Peachtree City

Mayor Steve Brown's wish to study the creation of a sports and entertainment

authority has been sidetracked until April.

After several

council members said they were surprised the issue was back on the agenda,

council voted 3-1-1 to table the matter until its April 18 meeting. Councilwoman

Annie McMenamin was against and Councilman Steve Rapson abstained, again

citing the pending lawsuit his wife, Kristi, has filed against the Development

Authority over unfair pay. Kristi Rapson is the former director of the

amphitheater, which the Development Authority also operates with the tennis

center.

Councilman

Dan Tennant suggested that a cooling off period would be best since the

issue has been a hotly debated topic.

Brown contends

that a sports and entertainment authority should be created to operate

the city's tennis center and amphitheater instead of the Peachtree City

Development Authority. That way, the Development Authority could focus

on its original goal of economic development: attracting business and

industry to the city, Brown said.

The Development

Authority opposes the idea, saying that both facilities are used as "economic

development tools." But the authority's chairman, Tate Godfrey, told

The Citizen that the authority was willing to participate in workshops

on the issue.

McMenamin voted

against the motion to table the workshop discussion after she strongly

opposed the notion that the tennis center and amphitheater should be run

"I am

opposed to this authority," McMenamin said. "I see no need to

set up any meetings ... unless I can be assured of the viability and the

necessity of such an authority."

McMenamin,

who accused Brown of being biased before the matter was discussed at the

previous council meeting, also said council couldn't break the 15-year

agreement with the Development Authority that provides a set amount of

the hotel-motel tax to pay for the $2.5 million expansion of the tennis

center and $200,000 to improve the amphitheater.

Councilman

Murray Weed said that agreement could be called into question since it

was enacted by a previous council. Weed noted that a Georgia law forbids

city councils from legally binding future city councils, and he asked

for a legal opinion on the issue from City Attorney Rick Lindsey.

"I will

personally assure you that I will let this matter drop if we are committed

to some contract that is unchangeable," Weed said.

McMenamin also

quoted the mayor's remarks from e-mails on the issue, one of which said

that a sports and entertainment authority "will have to play by a

new set of rules and funding" if the tennis center and amphitheater

operations are transferred to it.

"My question

on that one is Steve, what do you mean by a new set of rules and funding?"

McMenamin asked Brown. "And when you write letters to the editor

or employees of this city or the authority, how are we the public to distinguish

between fact or political theory?"

Weed said he

favored using workshops to study the matter, though acquaintances have

asked him to give all information careful thought and to delineate how

much a new authority would cost.

"My agenda

is solely to have this thing in a position that it can be talked about

and see if there are other models or other manners of doing it,"

Weed said. "But we're never going to get to that point if we assume

that what we have now is perfect."

Brown argued

that if the Development Authority "could show they were willing to

work on these types of issues and if they did a good job with that, we

could discuss the possibility of leaving the tennis center there.

"Discussion

hurts nothing," Brown added. "We only gain from talking about

these things, we only gain from putting facts on the table. I'd like to

see us have some open frank discussion with all the people involved at

various times."

McMenamin said

Brown has an agenda and that it was important to note that Brown once

applied for a position on the Development Authority and was denied.