MARIETTA - The divided City Council came no further in its Committee of the Whole meeting Monday in deciding what would be spent on each city park should voters approve a $30 million bond referendum for park improvements.

The council is set to vote Wednesday to place that bond on the Nov. 3 ballot. City attorney Doug Haynie said the council has the next few months to decide what literature to release to the public detailing how that $30 million would be spent.

On June 29, the council discussed a tentative proposal that would break down the $30 million with specific earmarks for each city park, such as: $1.8 million for Hickory Hills Park; $1.2 million for Burruss Nature Park; $1.8 million for Wildwood Park; $4.1 million to purchase land in the Franklin Road area; $800,000 to turn that land into parks; and about $5 million on improving and possibly expanding the Lawrence Street and Elizabeth Porter community centers, among other expenses.

However, on July 29, the council did away with specific earmarks for parks. That move came after reports detailing illicit public sex at Wildwood and Burruss that have occurred for the last few decades, as well as complaints about the dilapidated Franklin Road area being in the bond. Councilman Van Pearlberg said the Franklin Road area would be a "killer" to the bond if it was included. Specifics were replaced with broad categories.

The latest draft, which was passed out Monday night, breaks down the $30 million into: $16.2 million for improvements to existing parks and facilities; $6 million for land acquisition; $2.7 million for the development of new parks, facilities, trails and green space; and $5 million for planning, design and contingency.

The lack of specificity bothers Councilwoman Annette Lewis.

"There is no plan. It can be zero in Glover (Park) or it can be $10 million in Glover. It can be wherever we want to put it," Lewis said.

"My hope was that council, if they agreed to go forward with it, they would say, 'OK, now we've got to buckle down and decide.' We have to make decisions, we were elected to do that, we are the ones who have been in meeting after meeting after meeting. We've been given the facts and the figures and the locations of what can and can't be done, and we're saying we can't decide," Lewis said.

In fall 2007, the council hired Lilburn-based Robert G. Betz AICP, Inc to design a parks master plan. That plan cost the city $60,000 and called for spending $60 million over 10 years. While the council has yet to adopt it, the proposed itemized spending for city parks comes from the draft of that master plan.

"I supported and I still support the public having a plan and then being able to decide," Lewis said of the unofficial parks plan.

"Throwing out an empty-ended question to me is not a plan. It's basically saying this council worked two and a half to three years and could not come to an agreement, so therefore give the next council $30 million and let them decide," she said.

Mayor Bill Dunaway, along with Councilwoman Holly Walquist, has spearheaded the parks bond. He believes the council needs to adopt a list within the next month that details estimated amounts that would be spent on each city park.

"I think the City Council has an obligation to give the public some kind of idea about the money going to be spent on existing parks," Dunaway said.

Dunaway indicated the amounts he would be satisfied with by pointing to the unofficial parks master plan.

"I think in the parks draft, the dollar amount that is listed there is realistic. Now whether or not City Council thinks it's realistic is for them to decide," he said.

One of the parks that Councilman Grif Chalfant has fought to fund over the last few years is Hickory Hills, although he had been blocked in improving that park by other council members.

But Chalfant, who supports broad categories over specifics in the bond, said he isn't worried about Hickory Hills failing to receive funding - even though, as of Monday, it does not have a $1.8 million line item.

Chalfant said it was precisely the council's failure to reach an agreement on the parks master plan that is the reason for the broad categories in the parks bond.

"We had it set up where we wouldn't spend money on any of the parks until we had a parks plan in place, and this council can't get a parks plan in place," Chalfant said.

Chalfant said by keeping the categories broad, the council is no longer forced to spend money on Franklin Road, Wildwood or Burruss if it chooses not to.

Walquist agreed with Chalfant, citing a ruling a few years back by Cobb Superior Court Judge S. Lark Ingram in a case involving the Cobb school board. Ingram essentially ruled that whatever literature the municipality issues in its attempt to pass a special purchase local option sales tax is binding should that SPLOST pass.

"By not binding this bond into specific parks improvements, etc., the next council will be able to determine how the money is spent for land acquisition, improvements, planning, etc. If the bond money is specific in the designated categories it must be used as it is stated, similar to Judge Ingram's ruling," Walquist said. "Because this council could not get full agreement on the master plan and how this money should be spent, what we are putting before the voters are broader categories on the land acquisition, park improvements, planning, etc., so that the future council will be free to determine exactly what the voters want."

Walquist believes the Franklin Road line item vanished to avoid land speculation.

"If you don't lock it in on the land acquisition, nobody knows who's out there trying to acquire the property, so this allows you more flexibility in negotiating price on land acquisition," she said.

Despite the divided council, Walquist believes the bond has a chance of passing.

"What I hear from residents is that they want improvements for their parks, and I'm hoping that because of the fact that we don't have money in our general fund, we don't have money there to make improvements to our parks, that putting a $30 million bond out there will allow us to make improvements to our parks," she said.

Councilmen Philip Goldstein and Anthony Coleman have said a recession is not the time to raise taxes.

The bond would add an estimated 0.74 mills to the city's current general fund millage rate of 2.788 mills, which means a city homeowner would pay an additional $57.72 a year on a $200,000 house. Goldstein has pointed out that number does not include the cost of maintaining the parks, which would likely require another tax increase. And, he reminds residents that the General Assembly failed to fund the Homeowner's Tax Relief Grant in the 2009 state budget, resulting in an increase for Marietta homeowners 2009 property tax bills. The increases will range between $22.93 for properties that have the school tax exemption and $166.69 for properties that do not have the school tax exemption.