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2007 Candidate Elect Archive

It looks like we have a packed agenda for this Wednesday.  We have two liquor licenses to review including the one for Chili's, we get to review the lease for the city park, the fee for a solicitation license, and oh yea, the minutes.  

I think we finally came to some understanding about the minutes from February 6th, so I am looking forward to them being passed.  See you at the meeting. 

The good news is that I think we came to some agreements on the direction of some crucial items for the city. 

It goes to show how diversity can impact an area.  I never thought much about it, but it seems to make sense.   

I am looking forward to the city council retreat next weekend.  While city planning and policy will probably be a main topic, it will give me the opportunity to meet with the other council members.  Maybe we can come up with a way to get the minutes from February 6th passed.  

We have another council meeting coming up this week.  We have the 2nd reading of the Door-to-Door Solicitation Ordinance, the intergovernmental agreement on flood plain mapping, and a sign moratorium.  It should be a fun meeting.  I hope to see you there. 

The other good news is for people interested in the Camp Mighty Kids Golf Tournament on May 8. If you are interested, you can now go online and pay for yourself or for a sponsorship.  Go to www.campmightykidstore.com, click Product Overview, and then Golf Tournament.   If you don't have any interest in golf, but would like to financially help the camp, click Donations after Product Overview.  

Overall, I think it was very beneficial and it should help me in carrying out the responsibilities of City Council for Flowery Branch.  

Here are the minutes for this Wednesday's City Council Meeting.  There are a few things that should come up: 1- what is going to happen with the minutes from February 6 (action only versus summary- see my Feb 20 blog), 2- meeting style date and time (ordinance 303-D- see my Feb 6 blog), and 3- the new soliciting ordinance (you can see the rough draft here).  

I am dead set against action only minutes.  I am working on what to say now.  There is a chance that this was a stalling tactic, but the fact is, they want to suppress my remarks from the minutes.  My remarks can be found here.  

The meeting style and times really has to do with the agenda format, but I refuse to vote for an ordinance that continues to keep meeting times in the mornings where most of the people can not attend.  Click here to see my opinion given at my first council meeting.  

The last item is the Soliciting ordinance.  The agenda says we are doing a first reading, but I think we are going to go through the work session and place the first of two readings for the next Council meeting.  This item requires commercial solicitors to get a business license, but protects charities and school kids.  However, you can place a no soliciting sign on you front door, which would prevent all solicitation.  

Now it is time to write up my 21-day conflict management plan.  

We have a lot of needs for the tournament: 144 golfers, hole sponsors, prizes, and stuff for gift bags.  

The American Heritage Dictionary defines cronyism as "favoritism shown to old friends without regard for their qualifications, as in political appointments to office."  Yesterday the city council voted to replace a member of the Development Authority.  Two letters of interest were put forward: one by the former city council member, Jim Herold who was defeated in the last election, and the other by a resident in Sterling, Harold Kerkhoff.  Mr. Herold's letter listed his qualifications as being a resident of the city for 14 years and a former city council member.  Mr. Kerkhoff's letter said that he was a registered Professional Civil Engineer, with 10 years work experience with municipalities.  

I had asked the council to delay the vote so that we could get more information from Mr. Herold and Mr. Kerkhoff.  I would have liked the opportunity to interview each person.  Unfortunately, the majority of the council seemed to prefer the placement of an old friend on the Flowery Branch Development Authority (FBDA) instead of the most qualified person. 

For those yelling at the computer screen saying that it would good to have the perspective of a council person on the FBDA, remember that Allen Bryans is currently a 4 year member.  The purpose of the FBDA is to "promote the public good and general welfare; trade, commerce, industry, economic development and employment opportunities; and the revitalization and redevelopment of Flowery Branch" (Resolution 06-131); can you think of anyone more qualified than a certified public engineer that works with other cities in the Southeast?  

A great opportunity was wasted yesterday and cronyism is the only explanation I can come up with that explains what happened.  

