As usual, the Messenger is Bebe’s mouthpiece. They report the rug she bought for herself tax exempt in Tennessee was purchased with money from a “yet unnamed private foundation” for use at Mountain Cove Farms. Except she still can’t use the county tax ID for some other organization, and out-of-state government entities cannot get tax exemption in Tennessee anyway.

She broke the law, but she broke it FOR YOU! Bebe is doing all she can to get the farm renovated in time for tens of thousands of tourists to stay there this fall, and if she happens to violate a few laws along the way we have no place to challenge her or even question this mysterious new foundation that can’t do its own purchases or have its own tax ID number.

And we’re hateful for daring to challenge her.

Disgusting.

(How much longer before Heiskell hires Christi McIntyre from the Messenger to work for her? Larry Brooks got a county job based on his butt-kissing articles when he worked there, so after the election if Bebe wins, it shouldn’t be a shock if McIntire – who keeps signing her name to hack work like this – ends up with a sweet county position.)

In a real community this would lead to outrage and an investigation.

Early voting begins in just a couple weeks, on July 9th, and we need to get some questions sent to candidates. What do YOU want to know from the people running for elected office this year?

You can post your question in comments below or e-mail it to lu@cityoflafayettega.com . If it’s a question for every candidate or just ones from a specific race, please let us know. No questions for just one candidate, they need to apply to everyone running for a certain position at least.

If you’re a candidate you might want to be sure we have your e-mail address. Also, please don’t answer questions here – we don’t want candidates seeing their opponent’s answers ahead of time.

Hot all week. The Weather Underground (no relation) says we’re looking at freaking 113° for the high Friday. Is it too late to move Freedom Festival indoors?

Thursday LaFayette Utilities Secretary Teresa Abbott was fired after working for the city 25 years. The main reason given for her termination was giving permission for a worker’s comp claim and signing White’s name on a form without permission. She plans to appeal the firing during July’s council meeting.

You’ll recall that she’s the one who caught Richie White (no relation) stealing from Public Works by having his family business overcharge the city for garbage truck parts – something the city now says didn’t happen. She also ran the Public Works department for a while between directors, and applied to become the director when they hired Mark White.

Abbott apparently broke the rules by handling the workers’ comp claim the way she did, but we’re told until recently they were always handled that way.

SNR Groceries (Old Trion Hwy near Shattuck Industrial, formerly RC’s) was broken into Friday night or early Saturday morning. The robbers apparently took cigarettes, beer, and worthless unactivated lottery tickets. If you have any information or saw anything suspicious, call LaFayette PD at 706 639 1540.

WQCH Radio, 06/22/2012:

“GEORGIA DOT IS CAUTIONING POLITICAL CANDIDATES NOT TO PLACE SIGNS ON HIGHWAY RIGHTS OF WAY – THEY WILL BE REMOVED BY DOT CREWS. SIGNS REMOVED WILL BE HELD FOR 30 DAYS AND THEN DESTROYED. DEWAYNE COMER, DISTRICT ENGINEER IN CARTERSVILLE, SAID ‘FOR SAFETY’S SAKE, THERE ARE LAWS ABOUT WHERE SIGNS CAN BE PLACED… AND THE DEPARTMENT WILL REMOVE ANY AND ALL UNAUTHORIZED SIGNS FROM OUR RIGHTS OF WAY’.”

This may cut back the number of signs for Wilson and Heiskell, since so many of their “supporters” live in vacant lots and on highway right of ways. (A sign in a right-of-way isn’t a supporter, it’s artificial.)

Of course the county won’t be removing illegally placed signs on its own rights of way. Depending on the candidate.

Speaking of signs in prohibited places: is this Bebe! board placed illegally in the state highway right-of-way or illegally at the Lee School Rd. fire station? Looks like the latter to us.

If it’s at the fire department her campaign is violating some serious rules. But they’re rules nobody enforces. It puts Dr. Shaw at an unfair disadvantage because he doesn’t have his own fire stations to post signs in front of.

This is YOUR property being used for campaign purposes.

Today is the Summer Solstice, longest day of the year, and also the first day of Summer. Hope you have an opportunity today to enjoy the outdoors.

We told you so: Bengi Clift is the new Police Chief, Robert Busby is the new Fire Chief. Job was open for six days, posted for the three minimally required by law, and the people they wanted from the beginning were immediately plugged into the job without considering any other possibility.

Clift won’t yell and curse like Freeman, even though he’s about as qualified and ethically similar. (If he wasn’t, Freeman wouldn’t have made him the no. 2.) He’s young and in fairly good health, he won’t be as openly abusive as his predecessor so he won’t get fired, and he’s not likely to get a job anywhere else (see the Peter Principle for why), so you’re stuck with him for the next twenty or thirty years.

Our apologies to the people of LaFayette.

Bengi threatened one of our contributors with a criminal charge and said it would go away if we buried incriminating documentation on Freeman. That shows his ethical standards well enough, and his qualifications don’t matter beyond that.

Judge Brian House, running unopposed for another term on the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit, has violated the law by endorsing candidates in other races. But that’s OK, we don’t enforce the rules in Georgia anyway.

If you drive around the county, you might find other judge candidates who violate these rules. We’ve also got an elections board member who likes to post campaign signs on her property (another law violated). And a commissioner candidate who leaves lots of things off her required financial reports.

But hey, they’re all good people, it’s probably all fine.

