So why were the above factors

not included with the negotiations in light of the $16.3 million dollar

value, I asked? It was stated (by you know who) that it was not likely

that the city could get the price lower than what our own consultants

came up with. I disagreed wholeheartedly.

Other questions that I pondered

in regards to the then-Mayor Lenox and his negotiating skills were: Isn't

it true that you once stated in regards to PCDC that you could make it

hard for them to sell land? Isn't it true that you once put up $5,000

of your own money telling Applebee's that you could get them approved

here in 30 days or they could keep your money (The Citizen, Oct. 10, 1997)?

Isn't it true that you just love developer fat-cats and the making rich

of them?

Then there were other ways

that the wool was pulled over the public's eyes. We had several law firms

that were involved in the negotiations. There was this one law firm that

came up with what I will refer to as the dirty lawyer tricks scheme. What

they decided to do was advise us to use the lawyer-client privilege trick.

The way it worked was that we would funnel all our transactions between

the city and authority and our paid consultants though the law firm such

that if anybody was ever taken to task on it (in front of a judge) that

we couldn't be compelled to testify because of lawyer-client privilege.

Tricky, ain't it?

Another trick that was used

to hide activities from the public was that they didn't let the roughly

$1 million that was spent on the valuation study show up as a budget line

item via the use of the city's self-insurance fund. That's why the public

didn't have a clue as to how much was being spent or why or for what reason

until after it was already spent. The sad thing is that if the public

could have been included, maybe some part of the PTC citizenry could have

come up with an novel idea to help us lower the cost that we paid for

the sewer, who knows?

Our favorite number cruncher

on City Council (affectionately "Captain Crunch") stated in

part in the PTC Board of Ethics hearing minutes dated June 11, 2002 (page

22): "There were plenty of times when Rapson was Finance Director

and Lenox was authorized to do something, that Lenox did so in a vacuum

to the point that they got contracts from Mr. Lindsey after they were

actually signed ..."

Do you non-PTC establishment

readers think it legal for the city to spend money like that without council

ever taking a vote? In any event, I would say that the public needed to

be told.

Before there was a Dan Tennant

(Our Man), there was the "real" Our Man (of all time) my very

good friend, Dan Lakly. Now there was a trailblazer for you, and a real

role model too.

Dan Lakly was the one who set

the example for me on how to look the PTC establishment crowd in the eye

and to stand strong on an issue. Thanks, Dan, for showing me the right

way. Dan Lakly was also the one who saw early on that the purchase of

the sewer would be a big waste of taxpayers' money (how right you were,

Dan). In fact, he came up with the idea to seek Public Service Commission

regulation instead. Problem: he got no support from those that mattered.

The amazing thing to me is

that our Trailblazer and Citizen News Publisher almost had it all figured

out back then (as to what was being done under the table).

Mr. Lenox was even quoted as

saying (in the city's legal organ on Feb. 1, 1997), "We didn't do

a good job of informing the citizens on the issues involved." Yeah,

right.

Yeah, ex-Mayor Bob, you can

deny all you want to about the Development Authority contracts being valid;

but, something you can never deny is what you said on the Aug. 22, 1995

tape recording that day. Ha, Ha. Hey Bob, this Bud's for you.

Well, I gotta jet. If you enjoyed

my memoirs, I would be happy to come out with the expanded version (there

are some other juicy tidbits that I held back on, just to leave you guys

hanging on for more). Alls you have to do is just ask the editor to let

the Cowboy Engineer be a guess columnist one day. Or, for these and other

exploits of the Cowboy Engineer, check out the historical annals of The

Citizen newspapers. Peace and out.

James Melvin Ewing

Peachtree City

[Ewing served on the Peachtree

City Water and Sewer Authority during the 1990s.]

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