Why We Are Voting for Julie Zahner Bailey

The political climate we live in today is near-nigh vitriolic. Few can remember a time in recent history, save only perhaps in the late 1960's, when those on one side of the discussion point have seemed so completely alienated from those speaking from the other. It is indeed a dispiriting time for politics in America.

Worrisome is the fact that attitudes such as these can infect and inflame our local politics. Impasse in our neighborhood is just as dangerous as gridlock up in Washington.

The City of Milton has succeeded to date because those governing it have acted more expansively and with greater vision than have our national politicians.

Milton also benefits from a distinct and shared sense of community values which have directly influenced the founding of our community. We have rightly earned the reputation as the little City that could. The City that could preserve its unique rural heritage while surrounded by the one of the world's most expansive examples of urban sprawl. And the City that could find solutions to development and density issues so as to maintain the natural landscape and ambience to which all of its citizens are committed.

Accomplishing all of this requires leaders who possess special talents and experiences. We believe Milton has been incredibly fortunate to have had Julie Zahner Bailey holding the reins of civic leadership.

Many of us know Julie as an enthusiastic advocate for Milton generally. Many more know her as a classroom teacher who has inspired many of our community's brightest children. We know her, too, as an energetic proponent for an ecologically friendly landscape, an expertise that she has honed as part owner of Bailey Farm & Gardens, her family's landscape and nursery business. And those of us who know Julie really well remember her as an honors graduate in finance who began her corporate career learning the intricacies of financial and banking institutions. After scaling the corporate ladder, Julie turned her talents to the complexities of master planning, rural preservation, and land use policy and procedure. Julie has served on innumerable planning and steering committees, having been called to service by Fulton County Commissioner Lynn Riley, former Commissioner Karen Handel, and the Birmingham Park Master Planning Steering Committee. Julie also served for 10 years as Executive Director of the Birmingham Hopewell Alliance, and she is today a member of Milton's Zoning and Land Use Committee.

Doing all this and more, Julie still finds time to be active in her Church, in local PTA's, and in various School Councils and Environmental Education Committees.

It is an impressive record of accomplishment and reflects an unflagging commitment to the qualities that make living in Milton so rewarding. Few persons have had the opportunity to examine as deeply the issues that Milton routinely confronts, or to understand the competing interests that bring them to the fore. Fewer still have the requisite reservoir of experience, education and poise to ask the difficult and penetrating questions required to insure that every issue coming before Council receives the attention it deserves.

When you are the City of Milton, your success and your future depend on having exceptional talent close at hand. Julie Zahner Bailey is that talent. She has more hands-on experience, a deeper level of policy awareness, and more energy than does any candidate currently running for City Council. While new blood and new perspectives are useful in any organization or community, something which Julie's opponent can be expected to contend, exceptional talent and indefatigable energy are attributes second to none.

The issues that now confront Milton -- development, density, water, sewer, schools, parks and roads -- are incredibly challenging for a young community. When the facts necessary to produce a wise and good decision are hidden within voluminous records or behind incomplete, perhaps even evasive oral testimony, having someone at the helm resourceful enough to unearth them is absolutely essential. Combine skills such as these with a community spirit that can only be described as inspiring, it is why we are casting our ballots in the upcoming City Council election for Julie Zahner Bailey. We encourage all of our neighbors to do the same.