Former Peachtree City Mayor

Bob Lenox wants current mayor Steve Brown arrested for theft of city services

for requiring city employees to supervise his children and maintain his

personal schedule.

It may be an unprecedented

situation in Fayette County's political history: a former mayor accusing

a sitting mayor of criminal wrongdoing. A hearing on the matter is slated

for Friday at 9 a.m.

"This is the most abusive

use of the judicial system for political reasons I have ever seen,"

Brown said. "... It's really ridiculous and I am absolutely astounded

that he would sink to these depths."

Lenox chose not to comment

on his actions "because it is a legal matter."

Lenox applied for a criminal

arrest warrant on Brown with the Fayette County Magistrate Court earlier

this month. Several key city employees are expected to be called as witnesses

in the case, including City Manager Jim Basinger and City Clerk Jane Miller,

who is also the director of administrative services.

In his three complaints filed

with the court, Lenox accuses Brown of:

Requiring a city employee

to "update and maintain his personal schedule" on Friday, July

19; (Brown said this is simply a matter of notifying his secretary about

personal obligations so city staff would not scheduled city appointments

for him on those occasions. He does so by linking up his Palm Pilot handheld

computer to the secretary's desktop computer.).

Permitting a city employee

to provide child care services to him during paid working hours by supervising

one of his daughters the morning of Wednesday, July 24 (Brown previously

has admitted to a lapse of judgment on this instance and has requested

a formal ethics hearing be held on the matter. He has also offered to

reimburse the city for the employee's hourly wage.); and

Requiring several employees

to supervise his two children "while he attended prescheduled meetings"

the morning of Monday, July 29. (Brown replied that the situation was

caused when an air conditioner repairman was late to his home, causing

him to take his girls with him to City Hall so he could meet with local

church officials and Department of Transportation officials since taking

them to a preschool program first would cause him to be late. Brown added

that he never asked a city employee to watch the children; he merely set

them at a table to color while he conducted the meetings. After the meeting

with the DOT, Brown took the girls to the preschool program, he said.)

Noting that the job of mayor

only pays $6,000 a year, Brown noted that he must maintain a personal

life, and that the scheduling conflicts with his children came on occasions

when his wife was out of town and he was responsible for taking them to

preschool.

"I was trying to do the

city a favor by holding meetings with some important people," Brown

said. "The air conditioning repairman was 45 minutes late. What am

I going to do? Has no one ever had an emergency at home?"

Brown has previously criticized

former Mayor Lenox, alleging that Lenox signed hotel-motel tax contracts

with the city's airport and development authorities last year without

council's approval because of changes to the two documents.

Lenox took umbrage at the allegations

and responded that he did everything above board in regard to the handling

of the contracts. Lenox filed ethics complaints against Peachtree City

Councilman Steve Rapson in connection with Rapson's votes on the contract

issues this year. A special attorney later ruled that the contracts were

invalid because the copy of the agreements council voted on did not include

those changes.

"I'll fight anybody on

any issue on the merits of the issue," Brown said. "But you

start at people's families and their financial lives and have them involved,

that's well beyond the limits of what I call acceptable behavior."

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