Dear Fellow Milton Residents,
It is very upsetting to me that Neal O’Brien can tell so many blatant lies and expect us to just believe what he says. I have spent hours looking into the FACTS regarding what Neal O’Brien has said and done. I think it is important that everyone knows the following:
- Neal O’Brien continually states that he has been a pilot with Delta since 1988. As far as I know Mr. O’Brien is on disability due to his back and has not actively worked for Delta in years. Is this man milking the system?
- Every single supporter I worked with last year campaigning for Neal O’Brien is now working to try and get Mr. Burt Hewitt elected.
- During his campaigning in 2006, Mr. O’Brien said he was going to propose a zoning moratorium. To date, no such moratorium has ever even been proposed by Mr. O’Brien.
- Neal O’Brien is not looking out for the residents of Milton with regard to the Highway 9 corridor. He is looking out for the developers and commercial property owners. It is quite evident that Council members Lusk & Thurman (Developer and the wife & daughter of developers) are looking out for the development community and just about every time (if not without exception) councilmember O’Brien has voted in line with them.
- Example of a vote supporting developers over the residents – In a meeting on 3-15-07 – “Motion and Vote: Councilmember Zahner Bailey moved to restrict the height of billboard signs of 120 sq ft to a maximum of 12 ft. Councilmember D’Aversa seconded the motion. The motion passed (4-3) with Councilmember Thurman, Councilmember Lusk and Councilmember O’Brien in opposition.”
- Example of a vote showing how Neal does not support his Mayor (this vote is to limit the Mayor’s authority and to change the city charter just months after the city was born) – In a meeting on 5-17-07 – “Motion and Vote: Councilmember Lusk moved to approve a Resolution supporting Legislation is the 2007 Session of the Georgia General Assembly and directing the City manager to formally notify the Governor of the State of Georgia of the City of Milton’s official and formal support for such legislation. Councilmember Thurman seconded the motion. There was no further Council discussion. The motion passed 4-3, with Councilmember Zahner Bailey, Councilmember D’Aversa, and Mayor Lockwood voting in opposition
(there are many, many more examples of this type of voting and it is abundantly clear to anyone that has attended a Milton City Council meeting or read the minutes that Mr. O’Brien’s voting record definitely favors developers interests over that of the local everyday citizens.)
- Neal O’Brien has made VERY questionable appointments. It was said at the recent forum that an appointment is a reflection on the councilperson. Well, Mr. O’Brien’s appointment to the Ethics committee is Mr. McMillan. Mr. McMillan is a Milton resident who lives on Thompson road. He is a developer who owns land on Highway 9/Web road/Cogburn road. I do not know the extent to what other land he owns or plans on developing, but Mr. McMillan has put in zoning requests for sewer extension to land he owns and plans on developing commercially. Mr. McMillan also has a zoning request before the council right now regarding building a 4 story office building on Web Road (almost across the street from Hopewell Middle School). It’ll be interesting to see how Mr. O’Brien votes on this one considering the vote will take place just days after the election. How can Mr. O’Brien think that Mr. McMillan is an asset to Milton and to have him on ANY committee? Mr. McMillan has done other things (specifically bringing ethics charges against a fellow board member in an attempt to discredit them). This whole tangled web here is just another example of how the developers have a hold on Mr. O’Brien.
- Look at Mr. O’Brien’s list of campaign contributors. It reads like a list of whose who of developers. Why do you think they are contributing to his campaign?
- Every time you see a “Re-elect Neal O’Brien” sign look at the location. The majority of his signs are on undeveloped land or land under construction – land owned by developers. Again, why are they so supportive of getting Neal in office?
- Neal O’Brien has signs along Cogburn Road on the property of Mr. Tom Hare. This is the individual who proposed the John Smoltz Alpharetta Baseball Complex to the Alpharetta City Council. Mr. O’Brien worked side by side with many of us here in Milton to fight this development. During our research it became very apparent that Mr. Hare had had questionable business dealings in the past and I have an E-mail from Mr. O’Brien commenting on Mr. Hare and saying “As they say, a leopard doesn’t change his spots……..or associates for that matter.” But now, Mr. O’Brien is getting campaign support from Mr. Hare!!!
