The formal

investigation into the Peachtree City Council "bogus contract"

scandal has hardly begun.

But already,

Peachtree City council members are considering the possibility of asking

City Attorney Rick Lindsey to resign or removing him from the position

because of his role in the contract negotiations. Another potential council

move would be to withhold payments of hotel-motel tax funds to the Development

Authority that are required by the contract until the matter can be resolved

in court.

Those suggestions

were brought forth by City Councilman Murray Weed in a memo to Mayor Steve

Brown last week. At a special called meeting Wednesday night, council

voted 4-0 to hire Winston Denmark of David Couch and Associates as a special

attorney to investigate the matter.

"In any

case based upon the facts that have turned up it does seem to me that

the City Attorney's trustworthiness may unfortunately be suspect,"

Weed wrote in the memo.

Weed told The

Citizen Wednesday that his recommendations are only to be considered if

the special counsel hired by the city determines there was any form of

wrongdoing or neglect in the way the contracts were approved.

The contracts

specify exactly how much of the city's hotel-motel tax revenues will be

diverted to the city's development and airport authorities so they can

operate the tennis center, amphitheater and airport.

Two current

city councilmen claim the contracts signed by former mayor Bob Lenox are

not the same ones council approved allowing him to sign at its June 7

meeting.

Steve Rapson

and Dan Tennant say the contracts signed by Lenox had a major change:

language was taken out that allowed the city to reduce the funding amount

"at its sole discretion." In its place is language that requires

the authorities to agree with the city before the funding is reduced.

Lenox contends

that change was already in the contract that council voted on in its June

7 meeting. Lindsey says the change was e-mailed to all council members

the day before the council meeting.

Rapson contends

that change was not in the version of the contract that council voted

on at the meeting.

Brown has told

The Citizen that he wants to cut the hotel-motel tax funds used for the

tennis center so they can be used on other projects.

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