Fort Mountain State Park, Chatsworth. Photo: Georgia Department of Natural Resources
Submitted information:
Autumn’s color changes are rolling through northern Georgia over the next few weeks. You can see the leaves using the Park Pass Kit offered at Cobb libraries.
The kits are provided through the partnership of Georgia Department of Natural Resources and Georgia Public Library Service.
Place a hold for a pass for free parking to more than 60 State Parks and a pass for free admission for up to 2 visitors to any Georgia Natural Resources Site.
Be sure to check availability in the CCPL catalog under “Park Pass” or by calling your Cobb library.
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The latest site plan by North Point Ministries changes the residential mix and reinstates Waterfront Drive access to nearby neighborhoods. For a larger view click here.
As happened in September, North Point Ministries has filed yet another site plan and stipulation letter for its rezoning request for a church/residential/retail complex that goes before the Cobb Board of Commissioners Tuesday.
Pulte Homes has done the same with a subdivision proposal on Ebenezer Road that’s also been delayed multiple times.
In a 21-page letter sent to the Cobb Zoning Office on Wednesday, North Point attorney Kevin Moore announced new totals for the controversial residential portion of the proposed development at Johnson Ferry and Shallowford roads, and reintroduced access to nearby neighborhoods via Waterfront Drive that had been removed last month.
In his letter (you can read it here), Moore said the new proposal calls for 63 townhomes and 49 single-family detached homes. At the September commissioners’ hearing (our story here), those figures were 44 and 51 respectively.
The request has switched back to seeking RA-6 rezoning for the residential units after being at RA-5 last month, and a corresponding increase in density, from 4.98 units an acre to 5.37.
The Waterfront Drive access from Johnson Ferry will also connect with the adjacent Waterfront neighborhood, which had been another major point of contention at the September hearing.
Commissioners voted to hold the case due to density and traffic complaints made by nearby residents, as well as the East Cobb Civic Association.
The changes aren’t likely to change the minds of opponents, who’ve said the mixed-use development is too intense for the area.
There are also stormwater issues that would remain uncertain should the application be approved. A federal floodplain study would be done after that, which could affect the number of residential units.
Also complicating the matter is Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid’s recusal from the case, citing a family member who attends another North Point Church, and leaving the decision to her four colleagues.
In the Ebenezer Road case, Pulte Home is keeping its request for 92 homes on nearly 50 acres, but has added a viewshed protection plan to address concerns from nearby residents of major stormwater runoff.
As happened in September, the commissioners will hear Tuesday’s cases in two separate sessions.
The North Point case will be the first after the consent agenda (summary here; more details here) in the morning session, which starts at 9 a.m.
The Pulte case will lead off the afternoon session, with an unspecified starting time.
The full agenda can be found here; the zoning hearing will take place in the second floor board room of the Cobb government building (100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta).
COVID-19 protocols are being followed, including mandatory masks and a limit on in-person attendance due to social-distancing.
The hearing also will be live-streamed on the county’s website, cable TV channel (Channel 24 on Comcast) and Youtube page. Visit cobbcounty.org/CobbTV for other streaming options.
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A federal judge has sided with the Cobb County School District in denying a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction sought by parents who’ve filed a lawsuit over the district’s COVID-19 policies.
They’ve alleged their medically fragile students are being denied a proper in-person education under the federal Americans With Disabilities Act because of what they claim are the district’s lacking safety protocols, including a masks-optional policy.
After a hearing Friday morning, Chief Judge Timothy Batten of the U.S. District Court for Northern Georgia in Atlanta said the plaintiffs haven’t proven differing treatment because those policies apply to all students.
“Plaintiffs essentially ask this Court to second-guess Defendants’ operational decision making and wrest from Defendants’ control the authority to decide how to best protect students’ health,” Batten wrote in his order denying them immediate relief. “The Court finds that Defendants have made an informed choice that is neither arbitrary nor unreasonable, and declines Plaintiffs’ invitation to usurp this function of the executive branch.”
Batten is essentially making the same argument the district claimed earlier this week in its response to the lawsuit (our story from Thursday), which names Superintendent Chris Ragsdale and the seven members of the Cobb Board of Education as defendants.
