Outside the windows of the

Fayette County Administrative Complex Wednesday afternoon, the traffic

ground to a halt as Fayette's commuters tried to make it through

the congestion surrounding Fayetteville's square.

Inside the complex, the assembled

leaders almost reached gridlock on the question of a Special Purpose Local

Option Sales Tax to pay for transportation improvements.

Wednesday's meeting was

a required element of Fayette County's efforts to call for a vote

on the issue in November. If passed, the one-cent sales tax is expected

to generate at least $101 million over five years to help pay for the

county's ambitious $400 million transportation plan.

But the latest monkey wrench

thrown into the efforts was from Peachtree City Mayor Steve Brown.

Brown delivered a seven-page

list of Peachtree City projects that he wants to see included in any SPLOST

proposal. The list caught many of the leaders by surprise, since they

weren't included in the county's transportation plan.

"Peachtree City wants

to see countywide transportation improvements, but I also have to show

something to my constituents so they can support it," he said.

Included in the list is 41

projects ranging from building a bridge over Ga. Highway 54 west of McDuff

Parkway to decorative signal poles on Ga. Highway 74.

Brown said the projects for

the five year duration of the SPLOST total $23 million, which is just

21 percent of the total amount that would be generated by the sales tax.

In an e-mail Thursday, Brown

said both the Georgia Municipal Association and the ACCG have signed off

on an agreement for the state Legislature on the SPLOST issue that would

allow the cities to have an equal say in SPLOST funding. He said the the

mutual agreement would allow for SPLOST funding to be divided by population

if the county and cities could not agree.

"For Peachtree City, we

would receive 35.6 percent. In the proposal that we extended to the county

Wednesday, we were only asking for 21.1 percent, not even a proportional

share," he wrote.

Brown's list was met with

coolness from many of the elected officials.

"This is nothing more

than a municipal road list," said Tyrone City Councilman Mike Smola.

Fayetteville City Councilman

Larry Dell quipped he didn't know the cities were supposed to bring

a list of projects, but that he could come up with one quickly.

County Commission Chairman

Greg Dunn said the county would consider Brown's list, but said the

county already had a transportation plan that had been worked on for two

years and that everybody had approved.

"I objected to it through

the whole process," Brown said.

Brown did say that he was generally

supportive of the plan, but did not like the priority given some of his

city's projects and had a problem with the implementation schedule

for other projects.

Brown asked for another meeting

to discuss the plan, but his proposal fell on deaf ears.

The leaders agreed on several

issues including a portion of any SPLOST proceeds would be allocated to

the Local Assistance Road Program, which helps governments resurface roads.

Another point of agreement

was that some of the county' smaller projects in the plan would be

build during the five years, because the county's top priorities

such as the bypass around Fayetteville would take years to complete.

"You've got to do

projects that have high visibility. People have got to see a return on

their money quickly," said Dell.

Peachtree City Councilman Judi-Ann

Rutherford agreed.

"You should have signs

throughout the county saying this project was paid with SPLOST funds,"

she said.

The leaders also agreed to

look at forming a committee made up of staff from the various governments

that would monitor the SPLOST funds and re-prioritize any projects during

the five-year run of the tax.

One of the testiest moments

of the meeting occurred when Commissioner Linda Wells asked Brown if he

would personally support the SPLOST if his list of projects was not included.

"I would have to see how

the City Council felt," he said.

"She was asking you, Steve,

not how the council felt," said Rutherford.

After nearly two hours of debate,

the meeting adjourned and the county officials said they would study all

the input before making any recommendation on how the SPLOST issue should

be worded on the November ballot.