TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2026 · Issue No. 74 · 15 min read
Council keeps your tax rate, delays the $691,000 parks deal
Plus your tax rate, a resident's account of a recalled email, The Blotter and a playoff week.
This issue is presented by Amber Kuhn · At Home Property Group |
A Milton resident who has sold more than $80 million in homes. Amber has guided buyers and sellers through more than $80 million in sales since 2018, pairing nearly two decades in corporate talent acquisition with relationship-first real estate. Bolst North Atlanta, top 2% nationally, and a repeat Atlanta Home Magazine All-Star.
404.441.7582 · amberkuhn@athomepg.com Sponsored · Amber Kuhn, At Home Property Group |
|
In this issue Monday’s Council meeting. Your tax rate holds at 4.193, and the parks contract that wasn’t in the packet waits until Nov. 2. From the podium. A recalled email, a rule of conduct and a call to retract. And. Your poll results, The Blotter’s return, a thank-you to Jan Jones, 400 pounds of trash out of Providence Park, early voting and a playoff week. |
Top of Mind
the one thing to know this morning
Your tax rate: 4.193, again. Council voted unanimously to keep the city’s operating tax rate at 4.193 mills (each mill is a dollar of city tax per $1,000 of taxable value), plus 0.309 mills for the 2016 greenspace bond. Deputy City Manager Bernadette Harvill’s example: a $1 million home with the basic homestead exemption owes $1,614.31 in city operating tax.
Clarification. Sunday’s issue said city operating taxes rise $367,792, about 2 percent, at the same rate. That’s the city’s five-year comparison, which counts all taxable property, new homes included.
The same memo gives the other figure the state requires, which counts only property that already existed, at its new values. On that measure, the rate is “a 0.3% decrease in projected property tax revenue compared with the prior-year.” Both figures are the city’s; they measure different things.
And Sunday’s In this issue box said the parks contract “is on the consent agenda, plus your tax rate.” The tax rate was never on the consent agenda, the routine items Council passes together in one vote without discussion. It got its own vote, after public comment.
The parks contract waits. The $691,000-a-year Tri Scapes parks contract won’t get a vote until Nov. 2. As Monday’s meeting opened, Mayor Peyton Jamison asked Council to move it, “due to inadvertently leaving out that contract” from the meeting packet, the documents Council gets ahead of time. Sunday’s issue reported the contract wasn’t there.
City Attorney Ken Jarrard told Council it could still take the item up that night without the contract in the packet, but that moving it “out of an abundance of goodwill” was fine. Council approved the changed agenda unanimously.
Everything else passed, all unanimously:
- →The rest of the consent agenda, including the $228,497 paving contract that drew one bid, and three after-the-fact approvals: Crabapple Fest’s stage, its restroom trailers and the traffic-signal contract.
- →Sixty more days for the Deerfield development moratorium, now through Dec. 18.
- →The five-year update to Milton’s comprehensive plan, the city’s long-range plan for growth and land use.
- →The go-ahead to condemn, or take through a court process, the last piece of land the city needs for the roundabout at Bethany and Providence roads, after talks with the owner stalled. The city puts the appraised $106,300 in escrow with the court while the price is settled.
City Manager Steven Krokoff was absent. No reason was given at the meeting. Both deputy city managers were there.
From the Podium
Five residents spoke during general public comment. Four talked about the city’s Flock license plate cameras or how City Hall answers questions.
Sarah Moen said that after she sent a land-use question to the Council, the City Manager and the City Attorney on Aug. 9, she got back “an accidental reply all email from the City Manager directed to the City Attorney,” copying three other senior city employees, “followed by five frantic recall messages,” attempts to pull back an email already sent. Her records request for that email, she said, returned “completely redacted files” and a claim of more than 7,600 matching records. She narrowed it Friday and expects “a full unredacted production.” She closed with: “it’s time to clean house.” We asked the city about her account Monday night; any answer will be added online and reported Thursday.
Lori Stone said Councilmember Carol Cookerly’s Sept. 9 remarks from the dais ignored the Council’s own conduct rule, Sec. 2-56 of the city code: “Personal remarks are inappropriate and may be ruled out of order.” She didn’t name Cookerly, but the remarks were hers, and so is the tie Stone called “nothing subtle”: Cookerly sits on the Atlanta Police Foundation’s executive committee, and Flock CEO Garrett Langley is one of its trustees. We reported both Saturday, in Part 3 of The Camera Files.