Batten continued by saying that “plaintiffs—like all students in Cobb County—were given the option to attend virtual school in lieu of in-person classes. Plaintiffs’ attempt to allege disparate treatment by a facially neutral policy that applies to disabled and non-disabled students alike, and their argument falls well short of the high bar required for injunctive relief.”
That’s the recommendation of Cobb and Douglas Public Health, which filed a declaration on behalf of the plaintiffs.
But in his order, Batten didn’t weigh in on those matters.
“While Plaintiffs may prefer a mask mandate and other stricter policies, Defendants are not required to provide Plaintiffs with their preferred accommodation,” the judge wrote. “So long as Plaintiffs are offered meaningful access to education—and the Court finds that they have been—Defendants have adequately accommodated Plaintiffs and their disabilities and thus, Plaintiffs cannot show a substantial likelihood of success on the merits.”
He concluded by saying that “because Plaintiffs cannot show a substantial likelihood of success of their disability discrimination claim, the Court need not consider the alleged irreparable injury from which they suffer, nor need it balance the equities or consider the public’s interest.”
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From Thomas Brooks at the Cobb County Public Library comes this notice that starting Saturday and continuing weekdays through Oct. 28, businesses affected by recent flooding can consult with U.S. Small Business Association representatives for disaster loan consultations at the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center (2051 Lower Roswell Road).
The temporary outreach center there will be open from 10-2 Saturday, then from 10-6 Monday-Friday for the next two weeks, ending on Oct. 28.
Here’s what Cobb County government sent out Thursday about how the program will work:
The US Small Business Administration issued a Disaster Declaration for Cobb County today that will provide assistance to those impacted by flooding caused by heavy rains last month. Parts of the county were hit by more than five inches of rain in a short period of time, causing flood damage to homes, businesses, and apartments in areas that have rarely been impacted by flooding.
The declaration comes after federal, state, and local disaster teams toured the area last month. More than 250 reports of building damage were submitted to Cobb Emergency Management teams in the days following the early September deluge.
“Many who reported flood damage had never experienced such a disaster before,” said Cobb Emergency Management Director Cassie Mazloom. “After our survey teams found the impacted area was much larger than expected, we ramped up an online reporting tool that allowed residents to report building damage. We hope this declaration will allow many of these victims to get assistance to complete repairs.”
The declaration means those affected can apply for physical damage SBA loans as well as the Economic Injury Disaster Loans for small businesses. SBA officials will open a Disaster Loan Outreach Center starting this Saturday at the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center at 2051 Lower Roswell Road, Marietta. Representatives will be on hand from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. this Saturday, then from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. The center will be open through October 28.
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Cobb County Board of Commissioners Chairwoman Lisa Cupid signed a second extension of the county’s Declaration of Emergency today [Oct. 14] concerning the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The extension will allow upcoming public meetings to be held virtually, keep the county’s emergency operations plan in place, and continues to encourage residents to get vaccinated and take precautions in public. The second extension runs through November 16.
“Even though we’ve heard positive news from our public health partners on the downward trend of this latest surge in COVID cases, the county’s case rate remains more than three times what is considered ‘high community transmission,’” Chairwoman Cupid said. “Keeping this order in place will allow us to remain proactive and hopefully help end this latest surge.”
The extension also cites the “severe overcrowding” condition at Kennestone Hospital caused by coronavirus cases and continues the terms of prior declarations.
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If you travel on Sewell Mill Road in the mid-afternoon, be advised that for about an hour or so Friday a portion of it will be used for the Walton High School homecoming parade.
The parade route will be on Sewell Mill between Old Canton Road to Bill Murdock Road from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. The homecoming procession starts at Temple Kol Emeth (Sewell Mill at Old Canton), then heads eastbound to Bill Murdock and south to the Walton campus.
After those festivities conclude, a big crowd is expected at Raider Valley, and not just because it’s homecoming. The football game will feature a Class 7A Top 10 showdown between the No. 6 Raiders (4-1) and the No. 3 North Cobb Warriors (5-1).
