The main question raised at City Hall centered around the state law that says governments cannot use taxpayer money to promote bond issues with mailers and brochures. Questions also centered around a new citizens committee that is laced with city officials and was organized recently to promote the bond. Government officials can state how they will vote, but cannot campaign for bond issues.
Dunaway apparently planned to distribute this information without the consent, much less a vote, by the City Council, which already is divided over the parks bond. The Mayor made the City Council aware of his plans for distributing “content-neutral” information about the parks bond at Wednesday night’s council meeting with a brief two-minute presentation, but members say he did not mention using taxpayer money for mailers and brochures. Monday, a veteran councilman said the mayor’s plans “blurred” the lines of legality, and another councilman wondered aloud of Dunaway, “I don’t know what he’s been smoking.”
Council members Philip Goldstein, the Rev. Anthony Coleman and Annette Lewis voted on Aug. 12 against the parks bond being placed on the ballot, while Councilman Van Pearlberg recently said he intends to vote against it at the ballot box.
Five of Marietta’s seven council members say they never authorized city staff to send out mailers or print brochures about the parks bond referendum to residents.
Dunaway, who is not seeking re-election, told the Journal on Monday there was a “general consensus” to send out such materials, but council members say he’s wrong.
Council member Holly Walquist, who has been a strong supporter of the parks bond, said she asked city staff to print up the brochures at a Sept. 30 meeting, adding that if other council members don’t recall her request, “they weren’t paying attention.” When asked by the Journal how much she told the council it would cost to print these brochures, she said she didn’t know.
However, Goldstein — who has been on the council since 1980 and is renowned for his recall of even the most minute details of meetings — said he has no recollection of council recommending staff to send out mailers or brochures. And besides, it takes a vote of council to take such action, he said.
His assertion is supported by other council members.
“I don’t know what he’s been smoking,” Coleman said of Dunaway. “It’s not proper for that to be done without consent of council. There is no extra money for that. We cut the budget to the bone and have a major hiring freeze on.”
Goldstein said the city is not supposed to be taking a position or action showing a preference on the parks bond question. But with Dunaway’s announcement in his e-mail to the new promotional committee about mailing out information and ordering brochures, Goldstein said, “The line is obviously becoming blurred.”
Dunaway said it’s important for the city to issue mailers and brochures that are “content neutral” because the promotional parks group will be sending out information in favor of it.
“The public needs to know facts and details from an unbiased, neutral source,” Dunaway said Monday.
Even so, Pearlberg said anytime city money is spent, in this case on sending out mailers and brochures, the council should vote on it.
“I don’t recall anybody saying the city will mail out anything,” Pearlberg said.
The question, said Councilwoman Lewis, is “who directed who do to whom?”
Coleman said he called Bruton on Monday and asked him not to send out “anything of any kind” pertaining to the parks bond.
“The City Council sure didn’t authorize him to do that,” Coleman said.
Added Councilman Grif Chalfant: “Spending money without council approval is just a no-no. Maybe we’ll see change with a new administration. I think it’s going to take a change in new administration.”
Chalfant is referring to the Nov. 3 election that will bring in a new mayor.
A response from City Manager Bill Bruton on Monday seems to point to a miscommunication between his office and the mayor.
Six hours after the Journal asked who directed him to issue the brochures and mailers as Dunaway writes about in his e-mail, Bruton responded, saying the City Council directed him to produce the brochure at its Parks and Recreation Committee meeting on Sept. 30 – although Goldstein, who was at the same meeting, says he doesn’t recall any mention of mailers and brochures being authorized.
Bruton contradicts Dunaway, saying, “The city is not mailing the brochures. Rich (Buss, parks director) has prepared a draft brochure which does not advocate one side of the issue or the other – it just goes over the same listing of possible projects that Council previously approved and describes the process that led to the bond question being put to the voters.”
Cobb Board of Commissioners Chairman Sam Olens said when the county’s Transportation SPLOST was approved in September 2005, “There was absolutely no public or county money used for direct mail, pamphlets or yard signs promoting T-SPLOST. We had documentation materials used at the meetings, but the county didn’t spend any money on promotional items.”
