The ethics board also voted

5-0 to take no action against me because they felt that, although I violated

the wording of the ordinance, I did not violate the spirit of the ordinance.

Voting to investigate the validity of these contracts did not and could

not have had any impact whatsoever on my wife's lawsuit. Her civil suit

will be a very long and drawn-out process and this one definitely will

be because it will be decided by a jury trial. There is nothing that I

can do to influence this process and I have nothing to gain by attempting

to do so.

I believe that I was bound

well as the Official Code of Georgia section 45-10-1, to protect the interests

of the citizens of Peachtree City first and foremost. I did not know prior

to the meeting how the other members of the City Council would vote on

this issue and I believed it was my duty to take a stand, especially as

the state code of Georgia requires public officials to "expose corruption

wherever discovered." These reasons far outweighed any other in influencing

my decision to vote to appoint a Special Counsel.

Now that the report by the

Special Counsel is complete, and the contracts have, in fact, been found

to be invalid and unauthorized, I feel that I definitely made the right

decision, the best decision and the only decision that I could have made.

I am now faced with another

decision whether or not to file an appeal. Again, I have spent many hours

seeking wise counsel and contemplating the "rightness" of filing

an appeal. I have reached the conclusion that although an appeal would

give me an opportunity to achieve a sense of vindication, I have already

experienced that with the finding of the Special Counsel.

While I can not control the

actions of others, I can control my own actions. And I chose to not participate

in perpetuating this issue any further. I think it's time for everyone

involved to grow up a little bit and sincerely consider the interests

of the citizens rather than those of an individual.

Whether or not the ethics board's

decision is overturned matters very little to anyone other than me. My

children, my wife, my parents, my friends, my family, many of you citizens

who have expressed support and even my mother-in-law are proud of me for

standing up for what I believed in regardless of the personal cost.

It's time to move forward.

Steve Rapson

City Council Post 3

Peachtree City