CMH2 Hill and the Milton City council has named Christopher J. Lagerbloom as its Public Safety Director. Lagerbloom has spent the past 11 years in the police force at the City of Alpharetta. While there, he worked his way up from a police officer in the Uniform Patrol Division to Police Sergeant as a Crime Prevention Unit Commander and an Administrative Division Commander.
Most recently, he returned to the Uniform Patrol Division as a Police Captain.
"I am enthused and humbled to have been chosen as the first Public Safety Director for the City of Milton. Our new department will be unique,” says Lagerbloom. “We will build a public safety organization designed to deliver extraordinary service utilizing the talents of extraordinary people."
While at Alpharetta, Lagerbloom oversaw the police department’s national accreditation and state certification processes, which collectively encompass more than 475 individual standards covering the areas of administration, operations, planning and budget. He also re-established the city’s bicycle patrol and expanded the city’s neighborhood watch program, which grew to be one of the largest in north Fulton County.
"What an amazing opportunity to be trusted with one of the most precious things each citizen and visitor to the City of Milton enjoys: their safety,” Lagerbloom adds. Last year, Lagerbloom completed his master’s degree in public administration at Columbus State University in Columbus, Ga. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Georgia State University in Atlanta.
Lagerbloom will be sworn in at the next meeting of the city council, which will be held at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 21 at Hopewell Middle School, 13060 Cogburn Road. All council meetings are open to the public.
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6 comments:
It just seems that for city that didn't want to have anything to do with the city of Alpharetta you sure are hiring them to be in the top positions for Milton. I believe that the way the Public Safety Director was hired doesn't seem right to the others that applied for the position, since none of them even got a chance to interview. Seems to me that the Ragsdale Group is is going to be running the city not the mayor the citizens elected.What about for police chief and fire chief are they coming from Alpharetta also. What about the men and women that serve the area now and have worked hard to help make the city what it is already. It seems that the all of these people will just be out of luck unless things change.
Rocky, you are misinformed. There were three finalists out of a very large field for public safety director. All three were interviewed and the City Manager hired Lagerbloom as the best qualified candidate. There was nothing untoward about the manner in which he was hired. Further, if you were to come to a city council meeting, you will see that the mayor, council and staff are indeed working together as a team for the good of the entire city. Case in point: the huge effort on everyone's part to annex unincorporated parcels in the Arnold Mill Road corridor into the City instead of letting Roswell gobble up all of that land. I respectfully suggest that you find out the truth before you spread unsubstantiated rumors.
Mark Scott, City Attorney
Rocky, you are misinformed. There were three finalists out of a very large field for public safety director. All three were interviewed and the City Manager hired Lagerbloom as the best qualified candidate. There was nothing untoward about the manner in which he was hired. Further, if you were to come to a city council meeting, you will see that the mayor, council and staff are indeed working together as a team for the good of the entire city. Case in point: the huge effort on everyone's part to annex unincorporated parcels in the Arnold Mill Road corridor into the City instead of letting Roswell gobble up all of that land. I respectfully suggest that you find out the truth before you spread unsubstantiated rumors.
Mark Scott, City Attorney
Mr. Scott,
You really must be kidding yourself when you say that Chris Lagerbloom was the best qualified candidate.
He may have been the best of the 3 finalists, but not of all the applicants.
Many people won't question his hiring just because he's a familiar name, but people I've spoken with in the law enforcement community all seem to imply he was hired just because of his father's connections. He sure did jump a rank or two, and you have to admit, that doesn't happen often.
Also, as you stated, he was hired by the city manager, please go out of your way to make that clear to other city employees as it has been stated by a high ranking staff member that the Mayor did the hiring, not the city manager.
I do applaud the annexation along Arnold Mill, but I can't wait for the day that we are no longer involved with CH2M Hill.
I voted for a city, not a company.
-M. Eagle
Oh, I left something out.
Not too many folks can make it to the city council meetings when they are scheduled at 10:00 a.m. in the morning.
I was not involved in the decision, so you should direct any questions about qualifications to the City Manager. Further, I don't pretend to understand what it takes to be a qualified public safety director. That was the City Manager's call and that HE determined that Chris was the best qualified candidate. All I'm writing for is to tell you that there was a process and he was hired after going through that process rather than a decision made in some smoke filled room. The City Charter also requires that these positions are filled by the City Manager, not the Mayor.
As to the comments about CH2M Hill, whether you like the privatization model or not, we simply could not have a turn-key start to the city without them, and there was really little choice but to hire a private company to at least get us started if we were to deliver on what the citizens expected. They have done a great job with Sandy Springs, and you can't even tell you're dealing with a non-city employee. I wasn't all that keen on the idea in the beginning, but I think you will be very pleasantly surprised.
As for Travis, I can only suggest you contact Chris yourself but I'd be very surprised if only rookies were hired. Also, I don't know anything about the "thanks but no thanks" letters.
Finally, as to the comments on City Council meeting timing, once we get these initial foundation meetings out of the way, we will have a regular meetings on first and third Thursday evenings.
Mark Scott
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