July 15, 2017
Citizens:
On Monday night, City Council will discuss a response to the redistricting scandal that was exposed by the Milton Herald this past week. The City Council meeting will begin at 6 pm on July 17th (Monday) at the new City Hall in Crabapple.
Milton Herald Article: Milton Coalition Questions Motives Behind Redistricting
Explainer: What If An Election District Got Changed And No One Knew About It?
It is critical that citizens show up to this meeting and speak (if the spirit moves them). This is the most important City Council meeting since I began advocating for citizens 20 months ago. It is time for accountability at our City Council. If citizens allow Council to dismiss or otherwise diminish the wrongdoing associated with this redistricting, then wrongdoing will supremely and forever reign in Milton. In the redistricting, virtually every principle of good governance was violated: transparency, honesty, democracy, fairness, citizen-participation, competence/rigor, and due process. And it is this same bad governance that is resulting in the ruination of our quality of life in Milton, with developers exerting outsized influence in our local government.
It is time for our City Council to admit that Milton has governance issues and to commit to fixing those issues. If City Council is going to pass a resolution or generate some other response to the redistricting scandal, it needs to reflect that admission and commitment, not obfuscation and denial.
This issue is quite simple. Milton’s Charter, which our municipal Constitution, was changed without a single citizen knowing about it. How can the City defend that?
And why was the Charter changed? Because Councilor Thurman was moving outside her district and did not want to lose her seat. The evidence of this is overwhelming. She lobbied Representative Jones less than a month after buying a lot (where she built her home) outside of the district and then immediately set about drafting a plan for her home. Emails obtained through an Open Records Request clearly show this. Furthermore, the real reason for the district change was known to at least some other Council Members, who have admitted it off-the-record. (Hopefully, on Monday night, they will go on the record.)
Why does this matter? Quite simply, Ms. Thurman should have relinquished her District 1 seat when she moved. A special election should have been held to fill the vacancy. Ms. Thurman’s deception resulted in the disenfranchisement of Milton’s 20,000+ voters. Furthermore, Ms. Thurman’s deception denied the 7,000+ voters in District 1 an opportunity to run for that seat (and their prospective appointees the opportunity to serve on various committees.)
And most importantly, this sort of corruption has a corrosive effect on the public’s trust and confidence. It is this sort of wrongdoing that makes people cynical about government. And this erosion in trust has many ill effects, including encouraging more wrongdoing. The culture of wrongdoing at the top of our government surely percolates to the lower levels of government. So yes, changing the district lines does matter.
And do not let Councilor Thurman fool you with her malarkey about needing to change the district boundaries so that she could “represent” residents of The Estates At Atlanta National. In Milton, voting for Council Members is at-large. This means that all voters vote for all 6 Council Members, not just the Councilors from their district. Accordingly and more importantly, all 6 Council Members represent all voters. That means you can go to any Council Member with a request or concern. In fact, as often as not, citizens choose to go to a Councilor outside of their district based on a friendship, that Councilor’s advocacy on a particular issue, a referral from another citizen, or myriad other reasons. By her own admission, before the district change, Councilor Thurman was legally and legitimately representing the residents of The Estates at Atlanta National, and according to Ms. Thurman they readily came to her with issues. So applying Ms. Thurman’s own logic, a district change was not required. This issue of representation was contrived to disguise the real reason for the district change: Ms. Thurman’s future move outside of her district.
Citizens, please attend Monday’s City Council meeting and consider speaking. The future well-being of our City depends on it. Never forget that it is your government. Citizens are the masters; our elected officials are the servants. On Monday night, we need to remind Council of that fact. If you cannot attend for any reason, please express your opinions through emails to City Council and the City Manager.
Citizens, thank you for your support over the last 20 months. Through your activism on behalf of good governance and smart land use, you have had a positive effect on Milton. Your civic pride is encouraging candidates to come forward to challenge Councilors in Districts 1 and 2, the two districts affected by the district change. Milton has not had competitive elections since 2011, which has fostered arrogance, disconnectedness, hostility, misbehavior, and a sense of entitlement in some elected representatives. Competitive elections will ensure a proper debate about the issues facing Milton and give citizens a real choice for the first time in 6 years.
See you on Monday night.
Advocating For Citizens,
The Milton Coalition – Advocating for clean, competent, courageous, and citizen-centric government
Postscript: Over 300 of you have viewed the video of Ms. Thurman’s Monday night speech and have been returning or sending others to watch it. (You can scroll down to find it.) Clearly, Ms. Thurman was trying to insulate herself from citizen outrage over the redistricting in advance of the Milton Herald’s article. If you don’t like the message, make yourself out to be the victim and do everything you can to discredit the messenger, including citizens and the Milton Herald, which is being accused of creating Fake News . That seems to be the playbook here.
Milton Coalition 