East Cobb Cityhood Archives

East Cobb Cityhood group slams Vinings referendum lawsuit

April 8, 2022 5:21 PMApril 8, 2022 4:21 PM by Wendy Parker

East Cobb Cityhood bill signed — *Members of the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood at the bill-signing ceremony with Gov. Brian Kemp in February.*

A lawsuit was filed this week trying to stop a referendum on Vinings cityhood, with implications for similar upcoming votes in East Cobb and Lost Mountain.

That’s because bills passed by the Georgia legislature this year calling for referendums in those three areas of Cobb on May 24 include language that’s being challenged on state constitutional grounds.

The lawsuit was filed Monday in Cobb Superior Court by Joseph Young, a Vinings resident who is a state lobbyist and was legislative director to former Gov. Roy Barnes (you can read the suit by clicking here).

The suit, filed against Cobb County and Elections Director Janine Eveler (her name is misspelled as “Everler” throughout the court filing), alleges that the Vinings bill is unconstitutional because it violates Georgia’s home rule laws.

The lawsuit, assigned to Cobb Superior Court Chief Judge Robert Leonard, is asking that the referendum either be removed from the May 24 ballot or delayed to the Nov. 8 general election.

A hearing has not been scheduled.

Georgia cities must provide at least three services from a list of 14 specified under state law.

But home rule laws also give cities and counties discretionary powers to choose which services they provide. The lawsuit alleges that the legislature cannot dictate what services a city can provide under a local law, which the Cobb cityhood bills were.

Young’s lawsuit contends that the Vinings bill would require a new city, if approved by voters in a referendum, to provide specific services: planning and zoning, code enforcement and parks and recreation.

A spokeswoman for the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood said Friday that the Vinings lawsuit “is a flagrant attempt to legislate from the bench.”

In response to an inquiry from East Cobb News, Cindy Cooperman said that the Vinings, East Cobb and Lost Mountain bills “are modeled on the laws that created other municipalities in Georgia, like Sandy Springs, Milton, and Stonecrest.”

She noted Young’s political ties and wondered why he didn’t testify against the Vinings bill when it was being considered by the legislature.

Section 1.12 of the East Cobb bill (you can read it here) states the following about service provision, in lines 157-161:

“Except as provided in subsection (c) of this section, the city shall exercise the powers enumerated in subsection (a) of this section only for the purposes of planning and zoning, code adoption and enforcement, parks and recreation, police and law enforcement services, fire and emergency services, and those items directly related to the provision of such services and for the general administration of the city in providing such services.”

Lost Mountain’s bill includes a charter calling for the provision of planning and zoning, code enforcement and sanitation services.

All three bills have been signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp. A fourth Cobb cityhood bill in Mableton is yet to be signed, but it doesn’t contain the same language about specific provision of services.

A Mableton referendum would take place in November.

“We are confident that the Court will see this lawsuit for what it is, frivolous, and not permit this interference with any of the cityhood referendums,” Cooperman said.

The response echoes comments by the Vinings Exploratory Committee, the group behind Vinings Cityhood, which called the lawsuit “an attack on the democratic process.”

The lawsuit comes as debates are nearing for the East Cobb cityhood referendum.

The first, on April 19, is being sponsored by the East Cobb Business Association. Another, on May 4, is being organized by the Rotary Club of East Cobb at Pope High School.

Cobb County government is continuing its series of cityhood town halls with a session on Tuesday at the Cobb Civic Center, starting at 6:30 p.m.

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!

Anti-Cityhood sign to be removed from East Cobb Crossing

March 31, 2022 11:46 AMMarch 31, 2022 8:34 AM by Wendy Parker

East Cobb anti-Cityhood sign removed

Earlier this week we saw not one, but two, giant signs against the May 24 East Cobb Cityhood referendum that were posted along the edges of the East Cobb Crossing Shopping Center.

They were produced by the East Cobb Alliance, the main group opposed to cityhood, and were planted in prime viewing range in the heart of the community—the Roswell Road and Johnson Ferry Road corridor.

But the Alliance noted in a Facebook post Wednesday night that the signs will have to be removed because “there was an internal miscommunication with the property owner/manager.”

The message didn’t indicate what the miscommunication was.

East Cobb Crossing is managed by The Shopping Center Group, and recently it welcomed a new Publix store.

East Cobb News has left a message with The Shopping Center Group seeking more information.

The sign above fronts Roswell Road at the intersection of East Cobb Drive; another is adjacent to Dick’s Sporting Goods on Johnson Ferry Road.

The Alliance has been handing out smaller signs with a similar design that have been placed in residential yards.

There are a few along Robinson Road and the Chimney Springs subdivision, as well as Indian Hills.

Some pro-cityhood signs were spotted along Paper Mill Road in the Atlanta Country Club area.

Representatives for the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood and the East Cobb Alliance will be squaring off in debates: April 19 by the East Cobb Business Association, and May 4 by the Rotary Club of East Cobb.

As for the East Cobb Crossing signs, the Alliance is asking that “if you have locations for these bold beauties let us know.”

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!

County officials take Cityhood town hall to East Cobb

March 26, 2022 2:00 PM by Wendy Parker

Cityhood town hall EastCobb — *Cobb communications director Ross Cavitt (at lectern) reads questions for department heads at the Sewell Mill Library.*

The latest in a series of what Cobb government officials are calling objective “information sessions” about four cityhood referendums came to East Cobb this week.

One of those referendums will take place May 24 for a proposed City of East Cobb, which was the focus of a town hall Thursday at the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center.

(You can watch a replay of the nearly hour-long town hall at the bottom of this post.)

Commissioners JoAnn Birrell and Jerica Richardson, whose districts include East Cobb, also attended, but they spoke only briefly, saying they can’t publicly take a position.

“I encourage you to ask the hard questions,” Richardson said, “because this is about your future. We want to make sure that you’re equipped with the information that you need so you can make the best decision for you and your family.”

During her 2020 campaign, Richardson said she was opposed to East Cobb cityhood, and recently attended an information session held by the East Cobb Alliance, which opposes citiyhood.

“We’re here to educate, we can’t advocate, one way or the other, on cityhood,” said Birrell, who was adamantly opposed to an East Cobb cityhood campaign in 2019 when the proposed boundaries pushed into her district.

She said she didn’t know at the time that she was supposed to have been impartial, although county officials typically have been mum on other referendums, including Special Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) extensions.

Cobb finance officers estimate the county could lose more than $41 million in annual revenue if all four cities—East Cobb, Lost Mountain, Mableton and Vinings, totalling more than 200,000 people—are created, with only a few hundred thousand dollars in savings.

Of that, around $23 million of that would come out of East Cobb, which unlike the other proposed cities wants to provide police, fire and E911 services.

That was the subject of many of the audience questions read by Cobb communications director Ross Cavitt.

Cobb public safety department heads repeated many of the same points they made at a March 10 town hall, saying the East Cobb financial feasibility study has incomplete information.

They said that transferring equipment and facilities and mutual aid agreements would have to be negotiated, and response times and fire insurance rates would likely rise for those living in a city of East Cobb.

Interim Cobb Police Chief Scott Hamilton said that response times vary, depending on what kind of call is dispatched, but that a “city would probably have fewer officers for major calls.”

Michael Schutz, the deputy Cobb Fire Chief, noted a recent house fire in Indian Hills that prompted a response from nearly 30 personnel and several engines and trucks.

In rattling off the staff and equipment at the two proposed East Cobb fire stations (currently Cobb 15 and 21), he said the numbers don’t come close to that total.

The East Cobb city hall would be located at the East Cobb Government Service Center, and a question was asked about how much it would cost to transfer that facility.

Cavitt read a statement prepared by the Cobb County Attorney that state law specifies only two hard figures about transferring county properties to a new city—$5,000 for a fire station (minus engines and other equipment) and $100 an acre for public park land.

After the town hall, Sarah Haas, a member of the Committee for Cityhood in East Cobb, took issue not only with some of the county finance and staffing estimates, but also with the scope of the county’s information campaign (including an online resource page).

“It’s hard for me to believe that this information is purely educational,” she said. “I get the sense that they’re trying to instill fear, uncertainty and doubt, more than to provide information.”

Haas said the “financials don’t pass the smell test,” including county estimates that fire expenses in East Cobb would come to $12 million (the cityhood group’s financial study estimates an annual fire department budget of $5.7 million).

She said that previous cityhood efforts have always come with issues to be hammered out during a two-year transition period, including finances. A feasibility study provides only an outline for what a future city might provide.

“I’d love to have a crystal ball and say that this is what we should create as a budget,” said Haas, who led the cityhood group’s recent town hall meeting.

