Letters To The Editor.

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- Tim Enloe / Accessmilton.com

The following is an email from Miltonian Tara Chambers to Lynn Riley of Fulton County.

"Dear Ms. Riley,

I just finished reading the flyer you mailed out requesting support for “Rick Mohrig – A true fiscal conservative”. I am hoping you can help me understand why you are attempting to turn our non-partisan election here in Milton into a Democrat versus Republican race. Correct me if I am wrong, but I don’t believe Alan Tart has declared himself a Democrat in this race or at least I haven’t seen or heard anything regarding that. As a matter of fact, I have heard him say he votes for the person, not the party.

Ms. Riley – I cannot express to you how disappointed I am in you for attempting to make our community & city counsel more divided than it already is. This is supposed to be about representing the people and the facts of the matter are that Rick Mohrig & Neil O’Brien have not represented what the people want or expected of them. I have spent countless hours reading over the minutes of the City Counsel meetings and Rick Mohrig says little if anything during most of the meetings. In particular I’d like you to refer to the minutes from the regular City Council meeting on April 19, 2007. In this particular meeting, decisions were made regarding signage on highway 9 (how high, how tall, total surface area, etc.). Keep in mind that the highway 9 corridor is in Rick Mohrig’s own district, yet he had almost nothing to contribute to the discussion. The minutes from that meeting are 102 pages long and Rick Mohrig says little, if anything throughout the whole meeting. When he does speak, it is asking “just a clarification” or “could you repeat”. I am not exaggerating. Please go to the on-line minutes at HYPERLINK "HYPERLINK http://www.cityofmiltonga.us/gov/meetings/2007/Minutes-04-19-2007.pdf http://www.cityofmiltonga.us/gov/meetings/2007/Minutes-04-19-2007.pdf" HYPERLINK http://www.cityofmiltonga.us/gov/meetings/2007/Minutes-04-19-2007.pdf http://www.cityofmiltonga.us/gov/meetings/2007/Minutes-04-19-2007.pdf and just do a search with “Mohrig” and you can see how little his participation is in this meeting.

I live in The Hermitage subdivision and I can literally see highway 9 from my front porch if I look through the trees where Habitat for Humanity is building. Highway 9 being in my backyard compounded with the fact that the Comprehensive Land Use Plan will be rewritten within the next term is the exact reason we cannot let Rick Mohrig stay on the City Counsel. We need someone who is not afraid to represent what the people want and someone who is a leader. Milton needs a motivated person who can work with both the developer’s needs and the resident’s needs and help develop alternatives that satisfy both the retail businesses while maintaining the quality of life we, the residents of Milton, expect and deserve.

Before slamming Alan Tart for his perceived political affiliation, did you even look at his qualifications? Did you notice what he does for a living? He works to facilitate compromise and policy between 2 arms of the government that need to work together (The FDA and the Health Department). Correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t you think we could benefit from his work experience. Someone that forms compromises and policy for a living!!!! Some other “minor” factors that I would like to know if you considered:

1.) He is the HOA president for Avensong, one of, if not the largest HOA in Milton (580 homes)
2.) His counterparts (nationally) at the FDA have many times in the past chosen him to be their national representative on a variety of issues
3.) Led the recent Avensong Community Association fundraising event that raised $3,000 for the Milton Police Department

Your mailing states “Sadly, Alan Tart did not bother to vote in 2006 when the city hood referendum was on the ballot. Why would anyone believe he’s committed to leading Milton during its critical first years?”. My response to your 2 questions:

1 – Did you ask him directly why he didn’t vote? I don’t know why he didn’t vote, but I am simply going to ask him, not assume he doesn’t care. Did you ever think there could be a valid reason?

2 – I believe he’s committed because how many people do you know step up to take on HOA presidency and do fundraising activities for the local police department?

From what I’ve seen and read, Alan is a leader and he will be a much more valuable resource to the city council than Rick Mohrig has been. The only thing I keep hearing about Rick is that he is a conservative – I’m sorry but that isn’t enough. The people of Milton need more and they need someone to protect their interests in this critical period. The people need to worry about being represented especially when we have counsel people saying things like “Councilmember Lusk stated he wholeheartedly supports Tom Wilson’s evaluation, his analysis and his proposal to do a progressive decrease in sign size. He thinks it makes a lot of sense. He thinks it would look kind of foolish out there if we have all 64 sq foot now and then have 32 sq foot intermixed in between. He thinks a progressive or digressive approach to this sign issue here is probably the most logical reasonable approach to take after having heard and interviewed several business people in the Highway 9 corridor out here. He thinks they need that kind of support to promote their businesses out here. After all they are paying the taxes out here.(taken from 4/19/07 meeting minutes). I’m glad councilmember Lusk spoke with business people because he surely didn’t speak with us, the residents along Highway 9. As a side note – if the businesses are the only ones “paying the taxes out here”, can I have my $8k back that I paid this year?

Ms. Riley, I supported you when you ran and I’ve met with you during BARA meetings and I had more respect for your opinions than this is displaying. I would have expected you to look at all factors and really consider what is important and at stake here. It’s seems the Fulton County Commissioners from the South aren’t the only Commissioners be disappointed with.
By the way – I E-mailed Mr. Tart when I first started this E-mail asking him why he didn’t vote in 2006 when the city hood referendum was on the ballot. Do you want to know his response?..... “the reason I didn’t “bother to vote” in the 2006 referendum is because I was still traveling heavily during that time to New Orleans, LA and the MS Gulf Coast region to assist the area health departments with Katrina recovery. John Fredericks stated in an article that “my camp” claimed I had administrative problems and that’s why I didn’t vote. Not sure where he got this from.”

Considering the factors involved, I’ll even cut him a break for not doing absentee voting – I personally remember the Katrina recovery being a very frantic time for people and I can understand him missing a voting opportunity. Don’t you wish you had just asked and not assumed?

Sincerely,

Tara Chambers
The Hermitage Subdivision
830 Barberry Drive
Milton, GA 30004"