Senoia's outgoing

Mayor Joan Trammell refused to allow much discussion Monday night on two

expense items not approved by the City Council.

In fact, Trammell

became so enraged, she called a five-minute recess during the middle of

the meeting because the council pressed her on the issue.

The fiery discussion

occurred when Mayor-elect Dianne Cleveland wanted more information on

two events that took place in the city last weekend.

The first was

the city's Christmas party Friday. Cleveland said nobody had authorized

the expense and the City Council were not invited to the gathering.

Cleveland also

had a problem with a going-away part for City Administrator Leonard Thompson,

who resigned after the November election. The party was at Trammell's

house Sunday night and was paid for by the city, but the City Council

was not invited.

Trammell lashed

out at Cleveland and said she had the authority to okay the expenses since

it fell under the category of mayor and City Council expenses.

When she was

pressed as to why the City Council wasn't invited, Trammell said Cleveland

and Councilman Bob Hannah had been invited to previous Christmas parties,

but had chosen not to attend.

The mayor also

said it would have been hypocritical for Thompson to invite the council

to his gathering, since rumors circulating during the campaign were that

the new council had planned to fire Thompson.

When Cleveland

said you couldn't put any faith in rumors, Trammell got up from her seat

and picked up a tape recorder.

As she plugged

the machine in, Trammell said the council should have been aware that

everything they said at meetings was picked up by the tape recorder, including

comments made by the council after the meeting had adjourned.

Trammell played

the tape, which supposedly had Cleveland saying, after Thompson had resigned,

that the new council would not have to fire him.

But the volume

of the recording was so low, it had many in the audience scratching their

heads and saying they couldn't hear anything Councilman Bill Wood said

what was on the tape really didn't matter; the issue was why the city

was paying for an event at a private home when city officials were not

invited.

Trammell said

many people had approached her and said they would pay for the party,

to which Wood responded, "That's fine."

As Councilman

Hannah quizzed Thompson on a recent conversation they had, Trammell banged

her gavel and called the council out of order and called for a five-minute

recess.

She hastily

got up from her chair and moved away from the council toward Town Attorney

Drew Whalen.

Members of

the audience wanted to know about the conversation between Hannah and

Thompson, but Thompson's only response was: "I don't think you want

to go there, Bob."

Trammell gavelled

the meeting