Shutting out secrecy, letting in sunshine

It may have happened for the wrong reasons, but the Marietta City Council last week finally got it right when it voted to lift the cloak of secrecy from the city’s efforts to buy land for redevelopment.

City Council member Phil Goldstein —- in the past a staunch defender of the city’s practice of buying property with taxpayer money but not disclosing it to the public until after the sale was closed —- this time provided the impetus to change the process.

Goldstein and his family own much of the Marietta square, as well as commercial and residential real estate near the square. In recent months, he has been angered by the Marietta Redevelopment Commission’s land deals, including the prices the city has paid for some of the property. But, denied knowledge of the deals until after they had been finalized, there wasn’t much he could do about it.

Apparently, that anger was all it took to bring Marietta finally into the sunshine. Goldstein switched sides on the secrecy issue, belatedly joining Griff Chalfant —- who had been pushing the change for more than a year —- and four other council members to bring the city into compliance with the state’s Open Meetings law.

Goldstein’s support gave the council more than enough votes to override Mayor Bill Dunaway’s veto of the new rules, which will require that all votes on land acquisitions be taken at a public meeting. (Dunaway vetoed a similar measure last year, with Goldstein voting to uphold that veto.)

For his part, Dunaway still stubbornly refuses to acknowledge that state law requires a vote in public on land purchases, contending that the city will get better deals from property owners if the public is kept in the dark. Of late, he has taken to claiming that Marietta’s policy was in keeping with the Georgia Press Association’s position on the issue, which is false.

The state law is clear and unambiguous, and Cobb, Gwinnett, Fulton and DeKalb county governments as well as large school districts around the state have no trouble complying with it. As the press association has pointed out, the law does allow government officials to negotiate land purchases in secret in order to get the best deal they can for taxpayers. However, when it comes to actually purchasing the property, that action must be voted on in a public setting.

Marietta has been cutting taxpayers out of the process altogether. It has been negotiating and voting on most transactions behind closed doors and only confirming a sale after closing on the property. City residents, including Goldstein, who might object to the price, location or use of the property have little or no recourse to make their feelings known.

Dunaway claims city residents appreciate the secrecy. Quite the opposite is in fact happening.

The city’s previous policy added to doubts about Marietta’s checkered track record on redevelopment. With the process shrouded in secrecy, residents there could be forgiven for wondering whether decisions about what property gets redeveloped and by which developers might be influenced by insider deals with family members and friends of elected and appointed officials.

Marietta doesn’t need that distraction. Before the slump in the housing market hit, the city was already behind the curve on redevelopment compared with its Cobb County neighbors. Now, with the economy in worse shape, redevelopment in the city has essentially ground to a halt.

However, when the market gets back on its feet, Marietta will now be able to move forward in the sunlight, and in the process rebuild not just its city center but public confidence in its land-purchase policies as well.

—- Mike King, for the editorial board (mking@ajc.com)

 BARRIE MAGUIRE / NewsArt