However, the article left

out the crucial information about past suits (exactly who

the plaintiffs were and what was the outcome). Moreover,

the article failed to provide the details on fees billed

to the city for litigation by Webb, Stuckey and Lindsey

during their tenure.

This type of information is

needed to show where the city and law partner James Webb

stand in the conflict of interest predicament that is

brewing for the appointment of City Attorney on March 3,

2000. It was also unfortunate that the article never even

mentioned the recent lawsuit by another of Webb's fellow

Bank Directors - Mike Rossetti.

There is no doubt that

Pathway Communities (formerly PCDC) is a force to be

dealt with in the Peachtree City and Fayette County

governments. Pathway Communities has long been the engine

that drives the PTC Development Authority. Pathway has

quite a few former employees that are now employed by

local governments. Likewise, Tate Godfrey who is employed

Chamber of Commerce.

Mr. Godfrey stated,

"No one, least of all business people, wants to see

rampant growth" (Fayette Neighbor, Feb. 10) and yet

his company tried to persuade Peachtree City to annex a

small quadrant to the west and cram a total of 6,400

people in the area not including shoppers. What about the

traffic and where would all the kids go to school?

The Fayette Neighbor

article continued, "Godfrey said he would ask the

[county] commission and local city councils to allow the

chamber to become more involved in these issues." I

contend that Mr. Godfrey and his employer are already

well immersed in such issues and that his goal is to

simply drag the chamber into the fray.

Now it appears that even

Coweta County might even be affected by the Pathway

Communities' influence. The Coweta County Board of

Education recently approved a controversial redistricting

plan that sent parents into a frenzy. Steve Black's

Pathway Communities is developing a new subdivision next

to the Newnan Crossing Elementary School.

At the meeting, "Peter

Skrmetti asked why the board wanted public comment on the

matter when it seemed the matter was already decided.

Many in the room said the impetus for the change was

Pathway Communities, who is developing the 2,500-home

SummerGrove subdivision" (The Citizen Review, Feb.

11). The theory goes that Pathway Communities might have

pushed for redistricting because they would be

hard-pressed to sell homes in a subdivision in which the

children would have to attend an elementary school that

is 80 percent minorities and has the lowest test scores

in the school system.

Residents are suspicious

because the Board of Education waited until now to make

such a decision. As far as I can tell, no one has come up

with proof substantiating such a hypothesis.

These claims may also arise

from the fact that the chairman of the school board is

said to have formerly worked for the law firm of Glover

and Davis and that the same firm has represented the CEO

of Pathway Communities, Steve Black's ventures.

Unfortunately, as long as

James Webb remains on the board of directors of the Bank

of Georgia with Steve Black and the other developers, his

reappointment as City Attorney will promote conflict of

interest and his firm will forever remain in a fog of

suspicion. With the development sector being thrown into

hyper drive with big box stores, variances, rezonings,

new apartments and annexation, we can ill afford to have

a City Attorney that might arouse suspicions of a

violation of trust, clouded judgement and favoritism.

If Webb, Stuckey and

Lindsey insist on remaining in the selection process, we

will need full disclosure from city staff, City Council

members, Development Authority members and Planning

Commission members to see if any of them have a vested

interest in the Bank of Georgia. James Moliterno, law

professor at William & Mary, said, "disclosure

is a way of preserving integrity" (Wall Street

Journal, Jan 31). There will be not one shred of

integrity in the city's selection process or legal

opinions unless we have full disclosure from all parties

involved in developmental decisions.

Conflict of interest cases

will continue to be wide spread in this country as long

as there is money involved. Even the American Institute

of Public Accounts had "to introduce sweeping new

compliance rules intended to stop the conflicts of

interest plaguing the profession" (Wall Street

Journal, Feb 2).

The Big Five accounting

firms had auditors who were investing themselves or their

families in their audit clients. PricewaterhouseCoopers

had 8,064 violations and found that even some of the

executives responsible for enforcing rules were guilty.

Do we want this kind of atmosphere in our city

government? Why should we even consider placing ourselves

in this sort of dilemma?

The City Council has the

ability to make a fatal mistake on March 3, 2000. With

just one vote, they can cause nearly every major decision

thereafter to be questioned leaving the electorate in

total dismay.

"Maintaining public

trust in the integrity of the democratic institutions is

essential to the success of representative democracy. In

that fundamental sense, ethics and democracy are

intertwined. Political ethics are the basis by which

citizens judge official actions, attach responsibility

and exercise accountability. An ethical government

process is a precondition for making good public

policy" (Excerpt from the Travers Ethics Conference,

Univ. of California, Berkeley).

Special interest groups

should be involved in the debate but NOT occupying our

City Attorney position.

Steve Brown

[email protected]