"We're not meeting."

That was Larry Dell's response

to Citizen publisher Cal Beverly's suggestion that the Fayetteville City

Council, along with other municipal governing bodies in Fayette County,

has been meeting illegally to resolve a tax dispute between the county

and its three largest cities.

Dell, who Thursday was sworn

in for another term as a councilman, said that Beverly has unfairly put

the council in a bad light with statements in a recent column that Dell

said was factually incorrect.

In his column, which appeared

in the Jan. 16 edition of The Citizen, Beverly said the real dispute is

with Judge Stephen Boswell and his interpretation of state law, which

motivated him to order mediation talks to be done in closed session and

impose a gag order on all parties involved. The Citizen has filed a court

action seeking to halt mediation talks pending a hearing to determine

whether the mediation can legally be conducted in secret.

Boswell "ordered the councils

of Peachtree City, Fayetteville and Tyrone and the Fayette County Commission

to gather together, with quorums present from each," to conduct the

mediation talks, Beverly wrote, adding that the judge "further ordered

the meetings, with all members of all boards present, to be conducted

in secrecy."

But that's not happening, Dell

said before Thursday night's regular City Council meeting, because Fayetteville's

councilmen are not attending the mediation talks. The entire council met

for the very first meeting, but has only sent a representative to any

subsequent meetings, he continued.

"Just print the facts,"

Dell admonished.

Mayor Kenneth Steele declined

to comment on The Citizen's legal action.

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