I would like to take this opportunity to say what a wonderful experience it has been to serve in various capacities in Fayetteville and Fayette County for over 30 years.
I cherish the memories of the many children I was able to help coach, in soccer and baseball, their very supportive parents and the other coaches and workers within our youth programs. Many of those youngsters have grown up and are leaders in their own right and have launched very successful careers.
For over 20 years I was active in service to Fayetteville in both appointive and elected office. As a group, City Council and staff have always taken a great deal of satisfaction in leading a very open, responsive and effective city government.
We felt very strongly that the peoples business should be done at City Hall and not on the editorial page of the newspaper, where the unvarnished truth is but an infrequent visitor from many of our would-be leaders.
I no longer feel that obligation and will instead share the facts from the standpoint of one who was actually involved in many of the decisions and the information that helped lead to the decisions.
The first area I would like to share some insight about is the most recent epistle written by Mayor Haddix in [the Feb. 22] newspaper. We have all heard of revisionist history, but most folks have the common sense to await the death of the participants.
HR 277, the Transportation Investment Act of 2010, oft referred to as the TSPLOST, laid out very specific steps and guidelines that had to be followed and accomplished by specific dates.
The Regional Transportation Roundtable, 21 members, was to be made up of 10 county commission chairs and 11 mayors. Ten of the mayors were to be elected by the mayors of each county plus the mayor of Atlanta as the region’s largest city.
Here in Fayette County, the mayors met and there was a 2-to-2 tie until I cast the deciding vote to elect Mayor Haddix. I cast my vote for Mayor Haddix, initially, because as a new mayor I thought he would enjoy meeting our counterparts from throughout the region and would have the opportunity to learn something about transportation issues and the many facets and factors of governing.
I was sorely mistaken and for that I apologize.
The first informal meeting of the mayors was held in downtown Atlanta with 10 of the RTR mayors, members of the executive board of the Metro Atlanta Mayors Association and officers of the Georgia Municipal Association.
The meeting was to allow the mayors to become acquainted with each other and share their thoughts on the process to be followed along with the various deadlines.
The gathering had, approximately, 150 years of mayoral and government experience from throughout the region representing very small to large cities. Mayor Haddix had been in office about 10 months.
However, that did not stop him from voicing his seasoned perspective. To paraphrase his comments: We do not have any congestion in Peachtree City, we do not need any of your transportation money, I am against HB277 and I think Fayette County should leave the ARC.
As can be imagined, everyone was taken aback by his comments. The next meeting was an informal gathering of the full RTR, interested parties from throughout the region and open to the public. Mayor Haddix made the same general statement at this meeting.
After this meeting it was apparent to most that Mayor Haddix had his own agenda and would be a poor representative of Fayette County. A number of mayors asked him to resign. At the same time the PTC Council asked him to resign.
It became obvious that whether one would support or oppose the TSPLOST Fayette County would be not be well served with Mayor Haddix as our representative. It was at that time that the Fayette County mayors reconvened and replaced Mayor Haddix.
Because of job constraints, several other mayors, though quite capable, were unable to accept the responsibility, thus I was appointed.
I feel very comfortable telling Mayor Haddix that any embarrassment he feels was self-inflicted. He was offered an opportunity but the majority of Fayette County mayors and others lost confidence in his ability to represent the best interest of the entire county. It was quite proper and appropriate to remove him and in strict accordance of the mandates of HB277.
Of interest at this point is the fact that Fayette County Commissioner Steve Brown, who had been in office for but a few days, made the same inane comments to the first full formal meeting of the Roundtable.
Is it any wonder that the first draft of the project list had ZERO projects in PTC and the county as a whole would have been a serious donor county?
With a concerted effort from Chairman Frady and me, working in a collaborative manner with representatives of the entire region, we were able to bring home a list of ROAD projects that represents a dollar for dollar match for our potential investment. It does not matter whether you are for or against the plan; the voters of Fayette County now have a choice with guaranteed benefit and payback.
Mayor Haddix frequently says people have trouble relating to him because he thinks outside the box. The readers can decide if there is any validity or sense of reality to the remainder of his comments.
My opinion is that he has no idea where the box is and would not recognize it if he found it.
It is interesting to note that as a councilman Mr. Haddix was usually on the short end of many 3-to-2 votes on issues of significance. He always blamed the three.
Now as mayor with the three new council members elected in 2009 and one new member elected in 2011, he is still on the short end with 4-to-1 votes, and it is now the four who are at fault.
Reasonable people might surmise, “Aha, we have isolated the problem.” Thank you for your time.
Ken Steele, retired
Fayetteville, Ga.
[Steele was defeated in his reelection bid for mayor of Fayetteville last November.]
