The Georgia State Assembly is four months away from convening their 2010 general session. Along with the state’s budget woes, water dilemmas and transportation problems, one potential legislative action will be front and center on the minds of North Fulton residents: Milton County.

Speaker Pro-Tem Mark Burkhalter (R-Johns Creek) needs a two-thirds majority vote in both chambers to pass the necessary constitutional amendment to create the new county.

Last year, Burkhalter had the votes he needed in the Senate. But he was about a half dozen Democrat votes shy in the House, so he deftly pulled it from a floor vote at the final hour. No one doubts Burkhalter’s parliamentary skill or strategic floor tactics. He’s the General Patton of the State Assembly.

2010 is will be his best opportunity to get Milton County created. The stakes are high. Nothing can be left to chance. One vote could create it- or kill it.

There is no room for error.

That is why it is time for Milton City Councilwoman Tina D’Aversa to go. We advocate her defeat in the upcoming city of Milton municipal election on November 3.

This newspaper does not endorse candidates and has no opinion on her opponent, Joe Longoria. What we do know is this: he’s not D’Aversa. And that’s good enough for us.

The D’Aversa re-election campaign has now become the latest vaudevillian comedic tragedy in a long line of silly circus sideshows in the city of Milton’s brief three-year history. It’s a distraction her city doesn’t need at a time when Milton County opponents in the statehouse are searching for reasons to justify their opposition to the new county’s creation.

One of the best arguments for creating Milton County under the Gold Dome is that the new cities that have been created from unincorporated Fulton County –Sandy Springs, Johns Creek and Milton- have been running well. You can make that case for the first two- but the latter is a stretch.

The city of Milton’s early Mardi-Gras style shenanigans involving the hiring of psychiatrists, missing insurance filings and bogus endless ethics charges flying everywhere was explained away as mere “growing pains” by city officials. Fair enough, even though North Fulton’s other two newly created cities did not suffer from the same bacchanal.

To his credit, we believe Milton Mayor Joe Lockwood did an outstanding job in settling things down the last two years in his new city. He shepherded some key legislation through the city council that involved avoiding a potential high-profile lawsuit with Fulton County and he managed to pass some thoughtful ordinances. Lockwood finally quelled his city manager fiasco as he quietly and wryly built a stable governing coalition.

But now he is saddled with D’Aversa and her thoughtless city emails that are sure to be the subject of on-going ethics charges that will dog her campaign for the next month, and re-surface on November 4 should she manage to get herself re-elected. It’s another buffoonery-laden clown act the city doesn’t need.

D’Aversa’s problems - as they relate to further tainting the city’s already tarnished reputation for mis-management and impishness - are four-fold.

One. D’Aversa sent a bizarre series of emails from her city email account to her election opponent, Longoria, after he filed as a candidate to run for Milton City Council against her. Her emails clearly offered a quid-pro quo deal for him to withdraw from the race, so she could get re-elected without opposition. She did this by attempting to leverage the very office entrusted in her by the voters of Milton for no reason then her own political gain.

Two. She was not authorized, nor did she have the legislative power to actually execute any of the deals she promised. What if Longoria said yes, and took her deal? Then what? Another lawsuit for the city when he found out she couldn’t deliver what she promised after he withdrew his candidacy?  Every pathetic horse trade she offered up to Longoria was found to be bogus.

Three. She forgot the facts. D’Aversa changed her story every time this newspaper talked to her in a space of 24 hours. First, she didn’t know Longoria. Then she knew him. She said she never talked to him. Then she said she talked to him for two hours on several occasions. She said Longoria contacted her first. Then she stated she contacted Longoria first. First she said she offered up Highway 9 Board member Adam Orkin as her sacrificial lamb. No, it was Tom McMillan. Sorry, it was really Vic Jones. Oops, it was…you get the picture.

Four. D’Aversa has continued to demonstrate political arrogance of the worst kind, failing to acknowledge any wrongdoing or apologize for her actions. In a recent email to supporters she states:

“I never tried to bribe him nor did I act in an unprofessional or unethical manner. The entire situation was taken out of context when presented to the newspaper and the continuation of the discussion is politically motivated.”

Taken out of context? Her email is clear as can be. She wrote it. She sent it. Politically motivated? To what end? That’s nonsense, and D’Aversa knows it.

It’s time for Milton voters to help pave the way for the county of Milton. If a new city of 20,000 can’t professionally govern itself, how can a new county of 325,000 do it?

That is the very argument Atlanta statehouse Democrats will be making in February from the House Well when they need to hold on to just one more Democrat vote to keep Fulton County intact.

Don’t help them.