Former Peachtree City Mayor

Bob Lenox has filed an ethics complaint against City Councilman Steve

Rapson, claiming he is using his position "to garner significant

financial gain for him and his family."

Lenox claims Rapson should

not have voted at Thursday night's council meeting to seek a special attorney

to investigate contracts the city entered with the development and airport

authorities last year. The contracts specify how much hotel-motel tax

revenues each authority will get to operate and pay debt for the tennis

center, amphitheater and airport.

Rapson's wife, Kristi, is a

former development authority employee who has sued the authority alleging

she was paid unfairly due to her gender while she served as director of

the amphitheater.

In his complaint, Lenox alleges

Rapson "was in the forefront of formulating this issue and bringing

it to a City Council vote."

"Mr. Rapson is working,

publicly and privately, to destroy the credibility of the development

authority in an effort to force a monetary settlement of his wife's lawsuit

on terms favorable to him and his family," Lenox wrote in the complaint.

"... Mr. Rapson further seeks to cripple the development authority

financially so they will be unable to effectively defend themselves in

court against his wife's lawsuit."

Rapson, who claims Lenox signed

the contracts with council authority despite a significant change in the

agreements, defended his ability to vote on the matter.

"Lenox's actions were

wrong. They need to be corrected," Rapson said in a written response

to Lenox's complaint. "... I must make sure that the authenticity

of the governmental process is preserved. Although Lenox is no longer

an elected official and ethics charges cannot be filed against him in

this matter, he needs to realize that he will be held accountable to the

people of Peachtree City."

Lenox also alleged in his complaint

that Rapson wants council to regain control of the amphitheater from the

development authority "so that he can engineer the rehiring of his

wife as its director at an exorbitant salary."

"Despite prior warnings

and with utter disregard for the fact that he risks destroying the tennis

center and the amphitheater in the process, Mr. Rapson is using his office

to further his personal financial interests," Lenox wrote in the

complaint.

In his response, Rapson said

some of the charges made by Lenox in the letter "are not worthy of

a serious response."

The City Council will convene

a meeting of its ethics board by randomly drawing five names from the

list of qualified citizens at its next regular council meeting June 6.

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