“There are always going to be unanswered questions about cityhood. We’re doing our best job to educate people about the benefits of a city.”

Among those in attendance Thursday was former Cobb Planning Commission member Andy Smith, also a 2020 Cobb commissioner candidate.

He’s concerned about high-density development issues that have prompted all four cityhood campaigns in Cobb County.

A member of the Cobb Neighborhood Safety Commission, Smith said he’s perplexed about the addition of public safety services in East Cobb, which also would provide planning and zoning and code enforcement services.

But he said recent zoning decisions on the Cobb Board of Commissioners—including the East Cobb Church mixed-use development and a controversial rezoning around Dobbins Air Base that resulted in an unusual land swap—have led to him support cityhood.

“It’s about having local control of zoning,” Smith said, adding that Cobb’s building codes are also a problem.

Smith said given recent developments, it’s crucially important to have a more locally focused governing body writing those codes to retain East Cobb’s suburban character and control how redevelopment—commercial and residential—is handled.

The East Cobb Business Association and the Rotary Club of East Cobb will be having debates on the cityhood referendum in April and May, featuring the cityhood group and the East Cobb Alliance.

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!

GOP special election candidate opposes East Cobb Cityhood

March 26, 2022 11:58 AMMarch 25, 2022 2:04 PM by Wendy Parker

A second candidate in an April 5 special election for a legislative seat in East Cobb said this week he’s opposed to East Cobb Cityhood. Mitchell Kaye, Georgia House special election

Mitchell Kaye, a former legislator and one of three Republicans in the four-candidate field for Georgia House District 45, issued a statement Wednesday saying that public safety services for the proposed City of East Cobb “continue to bother me.”

Voters in the proposed city will be deciding in a May 24 referendum on whether to create a city, and to approve a charter on how the city would be governed.

When cityhood legislation was filed in March 2021, it proposed planning and zoning, code enforcement and parks and recreation services.

But when a financial feasibility study was released in November, it included police and fire services. Cityhood leaders said public safety was an issue that kept coming up when they met with citizens and community groups over the last year.

Kaye said the initial services “offer a real benefit to local residents, but unfortunately the original legislation was hijacked to include an unnecessary public safety component.

“The more I looked into the public safety component, the worse it looked. In my 33 years in East Cobb, I have heard no complaints regarding our excellent police and fire protection,” Kaye said in his statement.

“Regarding our own police force, there will be no benefit, but costs will rise with the duplicative requirement for our own municipal court, municipal judge(s) and a jail.”

East Cobb is the only of four cityhood campaigns in Cobb proposing public safety. Lost Mountain and Vinings referendums also will be on May 24, and a Mableton cityhood bill is still pending in the Georgia legislature.

Kaye added further thoughts on his campaign website.

Early voting is underway for the District 45 special election, which was called in February when former State Rep. Matt Dollar, the East Cobb Cityhood bill sponsor, resigned his seat.

Dustin McCormick, the only Democrat in the special election, has said he is adamantly opposed to cityhood.

The other two Republican candidates, Darryl Wilson and Pamela Ayalon, previously told the MDJ they encourage voters to inform themselves about cityhood issues but didn’t state a personal position. East Cobb News has contacted both seeking further comment.

Wilson replied by saying he doesn’t have a vote on cityhood since he lives outside the proposed boundaries. He also told us this:

“Ultimately, all voices have to be heard and vote on the best way to control the character of your community.

“I believe that is what is about to happen in East Cobb with the referendum.

“The people will decide and I will represent the people.

“If you agree, I really need your vote and all of your neighbors friends in our district with the widest distribution possible.”

Kaye said he supports citizens having the right to vote on a referendum.

But in his statement he said that a friend’s home was destroyed last week by fire (and the man suffered extensive burns), and he noted the extensive response from Cobb Fire.

“They were able to use county-wide departmental resources, resources that a city the size of East Cobb could not,” Kaye said.

“This incident only reinforces my NO position on cityhood. The safety and well being of our community cannot be jeopardized.”

Early voting continues through April 1 for the special election in the current boundaries of District 45. The winner will fill the remainder of Dollar’s term, through the end of this year.

Cobb Elections has more information on who is eligible to vote in the special election, which is different from those who may be voting in the primaries.

McCormick also has qualified for primary in the new District 45. State Rep. Sharon Cooper, a Republican, has qualified after serving in District 43 since 1997.

Cooper is a co-sponsor of the East Cobb Cityhood bill has a primary candidate in Cobb GOP activist Carminthia Moore.

None of the special election GOP candidates qualified to run in the new District 45.

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!

ECBA, East Cobb Rotary Club schedule Cityhood debates

March 26, 2022 11:59 AMMarch 23, 2022 12:30 PM by Wendy Parker

East Cobb city forum — *Mindy Seger of the anti-city East Cobb Alliance debates David Birdwell of the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood at an ECBA forum in late 2019.*

A debate between supporters and opponents of the upcoming East Cobb Cityhood referendum is being organized by the East Cobb Business Association.

The event takes place on Tuesday, April 19 from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Olde Towne Athletic Club (4950 Olde Towne Parkway) and is open to the public.

The debate is free but attendance is limited to 275 people and according to the ECBA website, nearly 100 people have already signed up. Registration is required and you can do that by clicking here.

The ECBA sponsored a debate in 2019 between Committee for East Cobb Cityhood and the East Cobb Alliance, which is against cityhood.

Shortly after that debate, cityhood supporters announced they would not be pursuing legislation in 2020.

But a new bill was submitted in the Georgia legislature in March 2021, and it passed and was signed into law, calling for a May 24 referendum.

Earlier this month, the pro-cityhood group held a town hall at Olde Towne and the Alliance conducted public information sessions.

The format of the ECBA debate will be for both sides to answer “the most commonly asked questions” about cityhood and the referendum.

But there won’t be direct questioning of the debate participants by the audience.

Also, the ECBA is saying that campaigning and political signs will not be allowed.

Overflow parking around Olde Towne includes nearby office building lots and the Northside medical building.

Another East Cobb Cityhood forum is being organized by the Rotary Club of East Cobb on May 4 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at Pope High School. The moderator will be longtime Atlanta journalist Donna Lowry.

Attendance is limited and citizens wishing to attend must register by clicking here.

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!

Cobb schedules Cityhood town hall for Sewell Mill Library

March 24, 2022 1:13 PMMarch 15, 2022 1:29 PM by Wendy Parker

Last week we reported on Cobb County government’s first town hall meeting to address upcoming cityhood referendums, and noted that future events were to be announced.

Cobb government said Tuesday that the next town hall will be coming to East Cobb next week, on Thursday, March 24, at the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center (2051 Lower Roswell Road).

The town hall starts at 6:30 p.m. and will focus on the proposed City of East Cobb. It will be livestreamed on the county’s YouTube channel.

Members of the public also can ask questions in advance by e-mailing: cityhoodquestions@cobbcounty.org.

Last week’s town hall focused heavily on police, fire and 911 services for the proposed City of East Cobb.

Of the four cityhood movements in Cobb, only East Cobb is proposing public safety services. County officials have said since the East Cobb bill passed through the Georgia legislature that major questions remain about how those services will be provided and how the county will provide backup.

The East Cobb referendum is May 24, along with referendums in Vinings and Lost Mountain. Those proposed cities are focusing on preservation and development concerns.

At a town hall on March 7, leaders of the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood said they’re “low density fans,” in response to charges by opponents that the initiative is being backed by developer interests.

A Lost Mountain town hall is scheduled for April 7 at Lost Mountain Park (4845 Dallas Highway, Powder Springs), and Vinings town hall will take place on April 21 at a venue to be announced.

A bill on Mableton cityhood passed the Georgia House last week and needs to be approved in the Senate for a referendum in November.

Cobb County also is updating a cityhood resource page.

Plans also are forthcoming for two East Cobb cityhood events: April 19 by the East Cobb Business Association; and May 4 by the Rotary Club of East Cobb at Pope High School.

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!

Cobb Cityhood town hall focuses on East Cobb public safety

March 10, 2022 11:43 AM by Wendy Parker

*“The last thing we want to do is remove services for residents of unincorporated Cobb,” Cobb Fire Chief Bill Johnson said.*

Public safety services for the proposed City of East Cobb generated much of the discussion at a town hall meeting held Wednesday night by Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid.

It’s the first of several town halls county officials will be holding in the coming weeks as voters in East Cobb, Lost Mountain and Vinings will decide cityhood referendums on May 24. A Mableton cityhood bill is still being considered in the Georgia legislature.

