Milton’s City Council on Monday approved a handful of changes to make elements of the City Code pertaining to alcohol beverage sales clearer, fairer, and more friendly to small, locally owned businesses.

City Manager Steve Krokoff explained in his presentation that the amendments do not mark a wholesale rewrite of Chapter 4, as was undertaken four years ago. Rather, they represent targeted improvements to specific policies and processes. 

Monday night’s Council-approved alterations include:

• Clarifying – but not changing – the required distances that must be between establishments selling alcohol and certain places (such as schools) so the related language is more understandable and mirrors State code
• Revise the process for obtaining new alcohol beverage licenses, including timing the commencement of when to assess corresponding fees to around when a business begins its alcohol sales
• Create an expedited administrative process with a flat fee (of $100) for proprietors of qualified businesses for temporary (90-day) alcohol beverage licenses with built-in safeguards
• Remove ambiguity by providing clearer operating standards for establishments that are BYOB (“bring your own beverage”), like explicitly mandating on-site supervision (among other requirements)
• Cleaning up legacy language to ensure consistency, such as removing the Limited Food Service Restaurant category from Chapter 4 to match another part of City Code
• Allow farm wineries to sell locally brewed malt beverages and limited tap establishments to sell local wines (produced within 100 miles)

Also for farm wineries and limited tap establishments, language was added to specify the maximum combination of beers and wine glasses that can be sold to an individual on any given day. Currently, Milton has one farm winery and one limited tap establishment.

Two speakers spoke in favor of the modifications, with other people in City Hall’s Council Chambers prepared to offer their support as well.

The Council unanimously approved the recommended changes.

BOTTLE-FILL SYSTEMS FOR FIREFIGHTERS’ BREATHING APPARATUS APPROVED

This presentation, discussion, and vote came at the end of a meeting that began with an invocation and three general public comments (two made in person, with the other read into the record).  The Council then approved the meeting’s Consent Agenda, which featured agreements between the City and:

• Ten-8 Fire & Safety to supply and install bottle-fill systems for SCBAs – or self-contained breathing apparatus that allow firefighters to breathe in smoke-filled environments – at Fire Station 42 and Fire Station 43 
• CSG Forte Payments to provide a means to process online payments when people rent facilities or register for certain Milton Parks and Recreation-affiliated programs 
• Prime Contractors to stabilize a red barn located in a City greenspace off Freemanville Road (connected to Milton City Park and Preserve) that contributes to the rural viewshed 
• Crabapple Green to partner with the City in organizing  open-air, public events in downtown Crabapple for select World Cup games this summer 
• Avalon Motor Coaches to transport children to-and-from field trips for Camp Compass and Camp Joyful Soles, a pair of City-run summer camps

AUDITOR OFERS ‘CLEAN OPINION’ OF CITY FINANCES

Deputy City Manager Bernadette Harvill introduced the other item on Monday’s agenda about Milton’s annual audit, which is a comprehensive review of the City’s finances. While Milton goes above and beyond when it comes to financial transparency in myriad ways, an independent audit – in this case covering Fiscal Year 2025, which ran from October 1, 2024, through September 30, 2025 – is a State of Georgia requirement.

Will Derzis from the accounting firm Mauldin & Jenkins, LLC, presented the independent Auditor’s Report. He noted Milton earned a “clean opinion” for its fair documentation of municipal finances consistent with prevailing accounting principles and without material misstatements or areas of concern.

Giving a high-level recap of his firm’s report, Derzis detailed the City’s assets, liabilities, revenues, and expenditures (including over a 6-year period). He noted that revenues have typically outpaced expenditures in Milton, pointing to steady growth in the City’s fund balances.

There were no disagreements with his independent accounting firm and the City on facts, said Derzis. Mauldin & Jenkins did make one “finding” regarding how the City accounted for certain construction-related expenditures; Harvill explained that this happened because of a change in the Finance leadership team and, with that, the process for how certain things were recorded by the City. That process has since returned to the correct method of recording for such items.

To dive deeper into Milton’s finances, check out documents – including the latest Budget Book, Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, and Popular Annual Financial Report – on this webpage: https://www.miltonga.gov/government/finance/annual-financial-reporting.

The City Council’s next meeting is scheduled for the evening of Monday, May 4.