Former Chamber of Commerce Chairman Fred Bentley Jr., who was involved in two of three education SPLOSTs, echoed Olens, saying when it came to passing SPLOSTs, a committee of citizens paid for any promotional information, not the school system.
The city just recently formed the promotional group for the parks bond. The makeup of the committee was made known through documents obtained by the Journal. The committee consists of a number of members with either direct or indirect ties to the city and its subsidiaries, including: Arthur Vaughn, committee co-chair and a member of the Marietta Board of Lights and Water, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the city; Rich Buss; Councilwoman Walquist, who has spearheaded the parks bond; Matthew Daily, the city’s communications director; Marietta school board members Tony Fasola, Randy Weiner and Jill Mutimer; Marietta Housing Authority executive director Ray Buday; and Bruton. The other co-chair is Kim Gresh, an oil company executive who has no position with the city.
Dunaway first mentioned the promotional group at the City’s Council meeting Wednesday, when he encouraged citizens to learn more about the parks bond, but did not divulge any names.
“I’m working so hard to keep this even-handed. As mayor, I cannot say much at all. But there will be information coming out from the city. There is a group called Progress Marietta that is advocating it. And I’m sure they will be putting out information later on,” he said at the time.
The mayor told the Journal Monday that he and Walquist picked members to serve on the sales committee “three or four weeks ago.”
On Thursday, Progress Marietta held its first meeting at attorney Chuck Clay’s law offices off Marietta Square. The following day, the mayor’s daughter, Dawn McEachern, sent out an e-mail to members of Progress Marietta, where she detailed the minutes of that meeting.
McEachern writes that on Wednesday, Oct. 21, at 7 p.m., the first of two meetings will be held at City Hall, where Buss will give a presentation.
“We need to be there and we need to recruit friends and other supporters to be there. This can only be an informative (neutral) meeting for the public,” McEachern writes to Progress Marietta members in her Friday e-mail.
She goes on to say in the meeting minutes that a brochure from Buss’s department will be sent out to Marietta Power customers on Monday, Oct. 19 or Tuesday, Oct. 20.
“Our Progress Marietta, Inc. non-neutral mailing will be targeted to the active-ranked voters for all wards (7500 voters total with an undetermined percentage being more active). We will order 5,000 over-sized post cards for this one-time, mass mailing. If there are cards leftover, we can disseminate them at the Farmers’ Market,” McEachern said.
Yet Bob Lewis, the general manager of the Marietta Board of Lights and Water, told the Journal Monday he knew of no plans for parks bond mailings being sent to Marietta Power customers. Lewis said from time to time the BLW includes informational items in the bills of its customers, but it was too late to get them in time for the Nov. 3 election. Moreover, a number of BLW customers live outside the city limits and Lewis said he couldn’t recall a time that the BLW sent information just to its city customers.
McEachern goes on to write in her e-mail to Progress Marietta members about the importance of an e-mail campaign.
“Email blast will include (so far): Rotarians, Kiwanians, PTA for Wards 2, 3, 4, Garden Center, Garden Clubs, Marietta School Foundation, City of Marietta (which can only be a content-neutral version), personal databases of those who have offered (our committee plus Ginny Rainey and Tony Fasola). Please send us other email databases to which you have access and plan to use (for our records),” she writes.
However, asked if the Marietta Kiwanis Club has given permission to the parks bond supporters to use the club’s mailing list, new club president Victoria Turney responded, “no.”
The club periodically sends members a directory that includes all members’ contact information, she said, but added “there’s a disclaimer on that that it is not to be used for business or political purposes.”
Further down in her e-mail, McEachern addresses the topic of gaining the support of the city’s African-American pastors.
She writes how the BLW’s Vaughn “will approach the respective Pastors of Pleasant Grove, Zion Baptist, and Turner Chapel to gain their advocacy. The pastors’ support is critical,” she writes.
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