The focus of today’s post is the 2021 City Council elections.  I will start with some of the basics as there are quite few new subscribers to the blog.  There will be 2 parts to this post, with the second part published tomorrow.

On August 19^th, qualifying for upcoming City Council elections ended.  The qualification period lasted 3 days.  Qualification is when candidates officially declare their candidacy, filing the necessary paperwork at City Hall and paying fees to the City Clerk.  The City ascertains that filing candidates are residents of Milton and running in the correct district.  Qualifying ensures that candidates’ names appear on the November ballot. 

Milton’s elected government consists of a mayor plus a city council, comprised of 6 members–two from each of Milton’s three districts.  The Mayor sits on Council and has a vote; he/she also retains some special powers and serves as a kind of “head of state” for ceremonial functions (ribbon-cuttings, etc.).  In Milton, in 2021, voters will elect the Mayor and 3 Council members–one from each of Milton’s three districts.  (Elections are staggered every 2 years, so the remaining three Council members will be elected in 2023.)  The Mayor and Council Members serve four-year terms.  Voting is at-large, meaning that all Milton citizens vote for all council members, regardless of the candidate’s or the voter’s district.  So in 2021, all voters will vote for the Mayor and for three Council members.

Two of the four 2021 races will be competitive.  That is both good news and bad news.  The good news is that two races are competitive.  Milton needs competitive races to keep politicians honest and to foster debates about important city issues.  And one of the races features an upstart against an incumbent.  This race is especially encouraging as it gives citizens an opportunity to send a message to our city government about citizens’ satisfaction with the status quo and with the City government’s accomplishments (or lack thereof) over the past 4 years.  (I will have much more to say about this topic as I strongly believe things are not well in Milton and governance has sadly regressed over the past 4 years.) 

The bad news is that only 2 races are competitive.  It is troubling that more citizens do not enter the political arena; Milton desperately needs smart, honest, and caring elected representatives.  However, citizens’ reluctance to run is understandable given the often dysfunctional (and sometimes toxic) political environment in Milton (the Matilda’s and Painted Horse fiascos are Exhibits A and B of the dysfunction at City Hall.)  Many eminently qualified citizens do not run out of fear, disgust, or both.  In 2013 and 2015, things were so bad that there were actually no competitive elections in Milton.  However, through the hard work of a small group of citizens that I was proud to be a part of (and sometimes lead), citizens rebelled and ejected several City Council members in 2017 and 2019. 

Milton actually has a good track record when it comes to “throwing the bums out.”  Many incumbents have been voted out of office (or sometimes saw the writing on the wall and declined to run).  It is helpful that Milton’s elections occur in odd-numbered years, when there are (usually) no state or federal candidates on the ballot.  This means that only the most committed and informed voters show up at the polls . . . folks like you who are willing to invest to understand the election landscape and are much less likely to be persuaded by appeals based on incumbency and “experience.”

In tomorrow’s post, I will provide my observations on the four City Council seats up for election.

Advocating For Miltonites,

Tim

A few days ago, I sent an email to my email distribution list.  Thousands of Milton’s citizens received my email announcing that I had re-launched the Milton Coalition blog in advance of the 2021 City Council elections.  I was encouraged by the response.  My email program and my blog both provide aggregated statistics on citizen responses.  My dashboard shows that 44.1% of citizens opened my email and that 21.6% of these readers clicked through to the Milton Coalition Blog.  This compares with an average open rate of 19.34% and clickthrough rate of 12.66% for political emails.  Also, my dashboard indicates that, on average, each person opening the email forwarded the email to one other person, thereby doubling the email’s distribution.  Thank you.  My blog dashboard shows that the blog has been viewed over 450 times (over 10% coming from citizens’ posts on social media) in the past 48 hours.  Around two dozen citizens became new subscribers.  Welcome.  I am humbled by your trust and confidence as indicated by these statistics.  And I am (once again) encouraged by the engagement of so many Miltonites in local good governance.  It is my firm belief that excellent local governance correlates closely with citizen engagement and that education is a necessary prerequisite to such engagement.

