A letter written by Payne indicates he suggested offering some IOC members gifts to secure Atlanta's bid to host the 1996 Summer Olympics  ALSO: Top Salt Lake Olympic boosters condemned in ethics report

In this story: 'Bad ideas' 'Personal Gift List' RELATED STORIES, SITES

ATLANTA (CNN) -- A month before his city was selected to host the 1996 Summer Olympics, Atlanta Games chief Billy Payne wrote a memo suggesting a college scholarship, medical care and other gifts for International Olympic Committee members considering Atlanta's bid.

Payne spokesman Lee Echols confirmed the contents of the memo -- which included the proposal that Libyan IOC member Bashir Mohamed Attarabulsi receive free medical treatment at Emory University -- but said the suggestions in the note were merely "ideas."

"Billy's a creative, ideas-oriented person," said Echols, who said Payne told him, "None of the ideas were ever seriously discussed. No one took the musings as anything but that -- musings. The collective good judgment of our (bid) team was all that we needed."

Attarabulsi was named as one of 13 IOC members with ethical violations in the wake of the IOC's investigation of the Salt Lake City bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics. He resigned from the committee last month.

On Tuesday, an internal ethics report from the Salt Lake Organizing Committee condemned the top two officials involved in the city's bid to host the 2002 Winter Games.

The report focused on the actions of Tom Welch, former president of the Salt Lake City Organizing Committee, and Dave Johnson, his top lieutenant. Welch resigned from the committee in 1997 for an unrelated reason.

Johnson resigned last month after allegations surfaced that the SLOC had given scholarships, cash and lavish gifts to members of the IOC and their families before Salt Lake City won the right to host the 2002 Games.

'Bad ideas'

The Atlanta allegations surfaced earlier this week when the Atlanta Journal-Constitution obtained a copy of the memo, dated August 20, 1990. Payne at first said the copy was a hoax, but admitted its existence when the original was found in boxes of Olympics papers stored at the Atlanta History Center.

"I was brain dumping, which is not uncharacteristic of me," Payne told the paper. "For every good idea I had, I had a thousand bad ideas."

Payne said ideas like providing a tennis scholarship to the University of Georgia for the daughter of IOC Executive Board member Pal Schmitt was one of those bad ideas.

"None of those suggestions, which could have been deemed inappropriate, were ever acted upon," Payne said.

To date, there is no evidence that would counter Payne's claim.

'Personal Gift List'

Other suggestions in the memo, headed "Personal Gift List" included:

• A letter signed by all the U.S. Supreme Court justices for Senegal representative Keba Mbaye, that country's honorary supreme court chief justice.

• Complimentary airline tickets for Peruvian Ivan Dibos and Colombian Fidel Mendoza.

• A suit from L.A. Town in Korea for Panamanian Virgilio E. de Leon, now retired from the IOC.

• An agreement to publish Swiss member Raymond Gafner's novel in English. Gafner has since retired from the IOC.

• Horse memorabilia for Austrian Philipp von Schoeller.

• A card signed by hundreds of school children inviting Irishman Kevin Patrick O'Flanagan to grand marshal a second St. Patrick's Day parade in Savannah, Georgia. O'Flanagan, now retired from the IOC, was grand marshal in March 1990.

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