City leaders have quietly signed a second "final lease termination agreement" with Double Eagle Golf that gags all parties from talking to the media and pays the former golf course manager an extra $20,000.

The agreement followed a closed-door session before adjourning the March 25 Tega Cay City Council meeting.

City officials and Double Eagle signed the first lease termination agreement on July 5, 2007. That agreement ended a two-year relationship between the city and Double Eagle over running the Tega Cay Golf Course after an acrimonious spring and summer, during which the council said Double Eagle had violated its contract with the city. Lawsuits were threatened, but eventually an agreement was reached over ending the contract.

City Manager Grant Duffield declined to comment on the new termination agreement, except to say it supersedes the agreement from last July.

A provision in the new termination agreement bars either party from discussing it with the media.

The Fort Mill Times received a copy through an anonymous e-mail, and confirmed it was an official document signed by both parties through city offices.

The document states: "City staff, City Manager, City Mayor, City Council, and Tega Cay Management LLC staff will not engage in any discussions about this dispute with members of the media or general public nor will Double Eagle, its staff, or Ralph Hughes, except as may otherwise be required by law ..."

Not much changed between the two agreements. Hughes, principal owner of Double Eagle, and his wife still get free carts and greens fees for life. Hughes agreed to release all inventory he purchased to the city, and the city agreed not to draw on any accounts Hughes set up.

Aside from the gag clause, the 20 monthly payments of $10,000 by the city to Hughes have been extended two months for a total of $220,000 due to Double Eagle by September 2009. The gag clause also ends in September 2009, assuming both parties live up to all other aspects of the contract.