To stave off

a last-minute problem with a plan for Peachtree City to pay off debt owed

on Falcon Field, the Peachtree City Airport Authority called an emergency

meeting for late Tuesday night to ratify a special agreement with Peachtree

City.

But the Peachtree

City Council held no special meeting to discuss the contract before it

was signed Wednesday morning just after 6 a.m. by Mayor Steve Brown. Instead

council members were briefed on the issue via telephone and in person,

Brown said.

Attorneys for

Kilpatrick and Stockton, who represented the city for the bond issue to

raise the funds to pay off the authority's debt, told city officials Brown

could sign the document since council had already approved the bond resolution

and a bond ordinance at its last regular meeting, said City Manager Jim

Basinger.

The legal opinion

from Earl Taylor and Ken Pollock of the Kilpatrick and Stockton law firm

said that "council, in effect, had approved what was in that contract,"

Basinger explained.

Airport Manager

Jim Savage notified local newspapers Tuesday afternoon about the airport

authority's called meeting for 9 p.m. later that night as required by

Georgia law. And though it was determined council didn't need to meet

about the issue, Brown said he wanted to make sure the council members

were all on the same page about the contract.

Brown said

each council member was okay with having the mayor sign the contract,

noting that Annie McMenamin preferred to have all of the City Council

members sign the agreement.

"But there

just wasn't time for that," Brown said.

The new agreement

was necessary because without it, the status of the city's bond sale was

in jeopardy due to the questions about the validity of the current contract,

explained Authority Chairwoman Catherine Nelmes.

The rush was

due to the fact that the bond issue was being closed on Wednesday morning,

so the agreement had to be enacted before then, Brown said.

In his conversations

with councilmen Murray Weed, Steve Rapson and Dan Tennant, Brown said

he never polled them in seeking their approval for him to sign the new

contract.

The contract

Brown signed Wednesday morning included one paragraph added by the airport

authority the night before. Brown said he was unable to run that information

"And that

was unfortunate," the mayor said.

The paragraph

added to the contract at the authority's request states that the document

doesn't alter or affect the previous contract between the city and the

authority, which was signed by Mayor Bob Lenox last June. It's that Lenox-signed

contract that has been called into question by Brown and several other

council members who allege Lenox was acting without council's consent

when he signed it July 31 because of an added paragraph that was not in

the draft given to council for consideration.

Lenox and City

Attorney Rick Lindsey contend the changes were e-mailed to all council

members before the meeting. City Clerk Jane Miller has confirmed that

the change was included in copies provided to each council member at the

June 7 meeting when council unanimously voted to authorize Lenox to sign

the contract.

The additional

paragraph does not hurt the position of Brown and council members Steve

Rapson and Dan Tennant that the contract signed by Lenox is invalid, Brown

said.

The original

draft of the new agreement which was authored by the attorneys representing

the city on the bond issue, wasn't received at City Hall until after 5

p.m. Tuesday, Brown said.

"We had

such huge time constraints," Brown said.

The authority

approved the agreement at its 9 p.m. meeting Tuesday with the added paragraph.

That agreement

has been called into question by Brown and several council members who

claim Lenox signed an agreement with a change that should have been brought

to the council's attention after council voted to give him authorization

to sign the contract.

That agreement

spells out how much the authority will receive annually from the city's

hotel motel tax revenues in return for operating Falcon Field.

The hurried

approval of the new agreement

The city has

issued a total of $1.62 million in bonds to pay off the authority's current

debt of $1.51 million. That concept was ratified by voters who approved

a referendum on the matter in the November general election.

"I didn't

want to do anything to jeopardize them (the airport authority) not getting

the money," Brown said. "... The document is fairly innocuous.

There's really nothing to it."

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