Mark Peterson, speaking for the first time, said he came because of our reporting. He retired from the Navy as a senior chief petty officer after 26 years and moved to Milton in 2020. “I did not spend those years serving my country only to watch those principles we defended quietly erode here at home,” he said. He supports officers who use the cameras “honorably,” he said, and the technology “can help law enforcement solve crimes,” but that support “does not mean surrendering constitutional principles or accepting government secrecy.” He asked Council to account publicly for the program’s growth, have the misuse allegations reviewed independently, disclose who can see the data and set enforceable limits on keeping and sharing it. “These decisions need public hearings, transparent votes, and meaningful civilian oversight.” He closed by saying he swore to defend the Constitution, not the government’s convenience.
Lindsay DeFranco, who also spoke at the Sept. 9 and Sept. 21 meetings, said Councilmember Carol Cookerly, in her Sept. 9 remarks from the dais, “accused me of wanting to defund and detool the police.” She called those accusations “false and defamatory” and asked Cookerly to retract them and apologize. She is running for the state House in District 47 as a Democrat, against Republican Jack Miller; their answers to our seven questions are on our site. Cookerly hasn’t answered the questions we sent her Oct. 5 and Oct. 17. We asked her again Monday night, this time for a response to both speakers; any answer will be added online and reported Thursday.
No one spoke in favor of the cameras Monday. The city’s case, from the mayor’s Oct. 12 answer to our questions, printed in full last week: Milton has used plate readers since 2011 to “help protect residents,” and “I support this program because I’ve seen firsthand how effective it is.”
Alison Eidex asked Council to turn down any rezoning or variance for high-intensity development at New Providence and Arnold Mill roads.
Before the tax-rate vote, three more spoke. Christy Hayes said the amount the city levies in operating taxes is up about 44 percent since 2020 while residents were told each year the rate was the lowest in city history, and asked Council to live within its means. Another urged zero-based budgeting. Laura Bentley asked what the extra $367,000 (the five-year figure above) will buy, and pressed Council to open the 100-acre greenspace at Providence and Bethany roads, bought for $6.9 million with 2016 bond money and still “off limits” to residents.
The Camera Files
What’s next in our look at Milton’s license plate cameras. This week the city owes us answers on requests for the approval to keep your car’s record for a year instead of 30 days, the police department’s own log of camera searches since 2023, its written rules and audits for the cameras, city leaders’ emails and texts about the program, and the city attorney’s invoices. We sent questions to city officials Saturday, Oct. 17; none had been answered by Monday night.
You Told Us
Sunday we asked whether big contracts like the parks deal should get their own Council vote. Of the 26 of you who answered, 16 said yes, 6 said consent is fine for routine renewals, and 4 are undecided. And 9 readers opened our Email Council page before the meeting.
Should big city contracts like the $691,000-a-year parks deal get their own Council vote? | ||||
Yes, their own vote
| ||||
Consent is fine for routine renewals
| ||||
I’m undecided
| ||||
26 readers, one tap each. It isn’t a scientific poll, just the readers who tapped. |
The Blotter
police and fire calls worth knowing, Tuesdays
Oct. 12 to Oct. 18. From police and fire dispatch traffic. A dispatch call is a report, not a finding, and we write it that way. Streets, not house numbers. No names.
- →Hamby Road near Watson’s Bend, Thu. Oct. 15, evening. Officers were sent to a report of a Hummer that went off the road into a tree.
- →Henderson Road at Henderson Place, Sat. Oct. 17, evening. Officers were sent to a report of a collapsed tree obstructing the road.
- →Landrum Road near Freemanville Road, Tue. Oct. 13, morning. Officers were sent to a report of an electrical hazard and a possible trapped person.
- →Highway 9, Fri. Oct. 16, afternoon. Firefighters were sent to a report of a natural gas odor inside an urgent care.
Of the dispatch calls we track, 43 were in or near Milton that week, 40 of them police calls and 3 fire calls. Most of the ones we didn’t print were traffic hazards and blocked lanes, minor crashes, alarms, suspicious vehicles, neighbor disputes, and noise and barking-dog complaints.
Something on your street we should look into? Reply to this email. Every item we have printed is on our map, along with how The Blotter works.
