After my 2020 investigation into the City's travel habits and expenses, I wanted to see for myself what goes on during their trips. Your elected officials claim they get valuable insight and/or training on these trips, although they're never able to tell you much about it. They believe you should just trust them and not ask questions.
Because these retreats include a quorum of the City Council, they are covered by Georgia's Open Meetings laws and must be open to the public, even if they take place out of state. Most people can't go to them because they're too far for most residents to attend easily, and they start during the work week.
In December 2020, about a month after my first travel investigation, the City took another retreat to Rock Hill, SC. They only gave a day's notice, although they obviously would have planned the trip well in advance and could have provided more notice. No one outside the City knew about the trip to reasonably make arrangements to be there. I suspect they did that intentionally because they didn't want anyone there. I reported this to the Georgia Attorney General's Office, who determined that technically, the City followed the law. They did send a letter to the City's attorney saying that they agreed with me that the City could have given more notice than that.
In March 2022, they announced their spring retreat to Thomasville, GA, about a week in advance. I drove down and was sitting in the meeting room when they arrived.
Many discussions were about Sugar Hill City business, and there was absolutely no reason they could not have discussed them in Sugar Hill. In fact, most of those topics have been discussed within the City Hall before and since the retreat.
Part of the trip was City officials touring Thomasville, GA. It's a nice place, and I enjoyed looking around. However, I did not see how their tours were of any benefit to the Sugar Hill taxpayers.
They also met with Thomasville officials and staff during the trip, and I listened to those discussions. The Thomasville group really stressed the importance of getting citizens involved to make ANY City initiative successful. At one point, Council Member Jenn Thatcher asked them how they dealt with detractors and naysayers. The response from Thomasville: "We LISTEN to them."
The City of Sugar Hill could have learned a valuable lesson from that part of the trip. In the end, it seems the good advice from the Thomasville folks went right over Sugar Hill's head. The politicians here continue to work hard at ignoring, silencing, and lying about anyone who's not mirroring their opinions. So, the one good thing that COULD have come out of that trip never materialized, making the entire thing a complete waste of taxpayer money.
To see the original Facebook posts where I detailed what they did:
https://tinyurl.com/ThomasvilleDay1