MARIETTA — Mayor Steve Tumlin blasted Councilman Philip Goldstein on Wednesday for his role in a botched deed to property the city thought it owned in front of the former Coca-Cola bottling plant on Roswell Street.

Tumlin accused Goldstein of trying to personally benefit from property that doesn’t belong to him, calling such action “immoral.”

“He’s going to donate that little strip of property and ask for a charitable contribution for around $400,000,” Tumlin said.

City attorney Doug Haynie told the Council on Wednesday that Goldstein made a “pre-emptive strike” by emailing the bankruptcy court trustee in charge of developer Roger DeBoy’s LLC to alert him that Haynie would be contacting him, as well as to say that what Haynie intended to tell him was inaccurate.

“That was the lowest blow of all,” Tumlin said. “That’s somebody stabbing you in the back. That’s right up there with — may they rest in peace — the Krystal.”

Tumlin is referring to an incident where Haynie caught Goldstein meeting with Lee Jaraysi at the former Krystal by the Square, even though the city and Jaraysi were engaged in a lawsuit at the time.

“There’s a repetitive action here, that he looks after Philip and not the city of Marietta,” Tumlin said.

But Goldstein said the only reason Haynie knows he emailed the trustee is because he copied Haynie on the email.

Tumlin also said Haynie has spent more than $4,000 on the matter, mainly in answering Goldstein’s various emails on the topic.

“In a way, he’s using Haynie’s expertise to see what will fly with us, so we’re basically subsidizing a private citizen, which he would be screaming bloody murder about,” Tumlin said.

Tumlin said he was not proud that the city did the closing in 2007 without having an attorney handle the title check.

“I hope we learned our lesson,” Tumlin said. “We don’t let (city finance director) Sam Lady certify our books. Lawyers are obnoxious, horrible and expensive, but it’s pay me now or pay me later, and it’s going to cost us because we took a shortcut five years ago.”

At the same time, Tumlin said the Council’s minutes from 2007 show that the correct corporation did deed the property over to the city. That it was later recorded in error — an error Goldstein said Wednesday he discovered before he bought the property out of bankruptcy court in December for $2.1 million — is simply a typo, and one that he is willing to go to court to defend if necessary.

“Philip has even brought that up: ‘If it ain’t in the minutes, it ain’t correct.’ It’s even in our minutes. The intention of the parties is memorialized. And I will fight it to the end,” Tumlin said.

“He was slobbering at the mouth — ‘I’m going to get a tax deduction,’” Tumlin said.

Goldstein declined to comment on the tax deduction accusation. However he did say if Tumlin wanted to argue about the minutes, he should note where they said the DeBoy deal was approved subject to attorney approval.

In 2007, the city planned on widening that part of Roswell Street from three lanes to four and install a sidewalk. To do this it needed to install a retaining wall in front of the Coke building and acquire some right of way owned at the time by one of DeBoy’s various corporations.

The right of way in question was 4,040 square feet, or 0.09 acres, located at 358 Roswell St. between Coryell Street to Lakewood Drive.

The estimate to build the wall and acquire the right of way was $413,000. But DeBoy made the city a deal: He would deed the needed right of way to the city in exchange for being allowed to build the wall the way he wanted it built.

DeBoy charged the city $305,000 to build the wall, said public works director Dan Conn.

One of DeBoy’s corporations, Emerson Development LLC, deeded the property to the city. Trouble is, the property was owned by another of his corporations, Emerson LLC.

Since the 2007 deal with DeBoy, the road has already been widened onto the property and the sidewalk installed.

While Goldstein has agreed to deed the property back to the city under the correct name, he has several stipulations in how that should be handled and it is these stipulations that he and Haynie have reached an impasse over.

On Monday, the City Council directed Haynie to contact the trustee and ask the trustee to sign a corrective deed to make the botched deed a valid one.

In other action, the Council voted 6-1, with Anthony Coleman opposed, to lift its ban on liquor sales at package stores that have a drive-through window service.

Tumlin said what convinced him that it was appropriate was the county already allows, it in addition to the fact that Marietta voters recently voted to authorize Sunday alcohol sales in the city.

Also Wednesday, the council postponed its discussion over any revisions to its speed bump policy, sending the matter back to committee.