A new skirmish broke out Friday over Marietta’s $25 million parks bond referendum.
Mayor Bill Dunaway postponed a City Council meeting on the bond at the last minute because one of his opponents said the meeting was illegally called.
Dunaway had scheduled the meeting for 4:30 p.m. Friday. Council member Philip Goldstein sent an e-mail saying he didn’t receive written notice at his residence 24 hours in advance, as required under the state's open meetings law.
Dunaway said he thought the meeting was legal but didn’t want to cause problems for council members facing opposition in the election. He rescheduled to 5:15 p.m. Monday.
Dunaway, who is stepping down in January, said Goldstein was using a technicality to trip up the bond. Dunaway supports it and Goldstein doesn’t.
“Philip is just out to defeat the bond any way he can,” Dunaway said.
Goldstein declined to comment Friday, but in his e-mail said: “As the [Friday] meeting has not been properly called, I will not be in attendance as there is nothing to act on.”
The bond referendum has divided the council, with the decision to put it on the Nov. 3 ballot passing on a 4-3 vote. The bond would be used to improve existing parks and to buy new parkland.
The meeting change will delay sending out a pamphlet about the bond. The council was going to discuss wording of the pamphlet to make sure it was “neutral” because state law requires the council to not officially take a position on the issue.
In his e-mail, Goldstein complained Dunaway was not being neutral and was actively supporting the bond while acting as mayor.
Dunaway said he always told people he was acting as a private citizen, not the mayor, when he spoke in favor of the bond. He said he’d cleared all his actions with the city attorney.
“The ethics law cannot limit my freedom of speech as an individual,” he said.
Council member Jim King, in a telephone interview this week, said he thought it would be difficult for any member of the council to be neutral on the bond issue.
“You’re asking the fox to give a neutral presentation on the henhouse,” King said. “It’s hard for me to fathom somebody who’s worked so hard for that to be neutral.”
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