The public

appears to have signed off on the changes to Peachtree City's charter,

even if the City Council has yet to finally approve the document.

At last week's

council meeting, no one in the audience offered any comment on the proposed

changes the charter's first-ever significant revision. Council declined

adopting the charter officially at the request of City Attorney Rick Lindsey.

Lindsey said

he wanted a few more weeks so he could prepare the new drafts of city

ordinances that will be referred to in the new charter document.

The charter

revisions include provisions that somewhat weaken the mayor's power, particularly

manager. The mayor, however, retains "general supervision and jurisdiction

over the affairs" of Peachtree City, the charter revision states.

The mayor's

power to veto has been taken away, although for technical purposes since

that provision may have been written before the mayor was required to

have a vote on all council matters.

None of those

issues was opposed by either of the two mayoral candidates in attendance:

Steve Brown and Fred Wellman.

One new portion

of the charter is designed to prevent council members from interfering

with the work of city employees with unreasonable requests. Council members

are forbidden from directly ordering city officers or employees; instead,

such requests must be handled through the city manager.

The revised

charter would allow council members to gather routine information which

city officers and employees could easily and quickly assemble, however.

The charter

revisions also clarify the role of the city clerk, one of the more contentious

subjects council has discussed during the process. The clerk will now

report to the city manager, but can only be terminated or removed from

the position by council. Council is also given the option of appointing

the city manager as city clerk.

The revised

charter also eliminates the need to appoint officers such as the city

clerk, city attorney and city auditor on an annual basis. Instead, such

persons will serve at the pleasure of the mayor and council and can be

removed at any time.

The charter

revisions also address the possibility that more than one vacancy could

occur on council. In such a case, the remaining members of council would

be allowed to meet to appoint persons to those vacancies and, if the vacated

term is longer than 12 months, set the date for a special election to

permanently fill those vacancies.

The mayor or

mayor pro tem would chose the process council will use to make its selection

and must notify each council member of that process in writing at least

10 days prior to that meeting, the revised charter states.

In addition

to rewriting portions of the charter to match with state law that has

changed over the years, City Attorney Rick Lindsey also intended to simplify

parts of the charter so citizens could better understand council's intentions.

The charter

will also include references to the recreational path system, particularly

in portions discussing the city rights of way.

Other parts

of the charter were added because council felt they should be included.

For instance, a section on the fire department is included since it was

left out of the previous charter, which did address the police department.

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