East Cobb Cityhood Archives

Comparing proposed City of East Cobb finances to Cobb, North Fulton cities

July 16, 2019 1:45 PM by Wendy Parker

*Milton City Hall, which opened in 2017 near a mixed-use development in Crabapple, was built with funding from a $10 million bond issue. (ECN photos)*

We’re still waiting to hear back about the work of the East Cobb cityhood financial committee (we were told in late June it would be “a few weeks.”)

In the meantime, we pulled the latest budget and financial information we could find for similar municipalities in Cobb, and in particular, some of the newer cities in North Fulton.

The seven cities we looked at all provide more than what’s being proposed now in the East Cobb cityhood legislation—a state-mandated minimum of three services, in this case police, fire and community development.

While it’s possible a proposed City of East Cobb, should it come to pass, could add services as some others have, for now its “independent” financial committee is limiting its work to those three called for in the bill.

The audit group is scouring through a Georgia State University study released in December that declared the proposed City of East Cobb “financially feasible” with annual revenues of around $49.5 million and a nearly $4 million surplus to start.

The goal of the finance committee, cityhood leader Rob Eble said last month, is to come up with a workable budget. So those numbers are likely to change, perhaps a good bit, especially if the proposed city boundary lines are altered.

Eble told us last month the cityhood group wants to have a town hall meeting in August or once the financial work is complete.

Modeling after Milton

One of the cities the East Cobb group has referenced in its public statements as a model is Milton, the northernmost municipality in Fulton County, and which voted to incorporate in 2006.

It offered police, fire and community development to start, and has added public works and parks and recreation.

Milton’s population of just under 40,000 is less than half of what’s being proposed for East Cobb now, but it’s affluent with similar demographics, per capita income and median home values, as well as public school rankings.

Milton’s current fiscal year 2019 budget of $29.2 million is calculated on a millage rate of 4.39, which has held steady since the city began.

That’s one of the talking points made by East Cobb cityhood leaders, who’ve said in town hall meetings this spring that property taxes wouldn’t be higher than what’s currently levied in unincorporated Cobb.

While some East Cobb cityhood skeptics are dubious about the claim to hold the line at 2.96 mills, Milton’s been able to make major capital improvements due to bond issues. After leasing office space for more than a decade, a city hall building opened in 2017, funded with a $10 million bond issue approved by Milton voters.

*The Green at Crabapple Market opened in 2018, across from Milton City Hall.*

The two-story building includes event space and is located near a three-story mixed-use development, featuring shops, restaurants and high-end townhomes, in the historic Crabapple district.

Later this week, Milton officials will be breaking ground on a $14.8 million public safety and municipal court complex to be funded through revenue bonds.

For now, possible City of East Cobb plans would be to purchase and utilize the East Cobb Government Service Center on Lower Roswell Road. The facility houses Cobb Police Precinct 4 headquarters and Cobb Fire Station 20, as well as a Cobb Tax Commissioner satellite office.

But there’s nothing in the proposed charter referencing where a city hall and municipal court may be located.

Linked below are the latest budget documents for six other cities in Cobb and North Fulton. Sandy Springs and Johns Creek also came into being in 2006; the others are decades-old cities that have offered a variety of services for many years.

That’s especially the case in Marietta, whose overall budget of $331 million includes its operations of the Marietta Board of Lights and Water (expected 2020 revenues of $168 million). That overall figure, plus the general fund budget and millage rate, are both included in the table below.

Community leaders in Mableton have had a bill filed in the legislature, similar to East Cobb’s. That municipality would have a population near 90,000, with proposed services including community development, but not police and fire.

The South Cobb Alliance group pushing Mableton cityhood is still raising money to fund a required financial feasibility study.

Cobb-North Fulton City Budget Comparison

	Pop.	Budget	Millage Rate	Services
Alpharetta	65,334	$141M	5.75	Police, Fire, CD, PR, PW
Johns Creek	84,310	$63M	3.84	Police, Fire, CD, PR, PW
Marietta	59,714	$331M ($61.79 GF)	5.617 (2.788 GF)	Police, Fire, CD, PR, PW
Milton	38,771	$29.2M	4.39	Police, Fire, CD, PR, PW
Roswell	94,598	$152M	4.955	Police, Fire, CD, PR, PW
Sandy Springs	99,769	$116M	4.731	Police, Fire, CD, PR, PW
Smyrna	54,958	$92M	8.99	Police, Fire, CD, PR, PW
East Cobb	96,668	$49.5M	2.96	Police, Fire, CD

Abbrevations:

CD: Community Development (Planning/Zoning, Code Enforcement, Fees/Licensing)
PR: Parks and Recreation
PW: Public Works (Electricity, Sanitation, Stormwater Management, Transportation, Water and Sewer)

Sources:

City budget documents, U.S. Census, City-Data.com

East Cobb News Cityhood Coverage

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 city finances scrutinized by independent working group

September 16, 2019 5:18 PMJune 21, 2019 1:13 PM by Wendy Parker

An independent panel has been poring over a financial feasibility study for the proposed City of East Cobb this summer as it also fashions a working budget from those numbers.

Rob Eble, a spokesman for the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood, told East Cobb News the group’s results are expected to be made public later this summer, with another town hall meeting tentatively scheduled for August.

“They are taking this very seriously,” Eble said. “All of their findings will be made public—good or bad.”

He said the group—which is not part of the cityhood committee—is being led by Bill Green, a former financial executive with Coca-Cola and Delta.

The other financial experts, whom Eble did not identify, included those with experience with a company on the Fortune 1000 list, as well as a CPA, an auditor and someone with a background in public budgeting.

Also involved in the process, Eble said, is a public finance attorney.

Eble said the group has been given two mandates: Conduct a complete audit of the feasibility study, and propose a realistic budget.

The study was commissioned by the cityhood committee last fall for $35,000, and was done by The Center for State and Local Finance at Georgia State University.

(Download and read the study here.)

The main conclusion of the study is that a City of East Cobb, with a proposed population of 96,000, is financially feasible with a millage rate of 2.96, what’s currently levied for fire services in unincorporated Cobb.

The study asserts that the City of East Cobb would not have to impose a millage rate higher than what those currently in unincorporated pay in property taxes.

That’s providing police, fire and community development services, the mandated minimum of three services required by Georgia law for new cities.

The study figured an annual budget of $45.6 million, and estimated revenues of $49.8 million.

One of the revenue lines is nearly $7.3 million in franchise fees. Those are additional monies collected by municipalities for things like electric, natural gas, telephone and cable television services.

East Cobb city finances

Questioning budget assumptions

That figure is being questioned by a vocal opponent of cityhood. Bill Simon said he checked with officials from Cobb EMC, who told him the electrical provider doesn’t collect franchise fees in unincorporated Cobb.

If East Cobb should become a city, it would have the power to charge all residential and commercial customers a four-percent surcharge on their monthly Cobb EMC bills.

If the city elects not to impose this charge, Simon said, there would be a deficit of $3.1 million.

That also amounts to what Simon considers another tax, which is among the reasons he is against a new city. He provided East Cobb News a copy of a June 3 letter sent to him by Kevin Moore, the general counsel for Cobb EMC.

Eble said “I appreciate people questioning” the franchise fee matter, because “it’s very complex” and that’s one of the reasons why the cityhood committee is having the feasibility study examined.

