A bitter display of political

brinksmanship exhibited by the two factions of the Peachtree City Council

forced the cancellation of last week's scheduled council meeting

and threatens to handicap city business through the end of the year.

But the standoff by outgoing

councilmen Annie McMenamin and Dan Tennant against Steve Rapson and Murray

Weed, who both sit on the board of directors of the new Peachtree City

Tourism Association, could find resolution before the holiday weekend

is through.

The unlikely peacemaker in

the standoff is Mayor Steve Brown.

"It's funny how these

things work out," acknowledged Brown Tuesday afternoon, after confirming

that a copy of his proposed "Stopgap Measure to Stabilize the Tennis

Center and Amphitheater Transition" was on the desk of City Manager

Bernard McMullen for review.

"It's the ultimate

irony," Brown said.

Brown is recommending that

the city temporarily take on the 16 full-time employees of the venues

as contract workers starting Dec. 1, paying base salaries only. The contract

would end on Jan. 16, 2004, at which time an independent management concern

- likely a better established Tourism Association - would assume

responsibility for the employees again.

The management group would

reimburse the city for the salaries paid out during the seven weeks of

transition, Brown said.

McMenamin and Tennant, who

leave office after Jan. 1, say Rapson and Weed have locked them out of

any voice or vote on matters concerning the tourism group.

Rapson fired back last week

blackmail."

Tuesday afternoon, Tennant

said he would support Brown's proposal and agreed to attend a special

called meeting of the council to address the matter.

The earliest such a meeting

could be held is Sunday night at 9, when Tennant returns from visiting

family in Kansas City.

Brown confirmed that's

when the meeting would likely take place.

McMenamin - reached at

her family's vacation home in the Florida Panhandle - said she

was in favor of it as long as McMullen and City Attorney Ted Meeker could

assure her that Brown's plan was legitimate and would work.

"I'm a little suspicious

of anything Steve Brown proposes," said McMenamin, who like Tennant

leaves office at the end of the year. "I've never been opposed

to attending any meeting to keep the city's business going. I think

it's silly. We need to continue."

Neither Rapson nor Weed could

be reached for comment Tuesday, but both said late last week they felt

an obligation to the employees to maintain the venues at any cost.

Rapson is chairman of the tourism

board, while Weed is vice-chairman. 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" wrote McMenamin and

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

afternoon, just three hours before the scheduled start of the meeting.

On the agenda Thursday were

two items necessary to get the tourism association off the ground and

running: A contract with the city to manage the venues, required in the

association's bylaws, and 2004 budgets for the amphitheater and tennis

center that proposed making both venues self-supporting within a year.

and Tennant assured there would be no quorum, intentionally derailing

any hopes that the tourism association could be operational by Dec. 1.

Neither councilman regrets

the position.

"I felt I had no voice

in the meeting by being there, but by not being there I had a very loud

voice," said McMenamin.

Said Tennant, "This has

absolutely nothing to do with my relationship with Steve Brown or the

others on council. It has everything to do with not being a part of a

process that is not fair. ... What you're seeing now is a direct

result of the majority of council being willing to rush in to something

without having adequate planning for it."

McMullen was unavailable for

comment Tuesday, but city spokesperson Betsy Tyler said he was working

on a proposal of his own when Brown's arrived.

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