Thursday, Feb. 2, 2023–12:45 p.m.

-David Crowder, WRGA News-

The Cave Spring City Council is moving forward with an effort to change to a city manager form of government.

During a called meeting Wednesday, the council asked City Attorney Frank Beacham to draft a new city charter, which will hopefully be ready for review during the council’s regularly scheduled work session on Tuesday. The goal is to submit a resolution to the local legislative delegation for a vote in the Georgia General Assembly by the end of the current session in late March.

If signed by the governor, the mayor’s job in Cave Spring will then go away. Still current mayor Rob Ware supports the change.

Under the plan, there would still be five council members, elected by the voters in Cave Spring. Each year, the council would select a chair. A city manager would be hired to handle the business of the city.

“Absolutely,” he said. “I’m 100% in favor of it. It’s just too big of a job to be part-time. It takes too much experience to run a city. The way of the world is so much different than it was 20 years ago.”

Ware has a background in city management, but council member Joyce Mink previously said that the next mayor, who might not have such a background, might not be able to handle the sewer project properly.

“You have to know what the national laws are, and the different state and national grants. It takes a lot of training and background in order to do that,” she added.

A city manager would also be able to steer clear of the politics of the city council and provide continuity of operations.

According to Ware, this is a good time to make the change because the mayor’s job is up for election this November.

“If it does not happen this year, you’d have to figure out how to transition from one form of government to another,” he said.