He maintained the cityhood committee’s pledge to “not raise taxes and not raise fees. That is the goal, and it’s all being reviewed.”

The existing six cities in Cobb all have higher overall millage rates than unincorporated Cobb, which has spurred some of the skepticism about cityhood proponents’ claims.

Eble said that the study is required by state law in order for a cityhood bill to be introduced, and was meant only to be an outline.

“We want to bring it to life,” he said, “validate what’s in it and build a budget.”

Mapping a new city

The audit of the feasibility study, and any budget formulated by the finance group, may have to be amended if the proposed city boundaries (view map here) are altered. At an April town hall meeting at Walton High School, cityhood leaders said they’ve been lobbied by citizens, especially in the Pope and Lassiter areas, for possible inclusion.

The area around Shallowford and Trickum roads in northeast Cobb was mentioned by a cityhood leader as a possible new northern boundary.

As drawn up for the study and in the legislation, the proposed city encompasses all of unincorporated Cobb Commission District 2 east of I-75 and excluding the Cumberland Community Improvement District.

Eble told East Cobb News Thursday that the cityhood group met recently with officials in the state reapportionment office, at which “we have discussed an expanded map. I would say it has not been formally opposed.”

He added that “there has definitely been talk and we would like to see the borders expanded,” and that he was hopeful “we would get it done” well before the legislative session begins in January.

East Cobb News Cityhood Coverage

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 talks budget, taxes at Powers Ferry civic forum

May 10, 2019 1:03 PMMay 9, 2019 7:13 PM by Wendy Parker

David Birdwell, East Cobb Cityhood group — *“We think we have time to get feedback and do this thing right,” said David Birdwell of East Cobb Cityhood group. (ECN photo)*

In their third public appearance, leaders of an East Cobb cityhood group announced Wednesday they had formed a finance committee to put in motion a working budget proposal.

David Birdwell and Rob Eble, the spokesman for the cityhood steering committee, said the panel is made up of financial experts, including corporate CFOs.

They wouldn’t identify those with the financial committee for now, but Eble said after a Powers Ferry Corridor Alliance meeting at Brumby Elementary School that one of the individuals has some public budgeting experience.

The committee also will be scrutinizing a financial feasibility study conducted for the cityhood group by researchers at Georgia State University (read it here).

“They’re going to go line-by-line through that feasibility study,” Eble said, to ensure it’s accurate and “to try and create a budget.”

The feasibility study concluded that a City of East Cobb providing police, fire and community development services (including planning and zoning), and based on a population of 96,000, would have projected revenues of $49.8 million, and expenses totalling $45.6 million (see chart from the study in graphic below).

That’s with a property tax rate levied at 2.96 mills, the same paid by homeowners in unincorporated Cobb now for fire services.

Revising the map?

The feasibility study was requirement for a cityhood bill to be filed in the recent Georgia legislative session, which includes a proposed city charter and a proposed map that is likely to change.

(View the interactive city map here)

The cityhood group also was scheduled to meet Thursday with officials at the state reapportionment office about the possibility of changing the boundary lines.

Birdwell and Eble both characterized the meeting as seeking out “scenarios” for moving the lines beyond the current boundaries, roughly the East Cobb portion of commissioner Bob Ott’s District 2, to include more of the Pope and Lassiter attendance zones.

The proposed city does not include any of the Sprayberry or Kell clusters.

Both said they didn’t know how the final lines might be drawn, as that is a function of the legislature as it considers the cityhood bill next year.

Birdwell did reiterate the cityhood group’s insistence that those living in a City of East Cobb wouldn’t be paying higher tax rates than they are now.

Changing the city lines would mean changing all those financial numbers, and Birdwell said that “if it’s a real material change, we’ll figure out a way to do the feasibility study to satisfy the [legislative] process.”

Skepticism remains

One citizen trying to keep an open mind is Connie Day, a member of the PFCA board who lives near Brumby in the Stratford neighborhood.

While she said she appreciates the cityhood group for addressing “what’s on peoples’ minds” about the issue, she wonders what the impact will be on taxes.

When asked if she thought the city could be run at or below the current county millage rate, Day laughed for a second, then said, “the skeptic in me says it’s going to be a challenge.”

Day said her property tax assessment has gone up by 20 percent, so she’s already paying more in taxes anyway. That’s not her only question.

“If feels like another layer of government,” she said. “I’m not dissatisfied with the level of services I’m getting now. Right now, I’m not feeling the pain point” that might persuade her to support cityhood (a referendum would take place if the legislature passes the cityhood bill next year).

Also listening to the cityhood group’s presentation Wednesday was Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce, who has noted previously that all six Cobb municipalities have higher tax millage rates than the county.

He said he was encouraged to hear about the budget proposal, so “we can get a real comparison.”

Eble said the budget committee’s work could be done in another 60 days or so.

The cityhood group is planning another town hall in mid-June.

More East Cobb News Cityhood Coverage

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 to speak at Powers Ferry community meeting

May 7, 2019 3:43 PMMay 6, 2019 12:52 PM by Wendy Parker

On Wednesday East Cobb cityhood leaders will address a meeting of the Powers Ferry Corridor Alliance.

The meeting starts at 7 p.m. at Brumby Elementary School (815 Terrell Mill Road). The PFCA, formerly known as the Terrell Mill Community Association, is a civic group, which has occasional community meetings.

Also scheduled to speak are Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce and Cobb Commissioner Bob Ott, with topics including county police staffing issues and a transit update.

Other updates include what’s happening in the Powers Ferry corridor, including the MarketPlace Terrell Mill and Restaurant Row redevelopment projects.

Part of the Powers Ferry corridor would be included in the proposed City of East Cobb, down to around the intersection at Terrell Mill Road.

Below that, the Powers Ferry area is included in the Cumberland Community Improvement District, which is not included in the proposed city limits.

Last week, the cityhood group held a town hall meeting of its own at Walton High School (see links below).

East Cobb City map: Defining and redrawing the lines

May 5, 2019 6:13 PMMay 2, 2019 5:18 PM by Wendy Parker

From the moment East Cobb Cityhood proponents issued a proposed map last December, questions abounded from the public: Who drew this East Cobb city map? Why isn’t my neighborhood in it?

Perhaps the biggest silent question that could have been implied is this one: What does it mean to be in East Cobb?

Advocates for a new city say one of the objectives is to help create a better sense of community identity. That certainly could be a by-product in an area that’s been building out in sprawling, unincorporated suburban fashion for nearly 50 years.

But how the City of East Cobb proposal now before the legislature, and that could go to voters in a referendum next year, finally comes to fruition depends on how those municipal boundaries may ultimately be decided.

The map that’s been drawn up is the East Cobb portion of Bob Ott’s Cobb Commission District 2, at least in unincorporated Cobb and excluding the Cumberland Community Improvement District.

That drew suspicions about Ott’s possible involvement in the cityhood effort (which he denies).

But it’s a city heavy with the Walton and Wheeler attendance zones, a little of Pope and Lassiter and none from Sprayberry and Kell.

How can that be called East Cobb?

The cityhood bill filed near the end of the 2019 legislative session includes that map, and leaders of the group insist that the map, and everything in the bill, including a proposed city charter, is subject to change.