County leaders said they cannot take official positions on cityhood, but said their sessions are meant to be informational.

Questions were submitted by citizens in advance and read on index cards by Cobb public information officer Ross Cavitt.

(You can watch a replay of Wednesday’s town hall, which lasted around an hour, by clicking here. Dates and locations for future town halls are to be determined.)

At a Cobb Board of Commissioners work session in February, county finance head Bill Volckmann said the impact to the county budget would be $41.4 million annually if all four cities are created. (The county has created a cityhood page that is being updated.)

Of that, they estimate $23 million would come out of East Cobb alone (East Cobb cityhood leaders have taken issue with those financials, saying they’re misleading).

Cobb Cityhood TH Financial Impact Chart

That’s because only East Cobb is proposing to have its own police and fire departments and an E911 service.

The leaders of those agencies for Cobb County government said at the town hall they’re still learning about the details of those services in East Cobb.

But they all said it’s likely that response time for those services will rise for citizens in a new City of East Cobb.

East Cobb would have two fire stations—current Cobb Station No. 21 on Lower Roswell Road and current Cobb Station No. 15 on Oak Lane.

Cobb Fire Chief Bill Johnson said those two stations would have to expand their current footprints by 13 percent to serve a City of East Cobb with nearly 60,000 residents and covering 25 square miles.

The problem, he said, is that citizens on the western edge of the city are currently served by Station No. 20 on Sewell Mill Road, No. 3 on Terrell Mill Road, No. 19 on Powers Ferry Road and No. 3 next to the Mountain View Regional Library, all of which would remain in unincorporated Cobb.

“They absolutely will see an increase in their response time,” Johnson said.

Should a City of East Cobb be formed, mutual aid agreements would be negotiated with Cobb Police and Cobb Fire, which have similar agreements with the existing six cities in the county, to provide backup.

East Cobb fire map — *Cobb Fire officials said citizens in the red shaded areas in the proposed East Cobb city and currently serviced by fire stations in unincorporated Cobb would have higher response times.*

An East Cobb Police Department would be stationed at current Cobb Precinct 4 headquarters, with an estimated 71 officers, according to a financial feasibility study prepared for the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood.

Interim Cobb Police Chief Scott Hamilton echoed Johnson, and said that “if anybody needs help, we’ll come. At the end of the day, we’re a family and we all take care of each other. But response times are going to get longer.”

Cobb public safety leaders said they haven’t had any contact with East Cobb Cityhood proponents, but some meetings are slated to begin next week.

Cobb E911 director Melissa Altiero said she’s unclear if East Cobb would be handling its own emergency calls or have them answered by Cobb.

She said Cobb answers calls inside the City of Marietta, which has its own police and fire services, “and it’s a seamless response.”

Transferring calls from one call center to another, she said, takes an average of 40 seconds.

Altiero also said she would be concerned about misrouted calls further delaying response time in a City of East Cobb, and said there’s nothing in the East Cobb financial study about what kind of radio system it would have.

That study proposes transferring the 2.86 mills in the Cobb Fire Fund to provide the main revenue source for a city with an estimated $27.7 million annual budget (and that also provide planning and zoning, code enforcement and possibly parks and recreation services).

Johnson said that would amount to $14 million in lost revenue for the Cobb Fire Department, out of annual budget of $110 million.

What that would mean for the county fire department is uncertain, financially or in affecting its service levels.

“The last thing we want to do is remove services to unincorporated Cobb,” Johnson said. “The citizens have come to expect a high level of service and we want to continue to provide that service.”

Before those remarks, Cavitt read a citizen question to Cupid about whether the county would increase taxes to offset the loss of revenue due to new cities being formed, but she deflected it.

“It depends,” Cupid said. “But I am not aware of a new city that has been formed that has not raised taxes.

“If somebody can show me a new city that has not raised taxes, then no, your taxes won’t be raised. Will they be raised immediately, if this moves forward on the May ballot? The answer is no.

“In the short run, no would be a qualified answer. But in the long run, I have yet to be pointed to a new city that has not been formed where they have not had some increases in taxes.”

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!

East Cobb Cityhood leaders: ‘We are low density fans’

March 8, 2022 12:56 PM by Wendy Parker

In their first face-to-face meeting with the public, leaders of the East Cobb Cityhood effort on Monday addressed claims that development interests are driving their campaign.

It’s a charge that’s been made since the cityhood movement first began in 2019, and was renewed over the weekend by a group opposed to the May 24 East Cobb referendum.

At a town hall meeting Monday at Olde Towne Athletic Club, the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood once again stressed that their main objective is fostering local control of basic services and preserving the suburban nature of the community.

On Saturday, a citizens group opposed to the new city pointed out that the pro-cityhood group’s behind-the-scenes leader is a longtime retail real estate executive and expressed concern that high-density development wouldn’t be far behind.

The tax base of the proposed City of East Cobb is 91 percent residential and nine percent commercial, according to a financial feasibility study prepared for the cityhood group.

“Is this really about local control or special interest control?” asked the anti-cityhood East Cobb Alliance.

But during a Q and A session at Monday’s town hall, East Cobb Cityhood group chairman Craig Chapin took strong exception.

“We are low density fans,” he said. “And for anybody to propose anything else is categorically false.”

You can watch a replay of the town hall meeting here. The group also has produced a voters guide that you can read by clicking here.

Chapin’s remark drew considerable applause, and followed emphatic remarks by former State Rep. Matt Dollar that having elected officials who live in the East Cobb area, and not other parts of the county, is vital to shaping the future of the community.

“They care. They give a damn about what goes here because they live here,” said Dollar, the bill’s main sponsor who resigned from the legislature last month. “It’s local control. It’s people you know making the decisions.”

That’s been the thrust of the cityhood group’s messaging since it was revived in 2021. Unlike the abandoned 2019 effort, this one has been centered around planning and zoning, especially in light of the East Cobb Church rezoning case last year that galvanized residents on either side in the Johnson Ferry-Shallowford corridor.

In noting the future of two major retail centers—Parkaire Landing and The Avenue, the latter of which is slated for a major overhaul—committee spokeswoman Cindy Cooperman said an East Cobb city government would be better-suited to work as a partner in redevelopment than a county government that’s serving nearly 800,000 with five commissioners.

“That brings more seats to the table, especially when it comes to zoning,” she said. “It really is a question of scale.” For a number of years, she said, the Cobb commission “worked fine.”

*The East Cobb Cityhood group said citizens of a new city will pay the same taxes as they do now.*

Fellow committee member Sarah Haas said that “it is our desire to tailor [certain services now provided by the county] to the community.”

The cityhood group also was pressed to back up its pledge that property taxes wouldn’t be raised beyond the millage rates that would be transferred from county government.

The proposed city would provide five of the 17 current services provided by the county—planning and zoning, code enforcement, police, fire and parks and recreation.

Residents of the city of East Cobb would still pay a tax bill of 30.35 mills (with 18.9 mills going to the Cobb County School District) as residents in unincorporated Cobb.

The city’s main funding source would be transferring the 2.86 mills of the current Cobb Fire Fund.

“Cities manage better—it’s a smaller footprint,” Chapin said, noting that state law does not permit duplication of services between cities and counties. “It’s not another layer of government.”

But the addition of police and fire services to the mix, and a financial feasibility study, has raised more questions.

While audience members on Monday did not directly ask questions—they were read from index cards by a moderator—cityhood group leaders were asked to explain how public safety facilities would be acquired.

The proposed city would house its police station at the current Cobb Precinct 4 headquarters along with current Cobb fire station 21 at the East Cobb Government Service Center, and also include current Cobb fire station 15 on Oak Lane.

Cooperman cited state law calling for a $5,000 transfer fee for those facilities and “their fixtures,” which she said included equipment (which the East Cobb Alliance disputes).

Tritt property, Cobb 2022 SPLOST list — *How a City of East Cobb might purchase the county-owned former Tritt property next to East Cobb Park is “unknown,” according to the cityhood group.*

Should a city be created, she said, mutual aid agreements would be crafted during a two-year transition period.

That transition, should it come to pass, also might include negotiations with the county over parks and recreation services.

Parks and recreation services were examined in the feasibility study, but questions remain on how a City of East Cobb would acquire land adjacent to East Cobb Park.

In 2018 Cobb purchased 22 acres of the Tritt property with SPLOST funds, and the 2022 SPLOST referendum, if passed, includes the purchase of the remaining 24 acres of that land.

The Tritt property has been envisioned as being an extension of East Cobb Park, featuring pedestrian trails.

