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.
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 He resigned from law firm Jarrard and Davis last month, and has been replaced by the firm's namesakes.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."
Labels: City Council, City Hall, Milton Georgia
# posted by
Brian Vanderhoff @ 9:36 AM