In fact, at a town hall meeting they held Monday, they confirmed that changing the proposed boundaries is in the works, and could cross Sandy Plains Road, out toward Shallowford and Trickum Roads.

“The lines will change,” said David Birdwell, a member of the cityhood group, said at the Walton meeting. “It depends on how far we go.”

The feasibility study conducted for the cityhood group according to the present lines would include a population of 96,000, which would make East Cobb the second-largest city in metro Atlanta.

The Cityhood group also released an interactive map this week that lets readers find out whether they’re in the presently proposed boundaries.

(FWIW the coverage area of East Cobb News is most everything east of I-75 and I-575, including most of the ZIP codes of 30062, 30066, 30067, 30068 and the Cobb portion of 30075. That’s a population of around 200,000; view demographic details here.)

Subject to change

Cityhood leaders have said that some boundaries had to be submitted with the bill. The legislation also calls for a six-member city council and specified census blocks and voting precincts.

Those too are a rough draft and are likely to be changed; a few of the voting precincts indicated in the bill are either non-existent or misnumbered.

Five of the six council districts would include some or a good bit of the Walton attendance zone (it’s the third-largest high school in Cobb).

It’s uncertain for now how that school zone dynamic would change in an expanded proposed city.

Birdwell said that an amendment to the feasibility study could be requested if those lines do change, so a new study (and its budgeting and finance assumptions) may not be necessary before the legislature would take up the bill in 2020.

“It’s their discretion to make the final call,” said Karen Hallacy, another member of the cityhood group.

The legislative process

Kay Kirkpatrick, East Cobb city map — *State Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick*

Even though East Cobb cityhood is considered local legislation (lawmakers in the proposed new city have to sponsor it), a bill would be voted on by both houses in the Georgia General Assembly.

State. Rep. Matt Dollar (R-East Cobb) is the House sponsor. State Rep. Sharon Cooper, also of East Cobb, said she hasn’t decided about cityhood and didn’t sign on as a sponsor.

“The meeting was very informative,” she said after the Monday town hall. “This community wants input, and I think it clarifies a lot of misconceptions. I’m like any other citizen, just getting input.”

The bill doesn’t need the support of the Cobb delegation. State Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick, an East Cobb Republican, would need to sponsor the bill if it crosses over from the House, but for now she remains non-committal about cityhood.

“I’m trying to keep an open mind until the end of the year,” she said after the town hall. “The bill has a tough road ahead of it,” as any bill does. Some recent cityood bills and referenda also have been defeated.

By time an East Cobb bill might cross over, Kirkpatrick said, “I’ll have a better idea whether East Cobb wants to be a city.

“I’ve gotten a lot of negative feedback, but then people hear about the police and the idea of more local control,” she said. “I’ll bet they [cityhood leaders] picked up some support tonight.”

East Cobb News Cityhood Coverage

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!

How many police officers would a City of East Cobb need?

May 1, 2019 4:12 PM by Wendy Parker

Jerry Quan, East Cobb cityhood, police officers — *Jerry Quan is a former commander of Cobb Police Precinct 4. (East Cobb News photo by Wendy (Parker)*

One of the major services cited by East Cobb Cityhood advocates is public safety, and in particular, more police officers on patrol.

At their town hall meeting Monday, Committee for Cityhood in East Cobb representatives were quick to note the ongoing public safety concerns expressed by Cobb police, fire and other law enforcement personnel, as well as citizens.

Before those issues were raised to county commissioners, a feasibility study commissioned by the Cityhood group assumed an East Cobb police force of 142 officers.

That’s nearly the double the currently allocated 77 positions for Cobb Police Precinct 4, which covers more of the proposed City of East Cobb, all the way to Canton Road.

But Precinct 4 has only 53 officers, and is among the most understaffed of the five police precincts in the county.

East Cobb Cityhood proponents press case for ‘more local control’

Among the complaints in Cobb are lower salary scales for police compared to other cities and counties in metro Atlanta, as well as benefit packages and retention rags that also are lagging.

A questioner asked the cityhood group at the town hall about how a City of East Cobb might achieve “full funding” for police officers.

“I want to see a police department that’s paid what they’re worth,” said Jerry Quan, a retired Cobb Police major who was a commander at Precinct 4, who drew strong applause with that remark.

Now a resource officer at Lassiter High School with the Cobb County School District police department, Quan is a member of the Cityhood group, advising on public safety matters.

“I’ll do what I can to help them but I can’t guarantee anything.”

The cityhood group also was asked that City of East Cobb paying police officers might have a “ripple effect” on Cobb’s situation.

Cityhood leader Karen Hallacy admitted that it would, but it would be no different than how other local police departments have been able to entice officers from Cobb.

“We’re part of that ripple,” she said.

A City of East Cobb police force likely would be headquartered at the current Precinct 4 location at the East Cobb Government Service Center on Lower Roswell Road.

Public safety would be the largest single expense for a City of East Cobb, according to a $45 million budget assumption included in the feasibility study.

Most of that $19.67 million line item would be for police. After the meeting Quan told East Cobb News that he thought that budgeting for 142 officers “is a little bit high,” and said “we don’t want to have the bare minimum” in terms of services and resources as well as manpower.

The biggest objective, he said, would be to have “more officers out on the streets.”

Quan said he sympathizes with his former Cobb Police colleagues who are pressing for better compensation and resources. Saying that he “loves Cobb County,” Quan insists that in East Cobb, “with the right kind of resources, we can provide better services.

“We like where we live, and we want to keep it that way.”

East Cobb News Cityhood Coverage

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 proponents press their case for ‘more local control’

May 1, 2019 8:07 PMApril 30, 2019 7:36 AM by Wendy Parker

In trying to persuade their fellow East Cobb citizens about the benefits of creating a new municipality, the leaders of an East Cobb Cityhood effort invited their peers from South Cobb to a town hall meeting at Walton High School Monday night.

While there were skeptics among the 400 or so people gathered in the school cafeteria, the message they got was that Cobb County has grown so much that county government can’t adequately provide services.

“I kind of see how it doesn’t quite work,” said Galt Porter, who’s part of the South Cobb Alliance and a member of the Cobb Planning Commission. “We have more people in unincorporated Cobb than the city of Atlanta.”

For the last two years, Porter and others have been meeting with citizens interested in forming what could become the City of Mableton.

Like the East Cobb group, they’ve had a bill submitted to be taken up by the Georgia legislature next year that would call for a referendum.

The point they tried to drive home to the East Cobb audience was that local government needs to be much more local than it is now.

“While we have different things that we’re asking for, everyone is looking for representation closer to home,” said Tre Hutchins of the South Cobb Alliance, who attended elementary and middle school in East Cobb.

*Tre Hutchins and Galt Porter of the South Cobb Alliance, which is pursuing cityhood for Mableton.*

The five-member Cobb Board of Commissioners is governed by a chairman elected countywide, and four commissioners who represent around 190,000 people each.

In the East Cobb legislation, the city would be governed by a mayor elected at-large to cover a population of around 96,000 and a six-member city council representing districts with around 16,000 people each.

That means more local control over zoning and planning, code enforcement, public safety and roads, the services the East Cobb group has put forward for a city to provide.

A feasibility study conducted by Georgia State University concluded that a City of East Cobb is financially viable without a tax increase beyond the proposed 2.96 mills, and would even start with a $4.2 million surplus.

