Peachtree Officials Come To Their Senses, Vote Down Plan To Finance Lawsuits Against Critics Following Widespread Criticism
from the nice-move-geniuses dept
A quick followup to yesterday's post about officials in Peachtree, Georgia looking to pass a resolution that would allow city officials to spend taxpayer money to sue their own critics for defamation. There were all sorts of problems with this... and it appears the taxpayers weren't happy. At the city council meeting last night, lots of those taxpayers made it clear this was a bad idea:
People lined up to push back against the resolution....
“You get to decide whether you’ve been defamed or not and you want to use our money taxpayer money to sue us, we might impoverish us,” said another Peachtree City resident.
It sounds like nearly everyone who spoke out was against the proposal, leading it to be voted down unanimously, though the mayor, Vanessa Fleisch, had an odd bit of commentary on the whole thing:
“I think it’s the right outcome I work for the citizens, the intent was very pure but it wasn’t written correctly I’ve been told and so the citizens have spoken and we move on,” said Mayor Fleisch.
The intent is never pure when the goal is for public officials to sue critics. And, the problem was not that it wasn't written correctly. The problem was with the whole idea. Hopefully, this doesn't mean there's a plan to "rewrite" this proposal. Just leave it be and maybe get a somewhat thicker skin if you're going to work for the government.
Filed Under: 1st amendment, defamation, free speech, georgia, jon rorie, lawsuits, peachtree city, taxpayer funds, vanessa fleisch
