past media reports show we had to force WASA to back down. I do not think Harman’s desire to accelerate reckless development on our border really helps us maintain our quality of life.

Prediction: The Kohl’s vote will be postponed until after the November election so it will not be a negative for Councilman Harman. Meanwhile, he will keep his lips sealed about the issue.

I can assure you the local spin doctors will be out in full force trying to convince you to vote for someone without the facts. Do your research because we have a lot at stake at this point in time.

Steve Brown

stevebrownptc@ureach.com

Peachtree City, Ga.

[Brown served as Peachtree City mayor from 2001 to 2005.]