The two outgoing members of

the Peachtree City Council have vowed not to return as long as action

relative to the new Tourism Association remains on the council's

agend.

Annie McMenamin and Dan Tennant

agreed to stay away from Thursday night's meeting, which was canceled

at 7:15 p.m. due to lack of a quorum. As a result, the entire Tourism

Association proposal may be shelved just days before it was to become

reality.

"We're being held

hostage by two lame ducks," declared Mayor Steve Brown as he apologized

to a puzzled crowd of residents Thursday.

McMenamin and Tennant, who

leave office after Jan. 1, say fellow councilmen Steve Rapson and Murray

Weed have locked them out of any voice or vote on matters concerning the

tourism group, which was on track to take over operations of the Fred

Brown Jr. Amphitheater and Peachtree City Tennis Center on Dec. 1.

Rapson is chairman of the tourism

board, while Weed is vice-chairman. City Manager Bernard McMullen also

sits on the panel, as does City Finance Director Paul Salvatore and Recreation

Commission Chairman David Ring.

That mix of appointees, McMullen's

suggestion, "presents an ethical dilemma" write McMenamin and

Tennant in a letter hand-delivered to the city manager on Thursday afternoon,

just three hours before the scheduled start orf the meeting.

McMullen, who has invested

countless hours into forging the Tourism Association plan to run the facilities,

tried to talk the councilmembers out of their decision, but to no avail.

"We have concluded that

since three members of council have apparently already decided what is

going to happen, that our only ethical recourse is to refuse to attend

any meetings that contain agenda items relative to the Tourism Association,"

says the letter from the Post 1 and Post 2 representatives, who also questioned

the legalities of the tourism board's non-profit and tax-exempt status.

"We cannot in good conscience

be a part of a process where there is even a hint of impropriety,"

reads the letter.

McMenamin elaborated when reached

at home Thursday evening.

"They're asking us

to enter into a contractual agreement with something that is just not

there, and something that is a non-profit organization at that, which

is questionable." she said.

Rapson was clearly angered

letter, he wrote:

"The two council members

have refused to attend any public meeting where the Tourism Association

is an agenda item," he said. "This appears to us to be political

blackmail, pure and simple."

Approval of a management contract

between the council and tourism association was among the pressing items

scheduled Thursday's meeting, along with adoption of 2004 budgets

for both venues that put them in the black by year's end.

"You show up at council

meetings because that's what you're elected to do," said

Rapson. "It's your job."

"The ramifications of

their decision" are great, Rapson said, suggesting that McMullen

has three options if the Tourism Association idea falls through: Shut

the venues down, try to run them with city employees, or call for a city

council special meeting to address city business without the Tourism issue

hanging over it.

McMullen was enroute to Colorado

on city business and unavailable for comment Friday, but Public Information

Specialist Betsy Tyler said alternatives to the tourism association were

already in the works just in case.

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