By John Fredericks / STAFF

Municipal elections are still six weeks away, but politics in Roswell may have already reached their low point.

A veteran member of the City Council, who is up for re-election in November, said key supporters of Roswell mayoral candidate David Tolleson tried to strong-arm him into supporting their candidate – or else. 

The councilman, Kent Igleheart, has not endorsed a candidate in the tight three-way mayoral race, but he has always been an important ally of Councilwoman Lori Henry, who is running for mayor.

Igleheart said Tolleson’s campaign strategist, Randy Whatley, who is a behind- the-scenes power in Roswell politics, summoned Igleheart to a meeting at the Land of A Thousand Hills coffee shop on August 12. Jay Litton, a former campaign manager for Igleheart who now is undecided in his support of Tolleson or Wood, but is adamantly opposed to Henry, showed up at the meeting with Whatley.

Igleheart said Whatley told him that if he didn’t “get on board the Tolleson train before it left the station” Whatley would find someone to challenge him in his re-election race and could reveal damaging information about Igleheart’s personal finances to the press.

What was Igleheart’s response?

“I told him to go [bleep] himself” Igleheart said.

According to Igleheart, Whatley summoned him for a follow-up meeting, two weeks later, this time with Roswell Councilman Rich Dippolito. Igleheart said Whatley and Dippolito implored him to not seek re-election, to save him from having to endure “embarrassing” revelations.

Igleheart said he told them he was running for re-election and would file the following week, which he did.

Shortly thereafter, Jim Pollak filed to run for Igleheart’s council seat. Pollak is a client of Whatley’s company, Cypress Media Group, along with Tolleson and council candidate Nancy Diamond.

IGLEHEART’S FINANCIAL MESS

At issue for Igleheart is significant personal debt, with the IRS being one of his primary creditors. The Beacon was made aware of Igleheart’s financial woes this week from another source and subsequently filed a series of Open Record Requests with the various government entities involved.

Igleheart has partially unpaid federal taxes from 2005, 2006 and 2007, totaling $5,285 as of September 2008. He also owes $895 in state taxes from 2008. Igleheart said he filed his taxes on time, did nothing illegal and has negotiated payment plans with the IRS and the Georgia Department of Revenue. He said his payments are up to date and in good standing. The IRS has a lien on Igleheart’s future earnings, which is standard operating procedure.

Igleheart had a similar IRS problem in 1993 and 1994, and owed the federal government $10,766 in back taxes as late as 1997. Those tax arrears have been paid, records show.

Igleheart also has several financial judgments against him. One, for $6,200 is from his former lawyer, Gary J. Markwell, who represented him in his divorce settlement five years ago. Markwell successfully filed a wage garnishment suit against Igleheart in December 2008 with the city of Roswell, and he now receives $330 per month from the $1,500 per month Igleheart earns as a member of the Roswell City Council.

The Councilman also has two judgments against him from credit card companies, totaling about $17,000, dating back to 2004.

Igleheart said his latest financial problems started five years ago when he went through a wrenching divorce and saw funding for his part-time company, Clean Earth Action, dry up. He said he worked out payment plans with all of his creditors and is “making monthly payments to meet my obligations.”

Igleheart launched an acting career several years ago and has made significant headway in recent years. He said he also works two part-time jobs to help pay off his debts.

WHATLEY AND LITTON DENY ALLEGATIONS

Whatley said he called the initial meeting to determine what Igleheart’s political future was, and nothing more.  “Knowing there were some legal problems, we asked him straight out: How will you handle these things?” Whatley said. “We also told him he had burned a lot of bridges [with Tolleson and his key supporters] and unless he could repair those bridges he would be in trouble with a lot of people, and didn’t have the relationships with people he needed to have to win.”

When asked if he threatened Igleheart with a reprisal for not backing his candidate, Whatley said no. “There were no threats made. We simply laid out the political reality of his re-election situation. Without gaining some alliances, his campaign would be very tough, and we told him that,” Whatley said. “We told him the only person who could fix the problem with David and his key supporters was him.”

Litton said he was at Igleheart’s recent wedding and has been a friend and political supporter for some time. “I knew nothing about Kent’s financial problems until that meeting with Randy,” Litton said. “As far as putting pressure on him to support Tolleson, that is not true. What we said is that we wanted him to neutralize his stance with Tolleson so he wasn’t competing against David.”

But Igleheart doesn’t buy it. He’s been on City Council for eight years and was a successful campaign manager before that – and he said he knows very well when he is being squeezed politically. “I can read between the lines,” he said. “They wanted me to support their candidate or face the consequences.”

Igleheart said Tolleson did not take part in either of the two meetings he had with Whatley. Asked if he thinks Tolleson knew about the pressure Whatley was exerting on him, Igleheart said yes.

“I think he [Tolleson] would be aware of his campaign manager’s tactics,” Igleheart said.

Tolleson denied having any knowledge of it and said he didn’t believe Igleheart’s account. “I would question Kent’s version,” Tolleson said.