- Neal O’Brien does NOT tell the truth. He is now campaigning hard that he would NEVER support sewer extension. He was not singing this tune back in April when Mr. Potts’ request for sewer extension was up for consideration. I sat in that meeting and listened to Mr. O’Brien ask questions that would lead one to believe he would support sewer extension to Mr. Potts. In a 2-8-07 work session “Councilmember O’Brien said this is a transition issue that would be an act in fairness to an individual property owner in an extraordinary circumstance owing to the fact that we just established Milton.” He then continued with the statement “so it would be a resolution that we direct staff if we vote for it to write that letter to Fulton County”. On this same topic I personally called Mr. O’Brien to ask him how he could possibly be entertaining sewer expansion when it was something that we (his supports) were all so strongly against. His response to me was “I don’t ever remember specifically stating I was against sewer expansion. I just don’t think it ever came up.” My mouth hit the floor because it was at the core of my issues as to why I did not support the John Smoltz Alpharetta Baseball Complex. I had discussed this issue with Neal countless times prior to supporting his campaign in 2006. I could not believe that he would back peddle on his position and do it so easily. It showed me what little ethics this man has and how quickly he will change the facts to suit him.
- Neal O’Brien has done nothing except prove to me that he is all talk with no follow though. He comes up with these great ideas and nothing ever comes of them. He uses people and situations to make himself look better. He had his big “public safety initiatives” which nothing ever came of except to get himself some good press.
- Neal O’Brien has completely exploited the physically challenged community. He talked a big game with the Disability Awareness Committee and had pictures taken of himself that made him look like he was very involved when the facts are he attended very few meetings regarding this committee. I believe he actually only attended 1 meeting and then tries to take the credit for the accomplishments of this group.
- Neal O’Brien talked a big game about the “Senior Focus” but nothing has come to fruition with this either. In a 6-14-07 workshop, Mr. O’Brien talked about getting residents to reach out to the elderly. He said I would “love for us to generate an interest in the community that these people that perhaps live on either side of each of these little ranch houses may be reminded of this if we can generate a little bit of interest and actually go knock on their door and check in when it is 18 degrees for 48 hours in January or if we have a power failure or something like that.” Again, nothing has happened with this “idea”.
- In that same 6-14-07 workshop Mr. O’Brien talks about how Neighborhood Watch is out of date and we could develop something that incorporates current technology. Again, he had “experts” to discuss and in turn wasted a lot of people’s time when there was no follow through with any of the ideas that were presented.
- Mr. O’Brien spent weeks with companies evaluating traffic signal cameras and fines for the citizens. He presented this motion to the city council and it did not pass. I personally don’t think running lights is a problem right now in Milton and resent him proposing to back door the residents with a this type of “tax”.
- Mr. O’Brien has stated he is going forward with a tax freeze. The facts are he mentioned it in a workshop and that’s it. He hasn’t done anything! This is very misleading – I do not think it is even possible for this to be done from a city level.
- Mr. O’Brien states he is leading the city on establishing a “Parks Authority”. Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn’t this done in April by our House Representative Jan Jones? He is constantly taking credit for things he has not done.
- Mr. O’Brien pushed staff on getting Milton a “City of Ethics” designation. Great idea, but are you kidding me about the timing of it. We were a newly formed city with so many details that needed to be ironed out in January and the staff was being pushed to their max and then Neal is demanding this of them. Very inconsiderate and inappropriate in the timing of it, but again, Neal only thinks about himself and what will benefit him.
- Mr. O’Brien brings the idea of an organizational psychologist to the table (at an expense to the taxpayers) and the session is then cancelled on 7-10-07 because it would have had to of been conducted in public. This whole thing was incredibly embarrassing for Milton.
- Mr. O’Brien had a request in to change the “City of Milton” to the “Town of Milton”. Wasted countless hours on this and all in the name of grandstanding
- Mr. O’Brien has brought some very questionable votes to the table. One example is a motion he brought on 1-11-07. This motion was to eliminate the position of the aid to the Mayor. The vote was 4-3, with Councilmember Zahner Bailey, Councilmember D’Aversa, and Mayor Lockwood voting in opposition. Why would he want to make the job of our new Mayor more difficult?
Lastly – Mr. Neal O’Brien does not have the support of the Mayor or Councilmember Tina D’Aversa. These are two people who have proven they are in it for the right reasons and have only represented what the people want and have stood up to the developers and political pressures that face them. I did not know these two individuals prior to this year and I find it very telling that these two people, who have proven themselves to me through their actions, do not support Mr. O’Brien.
Please look at all the FACTS surrounding Mr. Neal O’Brien. Please do not trust anything he says. Look into everything he says. I wish I had taken a closer look last year. I feel completely taken advantage of and the citizens of Milton deserve better than Neal O’Brien. Please vote for Burt Hewitt on November 6th.
If you have any questions regarding anything I have said in this E-mail please call me. I strongly believe that the truth needs to come out and I don’t believe in distorting it.
Sincerely,
Tara Chambers
The Hermitage Subdivision
830 Barberry Drive
Milton, GA 30004
678-772-6225
