This type of behavior is what the voters soured against from the last administration. Constant public attacks on fellow city officials are extremely unprofessional and inappropiate.

I fear this will become the norm as the next mayoral election approaches. They want us to feel like the city is doomed and blame it all on Harold, Cindy, and Steve. This way, Haddix and his crowd can make a run on the council in 2009. Hopefully PTC voters will see though this. I don't have much hope as the tactic worked to get Haddix elected. Fear and half truth go a long way towards influencing voters.

I hope Haddix and his "crowd" do make a run for office in 2009. I can't believe you would want more of what we are experiencing with Logsdon and his "crowd". Peachtree City may not be doomed but it will soon be if we keep having council members who are only too willing to acquiesce to every demand made on the city regardless of the damage it may do. Let's not forget that it was Logsdon and his "crowd" that couldn't wait to get into office and pay off that Tennis Center fiasco. Same "crowd" giving up our streets to a developer and now giving Sany whatever they want. Maybe you want this "crowd" to stay in but most of Peachtree City has had it with them. We want a council that will really take into account our desires as to what we want for our city.

Then vote accordingly. I want elected officials who conduct themselves with an ounce of professionalism. I think if you researched the hundreds of votes of the last 3 years, you'd find a different picture than what is painted here. It is funny to me you people continue to bring up the Tennis Center debt, as Harold ran on the platform of paying it off. He made that clear from day one in his campaign. The variance for Sany passed 5-0. That's right, Don and Doug voted for it too. I bet they were all going to vote for it without a trip to China. There is always more to the story than what John and Cal will tell you, even Don has seen it happen now, as evidenced by his reply above.

I don't want to see Steve Brown politics creep back into PTC. We as a community can do better. I see a trend developing which disturbs me. Decisions made by this council are constanly berated publicly by Cal, Steve Brown, and now Don Haddix. It is extremely rare to see good press in this paper at all (about this council). Cal sends John Munford in to do the dirty work, then Cal edits to achieve his desired effect. Would it make news anywhere else in this country if the mayor and manager bought a house to fix up and flip? City officials going to China is a good thing. We need to lure more good industry to town as the old stalwarts are packing up and leaving.

Steve Brown recently accused Harold and Bernie of violating the city's ethics code. If so, why hasn't he filed a complaint? Because there was no viloation. The city attorney cleared the trip, and they had the blessing of the council as well. However, Steve writes a letter making an accusation, and he knows the seed is planted. He knew the variance was going to pass, but created a controversy with a baseless accusation. It is this kind of behavior that disgusts me and alot of other voters. In my opinion, Don Haddix engaged in that kind politics with his letter to the citizen.

Right now it seems no matter what the issue, the 3-2 vote comes into play. It's as if regardless if the issue has any merits, if Harold and Steve are for it, Don and Doug are against it. I would prefer they all work together. Great ideas are born from disagreement. You can disagree and be civil. As a voter, I would like to see cooperation on issues from ALL council members. With public letters, trust is undermined and all that's left is anger. Not good. Don facilitates this with his tactics. Steve Brown 101. I would like to see it go away.

As I see this activity increase, I fear they are going to make a run on the council in 2009, using these types of tactics. I hope the voters see through it.

David Downing

The Sany deal was a done deal before I even ran for office. What we voted was mainly agreement maintenance.

Doug and I are not going to reject getting all but 4 acres of the wetlands untouched and 40 acres put in a green trust to never be touched again.

Hope that clarifies the vote for you.

Don Haddix
PTC Councilman
Post 1
donhaddix.com

...but unethical behavior is being tied to the vote, and I see no one on the council refuting the accusation. Did you think the China trip was unethical, and if so why? Reply privately if you like, as you can look up my email on this site. If not, defend the decision by the council to bless the trip and put to rest the accusations.

Look, I respect anyone who has the fortitude to run for public office. It is a thankless job which frankly doesn't pay any of you appropiately for time spent doing the job. Whether you and I agree on issues is irrelevant for my point. I just don't like the style of politics being played and hate to see them resurface. I would like to see candidates and council members debate the merits of positions, not constant attacks against each other. Again, thanks for your sevice as well as your reply.

David Downing

Mr. Downing, thank you. Council can be rather frustrating at times. But, having seen the patterns over the last 21 years, I was frustrated there as well. So, I figured why not be frustrated while trying to actually make a difference, now that I could run, than being on the sidelines?

I understand your point. That is why my Letter to the Editor was purely a contrast of positions and votes, not personalities. Cyndi, Harold and Boone introduced personalities, with false accusations of personal attacks and improper conduct, via what I felt was an inappropriate forum to do so. That was not City business. It was constituent business made personal. Hence why I remained silent.

But really, what other vehicle do I have to occasionally contact my constituents, which are all of PTC? The Mayor and majority get quoted heavily in newspaper articles regarding debates. The Mayor is the go to guy for opinions by most sources with questions. The Mayor writes the letter in the monthly Update. They would rather confine disagreement to city emails where they can opt to reply or not.

Many constituents do no use online venues such as my website. Really, many do not even own computers to begin with. But I have had a lot of requests and demands to be heard from, in the paper, more than I have been. And questions about the implications of news articles that I am not speaking up or voting against certain thing.

There was no mention, in example, that Doug and I managed to kill the LUC for Fairfied by forcing the developer to admit the franchiser would not allow him to build anything less than 3 floors, thus changing Cyndi's vote from yes to get additional landscaping next to residential to no to kill the whole project, since this the landscaping issue for her.

By the way, I had the GC and LUC ordinances pulled for rewrite to end the need for negotiating from the Dais to get proper protections, thus LUC requests, by including proper protections in the basic GC ordinance for such situations. Better protection of PTC without giving excuses or creating needs to give more to developers.

As for the China issue, I would rather not engage in that issue publicly. But profiles on the Citizen do not allow direct email contact, even when you enabled it. So I cannot access your email address.

I can be contacted via the website in my sig line or the Peachtree City Website, a public records venue.

Feel free to contact me.

Don Haddix
PTC Councilman
Post 1
donhaddix.com

I will contact you via city council email.

David Downing