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John Floresta, Cobb County School District Chief Accountability and Strategy Officer
The Cobb County School District is asking the federal courts to reject a lawsuit filed against it by parents of medically fragile students.
The district’s response, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for Northern Georgia, accuses the plaintiffs of inviting the legal system “to weigh in on matters of local politics by second-guessing the wisdom of CCSD’s COVID-19 mask policy.”
The plaintiffs also are seeking a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to impose a mask mandate, and a hearing will take place on that matter Friday morning.
The four parents have asserted in their lawsuit that their children are not able to get an appropriate in-person education due to the district’s masks-optional policy, which Superintendent Chris Ragsdale vigorously defended in September.
They are suing under provisions of the federal Americans With Disabilities Act.
“Though reasonable minds might disagree over whether schools should mandate masks, school districts have exclusive domain over these operational decisions. CCSD has made its safety decisions based on verified public health data, scientific guidance, and consideration of the needs of all students. It has chosen what it believes is right for Cobb County. Plaintiffs’ request for a TRO and preliminary injunction is just the latest attempt by one side of the political debate to usurp a school district’s operational autonomy over COVID-19 policy.”
Furthermore, the district said it has “reasonably accommodated” the disabilities of the affected students with “its numerous other pandemic safety measures, robust virtual offerings and individualized supports.”
The response also claims that the plaintiffs cannot show “irreparable harm because they are simply complaining about not receiving their preferred educational services—not a deprivation of access to education altogether.”
In a separate declaration, John Floresta, the district’s Chief Accountability and Strategy Officer, stressed that “the District’s position is not ‘anti-mask.’ The District strongly recommends wearing a mask. The District simply leaves the final decision on whether to wear one to the individual.”
In its reply to the district’s response, the plaintiffs contend (you can read it here) that “while the District claims that it has relied on verified public health data and scientific guidance to inform its recent decisions, it only cites a widely discredited pseudoscientist, whose opinions have been denounced by the public health and medical community.”
That’s a reference to Jay Bhattacharya, a former professor at the Stanford University medical school who currently teaches health policy there, and who is a high-profile skeptic of some COVID-19 mitigation, including masking school children.
In his declaration for the Cobb school district (you can read it here), he provided a copy of his recent report, “Scientific Evidence on COVID, Children and Mask Mandates” that concludes by saying “there is no scientific or medical reason to require masking school children.”
Cobb is one of the few school districts in metro Atlanta that does not have a mask mandate, something it had last year. Marietta City Schools announced Thursday that it was returning to a masks-optional policy, after requiring them in recent weeks.
The Cobb plaintiffs, who are being represented by two local attorneys and the Southern Poverty Law Center, have assembled documents from local and nationally known public health figures as well.
They include Dr. Janet Memark, director of Cobb and Douglas Public Health, who has urged schools to follow current U.S. Centers for Disease Control guidance for universal masking in schools.
She reiterated that guidance in her declaration, saying that “CDPH has consistently advised the Cobb County School District that the use of masks is one of the primary intervention strategies to help control the spread of COVID-19. This remains CPDH’s recommendation today.”
The Cobb school district maintains in its response that it “has developed robust COVID-19 response and intervention strategies based on guidance from public health agencies.”
The district also claims in its response that “Cobb County school-aged children had lower rates of infection than two of its mask-mandated neighboring counties during the September peak, and it often had the same or lower rates of infection than the five neighboring mask-mandated counties since the start of the 2021-2022 school year.”
The plaintiffs’ attorneys included a recent e-mail by Cobb school board member David Banks sent to his East Cobb constituents urging people not to get the COVID-19 vaccine, with a message saying that the government is “intentionally killing its citizens.”
The Cobb school district was sued in April by parents opposed to the district’s mask mandate at the time.
The suit was dropped when Superintendent Chris Ragsdale announced in May that there would be a masks-optional policy for the 2021-22 school year.
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Cobb school board member Jaha Howard tried to amend the resolution to include a provision to change the names of schools named after Confederate figures, a reference to Wheeler High School.
The Cobb Board of Education’s Republican majority approved what’s been titled an “Antisemitism and Racism” resolution Thursday despite efforts by their Democratic colleagues to delay the matter.
