Bibb County pick for tennis manger, hiring process riles community

Christine Samet has played tennis at the John Drew Smith Tennis Center in Macon for more than 20 years.

Juan Farrow was her first teacher; Samet’s son, Jack, and his son, Christopher, have also taken lessons from Farrow.

“Juan is what makes JDS, JDS because everyone takes lessons from Juan,” Samet said.

When the tennis courts, closed for the coronavirus pandemic, opened in May, a new company had exclusive rights to give lessons on Macon-Bibb County tennis courts: Agape Tennis Academy. Amy Pazahanick, founder and CEO of Agape Tennis Academy, was the new county tennis manager.

The Macon-Bibb County Board of Commissioners approved the contract with Agape to give tennis lessons, camps and clinics at the three tennis facilities in Macon: JDS, Tattnall Square Tennis Center and Randy Stephens Tennis Center. Agape will receive all proceeds from tennis and pickleball lessons, camps, clinics, concessions, racket stringing and repairs and pro shop services, according to the contract.

In exchange, Agape will pay the county $9,000 for the first year, $18,000 for the second year and $24,000 for the next three years. Agape will also pay $1,200 yearly to rent the pro shops at each facility.

Pazahanick also receives more than $40,000 for her salary as county tennis manager.

Agape has access to 15 courts at JDS and Randy Stephens and four courts at Tattnall to have tennis and pickleball camps and lessons, but when the Macon Area Tennis Association has a tournament, Agape is limited to four courts at each facility, according to the contract.

The changes meant three tennis coaches —Juan Farrow, Lubos Sobotka and Greg McTyson — we’re allowed to teach at the facility unless they signed contracts with Agape. Joe Williams, who volunteered to represent the coaches to negotiate their contracts with Agape, said the contract Agape presented to the coaches did not provide fair compensation for the coaches’ experience, and the coaches wished to continue in their previous arrangements. Concerned Maconites started a petition to reverse those changes.

Bibb County Commissioner Mallory Jones III said the agreement with Agape and Amy Pazahanick is better than the county’s deal with the previous county tennis manager, Carl Hodge, because it’s more equitable to taxpayers.

The county went through the same process as it always has to hire a county tennis manager and secure a professional service agreement contract with her, he said. Some community members have complained that the commission didn’t allow for public comments on the new agreement during public meetings.

Commissioner Elaine Lucas said she wants to revisit the contract and make sure it is fair for the county.

“I had some concerns initially about it when we were considering it, and one of the problems that we have at the commission is that we are given lots and lots of information, and we’re given just maybe one meeting or one or two days to digest it, and then we go into our meeting. We are given a presentation, and of course, the presentation is going to be all positive. It’s going to spell out how this proposal benefits the county,” she said.

What happened

Although tennis courts are still available for the public to use, other tennis coaches are not allowed to have lessons on the courts unless they have a contract with Agape, said Robert Walker, the director of Parks and Recreation.

The position for a county tennis manager was posted in December to start a nationwide search. The committee established to find the new tennis manager vetted 21 applicants and decided on Amy Pazahanick, Walker said.

Although the tennis courts were making a decent income the past two years, the county hopes to improve their revenue with the new manager, Walker said.

The revenues from court fees have steadily increased the past four years from nearly $29,000 in 2016 to $48,000 in 2019, according to an open records request from Macon-Bibb County. In the fiscal year of 2020, which ended June 30, the courts made around $33,000 by June 8, but the courts were closed during the coronavirus pandemic.

The county didn’t receive much money from tournaments and any money from professional contracts in 2019 and 2020.

Jones said he wants the county to audit the tennis facilities to make sure the three coaches who taught lessons before paid the correct fees to the county.

“I don’t know what they were supposed to pay. I don’t even know that they were even paying because there was no county tennis manager for two years,” he said.

Pazahanick said the programs have been going good so far, with 136 kids in camp and around 55 adults and 60 juniors taking lessons at the courts each week.

Professional service agreements do not have to go through the procurement process unless the mayor and commission require it, said Michael McNeill, the senior assistant county attorney, in an email.

Regarding the issue of providing a contract to a county employee, McNeill said the professional service agreement “is not with our tennis manager personally, but with her legally separate entity.”

Lucas said not sending the contract through the procurement process was probably a mistake, but she said no one thought the contract was going to be an issue.

“Thankfully, we’re now at a point where we can devote more time to that particular issue,” she said. “If it turns out that the contract is fine, everything’s working out great, then so be it, but if it turns out that there are some conflicts and there is some crossover between the county function and the contract function, we’ve got to remove that.”

What does the public have to say?

Dana Johnson, a retired attorney in Macon who lives in Juliette, said she found out Juan Farrow wouldn’t be allowed to coach at JDS anymore at the beginning of May when the courts opened after being closed for the COVID-19 outbreak.

“Juan Farrow has been associated with tennis in this area and the Macon Tennis Association out of JDS for 30 years. He has generations of people who take his drills so that hit an emotional chord with everyone,” she said.

With the resurfaced courts and the new facility in south Bibb County, Johnson said she thought Macon was going to be a tennis hub in Middle Georgia.

“When you get right down to it, the problem that has resulted in all of this chaos and misunderstanding lies in the county and county leadership more than it does with Agape Tennis Academy or with Ms. Pazahanick,” she said.

Samet said the county definitely needed a new county tennis manager, but she didn’t want it to be at the expense of their coaches.

“To kick them out after Lupos spent years building up the junior program, and now he’s just been kicked out. I mean that’s years of his life gone,” she said. “You just don’t throw away good people.”

What does Agape think about the complaints?

Pazahanick said Agape’s goal is to provide great programming for the public and teach people about tennis. Agape has not received complaints about their programming and management so far, but she said they have received complaints about not having the old coaches. The only communication she received from the coaches was through their attorney, Joe Williams, which she said created a lack of trust between them.

“People that were complaining haven’t had an experience with Agape ever,” she said. “It would have been my preference if they would have stayed, but because of the way things were managed previous to Agape, it put us in an impossible situation, unless we wanted to give those coaches essentially a large percentage of money that is far above the normal pay in our industry, which isn’t offered anywhere in our industry. It was, in my opinion, due to the mismanagement of these properties because there was no accountability here for the past year and a half.”

Pazahanick is disappointed people aren’t giving Agape and their programs a chance, but she believes this reaction would’ve happened with any organization who came in, she said.

“I’m not here to make money. We’re making plenty of money in Atlanta. I’m here because I see an opportunity to help this community and to help a lot of people that weren’t getting access,” she said. “Macon-Bibb County has amazing facilities that are terribly underutilized and unless somebody cares about filling these courts, they are not going to get filled and providing more programming is not gonna happen, and that’s why we’re here.”

This story was originally published July 5, 2020 at 7:00 AM.