Candidate profile: JoAnn Birrell, Cobb Commission District 3

As she nears the end of her third term in office, Cobb Commissioner JoAnn Birrell is telling voters she’s a steady hand amid significant change in county government and the Northeast Cobb community she has represented for more than a decade.

She’s running for a fourth term in new District 3 boundaries in East Cobb that are more favorable for a Republican candidate. In 2018, she won with a little more than 51 percent in a redrawn district that included much of the city of Marietta.

Since then, however, the political dynamics have changed in Cobb, which is now governed by a majority of three Democrats on the all-female Board of Commissioners.

Birrell is one of two Republicans in the minority, and opposes a Democratic-led bid to invoke home rule provisions to keep District 2 Commissioner Jerica Richardson in office.

But the bigger issues facing the county, Birrell said in a recent interview with East Cobb News, center around how to fund a growing demand for providing and upgrading key services and solve major staffing shortages.

“Things are pretty critical,” she said. “We don’t know what the future holds.”

In the Nov. 8 general election, Birrell is facing Democrat Christine Triebsch, a former Georgia Senate candidate.

Birrell’s campaign website can be found here; Triebsch’s profile in East Cobb News can be found by clicking here.

Cobb enjoyed a record tax digest in 2022. But Birrell voted against the $1.2 billion Cobb fiscal year 2023 budget that took effect Oct. 1 and that included significant pay increases for county employees.

She said she did so because she wanted the county to fill existing positions before creating 148 new jobs across the government.

“I think right now we’re in pretty good shape [financially],” she said. “But I’m concerned that our budget next year is not going to be sustainable with the new positions.”

Some departments are experiencing 40 percent vacancies, including infrastructure functions such as transportation and water, sewer and stormwater management.

The budget also incorporates provisions of a pay and class study for county employees, as well as continuation of step and grade salary increases for public safety.

Those are measures supported by Birrell, who has said that public safety is her highest priority.

Commissioners will soon be hearing a proposal for a stormwater impact fee that Cobb has never imposed; Birrell said she opposes it because it would be another tax burden for citizens who are paying higher water bills.

She also was vocally against a proposal for the county to designate single haulers for commission districts, a measure that was tabled earlier this fall.

Birrell said Cobb doesn’t need to get into the business of regulating private trash providers.

“We get a lot of the complaints but it may not need to come back,” she said. “They’re in that business and they have to work together to make sure our citizens get service.”

Birrell has raised nearly $52,000 in the current election cycle (through Sept. 30), prompting claims from Triebsch that her opponent is more vested in business interests than those of average citizens and homeowners.

In her most recent campaign disclosure form, Birrell reported receiving $2,500 contributions from John Tanner and Cynthia Reichard, the CEO and Executive Vice President, respectively, of Arlyessence, a fragrance company that recently received $27 million in bonds from the Development Authority of Cobb County (commissioners appoint some of the members but aren’t directly involved in that process).

Another $2,500 contribution to Birrell’s campaign is from Tom Phillips, a businessman whose 50-acre property on Ebenezer Road was rezoned by commissioners last year for a 99-home subdivision. Pulte, the applicant, has since pulled out of developing that land.

But Birrell said she prides herself on being accessible to anyone.

“You can ask any citizen that I hear from that I’m very responsive,” she said.

As for charges that Birrell has been more sympathetic to development interests, she said “go ask the East Cobb Civic Association and homeowners associations about the things I have stopped that were too dense and not appropriate for the area.

“I always listen to my constituents,” she said, noting her rejection of a large-scale multi-use development in the I-575-Bells Ferry area last year.

Commissioners are expected to vote a second time next week on the home rule vote that Birrell said will end up costing taxpayers money in a legal wrangle she thinks the county is likely to lose.

“It was not fair that Jerica was drawn out of her district in the middle of her term,” Birrell said. “But the legislature draws our lines. Reapportionment is not a home rule provision.”

But Birrell said she isn’t animated by partisan motives when it comes to most issues.

“A lot of our votes are along party lines,” she said. “I’m outnumbered on some things but I’ve tried to work with the full board.

“You have to look at the issue and do what you feel is right.”

Related:

• Candidate profile: Christine Triebsch, Cobb Commission District 3
• Cobb early voting estimated wait-time map
• East Cobb Early Voting Guide: 2022 General Election
• Cobb Commission Democrats OK redistricting map
• Contested Post 4 seat on Cobb school board heats up
• Cobb 2022 general election sample ballot available
• Cobb to propose ordinance to redraw commission districts
• Cobb school board chairman trailing in campaign fundraising
• Cobb to add Sunday voting in 2022 general election
• East Cobb News Politics & Elections page

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!