(The original post has been corrected. The original post stated that Mohrig voted for the CLUP. A sentient reader pointed out that Rick Mohrig was actually not at the council meeting when the CLUP was approved. He was absent . . . no reason given. Accordingly, it is unknown how he would have voted had he been in attendance.)

Sorry for the higher volume of blog posts, but it is election season.  And my guess is that blog readers are hungry for information . . . beyond the mindless memes that I have seen at one local double-top-secret Lunatic Fringe Facebook page.

Today, I want to directly take on the issue of Development Authorities.  It seems that candidates Hene, Cranmer, and Cookerly are being painted as supporters of a Milton Development Authority.  This Development Authority is being characterized as an entity that would essentially approve/manage all development in Milton.  It would be mostly comprised of developers who would have full authority over development in Milton.  Elected officials (i.e., City Council) would be mostly or entirely removed from development decision-making.

I first heard about a Milton Development Authority at Candidate Helen Gordon’s campaign website.  Ms. Gordon asserts that “She will rally against a Development Authority that will further remove Milton residents from decisions that affect their homes.”  Well.  (BTW, Ms. Gordon is also pro-puppy, enjoys Oxygen, recycles, and is adamantly opposed to slavery.) 

Ms. Gordon is a California transplant who has lived in Milton . . . all of 3 years; she is a city government neophyte.  (City observers tell me she attended her first city council meeting after she announced her candidacy.) So I assumed Gordon was struggling with terminology and perhaps she was referring to Milton’s Community Development, which is the department in Milton that processes development issues and brings major zoning matters to council for discussion and approval/disapproval.  However, it turns out that Development Authorities are a topic that really is being discussed in Milton.  At Monday night’s City Council meeting, several Mohrig supporters railed against this Development Authority that was supposedly lurking in their opponents’ campaign platforms.  I have searched high and low at candidate websites, Facebook pages, campaign mailers, etc. and I have found nothing that would indicate support among ANY of the candidates for a Development Authority.  I also know that candidates Cranmer and Hene have stated their firm opposition to a Development Authority.  (I do not know candidate Cookerly’s official stance but have found nothing that would indicate she is supportive.)

However, not to be deterred, I continued my search.  Somewhere in the vast reaches of Milton—other than Ms. Gordon’s vanilla campaign website—surely, I would find this elusive Development Authority . . . and perhaps Bigfoot.  I next consulted the City of Milton’s website.  First, I used the search engine.  I came up with bupkis.

Next, I consulted Milton’s strategic plan.  Surely, if Development Authorities are important, they are to be found there.  The search results came up 0/0, so again nothing.  BTW, there are no references to elections in Milton’s strategic plan either, so citizens need to press Mohrig about why he took us down that bottomless rabbit hole, especially because he frequently references the strategic plan as being the city’s guiding document.

Plunging deeper into Milton’s city website, I consulted Milton’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP).  And Eureka!  I found five—yes, five—references to a Development Authority.  So finally, I had found a legitimate reference to a Development Authority (but I did not find Bigfoot).  Below is a montage of the 5 references.  Nowhere is a Development Authority described, but it is a project scheduled for 2025/6.  The word “pursue” is obviously vague.  The paragraph in the upper right-hand corner is from meeting minutes recorded for the 6^th CLUP committee meeting held on April 29, 2021. 

So yes, there is admittedly some cause for concern.  So here is where things get interesting.  It is important to understand the CLUP committee is a large committee (17 members I think) that includes city council members as liaisons.  Guess who they were?  Former council member Laura Bentley and current council member Paul Moore . . . now big Mohrig supporters (but previously big Mohrig despisers) . . . and aligned with the folks that are howling in protest about Development Authorities.  If anyone on council should know about Development Authorities, it is Paul Moore and Laura Bentley.  I usually do not repeat hearsay, but I am told that Bentley has been whipping up citizens on this topic of Development Authorities.

So my suggestion is that citizens concerned about Development Authorities, especially Mohrig supporters, write to Bentley and Moore (Mohrig’s boosters) to ask what are Development Authorities, why they voted for them, why they are now opposed, and what evidence they have that Hene, Cranmer, or Cookerly support Development Authorities.  Following are their email addresses:

paul.moore@miltonga.gov,laura.bentley@miltonga.gov

I admit that it is entirely possible that there is other documentation in Milton about Development Authorities, and it is possible that some candidates may have expressed support in some form or fashion.  However, so far, I have found nothing besides what I provided above.  If citizens find any other documentation about Development Authorities, please send it to me and I will post the information somewhere at the blog.  Thanks.

My sense is that the Mohrig campaign is using the Development Authority issue to detract from Mohrig’s poor record on land use, which includes voting to extend sewer multiple times (despite vowing not to).  And my hypothesis is that this Development Authority hysteria has been mostly manufactured to win cheap political points.  It seems to be a political bogeyman.  We’ll see . . .

Advocating For Truth in Politics and Government,

Tim

Postscript:  Long-time readers know that I got into city politics back in 2015 because of land use issues.  Readers know that I have near-zero tolerance for rezonings, variances, and other zoning hijinks.  And my strict stances on land use are why I severed my partnership with Council Members Moore and Bentley, when both supported nearly 30 variances at Birmingham Crossroads—none of which were justified.  Based on my extensive experience, I am confident that this notion of a Development Authority, as it has been explained to me, would have ZERO chance of being approved by City Council . . . ZERO. Again, I think a Milton Development Authority is probably just a political bogeyman and nothing more.

Note: The original post was corrected to reflect that Council Member Rick Mohrig was absent from the council meeting when the CLUP was approved. Upon being notified of the error by a friendly, I immediately corrected the blog post and posted a correction notice at the top of the blog post. And I do occasionally make factual errors. Since I began the blog, my policy is to promptly correct all factual errors. Over the years, I have had to make about a half dozen such corrections. Interestingly, only allies have ever notified me of errors. My adversaries frequently grouse about the MC Blog being fake news or spreading disinformation, but never once have they notified me of any factual errors. Enough said . . .