I used to live in Atlanta and still return there to practice in the Federal courts from time to time. My observations about the City and Fulton County first, then the Milton County issue.
When Mayor Franklin took office one of the big consulting firms offered to do a benchmark analysis, gratis, to help the incoming mayor understand how things stood. I seem to recall the results were that compared to comparable cities of the same size - the City of Atlanta had a workforce 30% larger than other cities, but that total payroll was 22% below the comparable benchmark value. In other words - Atlanta had a lot of people who were paid relatively little. If you have had any interaction with the city government (zoning, planning, courts, etc.) you can understand that the city payroll has become a patronage army of ignorant and unhelpful people.
Fulton County government is much the same way. As an example, I recall about 1 year ago dealing with the Fulton Probate court, filing a will for safekeeping on behalf of a client with the Clerk of the Probate Court. I was led through a labyrinth of dated office cubicles to a spot where I was instructed to wait as the clerk went behind a partition. Moments later I heard a typewriter (!) as a form was being completed as part of the process. I thought that was typical – an army of low skilled municipal employees, using essentially no technology (hardly even low technology). The IT revolution has yet to break into the bureaucracy of the Fulton County Courts (or the DA’s office) and an encounter with those organizations or other branches of Fulton Government will leave you scratching your head (have I just entered a time warp?)
On the issue of Milton County – I think the best out for those in what would be the reconstituted Milton County would be to find two counties in south GA and essentially bribe them, via contracted payments, to merge and get the # of counties issue out of the way. It has to be an efficient outcome. The money a reconstituted Milton could save (or at least more wisely and beneficially spend) would have to be more than enough to cover payments to one of those godforsaken, bum-f*** counties down near Valdosta or Waycross.
Ah, I see you have indeed been blessed to have to work with the local establishment.
My own experiences were with the failing sewage and water infrastructure. How those people ever got a job that required a basic understanding of excrement flowing downhill I will never know. They were more concerned with the number of black faces in our office and stated it very plainly.
Lucky me, the wife and I get to go down to the city to get CCW permits this month. They don’t let us in old Milton County have any such service anymore, not to mention early voting. But, they sure do cash my tax check with an efficiency that would be the marvel of a rocket scientist.
We need a running list of the number of occurrences of this statement around the country. This is so freakin’ depressing, predictable, and pathetic.