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Mayor candidates tangle over issuesFri, 11/20/2009 - 4:59pm
By: John Munford
Candidates dispute recreation cuts, ‘special interest’ allegations during Q&A In many ways, Wednesday’s mayor and council candidate forum in Peachtree City was all about the mayoral battle between Don Haddix and Cyndi Plunkett. Both candidates said they needed to “correct” misstatements and mischaracterizations made by the other during the campaign. Following is an issue-by-issue breakdown of each candidate’s viewpoint during the forum, which was sponsored by the Peachtree City Youth Council. Hwy. 54 W shopping center Plunkett, who has been criticized for voting to sell city streets and approving a larger than allowed shopping center on Ga. Highway 54 West, said she took those actions to avoid having a “21-stall gas station” on the property along with no buffers along the front end of the property. The property, however, would have some buffering due to city setback regulations and the overlay zoning rules that exist for all parcels fronting along Hwy. 54 West. Haddix’s vote against the development was a vote in favor of the gas station on the same site, Plunkett said. Haddix countered that without the city streets and the subsequent traffic light that was sought by council vote including Plunkett, the developer had “nothing” left to build on the site. Ultimately the site won’t remain undeveloped forever, if only because it is already zoned commercial and it’s off a major four-lane highway. Plunkett voted with the council majority on a 3-2 vote that allowed the developer to build a 175,000 square foot shopping center at the southwest corner of Planterra Way and Ga. Highway 54; that figure was 25,000 square feet more than the maximum allowed under city ordinances. The vote also allowed having one store of up to 50,000 square feet, up from the city’s size cap of 32,000 square feet. Recreation Haddix also challenged Plunkett’s assertion that he wants to cut recreation. Plunkett quoted a blog Haddix posted on TheCitizen.com in 2008 saying that “more recreation cuts are needed.” “As I’ve sat with him for the past 18 months I can tell you that when anytime a recreation thing came up whether it was closing the bubble at Kedron pool, whether it was outsourcing the Gathering Place, selling the tennis center, all of those recreational things were always on the chopping block for Mr. Haddix. Those were not a concern for how do we balance the budget and how to maintain our quality of life.” Haddix said he had to “fight” the council majority (which included Plunkett) to have the city make cost-saving changes to recreation in the current budget. Among those cost savings were cuts in staff and increased pool usage fees at the Kedron Fieldhouse that all combined will reduce the city budget by an estimated $300,000. “I want to protect our recreation but to do that we have to make it efficient,” Haddix said. “Not cutting it, not doing away with it. But run it efficiently.” Plunkett challenged Haddix, saying that he wanted to outsource the city’s amphitheater. She said that would have been a mistake and made it a “business organization” instead of a family-friendly one. Plunkett also said the amphitheater is enjoying a renaissance even though it remains under city control. Earlier this year the amphitheater operations were assumed by the Peachtree City Recreation Department. Previously it was operated by the independent Peachtree City Tourism Association. In a separate question, Plunkett said she did not support privatizing the Kedron Fieldhouse and Aquatic Center. She said with $300,000 cut from its budget, it still needed to be operated by the city to remain an excellent amenity for kids and adults. Haddix said he doesn’t see any harm in getting proposals “to see if we can save money on the Kedron center as long as Peachtree City residents are the number one concern for the usage and service” of the facility. ‘Special interest’ donors Haddix, in a question from the crowd, was asked if he felt Plunkett’s campaign was funded by special interest groups. Haddix said he did. “If you look at the names on there, developer support, pro-developer elected officials from the county that don’t even live in Peachtree City,” Haddix said. “You have other interests who earn their living by supporting development who also do not reside in Peachtree City. You check the list you see a lot of names out there that are not the common folk.” Plunkett answered by challenging Haddix’s assertions. “I take great offense to that statement. I have vets, I have teachers, I have friends, I have neighbors. I’ve received donations from a dollar to a thousand dollars because people believe that when you run government, you should run it in a civil and professional manner and that’s what I’ve done for four years.” Plunkett further added that among her campaign contributors were planning commission and development authority members and former city council members who she worked with. She also noted the contributions of two current members of the Fayette County Commission “who believe that we should all work together in a cooperative fashion.” “I don’t believe any of those are special interests,” Plunkett said. “I believe they are people who care deeply about Peachtree City and the direction that it’s going and believe that I will provide the direction to get there.” Plunkett also addressed the issue in her closing remarks at the end of the event. “Those ‘special interest’ friends of mine? Those are the friends that Peachtree City needs,” Plunkett said. “We need to be able to work with our neighbors, we need to be able to work with the city officials, the county officials and the state officials. I already work well with them.” Budget issues Haddix said he thinks part of the city’s $2.7 million shortfall for the 2010-2011 year can be made up for by delaying cart path maintenance and upgrades. That will help the city for a year or so, he added. “The alternative is closing down services elsewhere which obviously would be in recreation. We have to give in somewhere. Haddix said he hopes the city can also take advantage of increased efficiencies in hopes of avoiding a tax increase. “To cover it with a tax means a 1.5 mill increase. I don’t think anybody in here wants a 1.5 mill increase, and it sure would be damaging to our efforts to recruit businesses into the city,” Haddix said. Plunkett said she felt the city would need to cut cart path improvements. To address the shortfall the city will have to look at efficiencies in all areas of the city. In her closing statement, Plunkett accused Haddix of voting to raise property taxes for this year’s budget without a plan to spend it. She was referring to the 3-2 vote in which the council majority including herself voted instead to draw $451,000 from the city’s reserve fund, which had reached 36 percent of the operating budget. Though Plunkett is correct that Haddix voted against the reserve fund use, he had said at that meeting that he favored a property tax increase in case the economy didn’t bounce back as other council members had hoped. Plunkett also claimed that Haddix voted against repairing the police station and would have preferred to build a new one that could have cost upwards of $9 million. Haddix was unable to reply to Plunkett about the tax increase and police station votes because she brought them up in her closing statement, which came immediately after Haddix gave his closing statement. Plunkett said that recreation would remain a budget priority for her because it’s why so many people decided to live in Peachtree City. Cellphone towers All the candidates were asked if they supported allowing cellphone towers on city property as a way to generate more revenue and increase cellphone service in the city. Plunkett said she thinks the city needs to look at the issue but the city should not allow towers to be built next to homes or in parks. She said the city needs to determine if more cellphone towers are needed and if so, can they bring in more revenue since the city is facing a $2.7 million shortfall in next year’s budget. Plunkett said council doesn’t have any information on whether current cell towers can be added onto instead, and it also doesn’t have any information on possible adverse health risks. “TMobile is just one of multiple cellular tower people that could be coming into Peachtree City,” Plunkett said. “We’d like to talk to all of them, not just one.” Haddix agreed that he wouldn’t support a tower built next to homes or in a park setting. He also questioned whether TMobile really needs a new tower or not, instead of locating on an existing tower. “We need the technology but at the same time we can’t do it at the cost of our citizens’ homes, parks and the quality of life,” Haddix said. login to post comments
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