But the fact remains that only Dunaway and Councilman Philip Goldstein say they were consulted prior to the decision by the city's financial director Sam Lady to buy the bonds.
Council members Grif Chalfant, Van Pearlberg and Anthony Coleman said they didn't know about the buy up until around Labor Day, while Holly Walquist said City Manager Bill Bruton told her about it over dinner at the Marietta Diner following a council meeting.
Asked why he didn't reveal the bond buy-up an hour earlier at the council meeting, which is typically aired on the city's Web site, rather than at a restaurant, Bruton answered that it wasn't on the meeting's agenda. Never mind that Bruton sets the agenda.
Bruton claims everyone was alerted to the buy up through an announcement on the Downtown Marietta Development Authority's section of the city's Web site, although he didn't know how many "hits" or visitors the Web site had.
Obviously it's not that many since DMDA Chairman Tom Browning told AT this week he didn't know about the bond buy up until reading about it in the MDJ. And DMDA attorney Tom Cauthorn said it only came to his knowledge a few weeks ago.
THE CITY'S BOND ADVISOR, Gordon Mortin, who says he's represented the city for as long as he can remember, told the council at Wednesday's meeting that bond attorney Earle Taylor of McKenna, Long and Aldridge was the council's bond attorney, not his.
"You're the one that hires him and not me," Mortin said.
Taylor has been the city's bond attorney since the 1980s.
You'd think you'd know your own attorney, but not the Marietta City Council.
Dunaway, who has served as mayor for nearly eight years, said he couldn't remember if he'd ever met Taylor before, while Councilman Van Pearlberg said, "I wouldn't know him if he walked in the door."
Former Councilman Johnny Sinclair, who served eight years on the council (1997-2005), said he didn't know him either.
Though Taylor is considered one of the best bond lawyers in the state, Mortin says flatly that Taylor "is the best."
Taylor formerly was with Kilpatrick & Stockton and now is with Long Aldridge, both among Atlanta's premiere law firms.
And what should be made of the fact that the two legal opinions Taylor charged the city $17,000 for on whether the proposed Marietta Conference Center bond deal was legal were addressed to Mortin's Buckhead office - and not City Hall?
Former MRC member Steve "Thunder" Tumlin didn't think he had ever met Taylor, but he did see him when the Mortin/Taylor tag team showed up at a Marietta Redevelopment Corp. meeting to pitch a PILOT (Payment In Lieu Of Taxes) bond subsidy last year. AT is told the duo tried to get the MRC to approve the PILOT before the "stuff hit the fan" with the City of Kennesaw's PILOT.
The MRC wasn't interested, but Kennesaw was. Its council approved a PILOT for a now-stalled project at the corner of Cobb Parkway and Acworth Due West Road. The PILOT secretly diverted tax revenue from the county and county schools for the subsidy, which explains why Mortin and Taylor are now considered persona non grata at the county courthouse.
RETIRED CPA STEVE IMLER has agreed to serve as treasurer of the group being formed by the city to boost the upcoming $25 million Marietta parks bond Nov. 3. No chairman has been selected as yet, he said. Imler also told AT he has pledged the initial $5,000 to help pay for publications, signs, mailings, etc. The next meeting of the as-yet unnamed group will be 6 p.m. Thursday at the law offices of Brock & Clay, Imler said. Unofficial word has it that partner Chuck Clay may head the group.
ALTHOUGH CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION reports are not due until Oct. 7 at City Hall for donations through Sept. 30, mayoral candidate Tumlin sent his report to MDJ on Friday, showing he had raised $21,315 and spent $7,482, leaving a cash balance of $13,833 on hand with the non-partisan city election just a month a way.
Far and away Tumlin's biggest contribution of $2,000 was from former Gov. Roy Barnes, who had actively supported Democrat Pat Dooley in her successful race to unseat Republican Rep. Tumlin in November 2008.
Donating $500 were Jon R. Burke, president of Burke Capital, Marietta lawyer Ben Mathis Jr., and lawyer and former Cobb Superior Court Judge Tom Cauthorn. Also weighing in with a $150 contribution was the Rev. Sam Storey, now retired longtime First United Methodist Church of Marietta minister, where Tumlin is chairman of the Board of Trustees.
Storey, you'll recall, announced unexpectedly a year or so ago - when Dunaway was still expected to seek another term - that he had plans to run for mayor himself.
That created quite a buzz as to whether Storey was serious.
He then announced a week or two later that he would not run.
Tumlin has token opposition from Libertarian Chris Neill and perennial candidate Bill Bolton.
SPOTTED AT THE WHITLOCK GRILL this week (formerly Chicago’s) during a two-hour lunch were Cobb Commission chairman candidate Tim Lee and possible chair candidate Lindsey Tippins.
Later AT dialed Northeastern District Commissioner Lee and asked if Tippins had tipped his hand about his plans.
“I’d rather you get that from Lindsey,” Lee answered. “I don’t want to jump out in front of him.”
Lee allowed that they did discuss how to run without “tearing the county apart and dividing our mutual friends.”
Former Cobb school board Chair Tippins, who had earlier said he would decide by mid-October, has now pushed back that date to Nov. 1.
“I haven’t made up my mind yet,” he told AT.
He’s still considering the race and had gotten “a lot of support,” he said, but added his family was still his big concern.
Lee was quick to tout his “very successful” fundraiser this week at The Georgian Club, where he raised $60,000 from the 230 people in attendance.
LEE WAS ASKED about the rumors on the political grapevine that incumbent Chairman Sam Olens might stay put, rather than carry out his announced plans to run for state attorney general.
“I have not heard such rumors,” he answered. “And I don’t think they are valid. But I would be the last person to know.”
Lee also reiterated that if Olens, his political mentor, does drop out of the race, “I will obviously switch gears and run for re-election. That has been in the playbook all along.”
By the way, AT asked Olens on Friday about those rumors.
“They are absolutely not true,” he answered. “I think there are a lot of people who would like to see me pull out, and I don’t know how that got around, but I am not. I’ll be in Rockdale County on Tuesday for no other reason than to campaign.”
LAWYER JAMES NEY strikes back against Virginia Gregory’s criticisms of his recent letter to the editor in a new letter on today’s MDJ edit page (see nearby). No, he says, he is not representing T-Mobile “in any sense” as the company attempts to have a cell tower built at Eastvalley Elementary School.
However, he acknowledged to AT that yes, he has “in the past represented a number of different folks, that include T-Mobile,” though he has never had any clients in transactions involving Cobb County Schools.
“I have absolutely no financial interest in the particular matter, OK? I don’t even know the facts of the particular matter,” added Ney, who is a partner in a highly successful Galleria-based firm.
COBB COUNTY REPUBLICAN WOMEN’S CLUB and the Cobb County Republican Party are having an Oktoberfest at Mud Creek Ranch, 1226 Villa Rica Road, Marietta, on Oct. 10. The event runs from noon to 4 p.m. Local and statewide Republican candidates will speak. It is a family fun day including barbecue, hayrides, horse rides, games and prizes. The event is free. For information contact Tonya Boga, (678) 923-6939.
PEOPLE: Charity Bryan, Ph.D., a Marietta High School Class of 1993 graduate, was named Department Head in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. In addition to her department head duties, she is an assistant professor in Kinesiology.
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