Georgia mayor dodges claim he tracked his police chief’s truck — now most of the local force has quit. Residents may be left holding the bag

According to The Herald-Gazette, Mayor Timmons turned down a request for comment when asked if he had placed the tracking device on Bunn’s vehicle. “I have no comment,” he said when asked about the tracking device at a recent meeting, WSB-TV reported.

Meanwhile, five full-time police officers — who represent the entire full-time force of the Milner Police Department, including Bunn himself — have resigned. Most of the department’s part-time officers have also resigned, according to CBS News.

A small town loses its entire police force

According to an Action News 5 report, the Milner Police Department’s last day will be Wednesday, Oct. 28, while City Manager Tausha Grose, who also announced her resignation, will serve her final day on Friday, Oct. 30.

The resignations, based on a letter obtained by WSB-TV, were a result of concerns about the judgement and decision-making of the mayor and certain council members. Bunn told WSB-TV that Timmons once asked him for the tracker in front of witnesses while the two shook hands.

Bunn also said the walkout wasn’t coordinated. “I didn’t ask them to do it,” he told Action News 5. “It’s not like I said, ‘Hey guys, let’s quit.’” He further said that if trust could be fixed, “we need to fix it,” according to CBS News.

The Lamar County Sheriff’s Office is expected to handle patrols in lieu of the Milner Police Department.

Some residents are talking about ending the city altogether

One former member of the Milner city council, Skip Seda, said he intends to lead an effort to completely dissolve (unincorporate) Milner’s city status if it loses both its cops and city manager, Action News 5 reported. That would mean reducing Milner to a non-municipal jurisdiction and folding it back into Lamar County.

This is not new in Georgia, as the state has a history of small cities dissolving when critical systems fail.

The city of Quitman nearly had its charter revoked in March via House Bill 1567 after failing to complete state-required financial audits for eight straight years, according to The Georgia Virtue. In July, as News4JAX reported, state lawmakers warned the city of Woodbine that it could be folded into its surrounding county after a five-year gap in submitting mandatory annual financial audits.

Furthermore, the state legislature completely dissolved Mountain View in 1978 after rampant allegations of corruption, and the city of Russell had its charter officially stripped in 1995 after its government became completely inactive and it failed to provide the minimum of three municipal services required by state law.

Milner’s fate is not yet sealed, and it remains to be seen whether it will eventually be unincorporated.

Who ends up paying the bill?

Because Milner residents already pay county property taxes to fund the Lamar County Sheriff’s Office, the county sheriff is providing temporary police coverage at no extra cost, meaning residents will not see any new fees, separate charges or additional tax lines added to their current bills while the city determines its next steps.

If Milner does unincorporate, its residents would stop paying city property taxes to the municipality and will keep only their county bill.