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Sunday, June 20, 2010

Recent Letters To Mayor Lockwood / Justice Fletcher Re Sewer In Milton.

All:

The following are two letters that were recently sent to both Mayor Joe Lockwood and Justice Norman Fletcher regarding sewer in Milton.
_______________________________________
BEGIN LETTER 1:

June 11, 2010
VIA HAND DELIVERY

The Honorable Joe Lockwood
Mayor
City of Milton
13000 Deerfield Parkway, Suite E
Milton, Georgia 30004

Re: Council Vote of May 3, 2010 on Justice Norman Fletcher's Proposed Sewer Map.

Dear Mayor Lockwood:

We the undersigned write to you as citizens of the City of Milton.

We write to express our grave concerns at the manner in which you and a majority of the City Council acted on May 3, 2010.

We are referring to the City Council's consideration of the agenda item published and posted as "Discussion and Vote on Justice Norman Fletcher's Proposed Sewer Map with Fulton County, Georgia, pursuant to the Service Delivery Strategy Act Court Ordered Mediation." (Agenda item No. 10-1129)(See City Of Milton, Georgia Regular Council Meeting Agenda dated Monday, May 3, 2010).

As you know, Justice Norman S. Fletcher's mediated sewer map proposal encompassed just four (4) of eight (8) land lots that had been the subject of disputre with Fulton County, Georgia. Juistic Fletcher's recommended solution involved significantly less acreage than those areas excluded from his proposal. However, Justice Fletcher's letter to Council and accompanying his proposed map was never published by the City Milton - a circumstance that we find curious and inexcusable, not to mention wholly inconsistent with basic principles of transparency and good government. The Justice's letter requested that the governing authorities of Fulton County and the City of Milton provide "an up or down vote with respect to the sewer map I have enclosed." He went on to request that the two governing authorities "vote to approve or reject the enclosed sewer map." (Letter of Norman S. Fletcher to Ken Jarrard, Esq. and Vincent D. Hyman, Esq. dated March 16, 2010). But the very nature of this limited request was withheld from the citizens of Milton-at large. As a consequence, they were unable to make an informed objection when the City Council acted to exceed the request on May 3, 2010.

Further more, Justice Fletcher sent his letter to Milton's City Attorney on March 16, 2010.
The Milton City Council voted on the matter on May 3, 2010. This means that Justice Fletcher's
letter was withheld from public view for almost six (6) full weeks and was not made part of the Council's disclosures when posting the matter for vote on May 3. Georgia's statutory provisions having to do with comprehensive planning and service delievery by counties and municipalities, in particular its dispute resolution procedures under O.C.G.A Section 36-70-25.1 and pertaining to municipal service delivery systems, do not mandate the confidentiality of mediation proceedings.

As a result, your approach represented a significant departure from basic principles of open government and transparency. Futhermore, there was no legal basis for you and other members of Council to depart from the policy position that Milton's elected representatives had established as recently as 2008, and then after completion of an exhaustive and detailed review.
At the very least, the Council should have decided this question only after first giving the citizens of Milton proper notice of the precise issues being laid on the table by Justice Fletcher. Failure to publish the Justice's letter made certain that that opportunity would never be had.

The substantive consequences of yor approach are significant. As a direct result of the Council'
s May 3, 2010 vote, a total of 41 parcels representing 130.8 acres have now been designated as eligible for sewer access. These numbers reflect a marked increase over the number of parcels and total acreage encompassed by Justice Fletcher's mediated recommendation.

For all those reasons, we believe that you and other members of Councl fell markedly short of your public responsibilities in the days leading up to and including May 3, 2010. In addition to your disregard of Milton's historic concern with limiting sewer, we are concerned that you have made the City vulnerable to potential legal challenges. Prospective claimants include Milton land owners and affect citizens and governments located downstream, particularly as they relate to improper diversions of water from the Etoway Basin. It also appears that policies promulgated by the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Board have been violated. Finally, we are concerned that some citizens will view the Council's action as having opened up sewer access for those properties adjoining the parcels addressed by the Council's action of May 3, 2010.

