Could it be...Cowards Among Us?

An Editorial By Tim Enloe

As many of you know, I put my name in the hat for the Milton City Council District 4 seat this past summer. I ran the way I would want a candidate to run – with a clear conscious. I self funded my campaign to a tune of only $3,000.00 and refused any outside financial support. I did not want a contributor trying to steer my discretion in public office because of what they gave me in the midst of a campaign season. My focus would be on the citizens’ wants and desires. There were some exceptions which left me with a total of right under $300.00 in donations. (When all was said and done, the same $300.00 ended up covering the cost for three DVD-VCR players for our Milton Fire and Police.) As Milton’s first voting season came to a close in November, two run-offs came about. My self and another candidate still had our work cut out for us until early December as well as two others in another district. The voters spoke and I was left the lesser of two choices.

Fast forward to March of 2007 and rumors swirled of a "fundraiser" for two of the current city councilmen. It would eventually come to light that the two councilmen asked the city clerk to publicize a political fund-raiser for their campaigns. According to State Ethics Commission Executive Director Rick Thompson, "The law states no public agency shall directly or indirectly promote a candidate or elected official." It wasn’t long until an ethics complaint against the two came by means of retired school teacher Leon Cole Jr. He would write "(These two councilmen) should be formally and publicly reprimanded for their intentional, significant and unlawful personal use of public resources." The last I heard, the investigation is ongoing.

One of the sites our company runs is AccessMilton.com; a community focused website for all things Milton, GA.

While we pull credited stories from local news sites, we also provide avenues for citizens to give input or question. One such instance was the initial invite sent out for the "fundraiser" listed above. Due to numerous requests, we posted it in our news & forums section on March 28, 2007 and alerted all visitors much like we have with stories past. In the long run, it would appear that some didn’t like this extra attention…

My wife Ginger called me in early April relaying that I had received a piece of mail from the City of Milton. The letter dated April 3rd, 2007, began "Please be advised that I serve as the City Attorney of the City of Milton, Georgia." Hmmm. Ok. Keep reading. "It has come to our attention...through members of the community that the manner in which you are going about soliciting donations is problematic." Huh? " We understand that you have been contacting individuals directly and directing them to make their contributions through your "Access Milton" website." Our city attorney and his accusers are incorrect. I have never told anyone to make donations to Accessmilton.com on behalf of the city's Fire and Police Charitable Group. We do have a separate Fire and Police fund that was set up during my campaign that eventually would evolve into part of our business model. Each year starting in January of '08, we will be donating 10% of our profits to the Milton Fire & Police departments. (Prior, we were actually contacted by a city staff member inquiring about the fund before they had initiated their own. I offered control of this fund to the city with a simple request to give recognition to those who started it. A day later, an email received declined.) "To the extent that "hits" on your website may benefit you or your company directly, there is at least an argument that can be made that this is a violation of the City Ethics Ordinance." I was always led to believe that attorneys are necessary to ensure that no stone is left unturned regarding a dispute.

For the assumptive and ill-informed, AccessMilton.com generates revenue in one of two ways:

A. An advertiser pays for space on the website.

B. A visitor to the website clicks on a "Google® Ad Sense" ad.

We DO NOT generate revenue every single time a user "hits" Accessmilton.com. One would think the City Attorney and his accusers would have researched these facts prior to their claim, but I digress.

The letter continued about an error in our forum section regarding an Accessmilton.com admin titled "Miltonfirepolice" and confusion that such a title could possibly relay to the public. Point taken and this concern has been amended.

After a response was sent to the City Attorney on our company's behalf, we received yet another letter; this time in email form. It would state: "Tim is serving as a volunteer with the City. He is not just a private citizen. If you had bothered to read the definitions section of the Ethics Ordinance you would see that number 35 under the Appendix of definitions defines "Public Servant" to include the term "volunteer." If Tim wishes to either continue as a volunteer with the City or not be the subject of an ethics complaint, he must immediately comply with the ethics ordinance. Directing people to the Access Milton website to raise funds for the firehouses results in personal gain from the "hits" the site receives. You haven’t disputed this. Tim must cease and desist this practice immediately or he will be removed as a volunteer and the City will terminate all relationships with him." He continues "I must emphasize that no other volunteer with the City has had to be referred to the City Attorney for consideration and that Tim’s actions are causing the City to have to needlessly expend resources on attorney time. Regrettably, I must say that at some point, the City be forced to make a determination about whether the benefit of a volunteer’s services exceed their costs."

If the City Attorney "had bothered" to understand the revenue model of Accessmilton.com, then he would realize that he as well as those who push this claim are incorrect regarding the "hits" attempt. It would also have been wise for the City Attorney to conduct due diligence regarding the false claims of my directing citizens to Accessmilton.com on behalf of the city's official fire and police fund before writing a letter. A claim, as shown above, proven false without much effort. The City Attorney continues stating that my actions are "causing the City to have to needlessly expend resources on attorney time. Regrettably, I must say that at some point, the City be forced to make a determination about whether the benefit of a volunteer’s services exceed their costs." Note that he does not reference the time spent on behalf of those whose brought up these false accusations initially. Note that he does not reference the purchase of the three DVD / VCR players purchased for the Milton Fire & Police departments by myself.

When all was said and done, we requested a meeting with some of the city staff. Much like I have laid out above, I did the same in this instance. The attendees understood my points. Upon exiting, I would ask who it was that brought these accusations against me. While no names were given, I was told that "it was some members on the city council." Imagine that.

In closing, could it be that the tax dollars wasted in pursuit of me might have been better used to help the Milton Fire and Police keep our families safer during an emergency? Could it be that some on the council have once again abused our city staff; this time for political revenge? Could it be that some on the council have few ideas so they choose to attack others out of fear and hollowness? Could it be that there truly are cowards among us? That… is for you to decide.