The amphitheater at Newtown Park has carried Mark Burkhalter's name since September 2016, but the Johns Creek City Council never formally approved it.

No vote ever took place.

The gap was identified as city staff worked on naming The Boardwalk at Town Center earlier this year. Special Projects Coordinator Amanda Bock flagged the issue in an agenda report for the Arts, Cultural, and Entertainment Committee's June 11 meeting. A July 13 memo from staff to the mayor and council formalized the finding, Appen Media reported.

As we reported Aug. 26, the U.S. Senate confirmed Burkhalter as U.S. ambassador to Moldova in a 51-47 vote on Aug. 7. President Donald Trump nominated him June 1.

The naming question now sits in a procedural bind. The city's Public Property Naming Policy requires a written proposal, a work session review, a public hearing and a council vote before any city-owned property can be dedicated to an individual. It also restricts permanent naming to honorees who have been deceased for at least one year.

Burkhalter is alive and headed to Chișinău, Moldova's capital.

At a June 1 work session, the council asked the ACE Committee to weigh three options: commercial sponsorship for naming rights, naming under the formal policy, or affirming the current name. Bock's agenda report noted that Burkhalter himself had encouraged the committee to explore rebranding or monetizing the amphitheater to generate revenue or improve programming.

No subsequent ACE Committee action on the amphitheater name has been confirmed in public records. The committee's next scheduled meeting after June 11 was Aug. 13. No minutes or follow-up from that session are available.

Burkhalter represented north Fulton County in the Georgia House from 1993 to 2011, serving as speaker pro tempore from 2005 to 2010. He played a central role in the movement that led to Johns Creek's incorporation, according to a July 21 Georgia Politics Podcast episode.

His path to the Moldova post was not direct. Trump first nominated Burkhalter as U.S. envoy to Norway in 2020. That nomination stalled after then-Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and NAACP President Derrick Johnson opposed it over Burkhalter's role in a 1994 Fulton County Board of Commissioners campaign. According to Appen Media's reporting, a lawsuit cited by ABC News alleged Burkhalter helped distribute a flyer that darkened the skin and distorted the features of Democratic incumbent Gordon Joyner, a Black candidate. More than 100,000 white voters received the flyer. Burkhalter settled a libel lawsuit, paid a civil penalty for violating Georgia House ethics laws and apologized to Joyner, according to the report.

The Norway nomination was returned to the president in 2021 without a vote.

Appen Media reported it sought comment from Burkhalter via phone, email and his website's contact form and received no response prior to its Aug. 25 publication.

The amphitheater at 3150 Old Alabama Road opened in 2014 and hosts the city's Summer Concert Series. Whether the council will vote to formalize, change or sell the naming rights remains unresolved.