October 23, 2011

Thursday’s meeting pertaining to the qualification period for the special election to fill the seat Kris Yardley held was a
moment where the people of Flowery Branch had their voice silenced over personal vendettas against certain citizens of Flowery Branch.  I can assure you I tried to keep your voice heard but I was out voted.

All special elections can only be held on certain dates set by the Georgia Secretary of State so the City Council cannot make them up.  However, the City Council can set the qualifying period for any date they want, but this particular qualifying period was set to prevent certain people the ability to run which would be the four people running for now, myself, Amanda Swafford, Damon Gibbs, and Mary Jones, as well as Kris
Yardley who is running for the State House. I feel this is a violation of United States Constitution, Amendment XIV,
Section 1, which states,

“No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of
the laws.”

Not only did this prevent five people from qualifying, but it also prevented the citizens from having people qualify that they might want on the City Council.  This whole process was terrible for the people of Flowery Branch.

What makes this worse is Mayor Mike Miller admitted he put the dates on the ordinance and that is a direct conflict of his duties as Mayor per the Flowery Branch Municipal Code in Article II, Section 2.4 – The mayor; powers and duties.

Sec. 2.4. – The mayor; powers and duties.

The mayor shall be the chief elected officer of the city and as
such shall have the following powers and duties:

(a)  To preside at all meetings of the city council and be recognized
as the official head and spokesperson of the city for service of process and
ceremonial purposes;

(b)  To vote on matters before the city council only in case of a tie,
or if his or her vote is necessary to constitute a sufficient number to
transact business;

(c)  To sign, for and on behalf of the city, all contracts, ordinances,
instruments, and other documents authorized by the city council and which are
required to be in writing, unless otherwise directed or authorized by the city
council; and

(d)

To fulfill such other duties as authorized by the city council

Nowhere does it state he can write ordinances prior to council’s approval let alone insert dates for the qualifying period.

Also, there is an email that is on my Flowery Branch email, which is can be obtained through an Open Records Request, from Council Member Tara Richards which states,

“From: Tara Richards
Sent: Wednesday, October 19, 2011 11:56 AM
Subject: Fwd: Your Rights are Being Limited

How do you guys feel about a city council person quitting their elected position to run for a different office
Should the qualifying dates be moved so that they can turn around and run again for the position they vacated if they lose?

Additional info:

*Had Yardley resigned earlier, we would not have to have a special election to fill his seat. This is costly to the City.

*The special election date is set by the state and got pushed forward due to Presidential super Tuesday

*if only one person qualifies they could be sworn in ~30days instead of having that seat vacant for months

*this also effects the losers of the Nov election for post 1 and 2. Both new
candidates (Mary Jones and Damon Gibbs) have said they have no desire to run for a second chance election as a retread.
So this only affects Lutz's good buddies (Fetterman , Swafford and Yardley). While I would love to have both Mary and Damon on
the council, they have both indicated that will not run again if they lose the upcoming election - that they feel the people
 have already voted (or not voted) for them once and do not care to see them on the ballot again. 

*incumbents have every right to resign from their current position (as Yardley did) by qualifying for the open seat and
running. We are not limiting anyone's ability to run for this seat - just the ability to do so twice in back to back elections.

I really do value your input on the issue! Thanks for your time!

Tara Richards

Sent from my iPhone”

With these two pieces of information, this is why I feel this was an effort by some to prevent people from allowing others to run for an office as well as silence the voice of the voters which is a violation of the Constitution of the United States.

I would also like to note that both Mike Miller and Tara Richards were on the council when Craig Lutz resigned to run for County Commissioner, when Mayor Diane Hirling resigned to retire, and when Mike Miller resigned to run for Mayor and we had to be very careful to set the qualifying periods and choose the proper election date to ensure the city had enough people on the council to have a quorum to conduct business.

What is their reason now?

POLITICS!

Advertisement