“We’re not recreating the wheel here,” said East Cobb cityhood leader David Birdwell, noting that only one of the 10 cities created in metro Atlanta since 2005 has raised taxes.

He said he contacted friends in five of those cities, “and not one has said it wasn’t a good thing to do.”

Audience members could ask questions only by writing them down on index cards, and some were dubious of the motives behind cityhood.

Questioning motives

The first questioner wanted to know if anyone involved in the cityhood effort would refrain from running for mayor or city council, at least for the first eight years of a City of East Cobb.

Porter was dumbfounded.

“All these people, who have volunteered their time and worked so hard, you would want them to just walk out?”

“Yes! Yes!” cried a few citizens.

At that point, Rob Eble, another cityhood leader, stood up on crutches (he recently suffered a leg injury at work) and tried to inject some tongue-in-cheek humor.

“Hell no! We don’t want to do it!”

Birdwell said he has no interest in running for political office. Karen Hallacy, a state PTA leader, legislative lobbyist and appointee to the Development Authority of Cobb County, echoed Porter.

“If we tell them that they have no chance of running,” she said, “you’ll disqualify people with a lot of talent.”

East Cobb News Cityhood Coverage

Later, a questioner wanted to know where an East Cobb City Hall would be located. Hallacy said the current East Cobb Government Service Center on Lower Roswell Road would be a possibility, at a reasonable cost, and could also house the city’s police and fire headquarters, since those operations already exist there.

“It’s small,” a citizen shouted out.

“We plan to keep government small,” Hallacy said, to some wild applause.

The art of persuasion

Allen Gilly, who’s lived near Walton for 45 years, is the kind of citizen the cityhood group needs to convince. He said after the meeting he hadn’t heard about cityhood until his sister-in-law told him about it.

He’s never seen a need for East Cobb to have its own government. He admitted “I heard some positive things but I still have some concerns and questions.”

What he liked was the message of more local control, even though he thinks Cobb government is “great.”

But Gilly does wonder about the speed of the cityhood process. If legislation is approved next year, a referendum would take place in November 2020.

“Do we have to do this next year?” he said. “If we’re going to do it, let’s do it right.

“Show me how it’s better, and if it’s better, I’m all in.”

The cityhood group will appear next week before the Powers Ferry Corridor Alliance. That meeting is Wednesday, May 8, at 7 p.m. at Brumby Elementary School (815 Terrell Mill Road).

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 town hall to mark community ‘reset’

April 27, 2019 1:45 PMApril 27, 2019 7:33 AM by Wendy Parker

The leaders of an effort to create a City of East Cobb will be holding their own town hall meeting for the first time on Monday, vowing to foster a dialogue with the public about an incorporation process that has stumbled out of the gate.

The town hall meeting starts at 7 p.m. in the auditorium of Walton High School (1590 Bill Murdock Road). A panel discussion moderated by Cynthia Rozzo, publisher of the EAST COBBER magazine, will include Committee for Cityhood in East Cobb members David Birdwell, Rob Eble and Karen Hallacy.

The town hall also will include members of a cityhood effort in Mableton, which like East Cobb has had local legislation introduced to be considered next year.

Last month, Birdwell faced an occasionally rowdy audience at Cobb commissioner Bob Ott’s town hall meeting. It was the first public encounter for the cityhood group, which formed last fall, commissioned a financial feasibility study and hired a lobbyist in the General Assembly with cityhood experience.

The group didn’t say much publicly until last month’s town hall, and the cityhood legislation, sponsored by State Rep. Matt Dollar, was filed the following day.

Related Coverage

Eble told East Cobb News Friday there’s still a lot of information he has to obtain and digest after he joined the group in January, but pledged that he and the others are committed to a “reset” in communicating with the community.

“I wouldn’t vote on it today,” he said, referring to a referendum tentatively eyed for the 2020 Georgia primary next spring if the cityhood bill passes.

There’s still so much to examine, he said, and more feedback from the public to solicit.

Rob Eble, East Cobb cityhood — *Rob Eble*

He’s a life-long East Cobber, and a Walton graduate, who took a look at the feasibility study, which concluded a city could be created without a tax increase, and thinks it’s worth considering.

“It’s all about the process, and shaping it the way the community wants it,” Eble said.

Since last month’s town hall, he said the group has heard from plenty of East Cobb residents about the study—which he expects to be discussed extensively on Monday—as well as the proposed city boundaries.

For now, the map is the unincorporated East Cobb portion of Ott’s commission district (map here), and would include a population of around 96,000.

The legislation calls for a mayor to be elected citywide and a six-member city council, whose districts have yet to be drawn.

Eble said he’s heard from citizens who live in areas of East Cobb outside of the map, and they wonder why they’re not in it.

He added that the map is subject to change, and that doing so “is under discussion. We want to hear from people.”

Skepticism has abounded since the cityhood effort was revealed, most of all why this is happening in an area where no serious municipal push has been made before.

A member of citizens ad hoc group asked to look at the feasibility study quit in protest of what he called a lack of transparency.

Eble insisted that “nobody is trying to push anything down anybody’s throat.

“Nobody’s trying to prosper off this,” Eble said. “We believe that local citizens of East Cobb are much better equipped to have a say about what happens in their backyards.”

Both the East Cobb and Mableton cityhood groups have said they want more responsive local control over government services than what is provided by Cobb, which has a county-elected chairman and four district members who represent more than 185,000 people each.

The proposed East Cobb city services are police, fire and community development, including planning and zoning.

Eble said the town hall format on Monday will include presentations and questions from the audience, to be submitted on note cards.

The cityhood group also will be appearing at a meeting next month of the Powers Ferry Corridor Alliance. Eble said other meetings are in the works with homeowners groups and civic and business associations. Cityhood representatives also be at next weekend’s Taste of East Cobb event.

“This is education,” Eble said. “There is an opportunity to create a community 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 town hall, appear at Powers Ferry meeting

April 20, 2019 2:59 PMApril 19, 2019 3:31 PM by Wendy Parker

East Cobb cityhood group

The leaders of a group promoting cityhood for East Cobb have switched the location for an April 29 town hall meeting.

Rob Eble, one of the leaders of the Committee for Cityhood in East Cobb, told East Cobb News Friday that the meeting will now take place in the theater at Walton High School (1590 Bill Murdock Road) due to capacity issues.

The meeting was originally slated for Chestnut Ridge Christian Church. More than 600 people showed up to to hear cityhood leader David Birdwelll at a March town hall meeting (above) at the Catholic Church of St. Ann.

Eble said the town hall at Walton will last from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. and will feature a moderated panel discussion and questions from citizens.

It’s the first of two public meetings cityhood leaders will be having in short order. They’re also slated to speak at a meeting of the the Powers Ferry Corridor Alliance next month.

The civic association is holding a community meeting May 8 from 7-9 p.m. at Brumby Elementary School (815 Terrell Mill Road) that also will include Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce and Cobb Commissioner Bob Ott.

Other topics of discussion include public safety staffing in Cobb, a transit update, issues in the Powers Ferry corridor and news on redevelopment projects that include the MarketPlace Terrell Mill and Restaurant Row.

The day after the March town hall, local legislation was filed that will be considered next year that calls for a referendum in March 2020, and if approved, mayor and city council elections would take place next November.

