Peachtree City might end up

taking its development and airport authorities to court to have their

hotel-motel tax contracts declared invalid.

That's the recommendation from

Winston Denmark, the independent attorney hired by the City Council to

investigate the validity of the contracts, which were signed last year

Denmark reported to the council

that the contracts authorized by the council last year were not the same

contracts signed by the mayor and the authorities. The agreements, Denmark

wrote, "are unauthorized and therefore invalid."

The sticking point involved

the city's ultimate control over a tax it levies. Mayor Steve Brown and

council members Steve Rapson and Dan Tennant contend the contract they

authorized would have allowed the city to change or delete the tax at

the council's sole discretion. The documents signed by Lenox contained

the provision that the council would have to get the authorities' OK to

change the funding.

The contracts stipulate how

much hotel-motel tax funding the authorities get to operate Falcon Field,

the city tennis center and the city amphitheater.

"Once the court declares

the contracts invalid, the City would be free to enter into new agreements

with the authorities or support their operations on terms approved by

City Council," Denmark wrote, adding that the city "has no obligation

to continue payments to the authorities."

Council is slated to discuss

the Denmark report at its regular meeting Thursday night at 7 p.m. at

City Hall.

The investigation was ordered

claimed the versions of the contracts signed by Lenox differed dramatically

from the versions council approved last year.

The versions Lenox signed required

both the city and the authorities to agree on any possible change to the

hotel-motel tax funding, while the original agreement said the city could

change the funding "at its sole discretion."

Lenox and others have claimed

that the changes were shared with council members and the amended documents

were provided to each council member the evening it voted on the matter

June 7 of last year. But the council "books," the binders of

information provided to council members, only contained the original version

of the agreements, Denmark noted in his 29-page report.

Denmark also noted that during

the June 7, 2001 meeting "no member of City Council, the city attorney,

nor any member of the staff mentioned the revised Airport Authority agreement

placed on the dais."

During the discussion of the

contracts at that meeting, City Attorney Rick Lindsey specifically referred

to the version of the contracts that was in the council book, Denmark

added.

Denmark also said he found

insufficient evidence to bolster claims that Lenox, Lindsey, City Manager

Jim Basinger and others conspired to conceal or enact the revised versions

of the hotel motel tax contracts "to protect the authorities' funding

source from the incoming Brown administration, which many felt would be

hostile towards the authorities."

"There is insufficient

evidence to support the notion that any individuals acted in concert to

conceal the nature of the agreements executed, to engineer a so-called

'bait and switch' or to engage in unlawful activity," Denmark wrote.

"... In the end there were simply no facts or evidence which would

give rise to the inference of wrongdoing."

But Denmark did not totally

dismiss the possibility that the actions taken by Lenox and others were

part of a conspiracy.

"By the same token, however,

Special Counsel cannot definitively rule out the possibility that a conspiracy

existed," Denmark wrote. "The lack of evidence works both ways."

At least one council member

thinks taking the matter to court is not a good solution. Councilman Dan

Tennant, in a letter to his fellow council members and staff members of

the authorities, says the differences should be resolved at a public meeting

between council and the authorities ... not in court.

"Further legal battles

with the airport and development authorities are not the answer,"

Tennant wrote. (The full text of the letter is printed on Page 8A.) "The

only things that avenue promises are more legal fees and even greater

bitterness with one or more parties."

A meeting would allow all participants

"... to literally sit down in a calm and reasonable manner to express

our views, to iron out our differences, to voice our concerns, and to

try to put the past behind us and move forward in a manner which benefits

all, most importantly, the tax paying citizens of Peachtree City."

Tennant also said the "acrimonious

behavior" from various parties debating the issue has built a level

of mistrust in citizens.

"I don't know about you,

but I think the average citizen is losing complete faith in our city government

and the way it works, and the current combative and antagonistic atmosphere

that pervades the leaders of this community is indeed becoming a cancer

that is endangering the vitality and very life of public service in Peachtree

City," Tennant wrote.

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