The Citizen's

publisher and parent company and a Planterra

Ridge resident have been targeted in a libel

lawsuit filed by the law firm that represents

Peachtree City.

Rick Lindsey of

Webb, Stuckey and Lindsey announced during

Thursday night's City Council meeting that his

firm had filed a libel suit earlier that day in

Fayette County Superior Court on behalf of senior

partner James Webb against local resident Stephen

Brown, Citizen editor-publisher Cal Beverly and

Fayette Publishing Inc.

"This has got

to stop," Lindsey said, referring to

"additional letters from this same small

group of authors that again implied some

wrongdoing."

"Someone has

to bring a halt to this type of inappropriate

journalism and the slurring of people with

excellent reputations," Lindsey told the

council and about 50 members of the public at the

meeting.

"We believe

their action is an attack on not only this

newspaper's fundamental First Amendment rights,

but on the very right of private individuals to

comment on matters involving their

government," publisher Cal Beverly wrote in

an editorial on Page 4A of this issue.

"We believe

that this powerful and well-connected law firm is

trying to shut off the voice of dissent and

debate in this community," the editorial

said.

The suit stems from

two letters in the Citizen's editorial pages over

the past three months, in which Brown raised

questions concerning Webb taking a position on

the board of directors of a new local bank in

which he is an investor while simultaneously

defending the city against a lawsuit filed by one

of his fellow bank organizers and directors.

The Bank of

Georgia's 12-member board includes Pathway

Communities president Steve Black and local

builder Mike Rossetti, both of whom have recently

been involved in litigation against the city.

Pathway has a suit pending that challenges the

constitutionality of the city's new traffic

impact ordinance, a pivotal element of the recent

Home Depot issue on the city's west side.

Brown's two letters

were published in The Citizen shortly after the

city announced that it would accept new bids for

city attorney services, which Webb, Stuckey and

Lindsey have provided since 1992. Bids were

accepted in December, after which city staff

recommended the appointment of the Newnan firm of

Glover and Davis, but the inclusion of the city

solicitor's position caused Councilman Robert

Brooks to ask that those bids be discarded and a

new round of bidding instigated.

After a second bid,

the staff changed its position and recommended

Webb, Stuckey and Lindsey to be kept as city

attorney and solicitor, but the vote was delayed

until last week's meeting.

Lindsey spoke to

the council at length about Webb's position with

The Bank of Georgia and what he called

"inaccurate," "outrageous"

and "clearly libelous" statements in

the newspaper. His complete statement appears on

Page 10A.

Brown, sitting in

the audience during Lindsey's statement, asked

for permission to reply. Mayor Bob lenox refused,

saying, "This is my meeting and I'll run it

the way I want to."

Councilman Dan

Tennant objected but was voted down, 4-1, when he

asked for time to allow Brown to reply to

Lindsey's charges.

"What we

witnessed was not only a gross and sickening

travesty of justice, but it was downright

frightening," Tennant wrote in a letter to

the editor on Page 4A. "On the one hand, we

have the city attorney filing a lawsuit against a

citizen of our community for libel, even though

the so-called libel took form in letters to the

editor of a local newspaper, based upon what I

believe were well thought out and well documented

opinions.

"Then we have

the mayor refusing to allow this same citizen,

Steve Brown, to be heard in his own defense

immediately after Mr. Brown was verbally

reprimanded by the city attorney," Tennant

wrote. "I am not sure which issue is more

outrageous or more scary."

Lindsey said after

Webb was asked to sit on the bank's board, his

firm consulted state ethics codes and asked the

state bar for an opinion, which Lindsey said

would not be available for a year or two. The

American Bar Association in Chicago also was

contacted, as well as an ethics and journalism

professor at the University of Georgia, Lindsey

added. They were asked about the ethical issue of

an attorney participating as a bank board member,

Lindsey said.

"There is

absolutely no conflict between Mr. Webb's

involvement with the Bank of Georgia and our firm

representing the city of Peachtree City," he

said.

As for the letters,

which Lindsey said began appearing even before

the bank opened, he addressed what he said was an

insinuation that the firm has been improperly

involved with Pathway.

"Let me state

that we have not represented Pathway or PCDC in

the entire time we have been attorneys for

Peachtree City," said Lindsey. "To my

knowledge, none of our present clients has a

claim adverse to Peachtree City which would

require our firm to either disqualify itself from

representing both parties or would require our

firm to receive a written consent from such

parties. Also, to my knowledge, none of the

attorneys at Webb, Stuckey and Lindsey, LLC, has

a financial interest which would be adverse to

the city of Peachtree City."

While billing the

city at less than its normal hourly rate, the

firm has received slightly more than $100,000

from the city for the last three years, an amount

that Lindsey pointed out is less than 1/30 of the

firm's total revenue. Of that, $25,000 is given

back to the city each year to the city's

Development Authority through the firm's

sponsorship of the Frederick Brown Jr.

Amphitheater Summer Concert Series.

"We have not

reaped some huge financial reward in representing

the city," said Lindsey. "The

implication that we have `gotten rich' off of the

city is simply false and ludicrous."

Faced with a choice

between withdrawing its application for city

attorney and fighting the charges leveled in the

newspaper, Lindsey said the firm could "no

longer stand idly by" while these

allegations were printed. "This has got to

stop," he said.

While the libel

case is litigated, Webb will voluntarily remove

himself from all city business. Lindsey and

Stephen Ott have handled most of the city

business over the past few years anyway, Lindsey

said, adding that this decision is an unfortunate

one for the city.

Any money received

given to local charities, Lindsey said.

"This litigation will be lengthy and

expensive," he added. "However, we are

prepared to fight, and fight we will."

A vote on the city

attorney position was tabled until a separate

ethics charge against Webb is considered (see

separate story in this edition).

<!--

-----------