I asked this very question

of our own Mayor [Bob] Lenox during the council's hearing

on the RAM appeal, and I was told that he had decided how

the appeal hearing would be run and he was perfectly

within his authority to do so. While he never truly

answered my question, I guess what he was saying is that

it was his game and he sets the rules so I had no right

to question how the game was being played.

The whole council session

had a certain "Soviet Union" feel to it. Our

mayor spelled out the rules for the hearing and made it

clear that citizens in attendance would be limited in the

number of questions they could ask (two per person) and

he would decide who should answer. Speakers were chosen

in advance, presumably by the mayor. It seems that while

council was concerned about the Constitutional

"rights" of the developer, they forgot about

the right of our citizens to free speech.

While both the police and

fire chiefs spoke out at an early council session about

traffic accidents and concerns about their ability to

respond in a timely fashion to emergencies due to traffic

gridlock, those concerns must have disappeared since they

did not come forth at this session. While Councilmembers

[Annie] McMenamin and [Carol] Fritz spoke of public

safety concerns, only Ms. McMenamin cast a vote against

the appeal, leading one to believe that Ms. Fritz knows

that safety is at risk but for some reason she just

couldn't say no to RAM.

Clearly the face of the

city will be changing rapidly in the coming months. RAM

has already said they will be back before council in

March or April to have their Super Wal-mart site plan

approved. Who can blame them, considering how easy it was

for them to have this appeal granted? I can only assume

that city staff is already hard at work putting together

the reasons why this big box should be built as well.

The traffic impact

ordinance is nothing but words on paper. By showing that

they are not willing to stand up to a developer's

challenge, our council has put out the message that

Peachtree City is easy pickings. Look for more big boxes

and other unsightly development coming your way soon.

Steve Fodor

Peachtree City