Cityhood group member Scott Sweeney said the process for obtaining that land (at $100 an acre), should a City of East Cobb come to fruition, would be an “unknown,” and Dollar said “it will just get worked out.”

Citizens also asked about the impact of an East Cobb city on schools, which are operated separately by the Cobb County School District.

Sweeney, a former Cobb school board member, stressed that a new city wouldn’t change the current senior exemption from school taxes for homeowners 62 and older.

With cityhood referendums on the May 24 ballot in Lost Mountain and Vinings as well as East Cobb, Cobb County government is holding a cityhood town hall Wednesday at 6 p.m. (more information here).

At least two other East Cobb referendum forums have been scheduled for now: April 19 by the East Cobb Business Association, and on May 4 at Pope High School by the Rotary Club of East Cobb.

Those plans are not yet finalized.

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!

East Cobb Cityhood foes ramp up efforts to defeat referendum

March 5, 2022 10:30 PMMarch 5, 2022 4:32 PM by Wendy Parker

East Cobb Cityhood opponents — *“Is this really about local control or special interest control?” said Mindy Seger, president of the East Cobb Alliance, questioning the claims of cityhood forces.*

In a little less than three months, voters in the proposed City of East Cobb will be asked whether they want to form a new city.

A grassroots citizens group that formed in 2019 to fight an initial cityhood campaign is accelerating its efforts to defeat a May 24 referendum that could create a city of around 60,000 people.

But just as in the first cityhood quest, the East Cobb Alliance said a new city would also create needless levels of government, increase taxes, cause confusion among citizens about service provision and delay public safety response time.

“You don’t need another layer of government to change what doesn’t need changing,” said Mindy Seger, the group’s president, during an information session Saturday at the Chimney Springs subdivision clubhouse.

The East Cobb Alliance—which has more than 1,300 followers on its Facebook page—also has sharpened its talking points as public meetings are being scheduled on both sides of the issue.

On Monday, the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood will hold its first in-person town hall since cityhood was revived last year.

The pro-cityhood forces have said the area isn’t getting effective representation on the Cobb Board of Commissioners, whose four district members represent nearly 200,000 people each.

As the cityhood bill worked its way through the Georgia legislature, they testified that local control—East Cobb would have a mayor and six city council members—would be more responsive.

But Seger, who debated pro-cityhood leaders in 2019 before that effort was abandoned—took issue with that claim.

In a talking point called “Follow the Money,” she noted that while the current cityhood group has new members who are making public rounds, some individuals behind the scenes remain from the original effort.

They include Owen Brown, the founder of the Retail Planning Corp., which manages Paper Mill Village, Woodlawn Square, Woodlawn Commons and other shopping centers in the area.

He’s a voter in Florida, Seger said, and therefore can’t vote in the referendum. Neither can Matt Dollar, the former legislator who sponsored the East Cobb bill, then resigned the day after it passed the House.

He’s moved to a new home in what would remain unincorporated East Cobb. Lawmakers who carried the legislation after that are in Acworth and North Fulton.

The only other East Cobb co-sponsor of the bill—State Rep. Sharon Cooper—didn’t speak on its behalf in the legislative sessions.

“If this was such a good idea, why didn’t he buy a house inside the city borders?” Seger said, referring to Dollar. “Is this really about local control or special interest control?

“What are they looking to get out of this?”

Seger also delved into the proposed police and fire services for the City of East Cobb, which were not in the initial bill and were added in November (the other services would be planning and zoning and code enforcement).

The East Cobb financial feasibility study estimated that fire services would cost $5.7 million a year. But Cobb fire officials, in a recent commissioners work session, placed that figure at more than $12 million a year.

There would be two fire stations in East Cobb, No. 21 at the East Cobb Government Service Center and No. 15 on Oak Drive.

“That’s a big difference, and I think the county’s estimate is more accurate,” she said, adding that such expenses as the cost of fire engines and training firefighters (as well as police officers) have not been factored into the financial study.

The pro-cityhood group has said that such details are typically worked out during a two-year transition period, including mutual aid agreements.

As for police, the study estimated a staff of 71 officers (79 staffers are currently working out of Cobb Police Precinct 4).

“The challenge and cost of recruiting and training officers is difficult everywhere,” Seger said. “How is a new city going to compete with that?”

That point was echoed by former Cobb Chamber of Commerce CEO David Connell, who attended one of the East Cobb Alliance sessions.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” he said during the presentation, saying that Cobb’s public safety services are highly rated. “Taxes will go up and don’t let anyone tell you different.”

Also in the audience was engineering consultant Geoff Seguin, who lives in a nearby neighborhood. He said he was initially open to the subject of cityhood, but said after getting information from both sides, he’s “strongly opposed to it.

“There are too many unknowns,” said Seguin, who’s lived in East Cobb resident since 1989 and whose children graduated from local schools.

Life in the community, he said, “is pretty darn good” and said he doesn’t see any reason to change the form of local government.

What especially persuaded him was serving on a citizens group that worked with the attorney for Northpoint Ministries for a mixed-use development that includes the East Cobb Church.

After months of discussions and numerous delays, Cobb commissioners approved a rezoning request at Johnson Ferry and Shallowford Road in October.

While the community was split on the issue, Seguin said he was impressed by the effort by Northpoint and county officials, especially regarding stormwater and legal concessions his group asked for.

He also found Commissioner Jerica Richardson (who attended an earlier East Cobb Alliance session Saturday) and former planning commissioner Tony Waybright responsive during the process.

“It made me a believer in local government,” Seguin said, referring to county government. He said when citizens get involved at that level, “it works.”

Monday’s town hall organized by the cityhood group is sold out, but is being livestreamed on its Facebook page starting at 6 p.m.

On Wednesday, Cobb County government will hold an information session, and with similar referendums in Lost Mountain, Vinings and possibly Mableton, it has launched a cityhood information page.

The East Cobb Business Association will hold an East Cobb Cityhood forum on April 19, and the Rotary Club of East Cobb will be holding a similar session for Pope High School in early May.

Those plans are still being finalized.

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East Cobb Alliance to hold public meetings opposing cityhood

March 3, 2022 12:39 PMMarch 2, 2022 4:06 PM by Wendy Parker

The East Cobb Alliance is sporting a new logo for the upcoming cityhood referendum.

The East Cobb Alliance, which is opposed to the May 24 East Cobb Cityhood referendum, is holding what it’s calling “show and tell” sessions Saturday for the public.

That’s two days before the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood, which is behind the referendum and cityhood campaign, will be having its first in-person town hall meeting.

But unlike the cityhood meeting Monday at Olde Towne Athletic Club, the East Cobb Alliance meetings will be open to citizens living outside the proposed city limits.

(The cityhood group’s event is sold out and plans are being made to show it on a livestream, according to spokeswoman Cindy Cooperman.)

The East Cobb Alliance sessions on Saturday are from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m., 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. in the Chimney Springs neighborhood. Pre-registration is required and can be done by clicking this link.

The sign-up page says that each session will have a 20-30 minute presentation followed by a a question and an answer period.

“Learn the facts about the efforts to convert a portion of East Cobb into an incorporated new city…that will add another complicated Government Layer to your life, and one that can tax you and your home beyond your means to pay,” the East Cobb Alliance pre-registration link says.

Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid will be having cityhood-related meetings with community groups, starting Tuesday from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Cobb Board of Commissioners meeting room (100 Cherokee Street, Marietta).

The county also has created what it calls a cityhood resource page that breaks down the four cityhood proposals.

East Cobb, Vinings and Lost Mountain referendums will be voted on in the May 24 primary; a Mableton referendum, if approved by the Georgia legislature, would take place in November.

The East Cobb Alliance has more than 1,300 followers on its Facebook page.

The East Cobb Alliance was formed in 2019 during the first cityhood campaign making many of the same claims as now: That there’s not a public groundswell for cityhood, that a city would create another layer of government, and that citizens living in the new city would pay more in taxes and other fees.

During 2019, the pro-cityhood group held town hall meetings that generated opposition. In November 2019, East Cobb Alliance member Mindy Seger debated then-cityhood leader David Birdwell.

Not long after that, cityhood proponents dropped plans to push for legislation in the 2020 session.

The cityhood effort was revived with a new bill in 2021, and before the legislature in January, Seger testified against it, especially after several revisions were made, including moving the referendum up from November to May and changing how the mayor is elected.

The East Cobb Alliance has created a 2022 information tab with its analysis of the East Cobb cityhood’s feasibility study and background information on cityhood leaders.

A page entitled “Cityhood Swindle” was written while the East Cobb bill was in the legislature, and takes issue with the cityhood group’s claims that incorporating will make for better local representation.

