As regular readers will know, I have been in an ongoing legal battle with the City of Manassas, Georgia, for a while regarding their seat-of-the-pants approach to government and spending, as observed by former councilwoman Audrey. New readers can catch up on things here and here, including a ridiculous criminal allegation by Manassas Mayor Rogers against me after I requested documents on a fishy sidewalk project contract renegotiation.

After that allegation, my attorney presented the city with an ante-litem for defamation, an official notice to which the city never responded. At a recent city council meeting, the council announced that the city attorney, B. Jay Swindell (yes, that is his actual name, and how it is presented, Google it), will no longer be serving the city in that capacity. Who in the mix made the actual decision is still unclear. You may recall that he and the sidewalk contractor share the same last name, which I am assured is purely coincidental. Yesterday morning, I discovered that the new prospect for the Manassas city attorney is a juvenile law specialist. I think this choice couldn’t be more appropriate, since one member of the council of elders I have consulted said that the city was doing a pretty good job of running a tree house.

Oh, did I tell you the Manassas city auditor resigned this summer just as Audrey and I were pushing the city to adopt a budget for the first time in years? The replacement firm has drawn a tiny little box around their new responsibilities. I can’t blame them for that.

As for B. Jay, he has already moved on to greener pastures as the Reidsville city attorney. Last year, Reidsville suffered its own bout of public outrage over corruption, a groundswell which swept the current mayor into office in January. This new Reidsville mayor seems to have his heart in the right place, but he is fighting his own battles against entrenched interests. B. Jay’s new assignment as their city attorney has made us curious; we’ll be opening new folders on Reidsville and see what pops out of the mix over there.