Let's all take a deep

breath and try for some perspective on this Peachtree City clash of strong

wills.

A lot of ego-power is involved in the struggle between the Peachtree City

mayor, Steve Brown, and the Tennis Center supporters. But what are the

actual facts? And may we draw some conclusions from the facts and not

from our well-developed prejudices?

Fact: The tennis center technically and legally belongs to the city of

Peachtree City, under the direction of the mayor and four city council

members. That council has the right, legally and morally, to change the

hired managers of a city-owned property.

Fact: The "hired" managers of the tennis center and the city-owned

amphitheater have been for the past decade the city-council-appointed

Development Authority of Peachtree City.

Fact: The group hired to manage the two venues (the DAPC) has made some

good decisions and some very bad decisions, particularly about the tennis

center finances.

My opinion: It was a bad decision for the DAPC to operate two city-owned

venues without even a written budget for the better part of a decade.

It was a bad decision, and most unbusinesslike, to operate for the better

part of a decade without solid accounting procedures in place. It was

bad management to borrow money for day-to-day operational expenses and

just hope that future tax revenues would bail the decision out.

Fact: A private management group, headed by Fayetteville businessman Tommy

Turner, has been poring over what financial records exist to determine

what the actual financial status is.

Fact: Mayor Steve Brown has been calling for such strict accounting for

at least two years now. It is only now that the accounting is taking place.

Opinion: Whatever your visceral reaction is to Brown, you would have to

ignore the actual facts to proclaim that the DAPC has been a model of

good management.

Fact: The DAPC owes a lot of money, including nearly $200,000 for construction

work done at the tennis center. That bill is a year old; it is owed to

Group VI. At least two local banks also are carrying notes approaching

$1.2 million. Some of the borrowed money was used to pay for construction

of tennis center expansion areas; some apparently was used for day-to-day

operating expenses.

My opinion: The services rendered and the money owed was provided by Group

VI and the banks in good faith. Those debts must be repaid. The quarter-million

dollars of hotel-motel tax collected by the city council and passed through

to the DAPC is the likeliest candidate for repaying honest debts.

Fact: The DAPC has been so engaged in operating these two venues and the

ensuing controversies that relatively little time, money or effort has

been spent on its primary mission, to bring new industries to Peachtree

City. The DAPC is using some of the tax money earmarked for economic development

to pay lawyers defending it against a sex discrimination lawsuit. It uses

tax money because the DAPC never bought liability insurance to cover such

suits by employees.

Fact: The DAPC admitted last month that the operation of the two venues

was beyond the abilities of part-time volunteer board members and should

be turned over to professionals at the city, the entity that owns the

venues.

My opinion: The DAPC should get out of the management business and return

to its primary mission.

Also my opinion: The city council has to swallow its collective animosities

and provide some leadership. The council should devise a spelled-out plan

for managing the venues and immediately move to implement the plan. If

that plan involves a hired management group, answerable to the elected

city council, then the agreement must be open, transparent and subject

to the financial oversight of the council.

Mayor Brown, the time has come to stop throwing bombs and start providing

some leadership. Newt Gingrich never learned to make the transition. Here's

hoping that you can.

Tennis center advocates, that facility belongs to all of us city residents,

not just to you. Life goes on outside. Tennis is a minor issue, compared

to the tens of thousands of folks involved in activities carried out on

less than adequate facilities with a lot less per-capita investment. You

have an elite facility. Soccer and baseball and football advocates can

only dream of comparable facilities. Recognize that numerical and political

reality.

Fact: Councilman Dan Tennant is running for reelection.

Opinion: Desperately.