The Peachtree

City Council has decided not to formally impose any term limits on the

volunteers who serve on the city's various commissions and authorities.

Councilman

Dan Tennant had suggested the idea of limiting the members of those entities

to two consecutive terms. However, at last week's council meeting, several

ideas were mentioned that helped Tennant change his mind.

For example,

such a rule could prevent council from re-appointing someone to a seat

when no one else has applied, said Mayor Bob Lenox. Also, there could

be important projects, such as a recreation bond issue, which could be

slowed down so a new member could be trained, said Councilwoman Annie

McMenamin.

Lenox said

council could informally make a person's length of service a factor it

considers when interviewing applicants for its commissions and authorities.

Tennant agreed

that implementing term limits could become problematic, but he had come

up with the idea to "encourage the maximum amount of participation

from the public" and bring in people with fresh ideas.

"Don't

get me wrong, I'm grateful to anyone who has served two terms or more,"

Tennant said, noting that those people are not paid for the time they

devote.

City Attorney

Rick Lindsey said the city could not legally impose term limits on authority

members because the authorities are created by special acts of the state

legislature.

Councilman

Robert Brooks pointed out that council had discussed the possibility of

enacting such term limits before. He said the term limits would allow

council to "gracefully" decline to re-appoint a volunteer.

Brooks also

noted that the city often gets many qualified applicants for one position.

Instead of

making a formal rule to limit the terms of commission or authority members,

Lenox said council has the option to appoint whom it wants each time it

undertakes the application process.

"We spend

a whole lot of time interviewing all the applicants," Lenox said.