A new political action committee

dedicated to seeing "qualified" candidates elected to Peachtree

City Council seats has hit the ground running.

The PAC's first official action

was to throw support behind a bill to amend the duties of the city's development

authority to allow it to continue managing the amphitheater and tennis

center.

Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-Sharpsburg)

proposed the legislation as an alternative to creating a city entertainment

and sports authority, as requested by Mayor Steve Brown and council earlier

this year.

Rex Green, a longtime political

observer who described himself as chairman of the "DIRECT" PAC,

and Rick Schlosser, vice-chairman, showed up at a 7:45 a.m. March 29 city

council meeting specially called to sign off on final wording on the legislation.

Green told the surprised council

that the PAC was formed by "like-minded citizens ... committed to

maintaining the aura of the city."

Later, he said the group was

born out of a general dissatisfaction with local government.

"It's that simple,"

said Green. "It's not about one individual, just local government

in general and the feeling that the community is moving in the wrong direction."

Brown, who rode into office

as the unlikely "outsider" candidate 15 months ago, said he

believes the PAC is aimed at him and similar "antiestablishment"

candidates.

Green denied it would become

a means of personal attack. "There is no one associated with this

who wants it to be a hit-and-run operation," he said. "There

are a lot of people out there who have alot of good ideas, and they've

come together. It's not some kind of political hit squad. Our purpose

is not to feed the flames, but to put our feet to the fire."

DIRECT could get an early initiation

into local elections as two seats on the council are up for grabs this

fall. Annie McMenamin is retiring from Post 1, having fulfilled her term

limits, and Dan Tennant's Post 2 term expires, but he hasn't made a decision

yet whether to seek reelection, he said.

"I haven't announced that

I'm going to run, but I haven't announced that I'm not going to run,"

Tennant said last week.

In the meantime, Green said,

his group will analyze the issues and the potential candidates and think

about recommendations.

A website will be up and running

soon, he said.

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