There are three acceptable ways to produce minutes: verbatim, summary, and action only.  Obviously, verbatim minutes would be difficult to produce because every word would be written down.  Currently, we use the summary method where the discussion is summarized and votes are recorded.  In the action only form, the only thing recorded in the minutes are motions and votes. 

One of the more common things to do in a meeting is to approve the minutes from previous meetings.  Today, one of the council members requested that the minutes from the Feb. 6 meeting be pulled out of the consent agenda and voted on separately.  When the time came to motion for the approval of the minutes, I made the motion and there was no second; therefore, the motion failed.  

Some on the council would say that the minutes should be action only because opinions recorded in the minutes could be used in court.  The opinion of some of the council members and the city manager is that there is a potential liability in our current form of summary minutes.  I feel, however, there is a move to avoid accountability.   

"We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still." (John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, 1859)

We have a City Council meeting on the 20th.  There isn't a lot on the agenda so everything should go fairly smoothly.  

We also had the first reading of Ordinance 303-D which sets the dates and times for the meetings, but it was more about the change to the format of the meeting.  Chris Fetterman and I both voted against it because the time of the meetings is still in the mornings.  

We have another vote on the meeting times for ordinance 303-D, which I will be voting against.  I hope to see you all there tomorrow. 

I did get a chance to attend the Historic Preservation Commission meeting tonight and hear about the Hortman-Dobbs development downtown.  It is an impressive plan that should completely change the appearance in downtown Flowery Branch.  I wish Marty and Kellin the best in making this vision come true.  

It was a tough weekend as I had class.  Yesterdays class was on emotional intelligence.  So I took my tests and now I have to do a 21 day action plan on one of the inventory items.  My lowest score was on coaching and mentoring, but since I do not have a lot of need for it right now, I will go with my next to lowest score which was conflict management.  So for the next 21 days I am going to focus on improving my conflict management. 

The book has given me 3 tips for improvement: 1- when I sense trouble brewing, I should take steps to bring the disagreement or issue out into the open before it turns into a conflict; 2- when I am in conflict, I shouldn't be afraid to ask what they feel the real issues are; and 3- if I find myself in a heated discussion, focus on the issues and don't get personal.  Hmm, this is going to be a long 21 days.  

Newland's plans were not a complete surprise as I have heard that Newland met with the other council members (the council has to be divided to prevent a quorum) a couple of weeks ago and they have scheduled a meeting with Chris Fetterman and myself on February 13.  The surprise is that they would ask AT&T to commit resources to something that the council hasn't approved.  I briefly spoke to the City Manager who briefly attended the other meeting and he informed me that the other council members encouraged Newland to speak with Chris and me about their plans and that our opinion would carry great weight with the council.  

For those in the community reading, the process would be for two public hearings before any changes are voted on.  I will try to keep you informed.  

MacKenzie would build more homes for the homeless, better schools and a building where kids that are home schooled could come and meet.  She is also a believer in how parks make a community better.  

Giovanni is about safety, security and education.  He said that he would build more schools, hire more teachers, hire more fire fighters and policemen.  His most progressive stand is to start an Army.  He also vows to fight littering.  

Dillon also would like to see more schools with free summer programs.  He would like to help the homeless with houses and jobs.  The best part is that he is offering $1000 rebate on your taxes.  

Alex sees the practical side by ensuring we have places to get gas on the way to work along with more parks and playgrounds.  

Jason would also like to help the homeless and he thinks we need more health teachers, libraries and parks.   

Cameron sees the need to add better playgrounds to the schools.  He thinks there should be slides, swings, and sandboxes with toys.  He would also like to get rid of homework (I can tell that he is the populist candidate). 

There were a lot of great speeches and I wish I could list them all, and  I really like the idea about a place for home schoolers  to meet; I might have to see what can be done in Flowery Branch. It is great to see life through the eyes of kids.  It makes it all worth while.  Thanks Mrs. Cornelison and your class.  Just to let you know, I am going to run by our park tomorrow to make sure all the swings work.  

