E-News By Councilman O'Brien

MILTON, GEORGIA: A Glance Back And A Look Forward

Hello Neighbors:

As one of seven of your inaugural elected officials, I wanted to share some thoughts at a time of tremendous progress & promise for the City of Milton. Just eight months have passed since taking office, yet incredible change has taken place on our watch.

Along with our friends across GA 400 in John’s Creek, we followed the lead of Sandy Springs late last fall into the great experience of city hood.

In July 2006, we voted overwhelmingly for self-government, but clearly not more government. In fact, much of the appeal beyond bringing control back into local hands, was the notion of an agile private/public partnership.

So, what is the greatest success to date?

Beyond continued validation of our partner in this enterprise, CH2M Hill-OMI (affectionately referred to as “CH2”), it has to be the remarkable implementation of our new Public Safety Department.

Initially, we paid Fulton County $20,000.00 per day to provide Milton with Public Safety coverage that consisted of old Fire apparatus and as little as one Police unit in the southeast corner of the area. Upon transition at midnight, April 30th, we immediately enjoyed cost savings, yet dramatically better coverage. A few weeks later, the Firefighters joined the fold, with three beautiful new engines straight from the factory, joined now by the “Quint”... bringing a ladder truck capability to Milton for the first time.

To put this in perspective, we replaced limited coverage and old equipment with brand new, state of the art vehicles and apparatus, all in less than seven months. On the Police side, we typically provide four or five units across Milton at any given time, with every officer AED/CPR equipped and qualified. Every firefighter is an EMT or better, with a large percentage of Paramedics on duty for the needs of residents in distress. That represents a dramatically improved capability, coupled with improved response time for those assets.

I’d like to mention two other items, with the promise that I will provide detailed coverage of these topics in coming weeks.

We have nearly completed our budget and millage setting process in the last few days. We have adopted a millage rate for Fiscal 2007, which is our operational year drawing to a close in a few weeks. As you might guess, it is a practical impossibility to lower a tax rate at the end of a budget year, but we did discuss the merits of such a move and the hope to lower our millage rate in the near future.

A parallel project was to fine tune our balanced FY-2008 budget plan. We have finalized a prudent financial plan that contributes appropriately to our Reserve Fund, provides only those items that are truly essential, but gets us moving on Parks and traffic relief in Milton.
The Staff at City Hall did an exceptional job through these important discussions, allowing the Mayor and Council to prioritize that which is most important to all of you, in a fiscally sound manner.

Finally, property owners in Milton will shortly receive their City Tax Bills in the mail. Many of us have already gotten Tax Bills from Fulton County, but remember that bill did not reflect the former “Special Service District” charge. Subject to more detailed discussion in another E-news, suffice to say that the average combined tax from Fulton and Milton should total approximately the same as last year.

On a personal note, it has been an exciting and very busy eight months in office. It is an honor and privilege to serve all of you and I encourage your continued feedback.

In fact, we often get the very best ideas & solutions from those we serve, so keep those emails coming. As we protect and refine Milton, continue to seek ways to provide cost effective services desired by our residents, and meet the challenges of coming years, we will need your help.
The support and encouragement of our “customers”, the taxpayers and families in Milton, will be an integral part of our success.

This is just the start of a great story and I am immensely proud to be a part of it!

Very Respectfully, Your neighbor,Neal O’BrienMilton City Council

District Four Neal.OBrien@CityofMiltonga.us
Paid for by Friends of Neal O’Brien, 635 Devonshire Farms Way, Milton, GA 30004-4322