That was before the bill was amended in the Senate to include clarifying language about how the six city council members are elected. While they are elected citywide, two members must reside in each of three council districts (map here).

In a Feb. 17 Facebook post, the Alliance explained that all voters in the proposed city, regardless of which primary ballot they choose, will be asked on whether they support creating a city and repeated familiar claims:

“A new city will have the power to TAX you more, assess new fees, cite you for traffic violations, jail you for up to 180 days…AND figure out a myriad of ways to extract MORE money from you…on TOP of the taxes you already pay to the County (and will continue to pay).

“The only pot of gold at the end of the ‘East Cobb, Georgia’ rainbow is MORE government costing You MORE MONEY!”

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East Cobb Cityhood supporters defend police and fire plans

March 1, 2022 4:37 PM by Wendy Parker

East Cobber parade — *Station 21 at the East Cobb Government Service Center would be one of two fire stations in the proposed City of East Cobb. ECN file photo*

Ever since police and fire services were included in a financial feasibility study for the proposed City of East Cobb in November, supporters of the initiative have been posed a continuing question:

Why?

When the cityhood effort was revived in 2021, the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood said it had considered public feedback in proposing what’s called a “city light” set of services—planning and zoning, code enforcement and parks and recreation.

New concerns had been raised since the initial cityhood effort began three years before, especially high-density zoning cases. An adult retail store opened on Johnson Ferry Road in June 2020, after skirting code issues to get a business license.

For most of last year, as they conducted virtual information sessions with the public and commissioned the feasibility study, cityhood proponents didn’t mention public safety.

Eligible voters in the proposed City of East Cobb will decide on May 24 on whether to form a new city, made up of around 60,000 people and centered along the Johnson Ferry Road corridor.

Three other proposed new cities in Cobb—Lost Mountain, Vinings and Mableton—are sticking with “city light” services designed to preserve those communities or enhance desired redevelopment.

Police and fire services were included in the initial East Cobb cityhood campaign that was abandoned at the end of 2019.

But as the East Cobb cityhood group met with community members last year, public safety “continued to come up in various ways,” said spokeswoman Cindy Cooperman.

They’ve also held information meetings with neighborhood, civic and business groups over the past year, and she said that public safety “continues to be a consistent theme.”

During a special Feb. 16 Cobb Board of Commissioners work session, county public safety officials said the information provided thus far about proposed police and fire services in East Cobb isn’t sufficient.

They said they’re concerned about increased response times and are uncertain about what they may be asked to do in support (see map at right).

When asked about concerns over the expenses involved in having public safety, Cooperman said “I get that. But the [feasibility] study looks at comparable cities . . . that have done it over the long haul.”

Specifically, those include Milton and Johns Creek in North Fulton, which both have police and fire services.

“It’s not that risky,” Cooperman said, and referred to a recent interview with the East Cobb cityhood study researcher about how the feasibility process works.

While a feasibility study isn’t a budget, the East Cobb study doesn’t detail public safety salary and benefit costs, nor continuing training and equipment expenses.

The East Cobb cityhood group has worked up a page with fire and emergency services information in part to counter a cityhood page created by Cobb government that cityhood leaders includes misleading information.

The East Cobb group explains how mutual aid agreements would be worked out over the two-year transition period, and that the new city would contract with the county for police and fire services in the interim.

But that page doesn’t indicate how an East Cobb fire department would be structured. There’s been speculation that East Cobb may follow the City of Roswell, which has many rank-and-file firefighters serving in moonlighting roles from other departments.

Cooperman said while she’s heard those rumors, the transition period would provide the time for “experts in the field” to work through those details.

It’s a process, she said, “that isn’t something new.”

The late changes to the proposed city services and governing structure have prompted complaints by an opposition group, the East Cobb Alliance.

The East Cobb cityhood bill sponsored by former State Rep. Matt Dollar was changed three times in the legislature, including moving the referendum from November to May, and having the mayor elected citywide after the initial bill called for council members to choose a mayor among themselves.

East Cobb Alliance leader Mindy Seger also testified before the Georgia legislature that having the vote six months earlier than originally planned won’t give voters time to “thoroughly vet the proposal and the impact it will have on our community.

“Why the rush?” she said when contacted by East Cobb News after the bill had been approved, and after Dollar stepped down from his seat.

“It’s been 4 years, 3 maps, 2 feasibility studies, 2 House bills and one untimely resignation of the legislative sponsor,” said Seger.

“The simple referendum language doesn’t begin to encompass the full weight and responsibility of incorporation and the lasting impact to our community..”

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East Cobb Cityhood group to hold town hall meeting March 7

February 26, 2022 2:03 PMFebruary 21, 2022 2:55 PM by Wendy Parker

East Cobb Cityhood town hall meeting — *The Committee for East Cobb Cityhood interactive map outlines the proposed boundaries down to the neighborhood level. For more detail, **click here**.*

The Committee for East Cobb Cityhood will be holding an in-person town hall meeting on March 7 to discuss the upcoming May 24 referendum.

The town hall starts at 6 p.m. at the Olde Towne Athletic Club (4950 Olde Towne Parkway), but it’s open only for citizens who live in the proposed city boundaries.

The cityhood group announced that the event sold out quickly and no more reservations are being accepted for those wishing to attend in person.

Group spokeswoman Cindy Cooperman said the event room at Olde Towne has a capacity of 300 and she’s received at least that many RSVP requests.

She said the group is working to live-stream the town hall and that likely will be available on its Facebook page.

This will be the first in-person event the group has had since East Cobb cityhood was revived in 2021.

The group had several virtual information sessions, including one earlier this month as cityhood legislation was being approved by the Georgia legislature.

While those sessions included questions from the community, they were selected by cityhood group leaders for discussion.

In the initial East Cobb cityhood effort in 2019, cityhood leaders held several town hall meetings and also participated in a forum with opponents.

But it was after that forum at Olde Towne that cityhood advocates said they would delay their efforts to 2021.

The current cityhood group includes some of the original members, and has not indicated if there will be other in-person meetings before the referendum, other than with specific community and neighborhood associations.

The referendum will ask registered voters in the proposed city whether or not they wish to incorporate. The East Cobb legislation included a map of around 60,000 people, centered along the Johnson Ferry Road corridor.

The law signed by Gov. Brian Kemp last year (you can read it here) includes a charter setting up a governance structure, proposed services and city operating procedures, and election boundaries.

If the referendum is approved, then elections for the mayor and six city council members would take place in November.

The cityhood group also has revised an interactive map produced for the original campaign that allows residents to search by address to see if their neighborhood is in the proposed city.

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East Cobb Cityhood bill signed into law; May 24 referendum set

February 17, 2022 2:08 PM by Wendy Parker

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has signed legislation calling for a May 24 referendum on East Cobb Cityhood.

Final passage of HB 841 took place on Tuesday in the Georgia House, and the bill was sent to the governor’s office to be signed into law.

Eligible voters inside the proposed East Cobb city limits will decide on incorporation on the same day as the Georgia general primary.

The ballot language included in the bill will ask voters the following question:

“Shall the Act incorporating the City of East Cobb in Cobb County according to the charter contained in the Act be approved?”

If the referendum is approved by a majority of the voters, elections for a mayor and six city council members will take place on the Nov. 8 general election, with the beginning of city operations and a two-year transition to start in January 2023.

The East Cobb legislation is the first of four cityhood bills in Cobb County to be considered in the current legislative session.

The proposed City of East Cobb would have roughly 60,000 people in a 25-square-mile area centered along Johnson Ferry Road, from Shallowford Road south to the Chattahoochee River and from the Fulton County line west to a line roughly along Murdock Road and Old Canton Road. Click here for a larger version of the map.

Revised East Cobb city map

On Thursday, the Georgia Senate passed similar legislation for Lost Mountain in west Cobb, and is set to vote on a bill for a referendum for Vinings.

A Mableton cityhood bill is still in the House.

All four Cobb cityhood bills call for May referendums, instead of November.

That sparked protests by Cobb government officials, who said they haven’t had time to assess the financial and service impacts.

On Tuesday, they addressed Cobb commissioners as part of a county “cityhood awareness campaign.” The major claim is that more than $45 million would be lost in county revenues if all four cities are created.

More than 200,000 people—nearly a quarter of Cobb’s population—live inside the proposed new cities.

Cobb has had its current existing cities—Marietta, Smyrna, Acworth, Kennesaw, Austell and Powder Springs—for more than a century, after Mableton briefly became a city and then went unincorporated.

Lost Mountain, Mableton and Vinings are proposing “city light” services that are focused on planning and zoning.