I also received a request from Newland to have a meeting in early February.  I am sure that this is a follow up to request last year for some rezoning in the area.  I am hoping that we can work together to make for a better overall community.    

Tomorrow I get the opportunity to spend some time talking with Mrs. Cornelison's third grade class at Ivy Creek about government and our representative democracy.  You can bet they will hear a quote or two from some of my favorites.  

The regular meeting went on for a little over an hour, then we went into executive session.  This was my first look "behind the scenes" as we discussed potential and pending litigation along with potential real estate deals.  I must say that it isn't as glamorous as you might think.  Unfortunately, I can't talk to anyone about it so no mater how interesting it might be, I am stuck.  For those who know me, you know this will be hard because I love to tell stories.  

I suppose that when I think about Martin Luther King Day the first thing that comes to my mind is my own heritage as my Great, Great, Great Grandfather’s name was Martin Luther Lutz (born in 1833 who fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War).  Then I wonder about America and why so many people want to come to here.  It was my Ancestor Johann Georg Lutz that came to America on or before September 26, 1753. While this may be a strange thought for some, for me I see someone that brought his family to America to improve his family's life.  In fact, the first Lutz born in America from my line was born just 10 days after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.   

My thoughts then wander to the “I Have a Dream” speech delivered in front of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963. I wonder how much America has changed in the last 45 years. Martin Luther King was assassinated just a few months after I was born making him the 4th significant change agent killed that decade (Malcolm X, John F, Kennedy and Robert Kennedy).  

I wonder if Martin Luther King were still here, what would he think about Georgia today.  Would he see on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners sitting down together at the table of brotherhood?  Would he hear freedom ringing from Stone Mountain? 

While I am not qualified to say, I would like to hope that we have come a long way.  

That gets me to thinking about another item on the agenda for the Special Meeting on Jan 23 that has to do with a franchise fee for state wide video.  AT&T has a product called U-Verse which uses IPTV technology.  I am dead set against franchise taxes, but since the only company to request a statewide franchise (so far) is my employer, I am probably going to have to recuse myself from this vote. 

So you are probably asking yourself, what is a franchise fee? A franchise fee is a tax, or as the government would rather call it, an agreement between the city and company to use the right of way.  It is typically 3% of phone and 5% of cable revenue.  The problem we have is that these "fees" get passed along to the consumer.   The city would like for you to think that this is a fee that the big bad corporation has to pay, but in fact, we pay it either in an additional tax on the bill or increased rates.   

Now, I have the agenda for the Special Called Voting session for next week.  At my first meeting I turned in a proposed resolution that I wanted requiring public comment at each open meeting.  Unfortunately, the resolution is not on the agenda; what we have is a discussion on meeting style, agenda requests and procedures.  What is even more unfortunate is that the sample agenda for "Voting Sessions" does not include public comment.  So for those who would like to speak out at the Jan. 23rd meeting, there is not a place on the agenda for you to speak.  

I was also given an Agenda Request form.  I can't help but to laugh, but it is a problem.  The form says; "All items requiring action by the Commissioners must be presented first at a work session... No item will be considered for a work session until the Department has received authorization on the item by the Mayor or City Manager".  Hmm, there are two problems with this request: first, this does not seem to jive with our city charter, which says; "An ordinance may be introduced by any council member and read at a regular or special meeting of the city council." (section 2.12{b}), and second, neither the Mayor or the City Manager controls the agenda.  The mayor "presides" over the meeting (section 2.4{a}) and the city manager works for the council.  

I can't help to wonder if this is backlash from my motion to change the times of the meetings.  At this time, I am trying to keep emotions out of it, but it is hard when you are passionate about serving the community.  I just don't see how we can effectively serve the community when we don't allow for the community to speak.  I feel another 10-minute pontification coming on.  

