Under Georgia law, every city must have a multi-member council. Some have councils with mayors, some have councils with a chair, but all of Georgia’s 535 incorporated towns have more than one person in charge: from Atlanta with half a million residents all the way down to tiny Edge Hill in Glascock County, where only 25 people live.

When a city cannot seat enough councilors to have a “quorum” on a regular basis its charter is dissolved, because you need a handful of people to govern with accountability and make decisions that benefit the citizens instead of a sole person in charge. That’s why cities and counties in other states also have more than one elected leader, by law.

But thanks to legislative oversight, Georgia doesn’t require COUNTIES to have more than one leader. Why does it make sense for a massive county with 70,000+ residents to have one leader when a city like Edge Hill (or Lyerly, with 540 residents) is required to have five people in charge? It doesn’t.

We can’t change the flaws in state law, but we can keep those mistakes from continuing here. Sign the Sole Commissioner Vote Petition and tell YOUR lawmakers who work for YOU that we finally need a vote on representative government in Walker County.         

LPD is seeking information on the whereabouts of a missing 16-year-old girl:

“Brittany Clift was reported as a runaway on 09/18/2014 by her mother. Brittany was last seen by her mother in her bedroom around 10:30pm on the night of the 18th. Brittany is described as a white female, height 5’03”, 107lbs, has blonde hair and hazel eyes. No clothing description could be given at the time of the report. The LaFayette Police Department is asking that anyone who may have information on the whereabouts of Brittany to please contact the LaFayette Police Deapartment, Walker County 911 or the case officer Detective B. Mullis at 706-639-1540 or 706-375-7810.”     

Friday LPD finally began investigating the suspected arson fire of Mac Waters’ empty home on Culberson Ave. LPD detective Steele says the department previously couldn’t get permission to enter the house and check because he wrote the family’s phone number down wrong.   

Crime news:

ATV stolen out of a barn somewhere in the LaFayette area. “Off 136” is about as vague a location as you can get..

A pair of thieves in town are working a new angle: one mows your grass while the other robs your house.

Last week some kind individual relieved a LaFayette family of car batteries worth about $1,600. Thanks Mr. Thief!

And the latest local arrests. COPS: Walker County.         

Driver who rolled a truck full of chickens on 193 last week has been charged with driving too fast.   

Georgia now has the highest unemployment rate among 50 states.

So far it’s unclear how this impacts Gov. Deal’s reelection campaign, which has focused hard on his job growth record. Deal keeps bragging about Georgia being a business friendly climate. Best state in the US for business, etc.

Businesses looking to hire people LOVE a job market like this, because people are willing to work cheap. People who don’t have jobs will take a job paying less and doing more, versus a place where everybody’s employed and companies have to ramp up perks and pay to entice workers.

What’s good for giant industrial “business” isn’t necessarily good for YOU.

A place like Roper/GElectrolux, Caterpillar, Audia International.. They want the biggest possible pool of unemployed desperate workers to fill their job slots and turn out products to be sold in other communities or other countries.

Those are the kinds of jobs Nathan Deal has brought in to Georgia, and the kinds of jobs Commissioner Bebe is HOPING to bring in to Walker County.   

Former police chief of Lee, Massachusetts is being prosecuted for fraud and money laundering after he took money donated for a children’s Christmas fund and paid his own bills with it.

The only difference between what he did and what Steve Wilson and Bruce Coker have done with Stocking Full of Love is the amount he took and the part where he’s actually being punished.   

For readers in Western Walker and Dade County: A candidate forum tomorrow night in Rising Fawn will be (hopefully) attended by the candidates for House District 1: Tom McMahan and John Deffenbaugh. Other candidates in Dade are expected to participate.

(HD1 is West Walker and all of Dade.)   

Starting this week GNTC will offer free practice tests for the GED.   

When newspapers cite or quote LU they frequently don’t name the site, instead saying “a popular local blog.”

Maybe we should rename LU to “A Popular Local Blog” so they refer to us by name. What do you think?   

Georgia might have the highest unemployment in the US, but don’t worry: Gov. Deal says “every county” in Georgia is now certified “camera ready.” That essentially means county leaders have set up someone to talk to movie producers if they ever come in. Yay us, or something.     

State leaders claim juvenile justice system reforms are making progress.

On the ground in THIS community, there doesn’t seem to be much difference: young criminals think the law is a joke, and light punishments they get for major crimes just reenforce that attitude.   

For today’s links and any breaking news, follow the Underground on Facebook or Twitter.