East Cobb News Cityhood Coverage

The cityhood forces have maintained that they want more local control of government, and would provide police, fire and zoning and planning services.

Birdwell, a real estate entrepreneur, joined the group in January, a couple of months after the group commissioned a financial feasibility study. Eble, a technology consultant, is the other new “face” of the cityhood movement

The city map that was drawn and introduced with the legislation includes a population of 96,000 and takes the East Cobb portion of Ott’s District 2 and the Powers Ferry area that is not in the Cumberland Community Improvement District.

Patti Rice, president of the PFCA, told East Cobb News after the town hall that the proposed map would split the community “right down the middle.”

She said while she lives just outside the proposed City of East Cobb, she’s keeping an open mind about cityhood but thinks the cityhood group “needs to organize their message.”

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!

EDITOR’S NOTE: Taking on the tough sell of East Cobb Cityhood

January 1, 2022 1:01 PMMarch 31, 2019 11:52 AM by Wendy Parker

David Birdwell, East Cobb Cityhood

During Thursday night’s town hall meeting about East Cobb Cityhood, David Birdwell was patient, polite and completely earnest as he took the slings and arrows of a citizenry dubious about what he’s trying to sell.

As a new spokesman of a cityhood movement that stumbled out of the gate earlier this winter—one which refused to identify individuals, thus raising questions about its motives—Birdwell is stepping into the void at a critical time.

Joining the Committee for Cityhood in East Cobb, Inc., in January, after the release of a feasibility study and after those forming the group had already hired a lobbyist in the Georgia legislature, Birdwell had to face an overflow audience at the Catholic Church of St. Ann by himself.

Rob Eble, a technology consultant who’s been designated the other half of the new public face of the cityhood effort, couldn’t attend after suffering a knee injury.

While that may serve as something of a metaphor for how some see the idea of part of East Cobb becoming a city, Birdwell is adamant that it’s an idea that “makes enough sense to explore.”

A semi-retired real estate entrepreneur, Birdwell has lived in East Cobb for the last 22 years—like many in the cityhood group, the Atlanta Country Club area to be specific—and said after reading the feasibility study he was intrigued enough to learn more.

After being contacted by those in the cityhood group—which still hadn’t gone public even as legislation and a city charter were being drawn up—Birdwell agreed to put himself front and center, something he found improbable.

“I can’t believe I did it,” Birdwell said after the meeting, as the church lights were being turned off and the doors to the parish hall were being locked.

“We don’t have a lot of answers now, but I feel convinced of the reasons why I’m doing this,” he said.

To the more than 500 East Cobb citizens who heard him out this week (or in some instances, heckled him), Birdwell also was firm about something else: “I am not a political person,” he said, prompting howls of disbelief.

They returned a short time later when he insisted that “nobody is doing this for any personal gain.”

The laughs—hearty guffaws—were deafening. Yet Birdwell carried on with his message that cityhood is about more local control, better services and a chance for East Cobbers to shape the future of their community.

Related coverage

I believe Birdwell’s sincerity about what he’s saying, and since East Cobb News began publishing about this issue in December, we’ve heard from many others who feel the same way.

It’s a familiar refrain coming from those who’ve been behind cityhood, yet who still remain in the background. But his job now is to convince tens of thousands of East Cobb residents who remain highly skeptical, if downright cynical, about what they’re being told.

What was reassuring is that there will be another town hall to continue the conversation, on April 29, at Chestnut Ridge Christian Church.

Quite frankly, he’s got a very tough sell to make.

That’s because many of those who question cityhood think the services they get from Cobb County for the taxes they pay are just fine. Some are absolutely convinced their taxes will go up, which Birdwell and the cityhood group say will not happen. Others see a number of people involved in the real estate industry who are behind this effort and get suspicious.

Birdwell may not be political, but from the get-go the cityhood effort smacked of rank politics. The map that was drawn up, and is now part of the legislation and charter submitted on Friday, to the letter matches the boundaries of the East Cobb portion of Commissioner Bob Ott’s District 2.

It doesn’t include a big chunk of what many consider East Cobb. Only the Walton, Wheeler and part of the Pope and Lassiter attendance zones are included in this map. I’ve heard from those living near Sprayberry, Kell and the rest of Pope and Lassiter: Um well, what about us?

Others have suggested, only slightly tongue-in-cheek: Are they gonna call this the City of Walton?

East Cobb cityhood legislation

Ott, who told me before the town hall this is by far the biggest such meeting he’s ever held, has been coy about his interest in cityhood. But several of his appointees served on an ad hoc citizens committee that made recommendations about the feasibility study.

Riley Lowery, Ott’s longtime political consultant, is now advising the cityhood group, which was formed in the fall, not long after Cobb commissioners narrowly voted for a tax increase. Ott voted against it, and has said often that some of his constituents are upset that the district provides 40 percent of the county’s tax revenue but doesn’t get the services in return.

Dee Gay, a member of the East Cobb cityhood steering committee, lived in Sandy Springs when it became the first of the new cities in metro Atlanta to spring from a cityhood movement.

“I like it,” she said of Birdwell’s presentation, noting that Sandy Springs cityhood was 20 years in the making. The East Cobb group wants a referendum in the 2020 primaries and actual mayor and city council elections in the 2020 general election.

The problem Birdwell faces is more than perception.

There’s a sense that unlike some other cityhood efforts in metro Atlanta, there isn’t a grassroots uprising to form a City of East Cobb. That those who were skeptical weren’t given many details for months only enhanced their concerns.

Hence, the reactions at Thursday’s town hall.

“There’s such a dearth of information right now, and people are making an emotional decision,” said Linda Carver, president of the East Cobb Civic Association.

Her organization, which represents around 10,000 households, is officially remaining neutral on cityhood.

If there was a groundswell for cityhood, she said, “I think we would have seen that a long time ago.”

This will be Birdwell’s toughest selling point, even though the cityhood group is now eager for volunteer input as town halls and other public meetings will be taking place.

“It’s important for this community to consider,” Birdwell said.

While that is true, he’s got to persuade those who live outside the Atlanta Country Club, or aren’t well-placed in the Walton High School community, or don’t belong to Ott’s kitchen cabinet.

Birdwell was dealt a poor hand, and now he’s got to play it.

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 bill filed; calls for referendum, initial elections in 2020

March 30, 2019 6:35 PMMarch 30, 2019 3:09 PM by Wendy Parker

State Rep. Matt Dollar, East Cobb cityhood bill

Here’s the first look at the East Cobb cityhood bill, HB 718, filed on Friday by State Rep. Matt Dollar.

To read through the 46-page bill, along with the proposed city charter, click here; the legislation, put in the hopper on the next-to-last day of the Georgia General Assembly, has no co-sponsors for now.

The cityhood bill still must be sponsored by a state senator whose district includes part of the proposed city. The only senator who qualifies is Kay Kirkpatrick, who has said she has no position on the issue for now.

If the legislature passes the bill next year, the East Cobb cityhood group wants the referendum scheduled for the 2020 primary election, with a date to be determined and likely in the spring.

Should voters approve that referendum at that time, a special election would be held for mayor and all six city council spots during the general election in November 2020.

The charter information ranges from how the city government would be set up, the services provided, the levying and collection of tax and other revenues, government functions during the transition to a municipality and the makeup of elections and council districts and appointed city boards and commissions.