I had a "get to know you" meeting with our County Commissioner, Bobby Banks, today.  Anyone that looks at the Flowery Branch map can see that we are interwoven with the county and we will need to work with the county on all sorts of projects from roads to waste treatment.  It is important to establish the relationship so when new issues come up, we can smoothly make the transition.  

It will be interesting to see how the vote plays out on this new resolution.  I have heard that some people weren't too pleased with the motion and speech I gave at the first council meeting.  I think there was some thought that I needed to gradually ease my way into the job.  I have always said that when I am hiring someone, I will always pick a person who is highly motivated with no experience over someone that is highly experienced with no motivation.  While I may lack experience, I am highly motivated to make some changes.  

Make no mistake, the most important function of a President is who they nominate to be on the Supreme Court.  Veto power can be overturned, Congress makes laws and sets the budget (including taxes), and a President only has a maximum of 2 full terms.  However, who they have placed on the Court can last decades and the Court's decisions can last multiple lifetimes.    

Huckabee believes in the right to life, he believes in the right of an individual to bear arms for more than just hunting, he believes in the 10th amendment (States Rights), but most importantly, he believes in God and professes his faith in God.  

For those crying about separation between Church and State let's clear up a few items: this is one nation under God, the First Amendment prevents the government from establishing a religion while protecting our right to freely exercise our beliefs, and in 2007 a Harris poll reported that 82% of adults in America believe in God.  

We have let the minority (8% of adults do not believe in God) in our country use the courts to dictate that our kids can not meet to pray in schools.  They have tried to remove God from our pledge of allegiance.  It is time that we elect someone who is like minded and will protect our rights!!!  

To carry this forward, I was e-mailed this letter that some people are beginning to sign.  If you feel that meetings should be held at a time when most people can attend (like in the evening), feel free to print out a copy of the letter that can be found here, and deliver it to Chris or myself.   

It was a good day to be on the courts.  Looks like we are looking at winter coming again in the next few days.  

It would be nice to learn more about the Law and to go after formal training, but I am tired of school and cant think about 4 more years at this point.  The problem is that a little knowledge can indeed get you into trouble.  

I wonder how much trouble I would have gotten into had I gone to trial this week, representing myself, for my 2 tickets.  WHEW!

Tonight I attended the Joint Local Government Association Meeting in Flowery Branch.  It was a meeting with all of the Hall County Mayors and City Council members as well as the Hall County Commissioners.  It was nice meeting so many of the elected leaders in the county.  We have a lot of the same issues, but there are still a lot of differences as well.  With unincorporated Hall County acting as the thread holding us together, it becomes clear that working together to solve issues will be the only way we make progress.    

The Conflict Management class was interesting, not because I found out that my conflict style is competitive (everyone knows that), but the professor used examples from an old movie with Henry Fonda, 12 Angry Men.  The movie is based on a jury trial, which was cool since I have jury duty starting tomorrow.  I may have to watch the whole movie sometime; do they even rent black and white movies?   I am guessing that my High Definition Plasma will do black and white;)  

Since we are such a small city, the Entrepreneurship class may have more to do with government than with my "real" job.  I will have to keep my notes with me as we get settled in.  

A couple of things I was taught about campaigning: negative campaigns are designed to keep people away from the polls and when numbers are small, the better organized campaigns win.  I was expecting that the negative campaign in Iowa would keep the republican numbers low which would help the better prepared and financed organization.  I am very excited after the Iowa Caucuses because it looks like people were able to see through the negative ads and they made the effort to get out to the polls.  

Remember, we get our change on February 5.  If you haven't registered to vote, you don't have much time.  You can get a form here.  Please participate in the greatest right on earth, voting.  

Other than making another 4 year commitment with the Government (at least this time they didn't shave my head), it was a fairly simple meeting.  Chris Fetterman and I tried to argue that the meetings should be held at night, but unfortunately, we were out voted 3-2.  You can read my argument here.  

I am looking forward to serving you for the next 4 years!!!

As before, I have archived my candidate elect blog here in order to try and keep things manageable.  My campaign blog can be found here. 

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