On Monday night March 21, the Milton Coalition addressed City Council.  Following are the remarks.  We are concerned that the voice of the ordinary citizen is being drowned out by the roar of Special Interests, who exercise outsized influence in Milton.  We are tired of being talked down to and talked at by certain Council members.  And we plan to vigorously oppose “conservation” subdivisions, which citizens have clearly stated they do not want.  Please contact us at miltoncoalition@outlook.com to join us in preserving the Milton we love.

This evening, I am here speaking on behalf of the Milton Coalition, which was formed in November to oppose the CSO.  Our mission is to advocate for clean, competent, and courageous government.  Behind me are members of the Milton Coalition.  We are ordinary citizens concerned about the current direction of our city.  Most of us have never had any involvement in city government.  However, the CSO and the process to draft it deeply troubled us and brought us together in opposition.

We saw the CSO for what it was.  A gift to developers.  A profit maximization scheme.  An avenue for introducing higher density housing into Milton.  A way to open up marginal land to development.  And the opposite of conservation.

We also saw a deeply flawed process.  An incompetent consultant.  An unstructured and non-transparent process.  Disrespect for staff and the Planning Commission.  And meddling from some Council members.

So the Milton Coalition was started.  We began from scratch.  We had no money, no e-mail lists, no organization.  Yet in 3 weeks, we were able to rally 835 citizens to sign a petition.  Over 100 supporters attended your December meeting, with 35 stepping to the mike.  And I would remind you that only 15 people spoke in support of the CSO and most—11 of the 15—were non-resident Special Interests, including developers, building lobbyists, land owners, community septic vendors, and consultants.  The image of citizens vs. Special Interests could not have been more stark.

Fortunately, enough of you realized the truth of the CSO and the forces behind it and the CSO was denied.  Presumably the CSO issue was put to bed.  Or so we thought.  However, Special Interests and their agents were undeterred and are now using (or misusing, in our opinion) rezoning and variances to achieve the CSO’s objectives.  And based on last week’s Council meeting, there seems to be a lot of support for conservation subdivisions on Council.  So my question to you tonight is: what has changed in the last 3 months to make you want to reconsider conservation subdivisions?  Why are we going to drag citizens into another fight on this issue?  How can you lament divisiveness on the one hand and support again raising this issue on the other hand?

The wisdom of this is lost on us.  So this evening we are here to tell you that the Milton Coalition never went away.  We are still here and we are not going away.  And we plan to vigorously oppose the Ebenezer development, should Council decide to reconsider conservation subdivisions.  Last night we met at my home to plan our campaign.  Fortunately, we are smarter and better organized.  We know how to mobilize citizens and that is precisely what we intend to do—if we have to.

This evening, we do want to issue a challenge to Council.  Rather than accusing us of disseminating misinformation and using scare tactics, why not pick up the phone and call us?  Why not invite us for coffee and meet with us?  Why not talk to us instead at us?  Tell us why we are mistaken or what we are exaggerating.  Better yet, we challenge Council to hold a moderated town hall meeting where we can have a civil discussion, or even debate, about land use and conservation subdivisions.  We invite you to come down from the dais and engage ordinary citizens, without any Special Interests in the room.  Let’s work together to build a better Milton, which starts with two-way communication.