A political advocacy committee started by Cobb commissioner Jerica Richardson to fight against legislative maps that would draw her out of her seat is encouraging those who support her to speak out when commissioners meet on Tuesday.
The For Which It Stance group wants to “fill the room” and speak during public comment sessions as a home rule dispute continues to roil the five-woman board.
The notification was amplified on the Facebook page of the Cobb County Democratic Committee.
The Cobb County Republican Party has posted a similar notice on social media, urging its supporters to “show up and support our state constitution.”
On Jan. 10, Republican commissioners JoAnn Birrell and Keli Gambrill tried to abstain from voting, saying maps approved by the three Democrats on the board are unconstitutional under Georgia law.
They were told by Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid that they could not abstain without a valid conflict and eventually were removed from the dais, watching the rest of the meeting from the back of the room.
Whether that scenario may repeat itself Tuesday is uncertain. When asked by East Cobb News what she plans to do at the meeting, Birrell said only that “I will be making a statement next week.”
Birrell began her fourth term in January after being re-elected under new boundaries in District 3, which includes most of East Cobb.
Those maps were approved by the Georgia legislature after Cobb GOP lawmakers skirted the common courtesy of honoring local delegation maps.
The Cobb delegation had a one-member majority, and commission maps drawn by former chairman Erick Allen would contain most of Birrell’s former district, including some of Northeast Cobb, the Town Center area and city of Marietta.
That map, which Birrell opposed, was never voted on by the legislature, but it’s what the county has submitted to the state, and it’s the one the county attorney’s office is saying is currently valid.
Richardson was elected in 2020 in District 2, which has included some of East Cobb and the Cumberland-Vinings area.
She moved to a home off Post Oak Tritt Road last year, and under state law, would have had to move into the new District 2 to seek re-election next year.
That’s because the legislative maps drew District 2 to include Cumberland-Vinings, Marietta and most of the Kennesaw-Town Center area and took out East Cobb.
But Richardson isn’t budging, as the county is claiming home rule provisions that Republicans said do not apply when it comes to reapportionment.
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr this week agreed, saying the county maps are “not legally binding.”
But there’s not an active lawsuit to contest the county maps. East Cobb resident Larry Savage withdrew a suit in Cobb Superior Court and is planning refile it soon.
In the meantime, said Mindy Seger, the executive director of For Which It Stance, the option that would cause the least harm and disruption to is to honor the county maps and keep Richardson in office until the courts decide the matter.
She said Richardson’s fight is about the “representation of 200,000 people,” her District 2 constituency, who were the subject of an unprecedented action by the legislature—drawing out an incumbent elected official.
Savage’s initial lawsuit sought a preliminary injunction to uphold the state maps. That would trigger Richardson’s removal from office and a special election.
If that were to happen, and the county then won its home rule claim, Seger said, that would create even more chaos than what the Republicans are saying is happening now.
Seger, who was a leader of the anti-cityhood East Cobb Alliance, also encouraged Birrell and Gambrill to show up and vote—not abstain—and represent their constituents.
The commission meeting begins at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the second floor board room of the Cobb government building (100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta), and the full agenda can be found by clicking here.
There are two public comment periods, one at the beginning and the other near the end, with a maximum of six speakers each who are limited to speak for five minutes.
You also can watch on the county’s website and YouTube channels and on Cobb TV 23 on Comcast Cable.
Related:
- Ga. Attorney General: Cobb electoral maps are ‘not legally binding’
- Cobb Republican commissioners leave meeting over absentions
- East Cobb resident files lawsuit over Cobb commission maps
- Cobb passes home rule resolution over redistricting in party-line vote
Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
The relevant legislation requires at least one of the following grounds for calling a recall election:
-an act of malfeasance or misconduct while in office,
-violation of the oath of office,
-failure to perform duties prescribed by law, or
-willfully misusing, converting, or misappropriating, without authority, public property or public funds entrusted to or associated with the elective office to which the official has been elected or appointed.
Looks to me like a couple of commissioners want to get paid with our tax money and not do any work. Typical government employees.
Recall Keli Gambrill
If she won’t do her job replace her.
Let her serve out her term that we voted for. Redrawing maps to get rid of an opponent in middle of term is unamerican and those who support the move are traitors to our country and democracy. You don’t change the rules in the middle of the game.
Join the America First patriots against the marxicrat takeover of our government. The marxicrats in control of our government go to any lengths to ‘govern you’. If this were a marxicrat redrawing of state and county districts as it was in New York state, the marxists in control with their billions of dollars would be hauling the America First patriots to court. Think not?! Give the cobb marxicrats commissioners on our school board a chance if they become the majority, and your child will be changed without your knowledge. This article gives the opinion that this map is not legally binding. But, the marxicrats are good at doing what they blame America First of doing.
Support the American way by denying the marxists who have taken over this county and will bring down our property values with another of their ‘wins’. God Save America!