By a party line 4-2 vote, the board’s GOP members adopted a resolution during a Thursday afternoon work session that chairman Randy Scamihorn said would be forthcoming in September, following the discovery of swastika graffiti at Pope and Lassiter high schools.
The district has said it has brought disciplinary charges against the students involved, but has not elaborated. That didn’t satisfy some local Jewish leaders who wanted a stronger response that specifically mentioned antisemitism.
The resolution states in part that:
“These acts demonstrate that antisemitism, antiracism and other forms of hate still exist in our communities and must be addressed requiring our full commitment to actively work and continue to build an inclusive school district built on trust and respect for all.”
The resolution was added late to the board’s agenda, and a copy was not made available in advance of the meeting.
East Cobb News received a photo copy of the resolution from the district shortly after the work session (see below).
Democratic board member Tre’ Hutchins of South Cobb tried to get the vote on the resolution delayed to November, saying that as a board member, “I prefer that we get it right the first time.
“I don’t feel like were in that place. . . . I want us to have more time to digest what has been presented to us, and make sure we get it right as a board.”
But his motion to table failed 2-4 (along the same party lines), as did a proposed amendment by Jaha Howard, also a Democrat on the school board.
He wanted the resolution to include provisions to change the names of schools named after military figures in the Confederacy—a reference to Wheeler High School—to names “that reflect the goal of inclusion.”
Howard also said that the board received the resolution only on Monday night, and that “we haven’t had time to digest it.”
His motion also failed by the same 2-4 vote. Democrat Charisse Davis, whose Post 6 includes the Wheeler and Walton clusters, was absent from the work session.
Both Howard and Hutchins said they thought the resolution would be solely regarding antisemitism.
“We are getting ready to vote on something that we have not read, that does not just include antisemitism,” Hutchins said.
Scamihorn said of the resolution that “the community helped put this together” and that it was not driven by the chairman.
A Republican from Post 1 in North Cobb, Scamihorn attended a Yom Kippur service at Temple Kol Emeth in East Cobb in the wake of the Pope and Lassiter incidents, and was asked to hold the Torah at that service, during the holiest day on the Jewish calendar.
But the reaction to the resolution was not embraced by some in the Jewish community. The Southeast Division of the Anti-Defamation League in Atlanta issued the following statement Thursday night:
“The Cobb County Schools Board of Education’s resolution in response to recent antisemitic incidents is a good first step, but unless followed by specific actions, it’s an empty gesture. Hate in all forms must be responded to with action and education, not empty value statements.
“Adding the resolution to the agenda just before today’s Board of Education work session prevented members of the Cobb County community from making their voices heard and other board members from reviewing it thoroughly.
“We can’t support this as an adequate response without a commitment to a specific plan to use education to combat antisemitism and prevent future acts of hate in Cobb County Schools. We look forward to seeing the county’s action plan.”
At the Thursday night school board voting meeting, the board heard similar complaints. Some urged the Cobb school district to reintroduce the ADL’s No Place For Hate educational program, which was eliminated earlier this year.
Herschel Greenblatt, a 100-year-old Holocaust survivor who was recognized by the school board last month, was among them.
In his remarks, he told board members “I hope you go beyond words and take action,” saying the anti-Semitic graffiti in Cobb schools “should never, ever happen again.
Advocates for changing the name of Wheeler High School have complained that their attempts to communicate with school board members have been ignored for months.
The issue has not been included on any school board agenda since first coming up in 2020.
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For the first time, U.S. News and World Report is ranking schools below the high school level in its annual listings.
The first K-8 listings, which were released earlier this week, include three middle schools in East Cobb that are ranked near the top in the state of Georgia.
Dickerson, Dodgen and Hightower Trail come in at 5-7 in the state middle school rankings—you can read them here.
Other middle schools in the East Cobb area are Simpson at 25, Mabry at 34, Daniell at 120, McCleskey at 151 and East Cobb at 261.
There are no East Cobb elementary schools in the Top 10 in Georgia, but Murdock ES comes in at 12, Timber Ridge is at 17 and Mountain View is at 20—you can read the list here, and Sope Creek, Tritt and Mt. Bethel ES are in the 30s.
