 Mon, Sep 08, 2008 05:02 AM
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2008-03-06  MILTON HERALD | Is Milton a city in turmoil?
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| | by Jason Wright | |  |
March 17, 2008
MILTON -- It is no secret Milton's City Hall can be a tumultuous place. Council meetings have a tendency to drag on for hours discussing minor points and council members snub one another publicly -- and those are just the good days.
In the roughly 15 months since the city got off the ground, it has seen an unlikely and extraordinary confluence of events for a relatively quiet town of only 20,000.
There have been ethics complaints brought against a majority of the original City Council, and another charge lodged against a member of the Ethics Board itself. That is more ethics complaints than any local city has had in recent history. Two of those complaints -- both thrown out -- concerned whether City Council unduly directed staff.
An organizational psychologist brought in to help the newly elected council learn to work together never even got the chance after a newspaper reporter tried to sit in on the meetings.
Milton's first City Manager, Aaron Bovos, resigned after a filing mistake that likely cost the city $850,000 (legislation to restore it is pending).
Divisive issues and a bitter election turned neighbors against each other, their frustrations spilling into council chambers and refusing to die down months after the final votes were tallied. When the smoke cleared, only one incumbent was re-elected, and all three candidates were officially endorsed by the mayor.
And all this tumult may be causing Milton to lose its City Hall staff.
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Of the five non-public safety, city-paid positions, three are gone [see sidebar]. Milton is mostly staffed by private company CH2M HILL OMI. At least two CH2M HILL department heads have been replaced, with rumors that another may be on his way out if a willing replacement can be found to work in Milton.
The latest high-ranking employee to leave was City Attorney Mark Scott, who was often in the embattled position of mediating council and citizen desires. He resigned from law firm Jarrard and Davis last month, and has been replaced by the firm's namesakes.
Sources for this article who did not wish to be named because of current or past business and personal relationships with the city described Milton as a place of "organizational immaturity," one where meetings have staff keeping their heads down for fear they could be the next target of the public or council's rancor.
But Mayor Joe Lockwood says those problems are at worst overblown. He said he does not believe any of the people who left "did so because of factors in Milton."
"I think this is a positive place to work and I think it's gotten a lot better," he said.
He was referring to the time before November's election, when a split on council lead to many late nights punctuated by public arguments.
Acting City Manager Chris Lagerbloom, one of the two remaining original city employees (the other is City Clerk Jeanette Marchiafava), said he doesn't believe the amount of turnover Milton has seen is different proportionally to any other organization.
"Each one definitely has its reasons," he said.
He also said much of the staff has been bit by what he terms the "start-up bug."
"Once you do it and you're deployed and get that start-up adrenaline, you want it back," he said.
In contrast, Johns Creek has lost none of its directors or managers since start up. However, it also has experienced none of the ethics, election, personality or financial issues of Milton.
Alpharetta's long-established government has only one department head with less than five years service in the organization. According to Robbie Rokovitz, assistant city administrator, the 12 to 17 people who leave per year -- out of 410 employees -- have little time invested in the city. Rokovitz, however, will soon be leaving his job. He was just picked by Holly Springs to serve as its city manager.
Lockwood said the shuffling around of staff is one of the strong points of a public/private partnership like the one Milton enjoys with CH2M HILL.
"For these people, if for some reason the chemistry isn't there, they're not out of a job. They can move them around," he said.
Lisa Maggart is the city's communications director and a CH2M HILL employee. She replaced Bill Doughty, who moved to Johns Creek in July 2007 after what Lagerbloom and Lockwood deemed a "personality conflict" with then City Manager Aaron Bovos.
"I love coming in to work every day," she said. "The staff here is incredible and you get to work with some great people in senior leadership."
That position is common among staff at City Hall, said Tami Hanlin, who acts as project manager for CH2M HILL. She said staff doesn't focus on the bad press surrounding Milton and gets along well with City Council.
"We certainly are still learning our role and their vision," she said. "I really don't see anything extraordinary about the turnover we've seen at this point and time, I really just don't link it to anything in particular. It's the natural process of a start-up situation."
Maggart agreed.
"I don't think the city necessarily has a bad reputation," she said. "A lot of it is the growing pains of a brand new city and brand new council."
Rokovitz, assistant city administrator for Alpharetta, said his council's stability is what keeps city's employees on staff, despite offers from the near-by start-ups.
"I think [high-level Alpharetta employees] show a great dedication to mayor and council, the stable and transparent governance they provide.
"Yes they disagree, but at the end of the day they develop a consensus," he said.
And like in Alpharetta, providing a comfortable work environment is paramount to Milton's long-term strategy.
"Employees are special things," said Lagerbloom. "And I don't think any of us here take that lightly."
- www.northfulton.com
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Search ending for top spot
Milton has been making steps in the 7-month journey toward finding a new city manager, and Mayor Joe Lockwood said he is confident the ideal candidate is among the seven he has interviewed. They have come from as far away as Michigan, South Carolina, North Carolina and Florida.