Attorney general: Cobb commission maps ‘not legally binding’
January 17, 2023 5:58 PM by Wendy Parker
Attorney general Cobb commission map
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr has said it’s his opinion that reapportionment maps passed by the Cobb Board of Commissioners drawing the boundaries for their own districts are “not legally binding.”
But he said his office cannot initiate a lawsuit under state law and would have to wait for a withdrawn lawsuit to be refiled on behalf of an East Cobb resident in order to take part.
Carr’s spokeswoman, Kara Richardson, sent out a brief statement Tuesday:
“It is the opinion of the Georgia Department of Law that the action taken by the Cobb Commission to pass an alternate map was inappropriate and not legally binding. As we have explained repeatedly to interested parties, Georgia law does not grant our Department the authority to initiate a lawsuit in the current situation. We will, however, not hesitate to engage when and where appropriate should a lawsuit be filed by the right party.”
Carr’s opinion is something that Republican commissioners JoAnn Birrell and Keli Gambrill have been seeking as the commission’s redistricting dispute has reached the courts.
East Cobb resident Larry Savage is a Republican former Cobb Commission Chairman candidate who filed a lawsuit in Cobb Superior Court to invalidate the county maps.
His suit was filed against Cobb Board of Elections director Janine Eveler and after a court hearing earlier this month his attorneys have said they will refile against the Cobb Board of Commissioners.
In October Birrell and Gambrill voted against maps approved by the commission’s three Democratic members that would keep one of them, Jerica Richardson of District 2 in East Cobb, in office.
Those maps were drawn by former State Rep. Erick Allen, then the Cobb legislative delegation chairman, but they were never voted on by the Georgia General Assembly.
Cobb GOP BOC redistricting map
Cobb commission maps passed by the Georgia legislature would include most of East Cobb in District 3 (gold).
The maps that were sponsored by Cobb GOP lawmakers and approved by the Republican-led legislature last year would have drawn Richardson out of her seat and into District 3, which would include most of East Cobb.
Richardson has two years remaining in her term and would have had to move into the new District 2 by Jan. 1 to remain in office.
But she said she would not step down or move, and she, chairwoman Lisa Cupid and commissioner Monique Sheffield vowed to challenge the GOP maps under Georgia’s home rule law.
Birrell and Gambrill have said Cobb’s maps are illegal, becuase the legislature is in charge of reapportionment, and opinions by the legislature’s Office of Legislative Counsel and the Georgia Secretary of State’s office reached the same conclusion.
In response to a request for comment from East Cobb News, Birrell said Tuesday that Carr’s “opinion just confirms the legislative counsel’s opinion and secretary of state’s opinion that the county map is illegal and unconstitutional. Leaves it up to the courts to decide.”
Cobb government spokesman Ross Cavitt said the county attorney’s office, which has said the county’s maps are in effect unless and until they are overturned in a court of law, isn’t commenting on Carr’s opinion.
Last week, the Republican commissioners tried to abstain from voting to protest the county maps and were ordered from the dais by Cupid.
Birrell, who was re-elected to a fourth term in November to represent District 3 with the boundaries approved by the legislature, said she’s “not comfortable” voting, not being sure which maps are valid.
Proposed Cobb commission redistricting map
Maps approved by the Cobb commission’s Democrats would keep Jerica Richardson of East Cobb in the District 2 (in pink) that she currently represents.
She was told by the deputy county attorney that the county maps are the ones she should abide by and that legal opinions are only opinions until a court ruling.
Last Friday, Cupid issued a statement from Cobb County Attorney William Rowling that “even if a person has a good faith belief that a law is unconstitutional or invalid in some way, he or she is not at liberty to simply disregard a law based on that personal belief. Instead, that law must be followed unless and until it is struck down by a court of law.”
Richardson has said the home rule challenge may be unprecedented, but so are the legislature’s maps, which skirted typical courtesies to honor local delegation lines.
She started a political advocacy committee to address the issue, For Which It Stance, incorporated by the Georgia Secretary of State’s office as a 501(c)4 domestic non-profit organization, and whose executive director, Mindy Seger, led the East Cobb Alliance, which fought against the now-defeated East Cobb cityhood referendum.
East Cobb News has left messages with Richardson and Seger seeking comment as well as Jason Thompson, an attorney for Savage.
Allen, who unsuccessfully ran for Georgia lieutenant governor last year, is the new chairman of the Cobb County Democratic Committee.
Carr is a Republican re-elected to a second term last November.
Well said and agreed!
Marxicrats. Go answer the phone. That America First Patriot George Santos (last check, representing part of New York)..err..Anthony…err…Kitara Ravache is calling.
You can make a point that might actually land if you avoided such inane language.
Politicians shouldn’t be drawing boundaries. 3rd parties, interested in fair representation, using the best computer programs available, should be handling these maps.
Whenever politicians are involved, they will always seek unfair advantage. They can’t help it.