When I first engaged in city government in late 2015, it was obvious to me that there was a need for well-reasoned, well-researched perspectives on City government.  The Milton Herald provided some coverage, but it lacked depth and analysis.  And the paper’s editor also seemed to be biased toward one of the two factions battling it out in Milton.  There were also communications from the City, but most were the equivalent of cotton candy—a lot of air and very little nutritional value.  And finally there were several partisan Facebook pages, where the back-and-forth dialogue resembled the verbal equivalent of a food fight.  A lot of nastiness, but little insight.  Does anyone really change their minds based on these Facebook battles? In view of this dearth of accurate and actionable information, I launched the Milton Coalition Blog and slowly built up readership.  It has been a labor of love for me.  Since the blog’s inception, I have published over 275 blog posts.  At times (the run-up to the 2017 election or key City Council meetings), the blog has attracted many hundreds of readers daily.

My hope is that the blog will once again provide citizens with a source of useful information and insights in the run-up to the City Council Elections.  Please feel free to reach out to me with comments and questions.  Please let me know if you find any factual errors, but realize that my opinions are my opinions (supported by facts).  Please feel free to challenge me . . . I welcome an honest, respectful debate.

Advocating for Citizen Engagement,

Tim

(Last updated August 25, 2023)

(Trigger Warning:  I realize that some readers may find my blog harsh, although I prefer the descriptor “hard-hitting.”  However, I urge you to invest the time to read and understand my perspective.  I invested the better part of 2+ years of my life for the cause of good governance in Milton.  I partnered with Laura Bentley to achieve good governance in Milton; I know Laura (politically) better than probably anyone in Milton.  I have paid a very high price for my involvement in local politics, including spending over $10,000 on an attorney.  And I certainly deeply regret my support for certain politicians.  However, if you are in the I’ve-made-up-my-mind-so-don’t-confuse-me-with-the-facts camp, feel free to unsubscribe from my blog.  Conversely, if you care about Milton and can handle the truth, I believe you will find my future blog posts enlightening.

Upon being elected to City Council, Laura Bentley stated to me and others:  “I intend to serve only one term.  Beginning day one, I am going to find a successor.”

Yesterday, the City of Milton posted the names of candidates who qualified for the Mayorship and for City Council seats.  (Two City Council seats will be competitive.  That is good; the community benefits from competitive local races.)  Surprise of surprises (tongue in cheek), Council Member Bentley paid her fees and qualified for re-election.  Laura’s reversal on re-election was predictable, following in the wake of so many other broken promises. 

Very early in her term, Ms. Bentley demonstrated a singular lack of integrity in the conduct of her office.  And I suppose at some point when engaging in deception, you cross a sort of Rubicon, where political dishonesty just becomes routine.  (See below passage from Dante’s Purgatorio.)  Frankly, I do not think Laura gave a second thought to breaking her promise to serve only one term.  As Laura’s longest and strongest supporter, I was shocked by Laura’s behavior during her first few months in office.  Many of her strongest supporters were similarly shocked.  The foundation of my and supporters’ political bond (and friendship) with Laura was our dedication to shared political principles:  strict adherence to zoning laws and practices (and more generally to the rule of law); improved transparency; shifting power to citizens (through structural changes to city government); enhanced accountability; improved government competence; reform of the zoning process; the end of cronyism; honesty; fairness; a level playing field for citizens (vs. developers); strong deference to residents most impacted by Council decisions;  and the highest ethical standards for conduct of our government.  Within a few short months after taking her oath of office, Laura had abandoned most/all of these principles; the Matilda’s debacle is Milton’s poster child for poor governance (as I will explain in future posts).  Sadly, our City has gone backwards over the last 4 years.  Many of Laura’s strongest supporters have disengaged in disgust . . . another victory for cynicism about politics and politicians.  I myself eventually went into quasi political exile, no longer actively engaged but still watching the terrible dysfunction at City Hall.  However, with election season upon us, I feel compelled to re-engage.  Voters need to understand the problems at Council and with City staff and the resulting ill effects on Milton’s quality of life.

I believe integrity (and more generally political ethics) will be a key issue in the upcoming District 2 election.  For me personally, professional integrity is a litmus test for politicians.  No integrity, no support.  Applying this standard, I will not be supporting Ms. Bentley for a second term.  

For those of you with a more literary bent, I end this blog post with a favorite passage from Dante’s Purgatorio:

He sank so low that all means

for his salvation were gone,

except showing him the lost people.

For this I visited the region of the dead . . .

Advocating For Integrity in Politics,

Tim

In re-launching the Milton Coalition blog, to support my conclusions and recommendations, I will be providing citizens with email correspondence, texts, voicemails, and even a few hand-written notes.  I have kept every scrap of documentation from my civic activities.  (This will prove decidedly inconvenient and uncomfortable for some city officials.)

