The lawsuit over $1.5 million in unpaid loans owed by the Development Authority of Peachtree City is still mired in the discovery phase.

All parties involved agreed to extend discovery in the case until March 31, as scheduled depositions had to be put off while attorneys clashed over documents the city wanted Peachtree National Bank to produce.

The city sought loan documents dating back to 1993 that were unrelated to the case, and the bank protested that move, saying it would reveal proprietary information.

Superior Court Judge Paschal A. English Jr. ruled that the bank did not have to produce such documents unless the proprietary information could be redacted, or “blacked out.”

The bank sued the city, the development authority and the city’s Tourism Association seeking repayment of the funds. In 2003, the authority stopped making payments on the debt after it gave up operations of the tennis center and amphitheater, the facilities for which they incurred the debt. After that occurred, the city stopped payments to the authority from the hotel-motel tax, which equalled $180,000 a year.

The tourism association now operates the tennis center and amphitheater.

The city has argued that the Development Authority of Peachtree City is a separate and legal entity from the city government itself, and thus the city should not be held liable for its debts. But use of the city’s hotel-motel tax money to fund the authority clouds the issue.

The legal trouble has bogged down the current DAPC, which is charged with recruiting industry and business to the city. None of the current DAPC members were on the DAPC board in 2003 when the controversy began with the resignation of Vice Chairman Scott Bradshaw, who criticized the last-minute development of cash flow problems in September, 2004 despite the receipt of “highly optimistic financial reports.”

Then DAPC Executive Director Virgil Christian resigned the week following Bradshaw’s blistering criticism.

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