Craig Timmons

Introduction

Craig Timmons, mayor of Milner, Georgia — a town of fewer than 1,000 people about 45 miles southeast of Atlanta — is facing calls for an independent investigation into his conduct after the town’s entire five-person full-time police force, most of its reserve officers, its police chief and its city manager resigned in October 2026. Police Chief Lamar Bunn publicly accused Timmons of secretly placing a tracker, bought with personal funds and without the city council’s knowledge, on his vehicle, and of monitoring him through City Hall security cameras; asked directly whether he planted it, the mayor did not say no. No charge or formal finding has been made against Timmons, and the accusations remain one side of a local-government dispute — but the walkout they triggered leaves Milner without a police department of its own by the end of the month.

Background Information

Bunn brought deep local roots to the job: fifteen or sixteen years with the Lamar County Sheriff’s Office before leading Milner’s department, where his father had policed in 1974 — “I got roots here,” he told the council. City Manager Tausha Grose had given the city six years. The town’s government had been arguing over police overtime and a proposal to bar officers from using city vehicles for part-time work — a ban imposed in an executive session earlier in October that Bunn was barred from attending, which officers said hit them financially, though Grose insisted “I did not resign because of the part time work. There is no trust.”

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

No charges — a walkout in protest. The accusations against Mayor Craig Timmons — a secretly purchased tracker on the police chief’s vehicle and unexplained camera surveillance — are public allegations by the chief and other city officials, not findings by any court. Timmons has not been charged, has not resigned, and has offered only that he “had questions.” This page documents the mass resignation his own officials attribute to his conduct.

Bunn resigned on Friday, October 16. At the city council meeting the following Monday night, Grose announced that “our entire full-time police department has resigned, most of our part-time police” — and then filed her own resignation, telling the council, “It is with my extreme sorrow.” Bunn accused city hall of placing a tracker on his truck: “It was bought with personal funds and placed on my vehicle without the city council or my supervisor, city administrator, knowing it,” he said, adding, “We have cameras and trackers on us and no one authorized it; no one knew about it.” He also said he had been falsely accused of having an affair with the city manager, an accusation he denied. In his resignation letter, Bunn wrote that “recent actions and governance decisions within city leadership, specifically regarding legal compliance, ethical standards, and core values, have compromised my ability to perform my duties with integrity.” Police Captain Craig Walton went further, demanding “an independent investigation into the mayor’s conduct, including any potential violations of his oath of office or the rights of city employees.”

Timmons acknowledged the concerns at the meeting and said he hoped the situation could be resolved. But asked directly whether he put the tracker on Bunn’s vehicle, he would not comment: “I had questions. No one expected all this to happen. There are things that can’t be said. I would love to tell you but I can’t,” he said, and later declined comment through a city hall employee. A former city councilwoman, Tracey Alford, said the tracker was the mayor’s undoing: “It was his personal tracker. He didn’t go in front of the council and get approval.” Councilman Ryan Lewis suggested the tracking may have grown from “questions that were raised on how city vehicles were used,” and said it was his understanding that the Georgia Bureau of Investigation was looking into the tracker allegations — a probe the GBI itself had not confirmed in the fetched record.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The walkout made Milner a national story within a day, picked up from Atlanta local coverage by Fox News and the New York Post. In town, the reaction split: former council member Skip Seda said that without its police force “why would we continue to pay Milner taxes?” and threatened to push to unincorporate the town, while some residents shrugged that the Lamar County Sheriff’s Office, expected to serve in the department’s absence, could take tickets instead. Alford warned that a petition to dissolve the city charter had already been started the night of the meeting.

Current Status

The resignations are staged, not yet final: officers remain on duty through October 28, Grose works until October 30, and Bunn said his letter is “negotiable if city council members want to talk,” with both sides signaling room to withdraw them. Timmons remains mayor; no charge, no independent investigation, and no GBI confirmation appears in the record so far, and every allegation against him — the tracker, the cameras, the affair accusation — is unadjudicated. “I didn’t ask them to do it,” Bunn said of his officers’ departures. “I don’t know what needs to happen from here.”

Impact on Their Career/Life

Timmons presides over a town that, by November, may have no police department, no city manager, and a charter-dissolution petition circulating among its residents — a cascade his own police captain traces to the mayor’s conduct. Whatever the negotiations bring, the record now shows a chief who says surveillance gear was placed on him without authorization, a manager who resigned over a breakdown of trust, and a mayor who, asked if he did it, said only that he “had questions.”

Sources

• Fox News, “Milner, Georgia, police chief and full department resign over mayor,” Oct 22, 2026 — source
• WGXA (Macon), “Milner’s whole police force and its city manager resigns,” Oct 21, 2026 — source
• WDBJ7 / Atlanta News First, “Entire police department resigns; chief accuses mayor of placing tracker on his truck,” Oct 21, 2026 — source
• The Barnesville Herald-Gazette, “Milner city administrator, police chief and most of his force have resigned,” Oct 20, 2026 — source
• 11Alive (Atlanta), “The entire police department quits in Milner, Georgia,” Oct 20, 2026 — source