East Cobb is proposing planning and zoning, code enforcement and public safety services, and possibly parks and recreation.

At Tuesday’s commission work session, the heads of Cobb’s public safety agencies questioned the East Cobb financial feasibility study conclusions and expressed concerns about staffing, equipment, response time and training for the proposed East Cobb police, fire and 911 services.

The Committee for East Cobb Cityhood said it is planning an in-person town hall meeting for the general public soon, but has not set a date.

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Cobb officials question East Cobb police and fire proposals

February 17, 2022 2:24 PMFebruary 16, 2022 4:46 PM by Wendy Parker

The leaders of Cobb County government’s public safety agencies said Tuesday that police and fire services for the proposed City of East Cobb are lacking many financial and service details.

During a special called work session of the Cobb Board of Commissioners, the heads of the county’s police, fire and 911 services showed slides highlighting what they’re providing, but said a financial feasibility study for East Cobb raises more questions than answers about what a new city may be able to deliver.

“We’re not here to advocate, but to educate,” Cobb public safety director Randy Crider said during the virtual work session, which included no discussion among commissioners. “But I’ve been asked a lot of questions I don’t have answers for.”

Legislation calling for a May 24 referendum to determine East Cobb Cityhood is awaiting Gov. Brian Kemp’s signature into law. Three other cityhood bills—for Lost Mountain, Mableton and Vinings—also are expected to receive passage, with referendums also in May.

Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid told legislators in January that cityhood votes in all four proposed areas were being rushed, and that the county hadn’t had time to examine the financial and service impacts.

Those presentations were made Tuesday at the work session by Cobb public safety, parks and community development officials.

(You can watch a replay of the video by clicking here; and view the presentation slides by clicking here.)

The county has created a cityhood page that claims an estimated $45 million will be lost annually of all four new Cobb cities are created.

Nearly half of that—around $23 million—would come out of East Cobb, and most of the work session was devoted to East Cobb services, specifically police and fire. The other three cities are proposing “city light” services centered on controlling growth and development.

That was also the centerpiece of the original East Cobb legislation filed in March 2021 by former State Rep. Matt Dollar. Public safety was added last fall, as researchers from Georgia State University were conducting a financial feasibility study.

That study, released in November, concluded a City of East Cobb of around 60,000 people was financially feasible, even with public safety services estimated at costing $14 million a year.

The East Cobb bill also calls for planning and zoning, code enforcement and parks and recreation services.

More than half of the proposed city’s estimated $27 million in annual revenues would come from the 2.86 mills transferred from the Cobb Fire Fund.

At Tuesday’s work session, Crider repeated concerns he expressed to legislators that the East Cobb study is “just general” about public safety issues, including staffing, equipment, response time and training.

“We need to know what’s expected of us,” he said, referring to what may be included in intergovernmental and mutual aid agreements, similar to what the county provides in backup roles with Cobb’s six existing cities.

Crider said there aren’t enough details in the East Cobb study about exactly what specialty units a new city’s police department may have, such as SWAT units.

The East Cobb study also calls for a city fire department to consist of two stations—21 on Lower Roswell Road, at the East Cobb Government Service Center, and 15 on Oak Lane.

In showing commissioners a map of the proposed city, Cobb Fire Chief Bill Johnson said he has concerns about response time.

That’s because some parts of the proposed city (in red on the map) are served by stations that would remain in unincorporated Cobb. An area that would be located just outside of the city (in yellow) is now serviced by Station 15, which would be in the new city.

He also said he didn’t know how the East Cobb fire department would be staffed. The City of Roswell, for example, has many firefighters who work part-time shifts when off-duty from full-time jobs in other fire departments.

Stuart VanHoozer, the interim Cobb Fire Chief, and Cobb 911 Director Melissa Altiero also said they were unclear how their departments may be asked to provide support to a proposed City of East Cobb.

But Cindy Cooperman, a spokeswoman for the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood, called the county’s response “disappointing,” saying the county “has not properly briefed their staff on the well-established process in Georgia to form a city.”

Should a City of East Cobb referendum be approved, elections for a mayor and six city council members would take place in November, with a two-year transition period starting in January 2023.

She said the newly elected officials would work with a transition committee appointed by the governor to formalize processes and details for transferring services to be provided by the new city.

“This is not something new,” she said, referring to similar processes that have taken place in recent years in Milton, Johns Creek and Peachtree Corners. “These cities are thriving and have happy residents as a result.”

Cooperman also said that the “internal analysis of county staff is not credible when it suggests that the cost offset to $45M in revenue will only be approximately $450K.

“The county’s rushed attempt at an analysis was not thorough enough because many vital details on actual costs still need to be disclosed by the county.

“They had a year to analyze this properly and failed to do so,” Cooperman said.

The only direct meeting between East Cobb Cityhood forces and the county was in April of 2021 between Dollar and Cupid.

Cooperman said the cityhood group reached out to Cupid for a meeting in November with the addition of police and fire services, but has not yet heard back.

Cobb government spokesman Ross Cavitt referred East Cobb News to a statement Cupid made in a video early this week “that she is open to meet with anyone.”

He provided a statement from Cupid referencing the Dollar meeting and saying that “I met other proponents about the effort approximately 2-3 weeks ago during a legislative meeting. They said they wanted to meet again and we will work on making that happen.”

Cooperman said the cityhood group is planning an in-person town hall after the Cobb County School District winter break next week, but a specific date has not been set.

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East Cobb Cityhood bill gets final passage in Ga. legislature

February 14, 2022 5:31 PMFebruary 14, 2022 4:28 PM by Wendy Parker

East Cobb City Council district map — *For a larger view of the proposed East Cobb city council districts, **click here**.*

The Georgia House on Monday adopted Senate substitute legislation to call for a referendum for a proposed City of East Cobb.

HB 841 (you can read it here) was approved by a 96-62 vote in the lower chamber without debate, and will be sent to Gov. Brian Kemp to be signed into law.

It would establish a May 24 referendum for voters in the proposed city to decide whether or not to incorporate.

A second vote in the full House was needed after the Senate passed a substitute bill on Thursday that included clarifying language about proposed city council districts.

The six city council members will be chosen citywide, but they will have to live in the district they seek to represent (see map).

The House version of that bill did not indicate that.

The bill is the first of four Cityhood bills in Cobb County that has passed the legislature.

Last week, Cobb County government published a Cityhood Resource Page that angered members of the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood.

The county is spending more than $40,000 for lobbyists to oppose the cityhood bills.

Cobb officials estimate the impact to the county budget would be more than $45 million a year if all four proposed cities—East Cobb, Vinings, Lost Mountain and Mableton—would come into being.

The financial estimates contend that nearly half of those revenues would come from a City of East Cobb of around 60,000 residents along the Johnson Ferry Road corridor.

The county also has protested moving up the referendums in each of the four Cobb cities from November to May, saying it would put an additional burden on Cobb Elections for the general primary.

But the East Cobb Cityhood group questions the county’s financials and objected to taxpayer money being spent to fight the bills.

The Vinings and Lost Mountain bills have passed the House and are headed for the Senate; the Mableton bill is being heard by a House committee.

The Cobb Board of Commissioners is holding a special work session Tuesday at 6 p.m. to cover cityhood issues, including potential impact on county finances and services.

It’s a virtual-only event and can be viewed on the county’s YouTube channel.

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Cobb government, cityhood advocates ramp up talking points

February 12, 2022 3:55 PMFebruary 11, 2022 4:37 PM by Wendy Parker

With one cityhood bill—in East Cobb—nearing passage in the Georgia legislature and three others likely to follow, Cobb County government has accelerated efforts to counter what’s been a rapid effort to put referendums before voters in those four localities in May.

The county government has published a special page it calls its Cityhood Resource Center to provide information to citizens about the potential impacts of cityhood.

Like the East Cobb legislation, bills are being considered to allow voters in proposed cities of Lost Mountain (West Cobb), Vinings and Mableton to vote in referendums on May 24, the date of the 2022 primary election.

The East Cobb bill passed the Senate Thursday but must go back to the House since a slightly different version was adopted.

But that bill could be finalized and signed by Gov. Brian Kemp into law by early next week.

County officials have protested that moving up the referendums from November to May won’t give them enough time to assess the financial and service impact, should any or all those proposed cities be formed.

A “summary impact” page prepared by the county claims an annual figure of $45.4 million would be lost in revenues if all four cities are created, with the lion’s share of that sum—$23.5 million—coming out of the area of the proposed city of East Cobb.

That’s nearly 25 square miles centered along the Johnson Ferry Road corridor, with nearly 60,000 people.

