MARIETTA - The Marietta City Council, in a vote of no confidence Monday, dumped members of the Downtown Marietta Development Authority's Historic Board of Review.

However, the council did offer the DMDA something: the power to appoint four DMDA members on the new 11-member Historic Board of Review, two of the four to represent downtown property owners and two to represent downtown tenants.

The DMDA voted in those four members on Thursday. DMDA Chairman Tom Browning, an attorney, and Dave Reardon, owner of Shillings on the Square Restaurant, were voted in as the two members representing tenants. In addition to being a property owner, Browning leases office space from Roy Barnes, while Reardon leases his building from the family of City Councilman Philip Goldstein.

The two members voted in to represent the property owners are developer Wes Godwin, who owns property on Frasier Street and attorney Al Johnson, who owns his law office at the corner of Washington Avenue and Alexander Street.

As part of the council's 4-3 Monday vote, the other seven members on the restructured Historic Board of Review will be the same members who serve on the Historic Preservation Commission, another body created by the City Council.

After the DMDA voted in the four members, Mayor Bill Dunaway - who also sits on the DMDA - directed City Manager Bill Bruton to tell the DMDA how the new Historic Board of Review would come together. Bruton said he would contact all 11 members of the new Historic Board of Review to determine when the best time for a first meeting could take place. During that first meeting, members could elect a chair, vice chair and secretary, and other protocols could be hammered out, such as when the meetings would take place.

Dunaway argued for the City Council to restructure the Historic Board of Review because he said that board was under the control of Goldstein, believed to be the largest property owner on the Square.

Goldstein was the only city councilman at the DMDA meeting Thursday, sitting in the audience to observe the proceedings.

While the City Council can boot members of the DMDA's Historic Board of Review, because the council created that board, it cannot boot members of the DMDA itself, since the DMDA was created by the General Assembly.

Browning, who unsuccessfully urged the council to postpone the Monday vote, said after the meeting Thursday it was a new beginning.

"I'm not going to cry about spilled milk. It was wrong because (the City Council) took away our property rights. But I'm going to work within the system," Browning said.

Browning said he didn't know the seven members on the Historic Preservation Commission.

The Historic Preservation Commission is chaired by David Freedman, an administrator with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, who was appointed by Councilman Grif Chalfant. Other Preservation Commission members include Julia Carrie Walker, a preservation consultant, appointed by Councilwoman Holly Walquist; Rebecca Nash Paden, an author who formerly worked for the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, appointed by Councilman Jim King; Ray Worden, owner of Worden's Picture Gallery on Kennesaw Avenue, appointed by Councilman Van Pearlberg; Tom Samples, a retired real estate broker, appointed by Goldstein; Gary Zakar, a real estate agent, appointed by Councilwoman Annette Lewis; and Brenda McCrae, a Kroger's employee, appointed by Councilman Anthony Coleman.

"I don't know if they're going to be from the historical society or business people," Browning said regarding the seven members of the Preservation Commission.

However, Browning said he likes the business experience he has heard so far of the three members appointed by Goldstein, Lewis and Coleman - the three council members who voted against restructuring the Historic Board of Review.

"That's good. I'm a big believer in business people being involved in business things. This is a business on the Square. To me, it's a business first," Browning said.

In other action, the DMDA approved a request from Gordon Mortin of Memphis-based Morgan Keegan & Company, Inc. to allow Mortin to refinance the $7 million bond the DMDA approved to allow for the renovation of the Conference Center into a Hilton. In a highly technical discussion, Dunaway said he did not understand the reasons for refinancing.

jgillooly@mdjonline.com

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