Accordingly we write to request formally that you and Council move to nullify your earlier vote, posting this entire matter for immediate reconsideration. We ask that you do so with a renewed regard for the wishes of the Milton community as well as basic principles of open goverment and transparency.

Your prompt action in futherance of these concerns will be appreciated.

Sincerely,

Joe Whitley
Kim Horne
Kurt Nolte
Jon McPhail
Michael Dailey

MAD/ms
cc: All Members of the Milton City Council

The Honorable Norman S. Fletcher
____________________________
BEGIN LETTER 2:

June 11, 2010
VIA HAND DELIVERY

The Honorable Norman S. Fletcher
Brinson, Askew, Berry, Seigler, Richardson & Davis, LLP
615 West First Street
P.O. Box 5007
Rome, Georgia 80162-5007

Re: Action Taken By The City Council of Milton, Georgia on May 3, 2010/
Proposed Sewer Map/City of Milton

Dear Justice Fletcher:

We are citizens of the City of Milton, Georgia.

We write to express our unequivocal disagreement with the action taken by the Milton City Council on May 3, 2010 expressing its approval of eight (8) parcels of real property listed on your proposed mediation sewer map, which map accompanied your letter of March 16, 2010 to Messrs. Ken Jarrard and Vincent Hyman.

The basis of our objections and concerns are several. They are summarized briefly below:

(1) The action of the Milton City Council was taken without first having published your letter to the citizens of Milton;

(2) Your letter was also not made available to all members of the Milton City Council until shortly before the vote was taken, which means that it was kept under wraps for a period of approximately six (6) weeks;

(3) The Milton City Council's consideration of this issue was published only one week before the scheduled May 3, 2010 vote, while your letter remained withheld from widespread public disclosure;

(4) The Milton City Council's agenda item for this matter was published and posted as "Discussion and Vote on Justice Norman Fletcher's Proposed Sewer Map with Fulton County, Georgia, pursuant to the Service Delivery Strategy Act Court Ordered Mediation." ( Agenda Item No. 10-1129), yet your letter and its explanatory comments were withheld from public disclosure; and

(5) Despite the fact your letter simply requested an "up or down" vote on the mediated solution which it described, this fact was not made known to the citizens of Milton.

Milton's City Attorney, Ken Jarrard, explained his decision not to publish your letter as related to the fact mediation is customarily private in nature. Yet, this mediation deals with a lawsuit in which the contesting parties are governmental entities. As such, the parties reflect, or are supposed to reflect, the wishes of their citizenry. To suggestion, as did Mr. Jarrard, that your letter was "private" defies common sense, particularly when an issue of extreme sensitivity to the citizens of Milton - sewer access - is being considered. Our City Council arrived at its original position in calendar year 2008, and it did so following a detailed and exhaustive review process. When on May 3, 2010 our City Council proceeded to employ its consideration of your letter as an opportunity to go beyond the request contained within it, and did so without even disclosing the precise nature of your request, a serious but reversible breach of public trust occured.

It bears noting that when the Fulton County Commission took up this same issue on May 5, 2010, your letter was made public by that body before a formal vote was taken.

We have made our concerns known directly to the members of the Milton City Council including Mayor Lockwood. A copy of that correspondence is enclosed for your review. We are requesting that the mediation solution which you proposed entirely anew by the Milton City Council. Accordingly, we urge you to hold in abeyance the report from that body as it pertains to creation of the forthcoming Inter-Governmental Agreement on sewer until a proper consideration of this issue is had by the City of Milton.

Thank you for your every consideration in this matter.

Sincerely,

Joe Whitley
Kim Horne
Kurt Nolte
Jon McPhail
Michael Dailey

MAD/ms
cc: Mayor Joe Lockwood
City of Milton

All Members of the Milton City Council

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

Julie, get over it!