Lockwood will short-list the candidates and bring them to acting City Manager Chris Lagerbloom for a decision by council in the "next few weeks," he said.
"We're checking references right now, then I will schedule it with council," Lockwood said.
After the decision is made, the new city manager will aide in finding a new operations manager, as the two will work closely. In addition, Lagerbloom will be available to help in transition, though he will return to his public safety director duties.
Each city manager candidate has been made aware of the situations any new leader in Milton will face.
"To be fair, we've asked them, as one of our interview questions, 'What research have you done and what kind of preconceived notions do you come with?'" said Lagerbloom. "[Then we ask] based on that, how can you be effective and how can you be successful?"
Lockwood said each of the candidates has been positive about the press attention surrounding Milton's woes, including ethics complaints and council acrimony.
"We all agree a lot of this has just been blown up, but it seems like everyone deals with that all the time. It's definitely not a new thing," he said. "We have the same issues as everyone else, with of course [the added issue of] being a new, start-up city."
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Who has left in less than 2 years
City employees
City Manager Aaron Bovos
Resigned in August, 2007 after insurance premium filing mistake
Operations Manager\Finance Manager Carol Wolfe
Resigned in early September, 2007 and took position with CH2M HILL OMI's Center of Excellence. Still consults with Milton
Executive Aide to Mayor and Council Carol Haag
Went back to Forsyth County government for higher salary
Independent contractors
City Attorney Mark Scott
Resigned in late January for undisclosed reasons
CH2M HILL OMI employees
Community Services Director Greg Wilson
left city in late April, 2007 after "personality conflict" with Bovos
Director of Communications Bill Doughty
left city in July, 2007 after "personality conflict" with Bovos
Deputy City Clerk Yvonne Browning
left in January to be city clerk of Chattahoochee Hill Country, another CH2M HILL OMI client
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TELL US WHAT YOU THINK
These are our reader's opinions and thoughts. The opinions on this site are posted by our readers, and are not edited by Appen Newspapers, Inc. PERSONAL ATTACKS BY ANONYMOUS POSTERS WILL BE DELETED. |
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City of Milton is CORRUPT and Funded by Traffic Stops
May 14, 2008 | 09:15 PM
Issues of ethics and unprofessionalism are rampant in the city of Milton, a city heavily funded by police ticketing citizens.
I've never experienced more unprofessionalism in my life than dealing with the hackneyed city of Milton, Ga clerk of courts. I was stopped in Milton's speed trap for "failure to dim" a $300 fine due to the Xenon headlights on my Lexus. The traffic stop was even more classic. Officer Brian Kiehl who was unprofessional, to say the least, was a real jerk telling my wife to stop my seven month old from crying so he could be heard.
After several requests for a video tape of the traffic stop and an officer performance report (which took calling several superiors over a period of three months), I discovered that officer Kiehl has had several reprimands in his file in how he deals with the public. His average score was 1.81 on his performance report and scored 3/5 (60%) on several dimensions of his report. Classic. I guess the city of Milton police department is desperate for bodies. Anywhere else, this guy would be cleaning up garbage.
A year from now, I would not be surprised to see this city, including the police department, being overseen by a Federal body. The city of Milton, is definitely full of shady insiders given the myriad ethics violations, etc that continue to plague this "city".
Ronaldo Herbert
| | Learn the facts
April 28, 2008 | 08:47 PM
You uninformed people need a hobby. It is clear that you never had one day as a public servant or ever thought of being a police officer (Probably doesn't pay too much for your style.) Anyway, a driver would be found not guilty by a judge if the school speed sign stated "when flashing", and it was in fact not working. I feel sorry for the cops that have to deal with people like you.
Otto
| | Speed Traps near Milton HS
April 28, 2008 | 05:28 PM
I would say that issues are rampant in all areas of Milton. Recently the Milton Police force helped the city generate quite a bit of money by setting up a speed trap near Milton HS. Several cars were stopped going 44 in a 45 -- No wait it was a school zone so it was really 25 but the flashing lights to alert people it was a school zone were not blinking. Could that just be an honest mistake? Hmmmn. And at court, these people found out that the price for a misleading speed zone was $400 plus. I hope the city uses the money to fix the lights. Or maybe not because at $400 times about 30 people that were in court just that day and if the police continues with the trap 200 days a year, just think of all the revenues to the city. That money could be used to lower taxes! Or maybe not. As I write this, I am not sure if I am in the city of Milton or Hazard County.
Concerned Citizen
| | Private Contractors
March 18, 2008 | 01:19 PM
This is happening across the board in the USA. On the one hand you have "the overhead," that is the burden of elected officials and government employees who, for whatever reasons, are incapable of getting anything done but still collect pay, benefits, and retirement. Then you have "the operators", those are the private contractors who actually do things and get things done. The taxpayer carries this double burden on his back while our elected officials cut ribbons and ride in parades.
Private Sector
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