Among the provisions is an valorem property tax rate that would not exceed 2.96 mills “unless the millage rate is increased, pursuant to general law.”

The cityhood group commissioned a feasibility study last fall that includes the provision of police, fire and community development services, including zoning.

The Committee for Cityhood in East Cobb took its case to the public in an occasionally contentious town hall meeting Thursday, with many residents skeptical of the need for another layer of government and amid claims that property taxes would not be higher than what they currently pay as citizens of unincorporated Cobb County.

Dollar’s bill calls for a council-city manager form of government, with six council members elected by district and a mayor elected across the city. The terms would be for four years each, and elections would be staggered in biennial fashion in odd-numbered years.

The mayor would vote to break a tie, and is limited to serving two terms, although he or she could run for the council after that.

The mayor also would appoint a full-time professional city manager, subject to the confirmation of the city council.

The charter also calls for a city attorney who is not a municipal employee but who is an independent contractor. A law firm also could serve that function. The city attorney is chosen by the mayor.

The mayor also would select a city clerk, and the City of East Cobb would have a municipal court with a chief judge and other judges “as provided by ordinance.” The judges would be appointed by the city council.

Should a City of East Cobb be approved by voters, a transition period would begin on Jan. 1, 2021, with elected officials taking office, the city collecting taxes and beginning to perform other services (except for city courts).

The full transition would last two years.

The city also could exercise planning and zoning powers during the transition, although existing county zoning and land use provisions would remain in effect until they expire.

David Birdwell, one of the new co-leaders of the cityhood group, said another town hall meeting would take place on April 29 at Chestnut Ridge Christian Church.

Related coverage

East Cobb News Cityhood information page
Coming Sunday on East Cobb News: Cityhood backers face challenge convincing the public

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 leader: Idea ‘makes enough sense to explore’

April 26, 2019 8:31 PMMarch 29, 2019 1:44 PM by Wendy Parker

Before a standing-room-only crowd at the Catholic Church of St. Ann Thursday night, the new face of what had been a stealth East Cobb cityhood group faced plenty of skepticism and more than a few barbed questions as the effort to incorporate part of the community was presented to the public for the first time.

David Birdwell, a real estate entrepreneur who lives in the Atlanta Country Club area, spoke to more than 500 people crammed into a parish hall, admitting that there’s a lot he still has to learn.

But for many in the public who’ve been frustrated by a lack of information coming from the Committee for Cityhood in East Cobb, Commissioner Bob Ott’s town hall meeting was a chance to demand answers that are still to be determined.

Some questioned the motives, others wondered about whether their taxes would go up and some worried about the impact on public schools.

On the tax issue, Birdwell was clear: He pledged there would be no increase in taxes, and noted that of the 10 most recent areas to become cities in metro Atlanta, nine have not raised taxes since they incorporated.

“I am not for a tax increase and I wouldn’t be standing here if I thought there would be one,” Birdwell said.

Some citizens groaned at that statement, and they broke out into wild applause when East Cobb resident Ki Porter wanted to know why there was “such a rush” to file local legislation calling for a referendum.

The cityhood group wants to have a referendum in 2020, and state law requires a two-year process. State Rep. Matt Dollar, an East Cobb Republican, said at the town hall he would be filing the bill on Friday, on the second-to-last day of the Georgia General Assembly.

With citizens lining the wall of the parish hall, and some even sitting on the floor, Birdwell methodically repeated some of the cityhood group’s reasons for wanting to create a municipality.

Mostly, it’s about more local control of government. Ott serves a population of 185,000 as one of four Cobb district commissioners, and he’s repeatedly said some of his constituents have complained to him that they don’t think they’re getting their tax money’s worth in public services.

It’s a similar argument that’s being made by community leaders in Mableton, who have had a local cityhood bill introduced in the legislature.

Related coverage

East Cobb News Cityhood information page
Coming Sunday on East Cobb News: Cityhood backers face challenge convincing the public

The East Cobb map would include only a portion of the community, Ott’s District 2 that’s east of I-75 and in unincorporated Cobb, excluding the Cumberland CID area.

That’s still 97,000 people, and would make up the eighth-largest city in Georgia if it becomes a municipality.

The cityhood group commissioned a financial feasibility study that focused on three areas of services that may be provided: Police, fire and community development (which also includes zoning), and concluded that the proposed City of East Cobb can be created without a tax increase, and even start with a multi-million-dollar budget surplus.

“East Cobb is about built-out,” Birdwell told the crowd. “We want to decide what comes here, not Cobb County.

“We’ve seen great things happen in other cities. It’s about preserving and enhancing what we’ve got in East Cobb.”

East Cobb cityhood legislation

Porter told East Cobb News after the meeting she’s been living in the area since 1980 and remained skeptical of the “no new taxes” pledge. She noted that a recent referendum failed on Skidaway Island because cityhood leaders there would not place a guarantee in the proposed city charter against a tax increase.

That’s what she wanted Birdwell to address, and another citizen told her “you hit the nail on the head.”

“I’m not for anything where there’s smoke and mirrors,” Porter said.

A few signs in the crowd alluded to that concern, with one saying “Our taxes are definitely going up.”

Each of the existing six Cobb municipalities have higher general fund millage rates than unincorporated Cobb.

Birdwell said that earlier on Thursday, he was encouraged after meeting with the assistant city manager in Milton, which has held the line on property taxes.

He also told the East Cobb audience the north Fulton city has improved services, including public safety, which has been the subject of new concerns in Cobb over staffing levels, salary and retention.

Birdwell said there will be several forthcoming town hall meetings with the public to continue the cityhood discussion, starting April 29 at Chestnut Ridge Christian Church.

The cityhood group is revising its website and is asking for volunteers as it continues to gauge public reaction.

“We don’t have a lot of answers right now,” Birdwell said, adding that after 22 years as a resident of East Cobb, he is certain about one thing: “This makes enough sense to explore.”

East Cobb cityhood

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!

Skidaway Island is latest Georgia cityhood referendum rejected by voters

March 26, 2019 2:08 PM by Wendy Parker

We’re still waiting for the East Cobb cityhood bill to be introduced in the legislature (it wasn’t in the hopper as of lunchtime Tuesday and it’s not on today’s local calendar).

Last week there was a cityhood referendum on Skidaway Island that was defeated soundly by voters, and it’s worth considering ahead of Thursday’s town hall meeting with East Cobb cityhood leaders. City of East Cobb map

The vote on Skidaway is the latest cityhood initiative that has been rejected in recent years, after the success of efforts in Sandy Springs, Dunwoody, Johns Creek, Milton, Peachtree Corners, Brookhaven, Tucker and other parts of the Atlanta suburbs.

Last November, a referendum to create a city of Eagle’s Landing in Henry County went down to defeat. So did the proposed city of Sharon Springs in Forsyth County.

Efforts in DeKalb County to create two other cities, including one area where voters rejected incorporation in 2015, are being fought.

As the Skidaway saga unfolded, local opposition mounted to the cityhood drive, and it was powerful. In the end, voters there elected to stay part of combined Savannah-Chatham County government, with 62 percent voting “no.”

Community leaders in Mableton have had a cityhood bill introduced in the legislature for many of the same reasons cited by those leading the effort in East Cobb: More local control.