The database also includes preschools, but they’re not ranked (an example of what’s contained for each school is included here, of Bells Ferry ES).
U.S. News isn’t doing national rankings at the elementary school and middle school levels, unlike high schools. Currently, Walton is ranked No. 4 in Georgia and No. 197 nationally, the highest in the Cobb County School District.
Lassiter is 10/336, Pope is 20/369, Wheeler is 45/1,935, Kell is 74/3,187 and Sprayberry is 89/3,692.
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The following East Cobb food scores for the week of Oct. 11 have been compiled by the Cobb & Douglas Department of Public Health. Click the link under each listing for inspection details:
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 Cobb Chamber will host Atlanta Braves Manager Brian Snitker at its November Marquee Monday luncheon, presented by Superior Plumbing, on November 8, 2021 at the Coca-Cola Roxy Theatre.
Snitker has been in the Braves organization in different roles since joining the minor league as a player in 1977 and became the manager in 2016. Named the 2018 National League Manager of the Year by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, he became the sixth Braves manager to take the team to the postseason by his second full season. At the luncheon, Snitker will sit down to discuss his personal and professional journey.
In addition to the keynote presentation, the program includes a celebration of the county’s top educators with a presentation of a one-year car lease from Voyles Automotive Group to the Cobb County and Marietta City School’s District Teachers of the Year.
Registration is now open through November 3 for the November Marquee Monday. Tickets are $35 for Cobb Chamber members and $40 for non-members. Attendees may register for the event at https://bit.ly/3BAuXRP. Doors open at 11 a.m. and the program begins promptly at 11:45 a.m. Parking is available at The Battery Red Deck for free up to three hours. For further parking options, please refer to the Battery Atlanta Parking Guide. A security screening will be required at check-in.
The Marquee Monday Series is presented by Superior Plumbing. The November Marquee Monday is sponsored by Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Nothing Bundt Cakes, Coca-Cola Roxy & Live Nation Special Events, Delaware North, Next Page Live Event Services, and Peachtree Tents and Events.
For more information about the Marquee Monday event series, contact Jani Dix at jdix@cobbchamber.org or 770-859-2335.
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!
Several of those citizens addressed Cobb commissioners Tuesday to describe what had happened to their properties, and what they said was a lacking response by the county.
One of them was Denise Canteli of Terrell Mill States in East Cobb, who showed photos of flooding caused by a collapsed storm drain, to Pebble Hill Drive where she lives, and in her yard.
She said that when she called the county’s stormwater office, “they said it’s our responsibility,” and she never heard back. “This is an unacceptable answer.”
Canteli said the aging stormwater infrastructure that’s in her community—and she noted plenty of new development nearby in the Powers Ferry and Terrell Mill corridor—”doesn’t meet 2021 demands.”
She fought back tears when she said that “I refuse to be a retention pond for Cobb County.”
Her remarks came during a public comment period, when commissioners don’t directly address citizens. But chairwoman Lisa Cupid asked Cobb Emergency Management to confer with Canteli when her speaking time was over.
Some citizens have created a group called the September 7 Storm Damage Advocacy group. East Cobb resident Hill Wright is one of them, and accused the county of having “reactive, not proactive leadership when disasters happen.
“What we see is a bureaucracy that is broken and lacks compassion,” he told commissioners.
On Wednesday, the group sent out a reminder that District 2 Commissioner Jerica Richardson is holding a virtual town hall Thursday at 5:30 p.m.
Richardson announced the town hall during her comments near the end of the meeting but didn’t reference the complaints of the public commenters.
From the September 7 group statement Wednesday—and they’re asking citizens who have lingering storm damage to report it:
The advocacy group is anxious to hear how the county will close the “clear gaps” in storm management and the gaps in aid for the people who are devastated and facing ruin. The group plans to address Cobb’s lack of “as built” records of shared community storm drainage assets, which the county is using to deny responsibility for the failure of these assets along with the lack of maintenance for these assets.
As Adam Stewart, member of the advocacy group, said, “The power company comes and cuts the trees near the lines before the storm because they know the rate payers can’t do it and they know if they don’t, that the lines will be damaged when the storm comes. Storm drainage should be the same way!”
