Peachtree City

Mayor Steve Brown must repay the city for the estimated 30 minutes a secretary

spent to drop off his daughter at a golf camp this summer, the city's

ethics board ruled Wednesday night.

Although the

board ruled Brown violated the city's ethics ordinance, it decided only

to admonish Brown not to violate the ordinance again. Brown had specially

requested the hearing, although he was the only one to file a complaint

about the incident.

In reading

a written statement to the board, Brown said he assumed the secretary

was going to use her break time to drive his daughter to the Braelinn

Golf Club while he attended an important sales tax meeting in Fayetteville.

"Please

note that I never asked, requested or ordered a city employee to care

for my child," Brown said.

Brown didn't

present any witnesses during the 30-minute hearing. He fielded several

brief questions after his statement.

Several board

members said they considered the infraction so minor, they wondered why

a hearing was convened.

Board member

Frances Meaders suggested Brown could have repaid the money "without

going to a full-blown hearing."

"It could

have been handled administratively," Meaders said. "It could

have saved a lot of time and money."

"I question

why we are here," said board member Terry Garlock. "We have

a very minor matter and we have a prompt voluntary disclosure."

Brown said

one reason he requested the hearing was because he felt the matter would

be blown out of proportion by others. He pointed to the efforts of former

Mayor Bob Lenox, who sought to file criminal charges against Brown relating

to the incident for theft of services. A Fayette County magistrate ruled

there was not probable cause for the criminal charges to be lodged.

Garlock said

he would also like to see the ethics ordinance changed to create a "front-end"

screening process for ethics complaints and the creation of a penalty

for those who file trivial or frivolous complaints.

After the hearing,

Brown said he didn't like the idea of creating a screening process. He

said a provision in the ordinance that doesn't allow ethics complaints

to be dropped is effective instead.

The ethics

board members were selected at random from a pool of 10 eligible persons

that was created by the City Council in January, with each council member

appointing two individuals to the pool.

Several weeks

ago, council drew five members at random to serve on the board. But several

members recused themselves for different reasons and they had to be replaced

Garlock, who

was appointed to the ethics board pool by Brown, originally planned to

withdraw his name, but after several others recused themselves he agreed

to sit on the board for the hearing.

The other board

members for the hearing included Meaders (who was appointed by councilman

Murray Weed), Alison Moore and Steve Fraas (both appointed by councilman

Steve Rapson), and Bill Webster (appointed by councilman Dan Tennant).

According to

city spokesperson Betsy Tyler, the following ethics board candidates bowed

out from serving on the board for this hearing:

Rob Rothly,

because he was appointed to the pool by Brown;

Ann Matwick,

who served as the treasurer for Brown's campaign;

Barry Amos,

who works with Brown in his role as Tyrone town manager;

Iola Snow,

who was to be out of town when the hearing was originally slated to take

place; and

Rob Williams,

who declined because his firm is applying for the city attorney position.

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