The Citizen

newspaper is formally asking Judge Stephen Boswell to explain his decision

to order secret meetings to conduct tax equity mediation between Fayette

County and three cities.

"The problem

is that the judge's order closing the meetings among our elected officials

during their talks about our tax money seems to be in clear conflict with

the state's open meetings law and years of established case law,"

said Cal Beverly, Citizen editor and publisher.

Boswell issued

an order Dec. 14 requiring that the mediation be conducted in private,

and that the parties not talk about the discussions. Though the order

cites no statutory authority allowing the secret meetings, it holds that

the decision is "consistent with the general guidelines for all mediations."

"In order

to provide an environment conducive to resolution, mediations are conducted

in private and information provided is confidential as between the parties

and the mediator," said Boswell in his mediation order.

Attorneys for

the Georgia Press Association agreed with that contention, and advised

The Citizen that, if the paper were to take the matter to court, it might

lose. "... my opinion is that the mediation can take place in private

as other court-ordered mediation normally does," said GPA attorney

David Hudson.

"However,

once agreements or proposals are to be acted on by the governing bodies,

I think those should be public meetings," he said.

Beverly said

he is still concerned, adding that previous secret mediations have been

between private parties, not governing bodies.

"I say

this respectfully, but the judge I'm sure with good intentions seems to

be making up law as he goes along, and that should be of concern to all

citizens," said Beverly. "We need to remember that these are

our local elected officials talking about our tax dollars. If anything

should be open and above board, it is tax talk. This is why we are asking

the judge to explain his statutory authority in closing these meetings."

The Citizen

delivered a letter to Boswell Thursday asking for that explanation.

Meanwhile,

mediation talks continued Friday as they began last Monday, behind closed

doors. But in the initial meeting, quorums of all four governments were

present. During that meeting, the ground rules for subsequent meetings

were set, and negotiations can take place between a smaller group of representatives

of the County Commission and city councils.

"The initial

meeting which included quorums from more than one elected body was especially

troubling," said Beverly. "Four governing bodies, each with

a quorum of members, met jointly behind doors closed to the public. There

is just nothing in Georgia law that allows such gatherings to be closed.

There is plenty in Georgia law that says they must be open to the public."

Professional

mediator Timothy Keim, appointed by Boswell, is facilitating the meetings

in hopes of resolving the long-standing, often heated tax dispute.

Officials in

Fayetteville, Peachtree City and Tyrone say their residents are taxed

for more services than they receive from the county about $2 million a

year and last January they took that contention to court, asking a visiting

judge to appoint a mediator and order the county to the table.

City leaders

insist that the inequity must be addressed because of a state law that

prohibits taxing residents of a city for services primarily received by

residents of the unincorporated county.

County leaders

say there's no tax inequity, and broke off discussions with city officials

on the matter last year. County attorneys challenged the cities' request

for mandatory mediation, but lost that case in November.

The parties

now have 60 days to reach agreement, or the dispute could go