The first opportunity I had

to learn about the amazing budgetary prowess of the council was at the

June 6, 2002 council meeting. Knowing the evident possibility of shortfalls

in the budget and an upcoming budget crisis, they committed citizens to

annual debt payments of over $86,000 per year, totaling $825,000, for

a parcel of land close to the new Wal-Mart.

This high cost did not include

the golf cart bridge they were considering, which brought the cost to

over $1 million. At that meeting the council said the purchase could occur

without an increase in the millage rate, but now they are talking about

increasing the millage rate because of shortfalls in the budget. Sounds

like someone was not being honest at that meeting.

The allocation of the money

for this bridge also occurred during the endless debate over the debt

of the Development Authority; I recall many council members saying that

they did not want to bind future councils to payments on the debt for

improvements to Development Authority facilities. Yet they did not hesitate

to commit us to about $1 million in debt for a cart bridge that serves

only a few residents of our city to ride their golf cart to nowhere.

The city council continued

that June 6 meeting by discussing allocating money for a dog park in PTC.

Council wanted $14,000 to put up a fence around a small parcel of land

for a dog park. While a gated area for your dog to run around may seem

like a good idea, would you place it as a priority in this city when you

expect a budget crisis?

It was my hope that these mistakes

were caused by the inexperience of the council and that things would get

better. However, after 18 months of this council, it appears that nothing

is getting better. This council continues to make horrible decisions that

are costing you money.

I'm sure you have read many

of the articles in recent weeks about the upcoming budget. Our mayor and

council members have been beating each other up in public debating the

budget crisis. From Mayor Brown's tone it would seem that the city is

dead broke and council needs to raise taxes and cut costs to meet budget

requirements.

Cutting city employee's COLA

is their biggest solution to helping solve the city's budget problem.

So you can imagine my surprise when council voted 3-2 to create a new

position in our city government, Assistant City Manager. This position

was created to the tune of $108,991 base salary.

This salary does not include

the costs associated with creating the position, finding and training

the correct person, benefits, or other costs associated with staff members.

It seems to me that the $109,000 should go to the people who make this

city function, the present city employees, not one new position.

I would like to hear the three

men (Brown, Rapson, Weed) who voted to create the new position justify

their actions when they have been complaining about the budget shortages

for months.

Perhaps our council should

tell city employees the real reason they might not get the raise they

deserve, or possibly be fired, is because our council blew half of the

money needed for the raises to create one position that is not even needed.

In fact, City Manager McMullen

was quoted recently in The Citizen saying, "Right now, there is no

cost of living increase. We could find cost savings to partially fund

it, but not fully fund it ... Our recommendation would be that if (city

council) wants to go forward with a 1 percent cost of living raise, to

fund it by reducing some expenditures further and adding a small increase

to the millage."

While he is claiming not to

have money to cover employee raises, he is simultaneously asking council

to create the new $109,000 position that probably is not even needed.

I am not saying that in a budget crisis that automatic raises are necessarily

the right move, but at least have the decency to tell city employees and

citizens the truth.

Throughout my 14 years in PTC

we have had one man hold the position of city manager, and he did a darn

fine job. Throughout all the growth in this city, Mr. Basinger managed

without an assistant city manager. Can someone explain to me why an assistant

is suddenly needed, when the city is nearly built out? Our council publicly

talks about the budget crisis, yet what was one salaried position a year

ago has now grown to nearly three salaries: Mr. McMullen's salary, the

severance package of our previous city manager, and now the salary of

an assistant city manager.

Gross negligence in the handling

of money has become a theme for this council. In fact, some of them may

want to consider a reelection slogan: "I can waste your money better

than Washington."

I have been astonished by the

priorities some members of this council have placed on our money, ranging

from unnecessary legal fees to unnecessary engineering fees to unnecessary

bridges to unnecessary dog parks.

Mayor Brown may have also cost

you millions of dollars by deciding to drop the tax equity lawsuit against

the county. The county has been, I believe, collecting a drastically larger

amount of tax revenue from PTC residents than the residents have been

receiving in services from the county. I guess our city officials are

willing to overlook your millions of overpaid tax dollars.

This council could also save

the citizens of PTC a lot of money and time if they would do some homework

prior to arriving at a council meeting. It seems that I cannot attend

a meeting without them tabling motions or sending something to city staff

to examine, because they neglected to do any research before the meeting.

Many of the items could be addressed and solved at the meeting if they

would take the time to investigate the topic beforehand.

I believe the citizens of PTC

deserve better representation than we currently have. Our current council

will not even take responsibility for their actions.

In a letter on July 30, the

mayor blamed our current budget crisis on a city council vote in 2000

to raise employee wages and hire firefighters to protect our citizens,

while keeping taxes low. Come on, Mr. Mayor, a vote three years ago is

causing our current problem? Maybe you should take a look at your voting

record to find the problem.

In fact, I encourage everyone

to take a look at the council's record. You may come to a different conclusion

than me, but it is this citizen's opinion that the people of PTC should

demand more from our elected officials. We should expect someone who can

admit mistakes, learn from them, and make improvements to the city.

Council, please do your job

instead of playing politics and blaming others for your problems. I hope

council will become straightforward when discussing future budget problems.

Nick Kaigler

Peachtree City, Ga.