Following is an email exchange with Steve Krokoff, the City Manager, which is typical of exchanges I’ve had with the City Attorney, Mayor, and most council members (especially Council Member Laura Bentley).  I provide this email because it concisely summarizes my reasons for getting into city politics, staying in city politics, and most importantly, my deep passion/care for good governance.  To sum up, how things get done in Milton is much more important than what things get done.  My long experience with my clients has taught me that good outcomes (i.e., what gets done) are inevitably the result of good processes (i.e., how things get done).  To achieve good outcomes, you have work hard to implement and consistently execute good processes.  Good processes are characterized by honesty, fairness, transparency, rigor, and accountability.  And mostly importantly, a good process upholds the rule of law.  If suboptimal outcomes occur, then processes should be revised . . . rather than circumvented.

There is danger, and ultimately failure, in ignoring or circumventing good governance to achieve so-called good outcomes,  which predictably usually promote the interests of politicians and their friends/family but not citizens’ interests.  Things have gone badly wrong in Milton because certain politicians—some of whom regretfully I supported—have ignored our laws and have abused/disregarded established city processes and good governance principles to promote their own personal agendas or friends/family’s agendas.  And what these politicians fundamentally do not understand is that the ultimate good outcome—and the basis for all other truly good outcomes–is trust and confidence in government.  Such trust is hard to gain and easy to lose . . . it takes but a few big lies (and some council members have told some whoppers).  In fact, big lies by some city council members in Milton have caused trust and confidence in local government to dramatically decline, causing increasing division among citizens.  Milton is doomed to divisiveness until we elect officials that are passionate about principles and process and act on that passion.

One glaring example of abuse of process (and a resulting loss of trust) is council’s practice of allowing developers to bastardize use permits with variances (exceptions to zoning laws) to put properties to use in ways contrary to the law, reasonable expectations of citizens, and Milton’s rural character.  Granting such variances sets legal precedents that ensure that Milton City Council’s poor decisions metastasize across the community.  In future posts, I will cite specific examples of process abuses (and their reverberations across the community) and call out particular politicians and government officials for their roles in eroding public trust.

Advocating For Good Governance,

Tim

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RE: Congratulations on Your Appointment

Steven Krokoff <Steven.Krokoff@cityofmiltonga.us>

Fri 7/15/2016 3:20 PM

To:  You

Thank you very much, Tim. Based on what you have said, I believe that we are very much like-minded. I have almost 25 years in public service with over a decade in top leadership roles. Much of the success that I have been a part of has been rooted in forming outstanding leadership teams and inspiring public trust and confidence. I am confident that we can achieve all of what you seek for Milton and more. I look forward to working with you as well. Have a great weekend.

Warmest Regards,

Steve Krokoff

Steven Krokoff

City Manager/Interim-Chief of Police

From: Tim Becker
Sent: Wednesday, July 13, 2016 7:15 PM
To: Steven Krokoff <Steven.Krokoff@cityofmiltonga.us>
Subject: Congratulations on Your Appointment

Steve:

Congratulations on your appointment to City Manager.  I think the City made a good and wise choice.

I look forward to working with you.  

Please understand that my primary interest is in City processes.  I strongly believe that if our processes are fair, rigorous, honest, and transparent, the City will achieve the right outcomes . . . which may not be the outcomes I would prefer.  If we get the process right, then citizens will have trust and confidence in our City government.  This is critical.  I know this to be true based on my 30+ years in the military and in business.

I wish you success in your new job.  Please do not hesitate to reach out to me if I can help you in any way.

With deep civic pride,

Tim

Tim Becker

The Milton Coalition

After the 2017 Milton elections, I received a call from newly elected Council Member Laura Bentley (paraphrasing):  “OK Tim, you are the first one I am calling.  I wanted to (again) give you the opportunity to serve as one of my appointees to one of Milton’s committees.  You can choose any appointed position that you want.”  Laura’s offer was in recognition of my role—some would claim it was dispositive—in Laura’s historic landslide victory (she garnered 71% of the vote) over an 11-year incumbent who had served on City Council since the founding of the City of Milton.  In Laura’s words I had done the “very messy heavy lifting.”  (In future blog posts, I will relate some of tasks I performed.  Readers will clearly understand what Laura meant by “very messy heavy lifting” and they might be surprised by the role I played.)