Eileen Seidman, a long time political activist on Roswell’s east side and a Henry supporter, said she called Tolleson personally and asked him point blank if somebody from his campaign had threatened Igleheart. Seidman said Tolleson unequivocally denied the allegation to her as well.

But Seidman also called Jim Pollak, and said he changed gears in the final days before filing. “I had previously told Jim I would support him when he assured me he was running as an independent candidate with no affiliation,” she said. Now Seidman says she withdrew her support for Pollak because he decided to throw in with the Tolleson crowd. “It’s the first time since I moved to Roswell in 1996 that I experienced backdoor politics first hand,” she said. “I don’t like it.”

HENRY AT ISSUE

Litton admitted that Igleheart’s support for Henry’s mayoral bid was problematic. “Certainly we wanted to peel support away from Henry,” Litton said.

But Litton maintained that the meeting focused on their desire to convince Igleheart to pledge neutrality and to back away from making negative statements about Tolleson, which he has done in the past.

“I can see how Kent may have interpreted the conversation as a threat, but that was not our purpose,” Litton said. “I can see how Kent is now trying to connect the dots between our meeting and bad news about his finances coming out – that is a logical conclusion. But I have never said anything to anybody about his finances to anyone outside of that meeting with Randy.”

Asked if there was a threat, implied or otherwise, Litton said no. “We recommended that he take a neutral stand in the mayor’s race so we could devote more of our time to his campaign to make it easy to help him.”

That’s a bunch of bunk, Igleheart said.

“I told them I would not be their pawn,” he said – and now he has to deal with embarrassing revelations about his finances.

“I am not one who responds well to being threatened and I don’t believe that’s the way that elections should take place in Roswell,” Igleheart said. “They tried to intimidate me as an elected official into not running or supporting what they wanted.”

SECOND MEETING: ENTER DIPPOLITO, EXIT LITTON

The second meeting with Igleheart was with Whatley and Dippolito. “Randy told Kent that his financial problems would come out, and as a friend I wanted him to know that,” Dippolito said. But Dippolito could have done that in a phone call, so why attend a meeting with the strategist of a mayoral candidate? Dippolito said Igleheart set up the meeting by sending him an email. When asked to forward the email to The Beacon, Dippolito said he couldn’t find it by press time.

Igleheart said he told Dippolito about his financial woes one night after a council meeting, as a friend. Shortly after that, Dippolito said, he informed Igleheart he could no longer support him, and was endorsing Pollak.

“I talked to Rich as a friend and the next thing I know I am in a meeting with him and Randy where my tax payment plan was the issue,” Igleheart said.

But Dippolito saw it differently. “I just wanted Kent to understand that if he ran for reelection this all would come out, and I urged him to think about it,” Dippolito said.

POLLAK “SHOCKED”

Igleheart’s opponent, Pollak, said Whatley put no pressure on him to oppose Igleheart.

“Certainly Randy was involved in the discussion of what post I should file for, but no one ever told me that I had to run against him as part of some reprisal. We were all disappointed that Kent did not support David [Tolleson] for mayor.”

Pollak said he was “shocked” to learn about Igleheart’s financial problems.

“I feel bad for him,” said Pollak, a retired advertising executive. “I can’t imagine having to live with that much stress.”

However, Pollak said it’s a legitimate campaign issue.

“What have we come to when we are electing local officials with these types of problems?” he said. “There is a huge contradiction in the fact that someone who has such difficulty managing his personal finances can be [trusted] to manage the city’s finances.”

Igleheart said the opposite is true. He said he has learned a lot about finances and budgeting from his own problems.

In fact, Igleheart in recent years has been the leading voice for fiscal conservatism on the Council, reliably opposing tax hikes, even when he’s been a lone voice with no Council support. Igleheart, Henry and Dippolito voted against this year’s deficit budget, but it passed anyway with the support of Tolleson and Mayor Jere Wood, Councilman Jerry Orlans and Councilwoman Becky Wynn.

HENRY STANDS BY HER FRIEND

Lori Henry refused to pass judgment on Igleheart based on his personal problems.

“We all have run into tough times in our lives, but it does not speak to who we are as people,” she said. “I don’t know anything about Kent’s personal finances, but I do know him to be an honest person who has been careful and conservative with budgeting our tax dollars. I have supported him in that effort and will continue to do so.”

Tolleson, who has endorsed Pollak against Igleheart, said the financial revelations would dog Igleheart throughout the campaign. “It will be of concern to voters,” he said.

Wood agreed. “Your ability to manage your own finances reflects on your judgment,” he said.

But Wood stopped short of endorsing Pollak. “Let the voters decide,” he added. “That’s why we have elections.”

Wood and Igleheart have clashed frequently on Council in recent years, but he declined to pile on over Igleheart’s personal problems. In fact, Wood showed respect for his fighting spirit.

“It’s better to go down to defeat in honor than win in shame,” Wood said. “No doubt Kent is doing what he believes is the right thing. I may disagree with his politics, but I never doubt his intentions.”