Around Milton
Thank you, “Mother of Milton.” Council opened Monday with a proclamation for retiring Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones, the Georgia House’s second-ranking leader, first elected to the state House in 2002, who “built the partnerships and advanced the legislation that made possible the incorporation of the city of Milton in 2006.” In 2022 she became the first woman to serve as speaker of the Georgia House. The mayor invited former officials who helped found the city up for the photo.
About 400 pounds lighter. More than two dozen volunteers cleared about 400 pounds of debris from Providence Park’s lakeshore, creeks and trails Sunday for Rivers Alive, the statewide waterway cleanup. That’s about 100 pounds more than last year, the city says.
New owners at the Stone House Tap. Council approved a liquor license for The Local Pour LLC, the restaurant’s new owner, at 12595 Crabapple Road, by the roundabout.
Own a horse farm, or want to? Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in Council Chambers, the Equestrian Committee sets aside its regular meeting to hear what makes large lots and horse farms hard to keep in Milton, and what might help. There’s no presentation, and it runs until “everyone in the room has been heard,” the city says. Plan accordingly.
Your Vote
The first week, by the numbers. Fulton County’s early voting sites took 105,759 ballots in person in the first six days of early voting, Oct. 13 to 18, according to the county’s unofficial daily count. The Milton Library took 4,355 of them. Any Fulton voter can use any site, so that counts ballots cast at the library, not Milton voters. By Sunday night the county had also accepted 3,397 absentee ballots returned by mail or drop box, out of 12,619 it had mailed. Statewide, more than 830,000 Georgians had already cast early ballots, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Monday.
This week’s deadlines. Friday, Oct. 23, is the last day to request an absentee ballot. Early voting runs through Friday, Oct. 30, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays, plus one last weekend: Saturday, Oct. 24, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, Oct. 25, from noon to 5 p.m. Any of the county’s 32 early voting sites will take your ballot. Closest to Milton: the Milton Library, 855 Mayfield Road; the Alpharetta Library, 10 Park Plaza; the Robert E. Fulton Library at Ocee, 5090 Abbotts Bridge Road; and the East Roswell Library, 2301 Holcomb Bridge Road.
Voting by mail? Your ballot has to reach the county by the time polls close at 7 p.m. on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3. There’s no drop box at the Milton Library. The libraries in Alpharetta and East Roswell have two of the county’s seven, open only during early voting hours. Polling places won’t take mail ballots on Election Day.
What’s on a Milton ballot. Every Milton voter sees the races for U.S. Senate, governor and the other statewide offices, three proposed changes to the Georgia Constitution, and Fulton County Commission chair. Also:
- →State House: most of Milton votes in District 47, an open seat because Jan Jones is retiring. Lindsay DeFranco, Democrat, and Jack Miller, Republican, are running. Their answers to our seven questions → Two of Milton’s 13 voting precincts are in District 49 instead, where Sara Fuchs, Democrat, faces Chuck Martin, Republican, the incumbent. Your sample ballot on the state’s My Voter Page shows which district is yours.
- →Congress and state Senate: U.S. House District 7, Tony Kozycki, Democrat, and Rich McCormick, Republican, the incumbent; state Senate District 21, Jason T. Dickerson, Republican, the incumbent, and Kori Simmons, Democrat.
- →TSPLOST: a 0.75 percent transportation sales tax in Fulton outside Atlanta, for up to five years. Fulton estimates Milton’s share at $44,178,196.
- →ESPLOST: whether to keep the 1 percent sales tax for schools from July 1, 2027, raising up to $2,095,680,577 in all, with up to $1,306,195,350 for Fulton County Schools.
- →There’s no City of Milton question this time.
Your exact ballot is on the state’s My Voter Page, along with your Election Day polling place.
The Scoreboard
every game, both schools, the night it finishes
Saturday · state volleyball, first round | ||||||
| ||||||
Friday, Oct. 23 · football · 7:30 p.m. | ||||||
| ||||||
Records and rankings: MaxPreps. Brackets: Georgia High School Association. | ||||||
Volleyball. Milton swept Glynn Academy 3-0 Saturday in the first round of the Class 6A state playoffs and hosts Creekview in the second round Tuesday evening; the ticket listing says 5:30 p.m. Creekview (21-13) got there by beating Greenbrier 3-2. Cambridge’s season ended the same day, when St. Pius X won 25-14, 25-12, 25-15 in the Class 5A first round. The state quarterfinals are Saturday, Oct. 24.
