So, what should we think about

last Tuesday's election?

How about the shockingly low

voter turnout in Fayetteville, less than 7 percent? More than 93 percent

of the registered voters in the commercial center of the county chose

not to take the trouble to go to the polls.

Everything must be happy in

the abandoned parking lot and empty big-box capital of Fayette. Maybe

that's why Mayor Ken Steele and Councilman Glenn Brewer were reelected

without opposition.

Maybe that's why their

anointed one beat a well-qualified accountant for the open slot on council.

Now, with three Delta veterans running the city, Fayetteville can expect

to begin moving dirt like the fifth runway construction at Hartsfield.

Look out, unincorporated and

unsewered rural Fayette: The annexation bulldozer is headed your way.

Fayetteville's manifest destiny lies westward, until it bumps up

against Peachtree City.

The Delta boys will start chewing

up the countryside, piously proclaiming they're expanding the city

limits to the setting sun just to protect water quality and our fragile

environment.

They've got some bargain-priced

bridges to sell to you, too.

In Peachtree City, voters decided

four years of Dan Tennant were enough. They chose a public blank tablet,

Stuart Kourajian, to replace him.

Kourajian began his new public

life with a blast at the squabbling personality-driven politics of the

current council and proclaimed that a new team spirit will rule the new

council.

Well, besides the obvious observation

that such public blasts don't do much to promote unified team-building

on a council that can out-vote a new member, I say, Good luck!

Shock! More people voted to

raise taxes than voted against raising taxes. The nearly $5 million library

fix-up and face-lifting squeaked by, adding a third item to the mom-and-apple-pie

list of things you don't vote against.

My question is, Do they really

need a fireplace and coffee bar in a public library? Fix a leaky roof,

yes. But cafe au lait amidst the stacks?

And Judi-ann Rutherford fell

less than 50 votes short of a runoff-proof majority. She and Lee Poolman

will meet in a turnout-challenged runoff Nov. 25, Thanksgiving week.

I hear disquieting rumors that

Ms. Rutherford opines she can hold her current job and still vote as a

council member.

The problem is that she works

as office manager for the Fred Brown Amphitheatre, soon to be a city-run

venue.

There's some gibberish

about that not being a problem because there's an intervening non-profit

corporation between the council and the venue, and thus she would technically

be an employee of the non-profit, not the city council.

Come on. That's transparently

ridiculous. Three of the non-profit's unpaid board of directors will

be city employees, in the hire of the council, and the other two are council

members.

If elected, Ms. Rutherford

would be voting on financial matters affecting the operation of the venue,

from which she draws her salary. That's untenable.

Maybe she didn't see this

change coming when she signed up to run last summer, but it is reality

now. She must either drop out of the race or resign her soon-to-be city-paid

job. There's no gray area about this at all.

I deliberately chose not to

vote for Lee Poolman because his work supervisor in the Fulton County

government is Councilman Steve Rapson.

All have proclaimed no undue

influence will result. But at least neither draws a day-job salary from

Peachtree City.

If Rutherford refuses to resign

her city-paid day job and is elected to council, her conflict of interest

will be greater than the possible conflict represented by the Poolman-Rapson

Fulton County connection.

If she intends to hold onto

her amphitheater job, Ms. Rutherford should NOT be elected to city council.