Related coverage

East Cobb News Cityhood information page

Charlie Harper, who publishes the GeorgiaPol.com state political website and runs a Republican-focused policy consulting firm based on Powers Ferry Road, offered some perspective on the Skidaway vote on Monday that he thinks could have wider statewide implications:

“For a while, the battle of Republican bumper sticker slogans had “local control” winning out over ‘less government.’ During this successful run, success bred success for many, as the same lobbyists, consultants, and vendors seemed to form a niche that has moved from one cityhood effort to another.

“While casting no aspersions on those who are good at what they do for a living, it’s also time in the wake of this defeat to assess. Is the current list of areas exploring the option of incorporation really the result of a groundswell of public support, or have we now created an industry with the right connections and capital that is planting seeds of cityhood in the hopes that public support will then sprout?”

Those are some of the points that have been made by East Cobb News readers since we began posting about the East Cobb cityhood effort in December.

To be sure, there are supporters of cityhood who also have spoken out, and there are those who are open to listening to what those behind a proposed City of East Cobb have to say.

(Here’s the revised website for the Committee for Cityhood in East Cobb, Inc.)

But there are many questions readers have been posing to us that reflect much of what drove the opposition in Skidaway.

As Harper noted about the failed effort there as well as Eagle’s Landing:

“At the core of each battle was a commercial tax base. Both were deemed necessary for long term viability with low/stable tax rates. Skidaway Island, dominated by the mega gated community The Landings, is almost exclusively residential.

“This difference, combined with the political savvy of a few key residents, led to Skidaway’s defeat.”

The financial feasibility study conducted for the Committee for Cityhood for East Cobb noted that the tax base split for the proposed city limits would be 85 percent residential and only 15 percent commercial.

That’s another major question East Cobb cityhood leaders will have to address in the coming months, starting Thursday at Bob Ott’s town hall meeting at the Catholic Church of St. Ann.

The meeting starts at 7 p.m. in Nolan Hall. The church is at 4905 Roswell Road, at the corner of Bishop Lake Road.

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 speaking at town hall meeting this week

March 25, 2019 2:55 PMMarch 24, 2019 10:25 AM by Wendy Parker

City of East Cobb map Several months after forming an organization to explore incorporating a portion of East Cobb, representatives of the Committee for Cityhood in East Cobb are formally taking their case to the public.

They are scheduled to speak Thursday at a town hall meeting of Cobb Commissioner Bob Ott at the Catholic Church of St. Ann.

At the same time, legislation calling for a local referendum on cityhood is expected to be filed in the final days of the Georgia General Assembly session.

Ron Eble and David Birdwell are among those who will be speaking at the town hall meeting. They’re part of the cityhood committee whose membership is being revealed only now.

Eble is a management consultant with Slalom Consulting, a business and technology firm. David Birdwell is a real estate entrepreneur who lives in the Atlanta Country Club area.

Ever since the cityhood group was formed last fall, only Joe Gavalis, a resident of the Atlanta Country Club, and Owen Brown, the founder of Retail Planning Corp., have been publicly identified with the group.

Related coverage

East Cobb News Cityhood information page

The committee has commissioned a City of East Cobb feasibility study and has hired a public relations representative and a lobbyist in the legislature.

That study concluded that the city, with boundaries proposed by the committee, is financially feasible and that additional tax rates wouldn’t be needed. In fact, the study, conducted by the Georgia State University Center for State and Local Finance, suggested that a City of East Cobb would start out with a surplus of a few million dollars.

The boundaries include only unincorporated east Cobb that is in Ott’s District 2, and cover a population of 97,000. The committee has not explained why it’s not including what is generally regarded as most or all of East Cobb in its proposed city map.

Among the reasons cited for pursuing cityhood are enhancing local control of services, especially public safety, roads and zoning. The group is calling for a city government that would have an elected mayor and council and an appointed city manager, with city hall possibly being located at an expanded East Cobb Government Service Center on Lower Roswell Road.

A citizens group in Mableton, which also is pursuing cityhood and has had legislation filed for a referendum in 2020, is citing similar reasons for its cityhood drive.

State Rep. Matt Dollar, a Republican who represents part of the proposed City of East Cobb, told East Cobb News last week that he will be sponsoring a bill shortly calling for a referendum in 2020; as of Friday, that bill has not been introduced.

Cityhood is a two-year process in Georgia. Local legislation must at least be introduced a year before any referendum can be scheduled.

Cityhood legislation also must be sponsored by at least one state senator whose district includes a proposed new city. Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick, the only lawmaker in the upper chamber who could do that, told East Cobb News last week that she doesn’t have a position on cityhood for now, “but the bill will get the conversation started.”

By contrast, those in Mableton leading the cityhood effort there have held a series of public meetings over the last couple years before having legislation filed. The group still must have a feasibility study conducted.

Who else is involved?

Joining Birdwell and Eble on the committee, along with Gavalis and Brown, are Dee Gay, Karen Hallacy, Sharon McGehee, Chip Patterson, Carolyn Roddy, Jerry Quan, Kevin Taitz and John Woods, according to the group’s revamped website, which is now subtitled “Good neighbors make for good government.”

Gavalis is an appointee of Ott’s, serving on the Cobb Neighborhood Safety Commission. He’s also served on the Cobb Elder Abuse Task Force.

The group also is being advised by Riley Lowery, a political consultant who has long advised Ott, and who has been sparring with some citizens in recent days on social media about the cityhood effort and his role in it.

East Cobb News asked Phil Kent, the cityhood group’s P.R. representative, to provide basic biographical information about the rest of the committee. He replied that he doesn’t know “most of the East Cobbers” with the expanded group and “suggest you perform old-fashioned journalism research” by attending the town hall meeting.

When East Cobb News followed up that reply with a request to get the information before the town hall, and to explain how these individuals were selected and what their roles will be, Kent did not respond. Here’s a bit more about them:

Dee Gay: A commercial real estate broker who is active with the Cobb County Republican Women’s Club, and who lives in the Atlanta Country Club area;
Karen Hallacy: Longtime East Cobb civic activist, president of Georgia PTA and Ott’s appointee to the Development Authority of Cobb County;
Sharon McGehee: Associate director of advancement at Mt. Bethel Christian Academy;
Chip Patterson: Atlanta Country Club area resident and a partner in Three P Partners, an Atlanta real estate development firm, as well as a former head of the Walton Touchdown Club;
Jerry Quan: The former commander of the Cobb Police Precinct 4 station in East Cobb, now serving with the Cobb County School District police department. He’s a former East Cobb Citizen of the Year;
Carolyn Roddy: An administrative law attorney in Marietta;
Kevin Taitz: Technology consultant at Slalom Consulting;
John Woods: CEO of Southport Capital, based in the Cobb Galleria, and a chairman of the Walton Touchdown Club. Three sons played football at Walton, most recently Dominick Blaylock, an all-state wide receiver and University of Georgia signee. Woods also is the owner of the Chattanooga Lookouts minor league baseball team.

The town hall meeting starts at 7 p.m. Thursday in Nolan Hall at the Catholic Church of St. Ann, 4905 Roswell Road (at Bishop Lake Road).