If you have storm damage as a result of the Sept. 7 torrential downpour, go to www.SaveEastCobb.com and click on the storm damage button at the top.
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!
If you want an absolutely different experience for you or your family, then join us Oct. 17th for an afternoon filled with 30+ interactive vendors, engaging activities and 2 educational programs. This is unlike any other expo you’ve experienced before! Enjoy a chair massage and keep hydrated with a bottled water provided by Brickmont Assisted Living. After playing cornhole and checking out all the vendors, instead of going out to dinner, treat yourself or your family to dinner at Maui Wowie Hot Chicken Food Truck and King of Pops while listening to some live music by Saints and Sinners!
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!
Submitted information and flyer from the Cobb Animal Services Department:
Cobb County Animal Services will host an Adopt-a-thon on-site at 1060 Al Bishop Drive on October 21, 22, & 23 from 11:00 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day. The Animal Services trailer will feature pets available for free! Free adoptions for featured pets AND no appointment is necessary.
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!
A construction bid for a new gymnasium and the renovation of an existing career training center at Sprayberry High School will be presented to the Cobb Board of Education Thursday.
The board also will be asked to consider a construction bid for a new physical education building at Sope Creek Elementary School and the purchase of 12 air-conditioned school buses.
Those measures will be introduced at a work session that starts at 1:30 p.m. and be presented for voting action at a business meeting at 7 p.m.
Both meetings will take place at the Cobb County School District central office (514 Glover St., Marietta), and you can read through the agendas by clicking here.
An executive session will take place between the two public meetings.
The joint Sprayberry projects total nearly $23 million in current Cobb Education SPLOST V funds. The Cobb County School District is recommending the bid go to Balfour Beatty Construction of Atlanta, with completion anticipated by March 2023.
Those projects have been on the wish list of those in the Sprayberry area for some time. Advocates for a rebuild of the school’s main classroom building are holding an open house Oct. 19 that also will include more details on the gym/CTAE projects.
The rebuild is included in the project list for a proposed SPLOST VI collection period that’s on the November ballot (early voting started Tuesday; see above link for details). If approved by voters, that extension of the one-percent sales tax for school construction, maintenance and technology projects would take place from 2024-29.
SPLOST IV funds have been earmarked for a replacement for the physical education building at Sope Creek Elementary. The district is recommending a bid of $2.8 million by Swofford Construction Inc. of Austell, with completion tentatively set for June 2022.
The district is also asking for $512,000 in SPLOST V funds to help purchase 12 new school buses from Yancey Bus Sales and Service. The total cost is $1.4 million, with $926,640 coming in state school bus bond funds.
At the school board work session, there will be presentations by Superintendent Chris Ragsdale and his staff on mathematics curriculum, hiring and compensation issues, a monthly financial status and a general fund report as of June 30, the end of fiscal year 2021.
There are no board business items included on the current agenda for the work session.
At the evening meeting, the board will hold recognitions for National School Bus Safety Week and the disrict’s Bus Driver Appreciation Week.
At both meetings there will be public comment sessions. Individuals must sign up online in advance at this link, which will be activated at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
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Cobb commission chairwoman Lisa Cupid fired back in response to citizen comments that she’s preventing them from expressing their First Amendment rights at public meetings.
After a public comment session at Tuesday’s Board of Commissioners meeting, Cupid cited long-standing policy giving the county chair the prerogative to impose standards of civility.
“I will continue to preserve order and decorum,” Cupid said in reading prepared remarks from a laptop computer at her side.
Her comments followed two public speakers who’ve been highly critical of her in recent weeks, and after she had ordered a citizen in attendance to be removed from the board’s meeting room for heckling.
East Cobb resident Christine Rozman
One of the previous speakers, Christine Rozman of East Cobb, returned to read the text of a letter she wrote to Cupid last week.
In September, Rozman spoke out against an agenda item for the county to hire a contractor to develop a Unified Development Code, a comprehensive planning process that some critics fear may limit or eliminate single-family zoning.
Rozman referenced the government of China and United Nations 21/2030 Agenda (a sustainable development document) in denouncing the UDC, which is in place in DeKalb County as well as the cities of Atlanta and Roswell.