I appreciated the call, but Laura knew my answer.  I told Laura:  “I have to decline.  I think I can best serve the community in my current role.  Some citizens need to remain outside of government and hold it accountable.  I think I need to continue what I have been doing.”  I wanted to continue to objectively blog about city politics, to speak freely before council, and to take other actions to keep our government accountable.  I felt a committee appointment might constrain me in these activities. Laura knew this, but I did appreciate her extending the courtesy of asking me one last time to serve on a committee.  (Laura and I did discuss other appointees for various appointed positions.  And I did convey to Laura that I would like to serve on the Charter Commission, which meets every 5 years to review Milton’s Charter; Milton’s Charter is roughly akin to the city’s constitution.  More about the Charter in another blog post.)

With the 2021 elections approaching, I strongly believe that holding Milton’s government accountable is now more important than ever.  Accordingly, in advance of the 2021 elections in Milton, I have decided to re-launch the Milton Coalition blog. My purpose is the same as always . . . to promote good governance in the local community.  I have always strongly believed that Milton deserves (to quote the title of a book from President Jimmy Carter) “a government as good as it’s people.” A key component of a good government is accountability, which ultimately is the job of ordinary citizens, like you and me.  I learned much from my experience of being steeped in City government and politics for 2 years.  I want to convey some of these lessons to Milton’s citizens so that they might better engage local government and demand greater accountability.  I believe good governance is strongly correlated with citizen engagement in our government.  (And that is why I primarily supported Laura Bentley because she made “shifting power to citizens” one of her 3 primary campaign promises.  More about this promise in future blog posts.)

My humble hope is that, in advance of the 2021 election, citizens will once again visit the Milton Coalition Blog.  It is during elections, particularly competitive races, that citizens are afforded their best opportunities to question government officials and flush out their stances on issues of greatest importance to citizens.  I hope my blog will help citizens to better formulate questions for the candidates and to better convey their concerns to these candidates.  Please let your friends and neighbors know about the blog and encourage them to subscribe.  And please reach out if you have specific questions or would like me to address a specific issue.

Advocating For Good Governance,

Tim

Dear Friends and Neighbors:

Your help is needed for a volunteer effort to spruce up Birmingham Park (750 Hickory Flat Road).  A work day has been scheduled for March 16th  (Saturday) from 9 am to 1 pm.  (The rain date is March 23rd.)  The goal is to clear fallen brush and trees from trails, making park trails safer for hikers and horseback riders.  This work day is being sponsored by the Milton Equestrian Committee.

Equipment is also needed.  Following is a list of tools that are needed.  If you have such tools and are willing to loan them to the effort, please bring them with you.  Gas-powered equipment is preferred.  However, battery-operated electric equipment is acceptable; please bring extra batteries, if you have them.

• • Power saws
  • Hedge trimmers
  • Pole saws

If you own safety gear (e.g., gloves, safety glasses, hard hats, safety vests), please bring that gear.  Trash bags for trash found along the trail are also needed.

Please consider contributing to this worthwhile effort.  There are plenty of opportunities to help regardless of your skill level—e.g., spotters for clearing teams, manual labor to deposit trimmings in the woods, etc.  At over 200 acres, Birmingham Park is a treasure to our hiking and equestrian communities and to citizens that just enjoy nature.  Unfortunately, the City has not had the resources to properly maintain the trails, requiring a volunteer effort to clear the trails to make them more usable for citizens.

The primary point of contact for this effort is Larry Covington.  He can be reached at larrywaynecovington@gmail.com or at 770-826-6288.  Please email Larry if you would like for volunteer for this worthwhile effort; he would like to get a good estimate of the number of volunteers.  However, if you cannot commit at this point, last-minute, walk-up volunteers will certainly be welcomed.

Please forward this information to others that might be interested in helping.  This might include hiking/equestrian organizations and school environmental/equestrian/agricultural clubs.

Following is a link to a pdf with more information.  BirminghamParkWorkDay

Thank you.

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As many of you know, long-time and beloved Milton City Arborist Mark Law recently passed away.  A roundabout equestrian statue has been proposed to memorialize Mark Law.  A GoFundMe page has been established by the Milton Arts Council to raise money for this memorial to Mark.  So far, $5,770 of the needed $6,900 has been raised in just 4 days.  Please consider contributing.  Attached is a link to the GoFundMe page:

GoFundMe Link for Mark Law Memorial Equestrian Statue