Walker State Judge candidate Billy Mullinax is also violating these rules, or at least in a legally gray area, by campaigning along with Steve Wilson. They ride around together, share a billboard, their campaigns put out yard signs for each other.. It’s hard to tell where Wilson ends and Mullinax begins, which is a real problem that needs to be investigated.

Bruce Coker, candidate for Chief Magistrate Judge of Walker County, is also in a gray area when he participates in fundraisers for entities like United Way and Stocking Full of Love. According to the rules of Georgia courts (which are ethical standards for court officers, not state law), a candidate for judge must conduct himself as a judge even while campaigning – and judges aren’t allowed to do fundraising for candidates or groups. But Coker doesn’t have a clue about the law or election rules – he’ll make a great judge.

There are a lot of gray areas, and some parts of this that may be technically legal but ethically unwise. Every candidate should be working to avoid any risk of impropriety by steering clear of these campaigning and fundraising issues. But this bunch is morally (or maybe mentally) short. If you vote for Mullinax or Coker you’re going to get exactly what you deserve, which is trouble.

As President Reagan said, “Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty.” Yet we throw away our liberty every four years by continuing to support a commissioner who refuses to let anyone share her power or give her accountability. A vote for Bebe is a vote AGAINST having a commission-based county government.

And as we told you yesterday, Heiskell’s power and lack of accountability lets her abuse the rules, up to the point of using Walker County’s tax ID number to exempt herself from paying sales taxes.

This article indicates city garbage service returned to once-a-week pickup already, which is what Councilman Bradford said (and what we reported a couple weeks ago) – but residents are still seeing the trucks come by twice a week and City Hall said the schedule changes back on July 1st. Once again the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.

As someone else suggested, they should just randomly pick up trash and not tell us when it’ll run, because that’s the schedule everybody’s used to now.

Updated July 30, 2012 to add February receipt

Most purchases in Georgia are subjected to a 4% sales (“sales & usage”) tax. With three additional local taxes (LOST, SPLOST, and ESPLOST) the total sales tax paid on purchases in Walker County is 7%. In Tennessee, where residents don’t pay income tax, base state sales tax is 7% on most items. Hamilton County’s local tax brings the total there up to 9.25%.

As a benefit to particular people or industries, Georgia and Tennessee both exempt certain items, like medical supplies or groceries, from all or most sales tax. Purchases meant for resale are exempt too since they’ll be taxed again when the buyer resells them. This is, for the most part, fair and appropriate.

Both states also allow particular organizations to exempt themselves from paying the tax; Schools, nonprofits, churches, and government agencies – among others considered beneficial to the community – can skip paying state and local sales tax in Tennessee. Georgia (excepting churches) does the same thing. Organizations wishing to be tax exempt must file appropriate papers with each retailer they do business with, and often sign a form stating that the purchase will only be used for charitable purposes.

This, too, is for the most part fair and appropriate.

What isn’t fair or appropriate is when items purchased tax-free are bought to benefit an individual person instead of the public. And Walker County’s legitimate tax ID number has been used for that very thing: to help one person avoid paying her fare share of sales tax.

During Saturday’s six-hour-long candidate forum at the Civic Center, Commissioner Bebe didn’t do well compared to Dr. Shaw and seems to have hurt her campaign. The sheriff contenders didn’t have enough time, one candidate was asked if he’s LU, and a surprisingly high number of candidates didn’t show up.

Jay Neal (GA House 2) was absent due to a vacation his family paid for before the forum was scheduled. Steve Tarvin, his opponent, came and waxed eloquently about issues that have nothing to do with the Georgia legislature. He’s still running for congress and has to make a state legislature stop along the way.

Bebe lost her cool, interrupted Shaw (and got called out for it), came off as fake and incompetent. Shaw brought one of the nasty mailers she paid to send about him, showed it to the audience. He also showed evidence that prove the county is deeper into debt than Heiskell will admit. She should have skipped the forum and went on vacation with the Neals.

Kellie Maples (Clerk of Court) was involved in a car accident and couldn’t make it. Her opponent Carter Brown was asked by the Mayor of Rossville if he’s LU. He isn’t, for the record. None of us are running for office or we’d say so.

Mike Nowlin and John Deffenbaugh (GA House 1) didn’t bother coming but Alan Painter and Tom McMahan did. They won’t face each other on the July ballot because Tom is running under the D banner – they’ll face off in November. Painter is increasingly sure to win because his Republican opponents don’t seem to be serious candidates.

Also not a serious candidate, Ronald Cabero (School Board 4) didn’t show up. That’s probably why his opponent Dale Wilson, who has no chance of not winning, also didn’t make an appearance. Ronald Cabero wouldn’t win school board against Dale Wilson if he promised to pay people $100 for voting for him.

Current Sheriff Steve Wilson got points from the crowd for being the only candidate for Sheriff who knew the details of a new law about prison sentences. There’s little doubt that he knows the law well. But his willingness to fairly and equally enforce the law is another issue entirely. It’s easy to look up and read a law, but fixing broken character is a lot more difficult.

Sheriff candidate Tim Westbrook, also a non-factor in the race, didn’t show up either. The only democrat present at the TEA Party-sponsored forum (without Cabero or Westbrook) was Tom McMahon. So Tom gets points for showing up knowing he would face a hostile crowd.

There will be more information, maybe some quotes or video available later today; we’ll share whatever we find in tomorrow’s Daily Update and on the LU Facebook.

State officials have been bragging about statistics showing the state added jobs last month. But most of those jobs were in a select handful of cities – the rest of the state (including Walker County) is still shrinking economically.