Anonymous said...

Look; it's signed by a plague of hypocrites!

Anonymous said...

Five people do not represent the full citizenship of the City of Milton. I applaud the Council for finally putting the sewer map issue behind us.

Anonymous said...

I always wonder why these people think they speak for the rest of us? They speak for themselves and their friends, but not for the other 99% of the milton population.

Anonymous said...

And the majority voted for a city...how foolish. Thinking the grass is greener on the other side? Well, now we have mud instead of grass!

Anonymous said...

the undersigned need to get a life

Anonymous said...

when are you going to post the results of the latest accessmilton poll that ended on 6/10?

Anonymous said...

Who are these people and where do they live?

Anonymous said...

Their names are on the letters and they live in Marietta.

Anonymous said...

I can find out where they live by calling City Hall. It should be disclosure for all to know? I just thought I would ask.

Anonymous said...

You appplaud City Council because, A) you have no clue
B) You are pro-Sewer
C) You are KT and are both A and B.

These people do represent the majority of residents in Milton who are not paying attention, but feel exactly the same way they do about extending sewer into Milton anywhere. Now the door is open, and the foot is in.

The people who moved here or have lived here who are on open acreage and not living in a subdivision get it! No sewer.

Sewer = development. Of all kinds, more neighborhoods, more strip malls, and eventually we end up looking like every other stinking metro city.

Anonymous said...

Do not forget that some residents of Milton have sewer. What has really changed so drastically in Milton since Dec 2006? And when do expect strip malls and subdivisions to pop up? Anytime soon? And how do you expect to have the parks and other city programs and services without taxing the residents to death?

Anonymous said...

I do not want sewer on Bethany Rd. I do not want Bethany and Mayfield, the beginning of the City of Milton on the South end to end up like Alpharetta Highway with any type of commercial, townhomes, senior citizens, etc., etc.,. If I can stop this from happening I will do my best.

Anonymous said...

So you must own all of bethany and mayfield road eh

Tim Enloe said...

4:51AM:

To answer your question, you can find out where each of those who signed the letter live by going to whitepages.com.

I will tell you that the majority of them live in subdivisions with the two remaining residing in open road neighborhoods.

Tim Enloe
Accessmilton.com
770 653 0552

Anonymous said...

No I don't own all of Bethany or Mayfied Rd. But if Tim can try to get sewer, I can try and stop him..Now just who do you think is going to win this battle???????

And just in case you don't know this, the intersection of Bethany and Mayfield is just 1 part Milton and the other 3 parts are Alpharetta.

Anonymous said...

It's a shame all four points are not in Alpharetta. Come to think about it....all of Milton should be in Alpharetta.

Tim Enloe said...

I find it hilarious that people in Milton think they have the right to tell others what to do with their property. Simply amazing.

Tim Enloe
Accessmilton.com
770 653 0552

Anonymous said...

Both of you will win. For the very short term the anti sewer poster will be the winner.
It is just a matter of time and the residents who want sewer will get it.

Change is constant.
Change brought this topic to your doorstep.

Anonymous said...

I don't think Tim will stay around that long to fight for sewer. He said in a previous post that this was his last garden of 34 years. Does that mean he is ready to move on and take Access Milton with him?.Hope so.

Anonymous said...

I find it hilarious that people in Milton think they have the right to tell others what to do with their property. Simply amazing.

Tim Enloe
Accessmilton.com
770 653 0552

Kind of like you telling the BOE what they can and cant do on their property

WOW what a hypocrite

Tim Enloe said...

You obviously don't know how MHS came to be on Freemanville.

No need to go through it here, but suffice to say, they kicked people off their property.

Also, good neighbors are seen and not heard.

Next time, I recommend you know the full history before throwing false accusations.

Tim Enloe
Accessmilton.com
770 653 0552

Anonymous said...

You are commenting on the accessmilton board.
Yet you hope he takes accessmilton with him.

THAT makes alot of sense hypocrite.

