Peachtree City

Mayor Steve Brown is apologizing for apparently violating the city's ethics

ordinance Wednesday morning as he tried to juggle his tight schedule.

The "violation"

occurred when Brown faced a scheduling conflict: his daughter was due

at a local golf camp at 9 a.m. but he had to be in a meeting at 8:30 a.m.,

according to a letter Brown wrote to City Manager Jim Basinger. Brown's

assistant, Gloria Reid, offered to take his daughter to the camp and Brown

took her up on it, he wrote.

The meeting,

which involved negotiating Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) revenues with

Fayette County and its municipalities, was important to attend, Brown

noted.

"Needless

to say, under the pressure of trying to make everyone happy, I had a lapse

in judgment and failed to see the broader implications of having Ms. Reid

take my daughter to the camp," Brown wrote in the letter.

Brown cited

a section of the city ordinance that forbids city officials and employees

from using city personnel, property and services "for personal gain

or for any purpose other than the official business of the city."

Brown says

in the letter that he will reimburse the city for the wages from Reid's

time in transporting his daughter to the camp.

"I would

like to ask for forgiveness from the people of Peachtree City and give

you my assurance that I will do my best never to get in a similar situation,"

Brown wrote to Basinger.

Brown has also

sent a memo to city department heads and chiefs asking them and any city

employee to "speak up" if they see a possible ethics violation

in the making such as this one.

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