Cupid later told the MDJwithout referencing anyone by name that she was “somewhat offended by some of the comments” that she said were “disparaging innuendo with respect to race, national geography and origin” and that she said didn’t reflect the board.
On Tuesday, Rozman repeated concerns about UDC, then cited New York Times v. Sullivan, a landmark free speech ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1964, that said that public debate on issues “may include vehement, caustic and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials.”
She said public speakers are also subject to First Amendment guarantees of free speech, “whether or not the presentation and style of said comments appeal to the preferred presentation style of the Cobb County Board of Commissioners.”
Rozman’s letter concludes with a comment she included from an unnamed attorney who told her the following:
“The message from Ms. Cupid is that anyone who speaks out against the BOC is motivated solely by racism and whatever national geography and origin means. In other words, she uses ‘innuendo,’ which is both without merit and absent fact, as a basis to disregard what was said and ultimately prevent future speech.”
Rozman didn’t read that portion of the letter at Tuesday’s meeting because her time limit had ended; she previously sent East Cobb News a copy of the letter, dated. Oct. 6.
Rozman also asked at the end of her letter that Cupid issue a formal apology to her, but none was forthcoming.
Shortly before Rozman spoke, Cupid cut off another public speaker, Hill Wright of East Cobb, who tried to continue speaking on another topic after his five-minute limit had expired.
Cupid reminded those in attendance not to speak “out of turn,” then asked County Attorney William Rowling to read aloud a statement governing public comments.
That’s a new practice at commission meetings (the Cobb Board of Education also recently began issuing such a disclaimer before public comment sessions), and comes on the heels of a suspended attempt to alter its public comment format.
Cobb commissioners were to have considered a public comment policy change in August, but the agenda item was pulled by Cupid after wide criticism, ranging from the Cobb chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to the Cobb Republican Party.
That agenda item has not been brought back up.
In her comments Tuesday, Cupid read from a board policy that public speakers are prohibited from making “impertinent, derogatory, offensive or slanderous remarks” while addressing the commission.
(Her comments come with about an hour left in the video above; the speakers in question are shown shortly before that.)
“I’m sorry if some people don’t like that policy, but that is our policy,” Cupid said. She continued, stating that persons can be barred “if their conduct is deemed out of order.”
She recited the process from there, including a citizen’s right to appeal being banned from speaking, then spoke off the cuff.
“People keep saying they want this county to run like a business . . . that is what we’re doing,” Cupid said. “This county has a budget of $1 billion. We ask for your support to help run this county like a business.
“We have a highly educated, professional county. You know what you would have tolerated in your meetings, in your classrooms, in your board rooms. So I don’t know why when people step in this room, they have amnesia.”
She said that while she welcomes public comment, “we will not allow mayhem to be the spirit of this meeting.”
The fireworks started well before that, after Cobb and Douglas Public Health Director Dr. Janet Memark briefed commissioners on recent COVID-19 trends. After she was done, a citizen in attendance shouted “I have a question,” and Cupid said he was out of order.
“That’s not how we conduct our meetings,” she said.
When he persisted, she ordered law enforcement to remove him from the room.
At that point, after the first item on the agenda, Cupid called for a five-minute recess before the meeting resumed.
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Daniele Johnson is running for Cobb County Superior Court Judge. Superior Court has exclusive jurisdiction over family law matters, including divorce, custody, legitimation, child support and domestic violence. Daniele Johnson has practiced family law in Cobb County for the last 22 years. She is also a certified Guardian Ad Lite, meaning, she is trained to represent the best interests of children.
Superior Court also has exclusive jurisdiction over felony crimes, such as homicide, sexual assault, and aggravated assault. Prior to beginning her family law career, Daniele Johnson served as a Deputy District Attorney in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. There, she was lead prosecutor for misdemeanor crimes. She was also assigned to the Special Victims Unit, a team dedicated to prosecuting felony crimes committed against children. Prior to her time as a prosecutor, Daniele Johnson was court-certified to represent victims of domestic violence in their pursuit of restraining orders against their abusers. Daniele Johnson has dedicated her entire career practicing exactly the type of law the position of Cobb County Superior Court Judge calls for.