Anonymous said...

I WONDER HOW MANY PEOPLE IN SUBDIVISIONS EVEN KNOW IF THEY ARE ON SEWER OR NOT, BETTER YET, HOW MANY ACUALLY CARE....AS LONG AS THEY CAN GET RID OF THEIR "CRAP" THEY ARE PROBABY INDIFFERENT

Anonymous said...

Tim, you were trying to stop the BOE from building a new school on Freemanville/Birmingham, then the Freemanville site. So it's o.k. for you to tell the BOE what they can or can't do with property they were purchasing from others, but no one can try to stop you from getting sewer and selling out to the highest bidder.
Who is calling who a hypocrite !!

Anonymous said...

Tim, you were trying to tell the BOE what they could or could not do with the New Milton High School property and you fought with the White Columns residents to stop the school from going up on Freemanville Rd..

How different is this than not wanting you to have sewer and selling out to the highest bidder, being who knows who or what!

Who is the hypocrite here. You butt into other peoples business but you don't want anyone to mess with yours.

Tim Enloe said...

Due to your nervous stuttering, I was going to hold off on putting you in check. After a brief moment, I decided to answer your call out of kindness.

First off, let's discuss how taxation works. You and I pay property tax with the overwhelming majority of it going to the BOE. Thus, we have invested money into the BOE. Therefore, they answer to the investors (us - the taxpayer) who have put money into their system. Therefore, both you and I have say; we are part owners after all. It is obvious you have forgotten where the get their money from.

Second, I have said countless times I am all for the building of high schools as long as they are in commercial areas. Highschools are a 24 hour entity with noise and traffic sun up to sun down. The reason we buy homes is for shelter and repreive. By constructing high schools in areas where homes are, you are destroying the very reason for having a home in the first place.

Third, I am a big believer in property rights. I would stand by your side if the gov't came calling trying to kick you out of your home due to their lack of foresight. The new Milton High School forced seven families out of their homes due to their lack of planning. Not one property was for sale.

So I hope that is a sufficient answer for your "hypocrite" accusation.

Let me know when you would like to debate on video. I would enjoying educating you on the black and white of logic, equal treatment, and how and why the tax system the founding fathers put in place actually works.

Tim Enloe
Accessmilton.com
770 653 0552

Anonymous said...

Once again I was at those BOE meetings and I know for a matter of fact that the person who first sold out was wanting to leave. The others you have not talked to everyone. And why are you speaking for them. If they were still so upset about being


KICKED off their
property don't you think that they would be on Access Milton blasting the school. No Tim, they have moved on and came out very well financially. So their battles have been fought and are over. STOP bringing up these people who you have not spoken to and stop making up things

that you don't know about!

Tim Enloe said...

Then I guess the folks I talked to didn't exist.

Call me, dear neighbor, and we will discuss in further detail.

Tim Enloe
Accessmilton.com
770 653 0552

Anonymous said...

Tim, is the Cogburn Road site a better site for the new high school? What about the residents there, especially the next door neighbor? What about the real traffic nightmare that is about to come true on Cogburn Rd?

Tim Enloe said...

3:51am -

"Better"? - No, because homes there will be disturbed constantly as well.

Again, I am not against building new high schools. I just believe they should be in retail / commercial nodes due to the noise and traffic. This is also a benefit to the students as they will have places to hang out after like local restaurants and such.

Take a look at Centennial and the new Johns Creek High School - both in 100% commercial zones; both pour onto four lanes which makes traffic easier.

I wish the folks well on Bethany / Cogburn, but rest assured, if you hate noise and are within a stones throw, get ready for Hell.

Tim Enloe
Accessmilton.com
770 653 0552

Anonymous said...

Or you might just enjoy listening to the band and having a little school spirit. Funny, there is a Publix, water towers, Wendys, etc., etc., in the new schools back yard. How much closer can they get to the commercial node of Milton without being on Highway 9 which would be a nightmare in the AM.