Hours after a stinging referendum defeat Tuesday, the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood took down its chief online vehicles for communicating with the public.
The cityhood’s Facebook page no longer exists, and its website includes only a link to Tuesday’s results and an MDJ story about Cobb commissioners favoring a 30-year transportation tax.
A YouTube page that the cityhood group managed featuring video interviews, including some we noted in a previous post, also is gone.
The referendum was defeated in landslide fashion Tuesday, with 73 percent of voters rejecting the creation of a City of East Cobb.
UPDATE: The website homepage has been restored, but information tabs that included Cityhood analysis of proposed services and biographies of group leaders is gone.
“Thank you for your support, we continued to be committed to East Cobb and protecting our neighborhoods,” said the homepage message, which links to the cityhood legislation and feasibility study as well as the proposed city map.
Here’s what’s been cached on the Wayback Machine.
All three Cobb referendums on the ballot failed, with voters in Lost Mountain spurning cityhood with 58 percent of the vote and Vinings voters turning it down with 55 percent of the vote.
A cityhood referendum in November will take place in Mableton.
In commenting on the referendum results, East Cobb Cityhood group spokeswoman Cindy Cooperman told East Cobb News on Wednesday that the group “has worked hard for the citizens’ right to vote for a city and as advocates for the proposed city. Although the county and opposition didn’t want citizens to vote, the community had their voices heard.
“Make no mistake; the facts have not changed. East Cobb will be under increasing growth and tax pressure from Cobb County to urbanize our community. Our polling told a different story from the results last night. Cobb’s policy direction explains why the county worked so hard to stop the cityhood effort(s).”
Cobb government officials held several town hall meetings over the last two months about the cityhood referendums and the county launched a cityhood web portal with what it said was objective information in response to requests from the public.
The Cityhood group heatedly objected, and tried to keep the focus on development and density issues.
Ppponents and Cobb leaders tried to cast doubt on a city’s ability to provide proposed police, fire and emergency 911 services.
Last week, as the campaign reached its final days, some Cobb public safety department heads took part in a Zoom call conducted by the East Cobb Alliance, the main opposition group to cityhood.
Those opposed to cityhood took note of the Cityhood group’s web disappearance.
In the East Cobbers Against High Density Development group on Facebook, commenters chimed in with glee.
“If I knew how fast they’d scrub everything I would have set up my own website to preserve this train wreck of a campaign,” wrote one.
“Hopefully they got the message that East Cobb does not need to be a city,” said another.
Readers on the East Cobb Alliance Facebook page expressed similar sentiments, and thanked the group’s organizers.
The only precinct in which YES votes prevailed—Sope Creek 3—includes the Atlanta Country Club where some Cityhood group leaders live.
“I predict they drill it down to just Atlanta Country Club and Paper Mill Rd—THAT will be their East Cobb,” quipped one commenter.
“They can have it,” responded another.
Related:
- East Cobb Cityhood referendum defeated in landslide
- As East Cobb Cityhood vote nears, recent votes have sputtered
- East Cobb News Cityhood information page
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There should be a thorough investigation of the East Cobb City Committee. It should include Matt Dollar who was entrusted to represent East Cobb as our District 45 representative. We know that Owen Brown, a 3rd party developer who lives in Florida funded the feasibility study prepared by GSU which was totally biased and untruthful. We saw copies of two $18,000 checks Mr. Brown wrote to pay $36,000 for the study. We know that ECC used Brown’s office in East Cobb on Johnson Ferry Road as their headquarters for the Cityhood proposal. We know that Mr. Dollar immediately resigned from his elected position after his ECC referendum was approved leaving us with no representation. We also know that the ECC failed to disclose donation information that they were required to produce before the election. Based on these events it appears that something questionable was going on here. Something needs to be done to prevent this factless Cityhood proposal, to potentially ever getting approved and voted on again to disrupt the lives of 60,000 people who have chosen to live in unincorporated East Cobb County.
If I were part of the city hood team I would not want the evidence to be left around either. Most people are repulsed at how they ran their campaign and the lies and racial undertones of their case. Now all we hear are sour grapes and excuses why they lost.
