Walker County votes for board of commissioners,

LaFAYETTE, Ga. — Seventy-seven years after they turned their local government into a one-stop shop, Walker County voters moved back to a board of commissioners Tuesday night.

Voters overwhelmingly adopted a referendum asking for a switch in the type of government, 16,824-4,080. Residents in the county, including prominent local Republicans, advocated for the change for several years, especially in the final years of former Commissioner Bebe Heiskell’s tenure.

“The citizens of Walker County have made a decision to take control of their government,” said County Republican Party Chair Mike Cameron, an architect of the new form of government. “We look forward to working with elected officials to move this forward. The Republicans want to thank the Tea Party and Democratic Party for their assistance, as well as the [Rossville] Wilson Road Neighborhood Group and [their leader] David Roden.”

Beginning in 2021, the county will move to a form of

government similar to that of Dade County, with four commissioners representing districts and an executive elected by every voter in the county. The districts will consist of Rossville, Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain and LaFayette.

Voters will elect the new board in the November 2020 election. The four commissioners representing districts will each make $12,000 a year. The chair, who will work full-time for the county and oversee most day-to-day operations, will make $500 more than the next highest paid county employee.

In recent decades, sole commissioners here have preached the value of a simplified form of government. Buddy Chapman, who served in the role in the 1990s, said no other type of management was more efficient. His successor, Bebe Heiskell, who served in office for 16 years, still preaches its merits.

Toward the end of Heiskell’s time in office, however, critics protested the style as too overarching. (The Wall Street Journal covered an election in 2012, painting the county as a backwoods, out-of-date oddity.)

Emily Johnson, 29, said Tuesday outside the Rossville precinct that Heiskell’s legacy tainted the sole commissioner form of government: “She really did Rossville in and Walker County in. We’ve had to pay lots of taxes, even more taxes.”

For his part, Whitfield did not endorse or dissuade the change. But he did mention that he would run for re-election as sole commissioner in 2020 if voters rejected the referendum.

James Wigley, 45, in Chattanooga Valley, said Tuesday that his vote to change to a board was not a referendum on Whitfield. He supports the commissioner’s work over the last two years. Whitfield has published a line-item budget, a departure from the thin, two-page financial statements Heiskell used to push out. He also has organized more public meetings than he is legally required to hold.

“Whitfield has done a better job,” Wigley said. “Much, much better. I absolutely believe that in my heart. But I do believe it should come down to a decision of many, not a decision of one.”

Also in Walker County and LaFayette, voters approved a couple of different alcohol referendums Tuesday.

In Walker County, 12,876 people voted to allow restaurants to sell alcohol on Sundays, while 8,220 people voted against it. Also, 13,036 people voted to allow package sales of alcohol in stores in the county, while 7,878 people voted against it.

In LaFayette, voters approved restaurants selling alcohol by the drink on Sundays, 982-635. They also approved package sales of alcohol in stores, 983-637.