Endorsements for the Flowery Branch City Council Races 2013

To explore information on why I feel qualified to offer endorsements in the upcoming Flowery Branch City Council races, I encourage you to read through my blogs here on this site and to visit some of the content linked inside my most recent blog where I discuss the work I have done with the South Hall Gazette and on social media since leaving the Flowery Branch City Council in December 2011.

Post 5

I have served with both Councilwoman Richards and former Councilman Fetterman on the Flowery Branch City Council during my time on the Council.  And despite initially supporting Councilwoman Richards in her first run for the Council and even hosting a Meet & Greet for her in my home during her first election campaign, I am endorsing Mr. Chris Fetterman for the Post 5 position in the November 2013 contest.

Once I was elected and began serving on the City Council in 2010 with Councilwoman Richards, I began to get a different sense of her philosophy towards government.  And certainly the last two years have proved to not be any different in this regard.  Let's look at the per diem allowance Councilwoman Richards voted to pass just a few months before three new seats and the Mayor's seat were slated to be opened up.  The per diem is an increase in the budget line item for Council pay.  It is money that must be budgeted and allocated each year regardless of whether a single Council member makes a claim for a per diem or not.  Therefore, it is effectively a 70% increase in the budget over the Council's previous salary.  A per diem system is ripe for inconsistencies - What exactly qualifies as a "meeting?" - and it takes a lot of time for City staff to administer and track.  It's inefficient and it grows government.  Why not just call it what it is and pay Council a salary increase?  

On the other hand, Mr. Fetterman has a view toward government much more in line with goals like reducing reliance on paid consultants, fully utilizing existing City staff instead to handle the work of the City and understanding the true opportunities of a mission to zero on property taxes.  His work during his time on the Council also clearly illustrated his approach to following the City charter and placing the power of the governance of our City with its people through the elected Council.  For these reasons, among others, I am proud to endorse former Councilman Chris Fetterman for the Post 5 seat.

Mayor

I have also served with Mayor Miller during my time on the Council and I worked very hard on his 2010 campaign after he resigned his Council seat to run for Mayor.  Yet starting at the end of my term in 2011, I began to notice a distinct departure from the mandates required of our Mayor under the City's charter.  Under the City charter, our Mayor only votes in the case of a tie and generally does not act in a legislative capacity.  However, during the process of setting a qualifying date for a special election to fill the Post 3 seat now held by Councilman Fred Richards, Mayor Miller admitted placing select dates on the Council's agenda.  See the meeting minutes for October 6 and October 20, 2011 at http://www.flowerybranchga.org/2011-ccms.html.  To me, this started a process of exceeding the boundaries laid out for our Mayor in the City charter and to date, I have only seen the power of the Mayor expand under the Miller administration which reached new heights in an exceptionally broad emergency powers act that was passed this year.

I never had the pleasure of serving with former Mayor Diane Hirling since she resigned her seat just a few months into her term of office but those that did often speak highly of a governing tactic she used in which she would call Council members before a meeting to solicit their feedback for items they sought to have placed on the agenda for the upcoming meeting.  After she had spoken with every Council member, Mayor Hirling would then call each Council member again to let them know if any item they wanted to put on the agenda did not appear to have the support necessary to proceed to final passage.  Once provided with this information, the Council member could then make a determination as to whether they wanted to work to shore up additional support for their particular agenda item before the meeting or if they would let Mayor Hirling know to drop the matter from the agenda.  This way, Council members were alerted beforehand to the level of support they may have had for a measure and more importantly, it was clear through the mayor's actions that the Council was setting the agenda as specified in the City charter, not the Mayor.

Of course, I can only speak to my time of service on the Council but I never saw Mayor Miller use any of these kind of tools to help the Council.  In fact, I was very surprised to hear that Mayor Hirling was endorsing Mayor Miller in the Mayor's race since they only served together for a few short months before she resigned her term and unless she visited one of the rare Council meetings I've missed, I don't believe she has seen Mayor Miller govern in a meeting since May of 2010.

One thing that has also raised flags with me during this campaign is the designation in Mayor Miller's biography that he is now apparently a golf professional and has left the teaching profession.  This would seem to be a complete career change during his tenure of Mayor but he has not mentioned anything about how this pretty substantial life change came about in any of his speeches, literature or on his website. Leaving teaching seems like a big deal and we haven't heard anything about it.

Finally, our Mayor must respect all people who interact with the City at all times, regardless of any personal disagreements our Mayor may have.  During my last Council meeting at the end of December 2011, for reasons that still to this day have not been explained to me, Mayor Miller refused to present my ceremonial departure plaque to me as had always been the tradition.  Instead, he had another Council member give me my plaque.  I have also seen discourteousness extend into many City Council meetings where the mayor frequently uses an elaborate buzzard timing system when there is only one or a few speakers signed up for public comment.  It doesn't seem necessary to set off a loud, frightening alarm after 2 minutes when there's hardly anyone but paid staff and media present in the Council chambers anyway.  So what if a citizen goes slightly over the set time in a situation where few others, if any, are signed up for public comment and the agenda is very short anyway.  It looks silly and is disrespectful to the citizen who has taken time to come to City Hall to be heard.  Additionally, on a number of occassions when our elected county commissioner has come before the Council to publicly address a concern, the mayor has refused to personally acknowledge the commissioner and will not look him in the eye because of apparent personal disagreements with the commissioner.  And during many meetings, the mayor is seen playing with his cell phone while staff or other Council members are speaking.

We need a Mayor of Flowery Branch who will go out of their way to be respectful at all times and to form coalitions with all Council members, regardless of personal ideologies and a brand ambassador of Flowery Branch who will take seriously the respect of the position outlined in our City charter. That's why I am endorsing Shanon Lutz for Mayor of Flowery Branch.  Shanon has an extensive professional career track record of organization, of being respected by her professional peers for being respectful and of forming the coalitions just like we need in Flowery Branch.