Marietta officials are vowing to improve access to public records of their land purchases after struggling for more than three weeks to produce such documents for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The problem, city officials say, is that the records — including appraisals and sales contracts — are spread out among various city agencies that were involved in buying the properties. Now, they said, copies of the records will be sent to the city clerk's office, giving the public one place to find them.

"And as a matter of policy from this point forward, they will do that each time they acquire property and then that way they will be accessible to anybody who would want them just by going in the clerk's office," City Manager Bill Bruton said.

The AJC requested the records in the course of reporting on the secrecy surrounding Marietta's land purchases. For at least 17 years, the city's elected leaders have withheld details of these transactions until money changes hands, effectively locking the public out of the process until after the deals are done. City officials say the secrecy helps them keep land prices low and save taxpayer money.

Besides, city officials have said, all the records are public after the deals close.

To test the city's claims, the AJC requested records of Marietta's land purchases for the past several years. After more than three weeks, city officials said they could not locate copies of appraisals or signed contracts for several purchased properties.

"We are going to do some digging and try to find those documents this afternoon," Mayor Bill Dunaway asserted Monday morning. "This is not good. This is a deficiency in our system."

Bruton came through with the missing records Monday soon after Dunaway made those comments. Among the records Bruton located are signed sales contracts for two properties that cost the city more than $1 million each.

For example, in July of 2004 the city joined Cobb Housing Inc. in purchasing an office building on 1.1 acres at 268 Lawrence St. near City Hall for $1.25 million. The office became the new home for local housing assistance programs. Marietta bought the building from The Graham Family LP.

And in May of 2005, the city bought a gas station-convenience store at 326 Roswell St. for $1.5 million from Kap Ro Yun in May of 2005. The city bought it for a road-widening and streetscape project and resold a portion of the land to Marietta builder Roger DeBoy for $550,000. DeBoy broke ground there last year for a $20 million condominium and office development.

When they are ready to buy property, Marietta's City Council members discuss the deal behind close doors first and then vote in public without disclosing any details. Their meeting agendas and minutes are purposely kept vague, saying only "purchase of designated properties."

City officials say their secrecy complies with state law. They point to a part of the Georgia Open Meetings Act that allows closed-door discussions about real-estate transactions. That exemption says "the disclosure of such portions of the minutes as would identify real estate to be acquired may be delayed until such time as the acquisition of the real estate has been completed."

In contrast to Marietta, Cobb County publishes the details of its real estate transactions on meeting agendas days before county commissioners vote on them in public. Marietta's secrecy has caught the attention of government watchdog groups, including Common Cause of Georgia and the Georgia First Amendment Foundation.

"If a public agency does withhold information ... the lack of disclosure should be as narrow, limited and circumscribed a possible," said Hollie Manheimer, the Georgia First Amendment Foundation's executive director. "The point of the Open Meetings and Records Acts is to enable the public to review the maximum amount of information, not the minimum."

Meanwhile, Marietta's City Council is expected to vote on the issue at its Oct. 10 meeting. Councilman Griffin L. Chalfant Jr. is proposing the council disclose key details of its land purchases when it votes on them.

"I just felt it is in the public's interest to keep them informed as quickly ... as possible throughout the whole process," Chalfant said.

Critics of Chalfant's idea say the city's secrecy helps protect against speculative land buyers snapping up neighboring parcels and jacking up prices.

"It sounds all well and good," Councilman Philip Goldstein said, "but the problem is it doesn't protect against price spikes."

Reprinted with permission from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 10/04/07.