Lawyers spent nearly six hours Thursday arguing over the legality of the city of Atlanta’s plan to issue more than $200 million in bonds for a new Falcons stadium, but there was no immediate winner.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville delayed ruling on the bond dispute until later this month at the earliest.
City attorneys say the project’s timeline isn’t yet in peril. The stadium is set to open in 2017, and the city and the team hope to issue the bonds this summer.
Bond approvals often pass with little notice, but a group of residents from Vine City and English Avenue filed a legal challenge in February against the plan. The bonds would be backed by hotel-motel tax revenue, with hundreds of millions more in hotel-motel taxes funding stadium operations and maintenance over 30 years.
The Rev. William Cottrell, Mamie Lee Moore, Tracy Bates, Joe Beasley and John H. Lewis III allege myriad legal flaws in the stadium financing plan and asked for the proposed bond issue to be rejected. The group’s effort to block the financing is led by John Woodham, an Atlanta attorney who has built his career on bond challenges, and retired Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thelma Wyatt Moore.
Attorneys for Atlanta and the city’s economic development agency, Invest Atlanta, argued the residents were using the hearing as a way to challenge the stadium project itself, instead of just the city’s bond contribution.
“What they’re trying to do is make a case of the overall stadium financing structure… that’s not the issue before the court,” bond attorney Matthew Calvert told Glanville.
Woodham and Moore disagreed. Among their arguments, they contend a 2010 state law authorizing extension of the existing Atlanta hotel-motel tax for the purpose of replacing the Georgia Dome is unconstitutional because it lacked statewide applicability.
Though Glanville questioned many of their arguments, Moore is optimistic.
“I feel very encouraged and believe once (Glanville) weighs the issues, he will understand and see why we raised the objections,” Moore said afterward.
Glanville rejected a request by Woodham and Moore to have testimony from Falcons CEO Rich McKay, city councilman Andre Dickens and council president Ceasar Mitchell. McKay’s attorney argued he was improperly served a subpoena.
The hearing turned testy at times, with attorneys on both sides accusing each other of unprofessional conduct.
Atlanta city attorneys offered evidence that Woodham sent what they believed was a harassing email to potential witnesses from the Atlanta Regional Commission, at one point referring to the men as “patsies.”
Woodham told the judge he didn’t realize the witness was included on the email, believing he was sending it to city attorneys only.
Glanville cautioned Woodham that such behavior could be a violation of professional conduct standards. The judge — noting complaints of unprofessional behavior on both sides — reminded both parties to be civil.
The use of bonds backed by hotel-motel taxes is critical to stadium construction, already underway near Northside and Martin Luther King Jr. Drives just south of the Georgia Dome, which will be torn down when the new stadium opens.
If the challengers lose the attempt to block the bonds, they’re likely to appeal - a move that could delay the funds for several months.
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