What's next for the Development

Authority of Peachtree City?

That's a question being

asked by everyone familiar with the organization, and especially the five

remaining members of its seven-person board.

There are no immediate answers.

Ten years after being given

the responsiblity by the City Council to build, improve, manage and maintain

the Frederick Brown Jr. Amphitheater and Peachtree City Tennis Center,

the authority officially returned that duty at the stroke of midnight

Sunday.

On Monday, the DAPC no longer

had any employees or source of income, but it did have an estimated $1.5

million in debt owed to local banks and a federal equal pay lawsuit still

winding its way through the justice system.

The agency was so focused on

managinig the amphitheater and tennis center in recent years, and battling

Mayor Steve Brown's endless calls for reform, that very little economic

development has taken place in recent months, those closest to the DAPC

agree.

They also agree the city needs

the Development Authority.

In the recent city council

election, both of the winners - Judi-ann Rutherford for Post 1, and

Stuart Kourajian for Post 2 - repeatedly called for increased efforts

to lure clean, attractive industry to the city's industrial park,

which hasn't had a major new tenant in at least three years.

But the Fayette County Development

Authority, which operates out of the old county courthouse on the square

in Fayetteville, has precedent over such recruitment efforts. The city's

industrial park is practically the only place in the county with sizeable

tracts of land set aside to lure industry, officials say, and so the county

authority would likely play lead to any significant negotiations to bring

new buisnesses to Peachtree City.

That's the main reason

why the DAPC had the time to focus so aggressively on the venues, which

and "recruitment" tools in order to receive a take of the city's

hotel-motel tax revenue.

That source of cash is gone

now as well.

"Regardless of who is

on it, it's something the city needs to have," said Attorney

Mark Oldenburg, who represents the DAPC in legal matters.

Two of the seven seats are

vacant. Former treasurer Brian Palmitessa died unexpectedly in August,

and former Vice Chairman Scott Bradshaw resigned abruptly in September,

setting off the chain of events that eventually led to the DAPC relinquishing

control Dec. 1.

The newest member of the board,

Bill Bexley, is heading up the selection committee for the two vacancies,

which must be approved by the City Council. Oldenburg said Bexley intends

to wait until after January, when the two new councilmen are seated, to

start that process.

The remaining members of the

board are Chairman Tate Godfrey, Bob Brooks, Scott Formel and Belinda

Seward.

The next DAPC meeting is scheduled

Dec. 15, when some final transfer items related to the venues will be

decided on.

"We've got a couple

of cleanup items left to consider for the City Council," said Oldenburg

of the light agenda, adding that the board members "need to start

discussing their options and come up with a plan of action and focus on

economic development."

That will be hard to do with

no obvious source of income. With no hotel-motel tax revenue coming its

way, and no amphitheater or tennis center to generate cash on their own,

the DAPC still has to figure out a way to pay down its debt and fight

the equal pay discrimination lawsuit brought by former amphitheater director

Kristi Rapson.

Records have shown that this

year, the DAPC paid out more than $90,000 in fees to an outside lawyer

to fight the suit brought by Rapson, wife of City Councilman Steve Rapson.

Oldenburg, who does not represent

the DAPC in the case, said the board hopes for a summary judgment in its

favor. It is assigned to a magistrate but there is no word on status,

he said.

"We're asking him

to agree there are no issues that need to be described to a jury, and

that magistrate will recommend to the judge that it be dismissed,"

said Oldenburg. "But we're not expecting anything until sometime

in 2004."

Oldenburg said the DAPC can

only hope the case ends in its favor.

"There is no insurance

for intentional discrimination," he said. And there is no strong

precedent to predict how a judge or jury might show sympathy on a defendant

that's flat broke.

"From a practical standpoint,

a lawyer would have to say, 'even if we win, what do we get?'"

said Oldenburg.

City Manager Bernard McMullen

and Finance Director Paul Salvatore both are firm on their positions that

the DAPC debt stay with the authority and not get swallowed up by the

new Peachtree City Tourism Association. Both McMullen and Salvatore are

officers on the PCTA's first board of directors.

While the City Council had

indicated a willingness to help the DAPC find solutions to the debt burden

prior to this fall's events, there's been little discussion

lately along those lines.

"I think the authority

is going to have to go to the city for help," said Oldenburg. "We

incurred these bills at City Council's request, and the authority

is going to have the burden of showing what all the money was spent on."

Sean Ferreira, senior pro at

the Tennis Center, has been instrumental in straightening out the financial

mess, said Oldenburg, matching check stubs to invoices and cross-checking

contracts, payment requests and receipts.

At the Nov. 19 meeting of the

Tourism Association, Ferreira said most of the expenses had been accounted

for.

And just last week, in response

to a criminal probe sought by Brown, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation

cleared the DAPC board of any intentional wrongdoing, citing poor accounting

practices.

"It did all start to dovetail,"

admits Oldenburg of the way the DAPC approached the mountain of debt,

and how it reacted to inquiries of that debt.

"Did they do it perfectly?

No, absolutely not," said the attorney. "But was everybody doing

it for the right reasons? Yes. They were always doing what they thought

the city wanted them to do."