Attached is an Open Records Request (ORR) that I sent yesterday to the city.  The ORR requests partisan activist Lisa Cauley and Council Member Rick Mohrig provide documented substantiation of cost savings they are claiming for Milton self-running its elections.  (I have submitted another ORR requesting the City’s original and current business cases for running its municipal elections.)

As Council Member Carol Cookerly stated at City Council’s last meeting, Milton’s elections problems are “escalating.”  The City is in a tight bind.  Every move the City makes only worsens matters.  And that is why Ms. Cookerly convincingly and wisely urged City Council to reconsider FuCo running Milton’s 2023 municipal elections to deescalate the mounting “burdens” and (I would contend) to de-risk the 2023 municipal elections.  City Manager and Elections Superintendent Krokoff echoed Cookerly’s concerns stating that he was confident he could “mechanically” pull off the election, but his main concern centered on citizens’ sinking trust and confidence in the elections reflected in the increasing public outcry about election integrity and voter rights.

On Monday night, Council Member Rick Mohrig and partisan activist Lisa Cauley only made matters worse with exaggerated claims of cost savings from Milton self-running it municipal elections.  Remember that Cauley and Mohrig (along with Paul Moore) were members of the now infamous Elections Feasibility Committee (EFC) and alas both should hew to higher standards of honesty.  Unfortunately, the EFC was steeped in sloppiness, dishonesty and secrecy going back to its murky creation and its initial meetings, which were held behind closed doors, without any notes kept of the proceedings.  The EFC’s elections incompetence, duplicity, and lack of transparency persist to the current day . . . the result an elections process steered by partisans lacking in elections expertise.

On Monday night, in general public comment, Ms. Cauley projected savings of “at least $200,000.”  Not to be outdone, Mr. Mohrig projected $250,000 in cost savings.  See above excerpt from the EFC’s December 2022 recommendations report.  Cauley and Mohrig’s savings are 75% to 119% higher than the EFC’s estimated cost savings. Cauley and Mohrig’s estimates are laughable.  In fact, cost savings estimates are likely decreasing considering the City’s elections costs have been rising substantially.  Consider just 3 items.  $10,000 was prudently added for contingency; a third polling location will cost $11,243; and Milton’s elections consultant is being paid $12,000 more than budgeted.  These 3 underestimated items by themselves total $33,243, thereby pushing the city’s estimated 2023 elections cost from $72,254 to $105,497 . . . a 46% increase from the EFC’s December 2022 estimates.  These 3 additional costs drive down estimated savings to $81,000 to $84,000 . . . or $40,500 to $42,000 per year when annualized . . . barely 0.1% of Milton’s annual budget . . . and the savings will likely continue to shrink as EFC’s shoddy business case makes a rendezvous with reality.

It is unclear what Cauley and Mohrig assumed would be FuCo’s cost to run Milton’s 2023 municipal election.  However, in February, FuCo capped elections costs at $5.72M for Fulton County.  My rough calculations (using 2 different methods) indicate the FuCo would charge Milton no more than $225,000 to $235,000.  (Note:  There is a true-up based on actual votes per locality, so the final costs are ultimately unknown and unknowable at this time.  And there are a few other unknowns.  However, FuCo costs can be ball-parked based on reasonable assumptions.) Comparing these estimated FuCo maximum costs with Milton’s costs means that Cauley and Mohrig’s estimated cost savings of $200,000 to $250,000 are an impossibility for 2023.  Pure fantasy!  And that is why I submitted the ORR . . . Cauley and Mohrig need to put up or shut up . . . admit that they have no support for their projections or else cough up substantiation of their claims (if they are keeping their own set of books on municipal elections).

Cauley and Mohrig are caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place.  There are only 2 answers they can provide to my ORR, and both answers will prove their cost savings assertions to be false.  The first answer is they provide NO substantiation of their savings claims, thereby conceding they pulled their cost savings estimates out of thin air.  The second answer is they provide support for their figures that (I am sure) can be easily refuted (not unlike the calculations I provided above).  Of course, it is possible that Cauley or Mohrig will engage in some transparent sort of verbal sleight-of-hand.

My ORR serves other purposes.  I want to call attention to Cauley’s operating in an ill-defined, quasi-official role.  Citizens operating in such roles are problematic as I explain in my letter.  I believe the city makes itself vulnerable to legal challenges by employing citizens, especially partisan activists, in designing elections (or for that matter in any other important city functions) without any adequate definition of their relationship/arrangement with the City.

My other purpose in submitting an ORR is to highlight the aforementioned dishonesty and lack of process rigor as just more examples (as if more were needed) of a long and deep pattern of elections incompetence and duplicity stretching back to the EFC’s formation.  There is so much misbehavior here—much of it from top Milton government officials—that an independent investigation is needed that is conducted either by 1) Milton (hiring an independent investigator) or 2) the Secretary of State.  Milton’s citizens should demand accountability and transparency.

Advocating for Election Integrity and Voting Rights,

Tim

Note:  I have long prided myself on keeping the Milton Coalition Blog strictly non-partisan.  In local politics and governance, I have always prioritized principles over party, politics, and partisanship.  I will continue to adhere to non-partisanship with my blog posts.  However, because of the partisan sensitivities around elections, I feel compelled to explain my political leanings to demonstrate my independence and objectivity.  I am an independent, Libertarian-leaning, Constitution-loving, patriotic, Ronald Reagan Conservative and proud of it.  (I proudly served our great nation as a US Navy nuclear submarine officer for nearly 8 years.) However, right is right.  Basic rights and fairness are at stake.  The election issues I am exposing transcend party and politics.  I refuse to stand by and let certain council members and political partisans destroy the fairness and integrity of Milton’s elections.