As it should be!! Now if we can get rid of that racist crook Lisa Cupid, Cobb County might just stand a chance!!!
Here’s an archived version of their website, from 5/18.
http://web.archive.org/web/20220421092242/https://www.eastcobbga.com/highlights_of_the_hb_841?splash=1
Actually, that page doesn’t go to any other page…however, I found this page, which will be VERY useful when one of these yahoos decides to run for any political office in the future, and East Cobb voters can find them on this list (when they deny they were a part of this sham cityhood effort):
https://web.archive.org/web/20220514060931/https://www.eastcobbga.com/about
Yes, and just like socialism, once voted in, it could never be voted out. I don’t think this is the last rodeo for these guys. Wait 2 years, wait for Cobb demographics to continue change and they’ll propose it again. And again. I predict one day, be it 10+ years from now, EC will be a city.
Just like the IRA told Margaret Thatcher when one of their assassination bombings failed to hit her, “We only have to be lucky once. You have to be lucky every time.” The City folks were merely unlucky this time.
And my hat is off to Bill Simon, Mindy and the team. Great job to all!
You need to add Bob Lax to that list who spent a great amount of time and effort putting together detailed analyses to point out the untruths in the ECC Feasibility Study.
The ECC Committee may be trying to erase any evidence that they’re a ballot committee and as such, are required to file a Campaign Contribution Disclosure Report with Georgia.
Of the 7 groups supporting or opposing the 3 cityhood referendums on May 24th — East Cobb City, Lost Mountain, and Vinings — the ECC Committee is the only one who hasn’t filed this report.
The deadline was May 9th.
According to Robert Lane, General Counsel for the GA Government Transparency & Campaign Finance Commission:
“The key test is whether this group is advocating for or against a ballot question and has expended more than $500 towards that effort.
If the answers to both of those questions are yes, then a group would have registration and filing requirements with the state.”
A complaint has been filed with the Commission.
+1 Bill Simon. Well said.
Now the question I’d love to hear an answer to. You know this won’t be the end of the story. How long before someone resurrects this very bad idea, convinces a bunch of representatives to support it, and sticks it back in front of East Cobb voters?
What’s the point in leaving it up past the election? There’s no story here.
I don’t see Vinings Cityhood folks race to tear theirs down:
https://viningscityhood.com/
The EC cityhood folks took it down because they think they can vanish in the night and no one will ever remember them.
Internet Archive says differently. 🙂
The fact that they haven’t taken the Vinings page down yet doesn’t mean anything. There is no reason to leave it up.
Sure there is, Jeff…after all, IF they are correct in their message that “East Cobb is going to have high density crammed into it and become urbanized in the near future,” they should be broadcasting that message and be able to say, “See, we were right!”
But, alas, when your whole campaign is based on a bullsht premise, because the main folks financing it, Owen Brown and Retail Planning Corp., their REAL purpose is to make East Cobb their own city-fiefdom where THEY get sweetheart redevelopment deals crammed thru a city council they intend to own, well, what else can you do but attempt to remove all your lies from the web?
BTW, almost final numbers as of 5/26/2022:
YES 5,900
NO 16,290
YES: 27%
NO: 73%
Sure there’s a reason to leave it up….if they were right in their predictions about East Cobb, they should leave it up so they can demonstrate they were right. 🙂
Maybe leave it up long enough to publicly thank their supporters and the people who donated time and money to their cause? But they didn’t do that.
“Our polling told a different story from the results last night.”
Maybe your sampling should have been from a more homogeneous segment of the population. Try expanding beyond Chattahoochee Plantation, Atlanta Country Club, and Ponte Vedra, Florida.
Also, your polling sucked, your campaign management sucked, your messaging sucked, your multiple sign designs sucked, your legal counsel sucked, and your leaders sucked.
Dishonesty is not a winning strategy.
Well said Bill. Their entire campaign and their entire team was a joke and a circus. Just like their first time around in 2019. Pro city hood folks feel free to breakaway and create your City of Southeast East Cobb aka Atlanta Country Club.