To Daniele Johnson, serving on the bench is a natural extension of what she has been doing for the last 25 years, serving families and community. She is specifically seeking to succeed the Honorable Robert Flournoy who has decided to retire at the end of his term. She and her husband have been part of the Cobb Community since 1999 where they are raising their three children within the Cobb County School District.
To learn more about Daniele Johnson and her professional accolades, visit her website at www.daniele4judge.com.
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Flooded roads in the Columns Drive area of East Cobb during the Sept. 7 flash floods. Photo: Cobb County government
Some Cobb residents chafed at the county government’s response to last month’s flash flooding said they will address commissioners about the subject on Tuesday.
A newly formed group called the Cobb September 7 Storm Damage Advocacy Group said it will speak at a public comment session Tuesday. The meeting starts at 9 a.m. (preview post and agenda here).
The heavy rains on that date caused flooding in various areas of the county, especially in East Cobb.
In a release sent out Monday by group organizers Hill Wright, an East Cobb resident, and Linda Farmer, a retired teacher at Lassiter High School, they said “this storm did more than damage property: It exposed gaps in effective storm water management, negative impacts from zoning decisions, lack of building standards for storm water management, and lack of leadership to effectively respond quickly to the unfolding disaster.”
In their release, they said some homeowners were told they were responsible for making repairs ranging from $25,000-$250,000 for what they said was flooding caused by poor stormwater infrastructure.
In one case, they said the county accepted responsibility for a failing 48-inch stormwater pipe that caused a sinkhole in a resident’s yard, but since the pipe is only partially on that property, the homeowner is on the hook for $25,000.
The county did establish a reporting tool for residents stemming from those storms—the group says that happened at the behest of a citizen, “but there was no further coordinated communication to keep residents informed.”
Earlier on Monday, East Cobb-area commissioner Jerica Richardson announced she would he holding a virtual forum Thursday on the subject. The sign-up link can be found here; the event starts at 5:30 p.m.
The citizens group said in its release that it prefers to have availability with elected officials in-person and face-to-face and is asking “the county to look past individual solutions at each site and start taking a systematic approach to Cobb County storm water management.”
A county e-mail sent out late Monday afternoon said Richardson’s forum will provide an opportunity for citizens “to learn about what the county has done since the flooding and share your experiences” and to examine “steps we can take to improve our stormwater infrastructure for future disasters.”
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Following on our story about Cobb Diaper Day, we were provided the flyer below about collection efforts related to that drive by Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church.
They’re continuing to accept your purchases at the church’s welcome center for the next two weeks, including a food truck event next Friday.
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The 2021 Cobb County Future Land Use Map; for a larger version click here.
The Cobb Board of Commissioners will conduct a public hearing Tuesday to begin the process for updating the Cobb 2040 Comprehensive Plan.
Every five years the state requires local governments to update their long-term planning priorities.
The last update in Cobb was in 2017 (you can read it here), and Tuesday’s hearing will feature details on a timeline for the 2022 process, including a public meeting schedule and methods for getting citizen input.
That hearing (agenda item here) will take place near the start of the meeting, after public recognitions and before the public comment period.
The Cobb 2040 Comprehensive Plan also serves as a vision statement across a number of topics:
Land use; transportation; housing, economic development, community facilities, human services, public health, education, natural and historic resources, public safety, intergovernment coordination, disaster resilience, military compatability and place-making.
More information about the county’s comprehensive planning activities can be found here.
The commissioners’ meeting begins at 9 a.m. (full agenda packet here) in the second floor board room of the Cobb government building (100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta).
At 1:30 p.m. Tuesday commissioners will have a work session in the same location to hear presentations from county department heads to begin the fiscal years 2023-24 biennial budget process (agenda item here).
COVID-19 protocols are being followed for both meetings, including mandatory masks and a limit on in-person attendance due to social-distancing.
The meetings also will be live-streamed on the county’s website, cable TV channel (Channel 24 on Comcast) and Youtube page. Visit cobbcounty.org/CobbTV for other streaming options.
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!