The populations of the proposed cities of Lost Mountain and Mableton would be larger than East Cobb.

But East Cobb is the only one of the four cityhood bills that would include police and fire services.

Of revenue loss to the county, $14 million would come from the Cobb Fire Fund and another $8 million would come from the county’s general fund.

The East Cobb legislation calls for transferring the 2.86 mills in the current fire fund as the main source of city revenues.

On its cityhood page, the county said that while there will be some reduction in expenses if new cities are created, “any savings are not expected to be more than the loss of revenue to the county. This will in all likelihood not reduce the county’s general fund millage.”

In a message sent out Thursday in her official e-mail newsletter, Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid said that “I am not here to thwart efforts towards determining the future of one’s community. As chairwoman of the county, I am here to ensure some sense of transparency and to better educate Cobb Citizens, more broadly, about how cityhood can impact all here.”

The county also is spending money for lobbyists, including former Cobb Commission Chairman Sam Olens. He’s a partner with Dentons, a large law firm, and he and another lawyer there, Daniel Baskerville, are being paid in excess of $10,000 each, according to the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission.

Other Cobb lobbyists are deputy county manager Jimmy Gisi and former State Rep. Ed Lindsey, who also is being paid more than $10,000 to oppose the cityhood bills.

But those efforts may be too late.

The Lost Mountain and Vinings bills passed the House and are being considered in the Senate. The Mableton bill is being heard by a House committee.

On Wednesday, the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood blasted the county’s lobbying efforts, saying that “we condemn the use of county taxpayer funds to mobilize paid lobbyists at the Georgia Capitol to work against passage of the cityhood bills.”

The group claimed that the lobbying decisions were made “without the consent of the Commission as a whole, and can only be interpreted as an attempt to deny citizens the right to vote for or against cityhood through a referendum.”

During a virtual information session Thursday night (you can watch a replay here), the East Cobb cityhood group reiterated its main thrust during the last year, that the citizens of the proposed city should have the right to self-determination.

They also issued a new informational handout and revealed the first maps of the three proposed city council districts (map above; link here).

During the call, cityhood leaders took issue with the county’s financial conclusions, and pointed out that the wrong map of the proposed East Cobb city was being used.

They emphasized the main reason for a revival of East Cobb cityhood—first introduced in 2019—was to preserve its suburban nature and stave off high-density development.

In addition to public safety, the other proposed services in the bill are planning and zoning, code enforcement and parks and recreation.

“Redevelopment is coming to East Cobb, one way or another,” committee member Sarah Haas said, adding that “we believe that local government is the best course to chart the future of the community.”

While Cupid said that “there is marginal voter turnout in May primaries,” Craig Chapin, the East Cobb group chairman, said this year’s primaries should be high given interest in the gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races, among others.

The county also included a memo from Cobb Elections director Janine Eveler to Gisi saying that including as many as four cityhood referendums on an already-crowded primary ballot reflecting newly reapportioned seats would create “additional complications to our workload” and increases “the risk level for error and failure to meet deadlines. If you have any influence with legislators, I would respectfully ask that the cityhood referendums be held until the November election, rather than conducting them in May.”

The East Cobb bill has been sponsored by Matt Dollar, who resigned his seat in the legislature on Feb. 1. On Thursday’s virtual meeting, he said that he was told by the Cobb Elections office that Feb. 15—this coming Tuesday—would be the deadline that would be needed to run a required local notice in order for the referendum to be on the May ballot.

He didn’t address Eveler’s concerns about staffing and time compression. Her office also has to oversee a special election to fill Dollar’s term for the rest of the year and that has been called for April 5.

The desire to have a referendum in May, Dollar said, would be that if it passes, mayoral and city council elections could be held in November, and a city could be better prepared to be operational at the start of 2023.

“We get to have the city leadership onboarded when the city takes effect,” he said, adding that the transition to full cityhood is expected to take two years.

The East Cobb Cityhood group said it would be holding another virtual session and an in-person town hall, but didn’t give any dates.

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East Cobb Cityhood bill passes Ga. Senate; returns to House

February 11, 2022 12:20 PMFebruary 10, 2022 1:00 PM by Wendy Parker

The Georgia Senate on Thursday adopted a bill that would establish a cityhood referendum for East Cobb, but the legislation needs further action by the House.

By a 31-18 vote, the Senate approved HB 841, which would call for a May 24 referendum.

The bill that passed the Senate was a substitute from a Senate committee that included clarifying language on residency requirements for city council candidates.

That’s why the bill has to go back to the House, since a different version was passed there.

A motion by Sen. John Albers, the Senate sponsor of the East Cobb bill, to transfer the bill to the full House passed 30-16, but it didn’t get the required two-thirds of a majority vote.

Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan referred the bill back to the lower chamber in “normal order,” meaning it has to go through the committee process.

Albers, a Republican from North Fulton whose district will include the proposed East Cobb city boundaries next year, said that voters in East Cobb deserve the right to self-determination through a referendum.

He noted that in the last 17 years, 11 cityhood bills in Georgia have been voted in, and 10 of them have passed.

“We do not create cities,” he said from the Senate well. “We only create opportunities for citizens in those areas to create them.”

Two Democratic senators spoke against the bill, mainly for the timing of the referendum.

The original East Cobb bill was to have been in November, but was moved up to May in a change made during the House committee process by former State Rep. Matt Dollar.

He was the bill’s chief sponsor before resigning after it was sent to the Senate.

Sen. Michelle Au of Johns Creek, a member of the Senate State and Local Government Operations Committee, said that while “I don’t have an objection to cityhood movements,” the May referendum is an “arbitrary deadline.

“There’s no reason that I can see that we need to rush.”

Three other Cobb cityhood bills—Lost Mountain, Vinings and Mableton—also have May referendums.

Au said more time is needed for the financial impact of those new cities, if they come to pass, on Cobb County government.

State Sen. Michael “Doc” Rhett, a Democrat from South Cobb, made the same point, and also said the May referendums would be hard for Cobb Elections to include on an already full primary ballot.

“I understand the need for autonomy,” Rhett said. “Let’s slow down.”

Voting for the East Cobb bill was Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick, a Republican from East Cobb. She did not speak from the Senate floor on behalf of the bill.

Her district currently includes the proposed East Cobb area but is not under new boundaries redrawn in reapportionment.

She was opposed to the East Cobb cityhood bill when it first came up in three years ago but said recently she was supportive of letting voters decide on whether to have a city.

The East Cobb Cityhood group is having a virtual information session Thursday at 6 p.m.; you can register by clicking here.

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!

East Cobb Cityhood group to hold virtual town hall Thursday

February 10, 2022 10:00 AMFebruary 8, 2022 6:39 PM by Wendy Parker

The Committee for East Cobb Cityhood is holding what it’s calling a virtual information session Thursday, with a bill calling for a referendum nearing passage in the Georgia legislature.

The town hall starts at 6 p.m.; you can register by clicking here.

The group said the webinar will cover 45 minutes and will “present the 5 reasons why East Cobb should become a city.”

Attendees are asked to answer three optional questions at sign-up: selecting the municipal service they believe is most important for East Cobb; whether residents living in the proposed city should be able to vote in a referendum to establish a municipality; and if they’re in favor of a city of East Cobb “with local representation and local control.”

Participants can also leave questions and comments in a separate field.

The group said in an e-mail that an in-person public town hall is being planned but a date has not been set.

Cityhood group members have been visible at legislative committee meetings in recent weeks as HB 841 awaits action in the full Senate.

The legislation has been changed several times since being introduced in 2021 by former State Rep. Matt Dollar, who resigned last week after the bill was passed out of the House.

Among them are moving up a referendum from November to May, and changing the way a mayor is chosen, from having six city council members pick from among themselves to being directly elected by voters.

Those two additions to a substitute bill by Dollar required a second vote by the House Governmental Affairs Committee.

The cityhood group held several virtual town halls last year, but none since a financial feasibility study was released in November that added police and fire services.

A charter in the East Cobb bill also provides for planning and zoning and code enforcement services for a city of around 60,000 people, centered along the Johnson Ferry Road corridor.

The cityhood group said it would have information sessions in January, but it has not done so since the 2022 legislative session began.

Last week, the East Cobb bill was favorably reported out of a Senate committee by a 4-3 vote.

The East Cobb bill is scheduled to be debated and voted on the Senate floor Thursday at 10 a.m. If it is approved there, the bill would become law after being signed by Gov. Brian Kemp.

Three other Cobb cityhood bills are being considered in the legislature. Lost Mountain and Vinings bills are slated for House floor action, and a bill for Mableton cityhood is also pending in the House.