Softball. Cambridge (26-3, 14-0 in its region, No. 9 in Georgia per MaxPreps) is scheduled to host Jefferson in a best-of-three Class 5A second-round series starting at 4 p.m. Tuesday. Win it and the Bears go to the state tournament in Columbus, Oct. 28 to 31. They got this far by beating Allatoona 10-1 and 17-2 last Wednesday. Milton’s season ended that day in the Class 6A first round, with 8-0 and 11-0 losses at Lee County.
Friday night. Milton’s trip to Gainesville puts two teams unbeaten in region play on the same field: Milton is 3-0 in the region and Gainesville 4-0, per MaxPreps, which ranks Gainesville (6-2) No. 8 in Georgia and No. 4 in Class 6A. Someone’s unbeaten region record ends Friday. Kickoff is 7:30 p.m. at Gainesville’s City Park. Cambridge (4-4, 3-1 in its region) hosts St. Pius X (3-4) at 7:30.
Flag football Wednesday. Milton hosts Buford at 6:15 p.m. and East Coweta at 8:45. Cambridge plays Seckinger at 6:30 and North Forsyth at 7:50, both at North Forsyth. Every schedule and score →
The Agenda
public meetings this week and next
Three city committees meet this week, and Tuesday evening brings the first of two Greenprint open houses.
Greenprint, tonight. The first of two open houses on the future of seven city-owned greenspaces runs 5 to 7 p.m. in Council Chambers. Come and go, look over the ideas on the boards and add your own. There are no formal presentations; city staff will be around the room to answer questions. Can’t make it? The second session is 1 to 3 p.m. next Tuesday, Oct. 27. Details from the city →
- →Tue, Oct 20 · 4:30 PM: Development Authority · Council Chambers, City Hall. On the agenda: the Oct. 7 minutes and picking a next meeting date (Nov. 5 or Nov. 6), then an executive session.
- →Tue, Oct 20 · 5:00 PM: Greenprint Public Open House · Council Chambers, City Hall. Drop in until 7 p.m.
- →Wed, Oct 21 · 6:30 PM: Equestrian Committee · Council Chambers, City Hall. The only new business is a public listening session.
- →Thu, Oct 22 · 4:45 PM: Milton Trails Advisory Committee · Council Chambers, City Hall. Staff update on Blueprint map code changes, plus map development and public outreach.
Canceled: Tuesday’s Board of Zoning Appeals meeting, which we listed Sunday, and the library’s Tales from the Loop game night.
This Week in Milton
the calendar, day by day
Worth circling. Saturday, Oct. 24, has two. Tim Cagle, Jordynn Dudley and Scott Stachowski join the city’s Wall of Fame at 11 a.m. in Bell Memorial Park. Then, late afternoon, Carvin’ in Crabapple takes over Broadwell Pavilion from 4 to 7: bring your own pumpkin (the city has the carving tools), then a costume contest, food trucks, inflatables and a Milton Police trunk-or-treat. Still need a costume? The library’s costume swap runs through Saturday.
Tuesday, October 20
- →10:00 AM · Halloween Costume Swap · Milton Branch Library, until 8 p.m. today and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, while supplies last
- →6:30 PM · History Book Discussion: The Wright Brothers by David McCullough · Milton Branch Library (free)
Thursday, October 22
- →6:00 PM · Acoustic Tom (country and alternative rock) · Hyde Brewing, until 9 p.m.
Saturday, October 24
- →11:00 AM · Wall of Fame Induction Ceremony · Bell Memorial Park (free)
- →2:00 PM · Fall Festival with the Teen Advisory Board (ages 6 and up; costumes welcome; register on the library page) · Milton Branch Library (free)
- →4:00 PM · Carvin’ in Crabapple · Broadwell Pavilion, until 7 p.m. (free)
Sunday, October 25
- →3:00 PM · Live Music at Six Bridges · Six Bridges Crabapple, until 6 p.m.
- →5:00 PM · Murder Mystery Masquerade (dinner show; tickets on Eventbrite) · Milton’s Cuisine & Cocktails, until 7 p.m.
Monday, October 26
- →11:00 AM · Red Cross Blood Drive (book an appointment) · Six Bridges Crabapple, until 4 p.m.
- →6:30 PM · CRAFTer Dark: Mini Pumpkins (adults; register on the library page) · Milton Branch Library (free)
See the full Milton calendar → · Got an event? Submit it
Spot something we missed? Just reply. Every correction we have run is on our corrections page.
