All of Fayette's Superior Court

judges have now disqualified themselves to hear The Citizen's lawsuit

against Fayette County and its three largest cities, and a visiting judge

has been appointed.

The judge's name had not been

announced as of late Tuesday afternoon.

The Citizen is seeking to halt

mediation talks between the county and the cities of Fayetteville, Peachtree

City and Tyrone pending a hearing to determine whether the mediation can

legally be conducted in secret.

The action came after visiting

Judge Stephen Boswell, who is overseeing the mediation, refused to respond

to The Citizen's earlier written request that he explain his reasons for

closing the talks.

The lawyer for the newspaper,

Fayetteville attorney Don Johnson, also has issued requests for any and

all documents produced as a result of the mediation, citing the state

open records statutes. The governments involved have refused to give up

the documents, citing the judge's secrecy order and arguing that the documents

are exempted from open records laws because pending litigation is involved.

Lawyers for the governments

also objected to The Citizen's use of the word "secret" in characterizing

the meetings, saying it has negative connotations and is inflamatory.

"Your choice of the word 'secret' totally mischaracterizes the court-ordered

mediation and I believe is used to inflame conditions," said Peachtree

City Attorney Rick Lindsey in his response.

Citizen Publisher Cal Beverly

invited the lawyers to look the word up in the dictionary.

"Let's review this for

them," Beverly wrote in his column beginning on the front page. "The

judge ordered all tax talks to be conducted in utter secrecy. No one outside

the judge and the lawyers and the appointed representatives knows where

the meetings are conducted, how often, who attends, what is being discussed,

what citizens' monies are being bargained and traded for, what information

is being used to come to decisions nor even what our elected representatives

think about the whole process."

The court-ordered mediation

is aimed at resolving a long-standing dispute over tax equity. City officials

have maintained that their residents are taxed for more services than

they receive from the county about $2 million a year.

County leaders say there is

no tax inequity, that city residents receive more than their fair share

of services.

Boswell ordered mediation after

the cities filed a formal request that he do so. As part of those proceedings,

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.

Beverly decided to question

the legal grounds for the secrecy order, he said, because the parties

involved are not private citizens, as in most court-ordered mediations,

but governing bodies, and the matters they are discussing involve taxpayers'

interests.

"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

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."

The Citizen's objections could

soon be moot. According to sources close to the mediation, the parties

hope to reach a conclusion soon. And if they don't, the law allows only

60 days for the mediation, and that time is about up. After that, court

action may follow.

Back

to News Home Page |