Like the East Cobb bill, they would have referendums in May instead of the original November dates.

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!

East Cobb Cityhood group presses for ‘right’ to referendum

January 15, 2022 4:12 PM by Wendy Parker

East Cobb Cityhood referendum — *Members of the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood with State Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick (third from left) at the Georgia Capitol this week.*

After a bill to call for a referendum about creating a City of East Cobb passed a Georgia House Committee this week, the group pushing for the legislation created a petition to build public support.

The Committee for East Cobb Cityhood on Saturday sent out an e-mail with a link to an online petition.

“The residents of East Cobb deserve the right to vote in a referendum to decide whether we should become the City of East Cobb,” states the petition, which is addressed to East Cobb-area legislators, including the bill’s sponsors.

“The decision is best left in the hands of the voters in the next election. We should not be denied our right to vote on the question of local, representative government for our community.”

HB 841, which got the approval of the House Governmental Affairs Committee on Thursday, would call for a referendum this year that would let voters within the proposed city limits decide on whether East Cobb should become a city.

If the bill fails to pass in the Georgia General Assembly, there would be no referendum, and the cityhood issue would have to begin again in the next legislative cycle.

In 2019, an East Cobb cityhood bill was abandoned by supporters and never was considered by the legislature.

At a subcommittee hearing Wednesday and the committee meeting Thursday, local officials were asked by a lawmaker if the citizens of East Cobb should be able to vote on whether a city should be created.

Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid wanted more time to examine the bill and a financial feasibility study, saying voters don’t have “clear and accurate information.”

She said she doesn’t oppose cityhood bills in general, but “I’m in opposition to a bill being passed that has not been made clear, with information that is incomplete or is inaccurate so voters can make a wise decision.”

When pressed by State Rep. Barry Fleming about whether she opposed HB 841 (a substitute to the original bill) as it is written now, she said, “at this time, yes.”

On Saturday afternoon, the East Cobb Alliance, a group of citizens opposed to cityhood, issued a response to the cityhood group’s online petition, accusing the latter’s e-mail of largely containing “half-truths” about the issue of a referendum and other topics.

In a lengthy e-mail message, the Alliance, who had a representative at the legislative meetings this week, also said “the actual ballot language is not crystal clear as to what regular voters (not legislators and lawyers, but regular people) can decipher on the ballot. It is as convoluted as the trick-polling in which the Cityhood group has engaged.”

The Alliance message also delves into the addition of police and fire services to the East Cobb financial feasibility study, after proposing a “city lite” set of services without public safety in the bill introduced in 2021.

“Right out of the gate, a City of East Cobb will be operating at a huge loss, and the city will have to take on heavy debt immediately,” the Alliance e-mail concludes.

East Cobb House Republican Matt Dollar was the only co-sponsor in 2019, but this time around got the support of State Rep. Sharon Cooper.

HB 841 also will need a local sponsor in the Senate if it passes in the full House. (A House vote will not take place before Jan. 24, since the legislature will be holding budget meetings all next week.)

In 2019, State Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick, a Republican from East Cobb, said she couldn’t support the bill because she got a lot of negative feedback from constituents.

She told East Cobb News on Friday that she is more receptive to the bill this time.

“The bill and the map are much different than 2019 and I am getting a lot more positive feedback on it this time,” she said. “I have said all along that if there was sufficient interest from the citizens in voting on this issue, I would support it and that appears to be the case this time. Then the community can vote it up or down.”

Kirkpatrick, however, isn’t a co-sponsor. While she represents the proposed City of East Cobb currently, her District 32 will not include any of that area in the 2022 election, due to redrawn lines during reapportionment.

Instead, the Senate co-sponsor would be John Albers, a Republican from North Fulton, whose District 56 will soon include the proposed East Cobb city area.

Among the signatories to the East Cobb Cityhood group’s petition include Scott Sweeney, a former Cobb Board of Education member who joined the group last year, and current school board member David Banks, who represents the Pope and Lassiter clusters in East Cobb.

East Cobb Cityhood bill approved by Ga. House committee

January 14, 2022 11:09 AMJanuary 13, 2022 12:23 PM by Wendy Parker

Despite requests from Cobb County government officials for a delay, the Georgia House Governmental Affairs Committee approved the East Cobb Cityhood bill Thursday morning.

After a nearly 90-minute discussion, the committee voted 9-4 to send the bill to the full House.

The bill, if passed by the legislature, would call for a November referendum for voters in the proposed city of 55,000 to decide on incorporation.

It’s the first of four cityhood bills in Cobb County to be considered this year, and drew the attendance of Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid and two of her department heads.

(You can watch a replay of the meeting by clicking here.)

HB 841 has been revised from when it was proposed in March 2021 by East Cobb Republican House members Matt Dollar and Sharon Cooper (substitute bill as approved here).

A substitute bill was made available at Thursday’s meeting but has not yet been posted online; the bill has an additional co-sponsor in Republican Rep. Ed Setzler of West Cobb, who’s the main sponsor of a Lost Mountain cityhood bill.

On Wednesday, a subcommittee heard the East Cobb cityhood proposal, which includes police and fire, planning and zoning and code enforcement services.

Public safety services were added to a feasibility study that concluded in November that a proposed city of East Cobb would be financially viable, with an annual surplus of $3 million.

Those issues prompted remarks by Cupid to the committee that she wanted the community to have an opportunity to better understand “the merits of what’s in the feasibility study.”

She said she wasn’t opposed to cities, but “I’m opposed to persons having to vote and not having clear and accurate information beforehand.”

When pressed by committee member Rep. Barry Fleming if she would campaign against an East Cobb referendum, she said it was her role to represent all Cobb citizens on an issue that would have a financial impact on the county.

“So you’re in opposition to the bill, correct?” Fleming asked her.

“I don’t believe I stated that sir,” Cupid said.

“I’m asking,” he said.

Cupid said that “I’m in opposition to a bill being passed that has not been made clear, with information that is incomplete or is inaccurate so voters can make a wise decision.”

When he pressed her further if she opposed the bill as it is written now, she said, “at this time, yes.”

While cityhood bills in Georgia must have a financial feasibility study, they’re not required to include a study on how a new city would impact its county.

Bill Volckmann, Cobb’s chief financial officer, told the committee he wanted to have more time to examine how the city of East Cobb’s proposed major revenue mechanisms would impact the county.

The other three Cobb cityhood bills—Mableton, Vinings and Lost Mountain—do not include public safety services.

The East Cobb feasibility study includes the proposed transfer of 2.6 mills in the current Cobb fire fund to provide most of the city’s revenues.

Volckman said that would negatively affect the county’s general fund and its 911 fund and while he was not for or against East Cobb cityhood, “that is something we would like to have some time to go through and share those impacts with the citizens so they can make an informed decision.”

Cobb public safety director Randy Crider noted that the Cobb Fire Department—of which he was formerly chief—has a top insurance rating and was “curious to know how [East Cobb] residents would have a better fire department.”

Marietta also has what’s called an ISO 1 rating, and has six fire stations. Smyrna has five fire stations. They’re the only two cities in Cobb with separate fire departments, and Cobb Fire provides support for major fires and in special situations.

Crider said that given that the proposed East Cobb fire department would have only two stations serving a city with 25 square miles, “how much are we going to be relied on to provide support?”

Committee members didn’t question them, but some were concerned about another aspect of the bill, its governing structure.

According to the proposed East Cobb city charter, a six-member city council would be elected, with three members coming from three separate districts and three others elected at-large.

Council members would then choose a mayor among themselves to serve a two-year term.

Dollar said the reasoning behind that structure is that “we’re wary of one person coming in with a vision for East Cobb.

“We wanted this to be a true city council,” he said.

State Rep. Teri Anulewicz, a Democrat who formerly served on the Smyrna City Council, isn’t on the committee, but participated remotely.

She said such a structure could conceivably concentrate power to potentially having four council members from the same neighborhood, down to the level of a cul-de-sac.

“That’s not a city,” Anulewicz said. “That’s an HOA.”

But supporters of the bill from the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood reiterated points they made to the subcommittee Wednesday about the need for local representation closer to the community level.

Setzler questioned whether East Cobb residents now are getting an adequate level of police and fire services.

Craig Chapin, the cityhood group’s president, said he and other supporters don’t feel like their concerns are being heard on a Cobb Board of Commissioners whose four district members each represent nearly 200,000 people.

“This isn’t a criticism of Cobb or its leadership,” he said. “We want the ability to have local control.”

The next step for the cityhood bill will be to be placed on the calendar for the full House to consider.

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