Small talk on issues of

various importance:

Now it can be told: Campaign-speak

decoded.

"Rezoning."

If a local candidate fails to mention the word "rezoning" during

the campaign, that means you will see a lot more successful rezonings

if that candidate is elected.

If a candidate mentions "rezoning,"

that means the candidate has incurred the wrath of developers and land

speculators already by voting against some rezonings. Then, that candidate's

best hope of getting elected (again) is to rally wary homeowners with

the cry of, "Your neighbor's vacant lot will be next!" or, "Remember

your property values!"

"Update the land use

plan." That's campaign code for increasing densities or for more

intense commercial use on multiple parcels ripe for development. Lurking

not far behind that statement is an antsy developer impatient to turn

the bulldozers loose. You can be sure maps designating the new uses have

already been prepared. Ditto for, "The land use plan is not written

in stone," or similar language.

"Cooperation among

cities and the county city version." That's city shorthand for,

"County, keep your nose out of the cities' business. If we want to

annex all the way to Newnan or Riverdale or Fairburn or Jonesboro, what's

your problem? And by the way, you're not spending enough tax money in

our jurisdictions. The exception is law enforcement. Keep your deputies

out of our borders because our chiefs don't want any other law agency

poaching their turf."

"Cooperation among

cities and the county county version." That's county shorthand

for, "Cities, you wanted to run your show, and you've got this municipal

charter to prove that you don't answer to anybody. So pave your own roads

without our help. And keep sending those county taxes our way so we can

pay for departments like the county building inspection department whose

employees never set foot inside a city work site."

"Character assassination."

Oftentimes factual information about a candidate that is embarrassing

to the candidate.

"Propaganda and lies."

What a candidate's opponent says.

"The truth."

What the candidate says.

City and county personalities:

Some big wood slipped to the

forest floor in Fayette last week. Friday brought word of two resignations.

The last vestiges of the law firm of Webb, Lindsey, etc. was the first.

Longtime Peachtree City Attorney Richard Lindsey resigned Thursday night

in executive session. How fitting. The reign ends, not with a bang, but

with a closed-door resignation.

The last shoe drop followed

a special counsel's damning report of at best sloppy staff work, and at

worst a conspiracy of silence. That report is available in its entirety

on our web site, www.TheCitizenNews.com. It is fascinating reading from

a disinterested and neutral observer.

And the other was Kenny Melear,

barbecue proprietor extraordinaire and Fayette political fixture for at

least three decades. Melear resigned from his chief magistrate's position

after being accused of using racial slurs during the course of his official

duties.

I never much cared for his

barbecue too dry and tasteless but I appreciated him as a vanishing Southern

character. I'm a Deep South product myself and I know many will not miss

him, may even cheer his departure, but I think the local political scene

will be much less colorful when he's gone.

He once threw one of The Citizen's

newspaper boxes off the restaurant's front stoop and banned us from time

to time from his establishment when stories not to his liking appeared

in print. But he's one of a kind. I know it's irrational, but I'll miss

him.