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 legislation expected to be filed before end of 2019 session

March 16, 2019 2:59 PMMarch 15, 2019 6:53 PM by Wendy Parker

A group pushing for East Cobb cityhood is eyeing the end of the current Georgia legislative session to have local legislation filed that would call for a referendum, probably by 2020.

A notice of intent to file local legislation was published Friday in The Marietta Daily Journal, Cobb’s legal organ. East Cobb cityhood legislation

The legislature has only eight days remaining in its 2019 session. For a referendum to take place next year, it would at least have to be introduced this year.

As of the close of business Friday, no such bill had been filed.

The group, known as the Committee for Cityhood for East Cobb Inc., hired a lobbyist before the General Assembly session but has been quiet since then.

Commissioner Bob Ott told East Cobb News that they’ve been invited to speak at his next town hall meeting, on March 28 at the Catholic Church of St. Ann.

Related coverage

East Cobb Cityhood News

The group has been reluctant to reveal much information about who’s behind the cityhood effort and has cited general “local control” and public safety concerns.

It did pay $36,000 for a financial feasibility study that made a favorable conclusion. The proposed city map would include only a portion of what’s considered East Cobb, all of it within Ott’s District 2. The population would be around 96,000.

(Here’s the cityhood group’s website.)

The MDJ reported Friday that David Birdwell, an East Cobb resident, is also involved in leading the group. Joe Gavalis, an appointee of Ott’s to the Cobb Neighborhood Safety Commission, is the president of the group, and real estate developer G. Owen Brown of Retail Planning Corp. is listed as having paid for most of the study.

No other individuals have been publicly named, and when the group asked an ad hoc citizens committee to look over a feasibility study, one of those citizens, Joe O’Connor, quit in protest, citing a lack of transparency.

Birdwell, like Gavalis, lives in the Atlanta Country Club area. According to the Cobb Chamber, he’s also in the real estate industry and has gone through the organization’s Leadership Cobb development program.

Local incorporation legislation must be introduced by at least one Senator and one House member who represents at least a portion of the proposed city.

Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick and Reps. Sharon Cooper and Matt Dollar are the three lawmakers who could do that. They have been contacted for comment by East Cobb News.

UPDATE: Kirkpatrick told East Cobb News that “I haven’t taken a position on this but the bill will get the conversation started.”

The notice of intent to file the bill indicates the sponsor is Dollar; cityhood bills are initially filed in the House.

A cityhood bill for Mableton was filed last week by State Reps. Erica Thomas, Erick Allen and David Wilkerson of South Cobb. The South Cobb Alliance citizens group has been seeking incorporation but has not yet had a feasibility study done.

Unlike the East Cobb group, the Mableton group has gone to the public with a number of town halls and other events in the community over the last couple of years.

The earliest a Mableton referendum could take place also would be next year. That proposed city would have a population of more than 87,000.

Some of the reasons cited for cityhood there are similar to East Cobb, in particular more localized control of services.

Cobb hasn’t had a new city in more than a century. Mableton was briefly a municipality, from 1912-1916.

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 lobbyist is experienced in municipal campaigns

February 2, 2019 1:28 PMJanuary 29, 2019 1:58 PM by Wendy Parker

The Committee for Cityhood in East Cobb, Inc. has retained a lobbyist who has worked on behalf of other groups in metro Atlanta in recent years that have sought incorporation, as well for as a contractor that has provided services to some of those cities.

John Garst registered on Monday as lobbyist for the East Cobb group, according to the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission. John Garst, East Cobb cityhood lobbyist

He runs Rosetta Stone Communications, an Atlanta-based political consulting and polling firm, and it is the official polling organization for WSB-TV.

His previous lobbying for cityhood efforts include the City of Brookhaven, the City of Stonecrest, the Eagles Landing Educational Research Committee and CH2M.

The latter, formerly known as CH2M Hill, was a Colorado-based engineering and operations firm with an office in Atlanta that has provided municipal services on contract for the cities of Sandy Springs, Milton and Johns Creek.

CH2M also has contracted with other newer municipalities, including Tucker and Chattahoochee Hills in South Fulton. In 2017, CH2M was sold to another Colorado engineering firm.

Phil Kent, a spokesman for the cityhood group, told East Cobb News that Garst, who specializes in a Republican clientele, will be paid “slightly in excess of $10,000 for this year. He will now begin educating and pitching various state lawmakers and the legislative leadership on the benefits of East Cobb cityhood, monitor future legislation, attend meetings, and perform other duties associated with the legislative process.”

Joe Gavalis, an Atlanta Country Club resident who is the chairman of the cityhood committee, wrote a column that was published Tuesday in The Marietta Daily Journal, making his case for “local control over local affairs.”

His column repeats arguments he has made previously, and including obtaining feedback from a group of citizens about a feasibility study for a proposed City of East Cobb:

“Conversations with numerous east Cobb citizens also include concerns over actions taken by a majority of Cobb County commissioners who don’t reside in our community. The recent vote on a property tax increase, for example, passed by a 3-2 vote. Our sole east Cobb commissioner was out-voted. Indeed, there is a perception that county funds are not being spent prudently, and that public safety services and road improvements are not top priorities. If this concerns you in east Cobb, there is a solution. The answer is self-determination through cityhood!”

The proposed map of the City of East Cobb (with a population of 96,000) does not include all of what is generally regarded as East Cobb. The northern boundaries match, nearly identically, the boundaries of Cobb Commissioner Bob Ott’s District 2.

East Cobb’s other commissioner, JoAnn Birrell, also voted against the tax increase.

In the column, Gavalis continued to decline to name other individuals in the cityhood organization, saying only that they are “a group of concerned east Cobb citizens.”

On the East Cobb Cityhood website, he said that besides commercial real estate business owner G. Owen Brown, other donors who paid for the feasibility study “for now, wish to be unidentified due to possible personal harassment or media attacks/smears from opponents.”

Gavalis also has declined to identify those in the citizens group (East Cobb News has contacted a few, including one who quit over what he called a lack of transparency), saying only that “many chose to remain anonymous since this Committee was merely exploring the concept of cityhood.”

He said the group has made the following recommendations:

Conduct community meetings to educate the public on the process;
Recruit volunteers for study panels;
Develop a communication plan;
Develop “frequently asked questions and answers” as well as “facts vs. myths” materials;
Develop a comparison of the GSU study data versus our study panel estimates and also comparing research with comparable cities;
Educate citizens living in adjacent properties about requesting annexation into the city after it is created. (Changing the proposed city boundaries now would require a new feasibility study).

Gavalis did not indicate in his column when cityhood backers would inform the broader public or seek to introduce legislation to establish a local referendum. The earliest citizens could vote on whether to create a City of East Cobb would be in 2020, but only if a bill is passed this year.

Kent reiterated “that the cityhood movement is still in its very early stage.”

He also said that “dates are currently being discussed for community meetings” and that they will be announced to the public when they are scheduled.

The feasibility study, for which the cityhood group paid $36,000, concluded that the City of East Cobb was financially viable without levying taxes higher than the current Cobb County general fund millage rate, and would even start with a budget surplus.

After a recent speaking engagement in East Cobb, Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce told East Cobb News that none of the six existing cities in Cobb have lower overall millage rates than the county.

“Unless you can show me there’s a big difference in the quality of services, you’re going to be paying extra to get those services” in a City of East Cobb, Boyce said.

Gavalis said the study committees would be involved in creating a charter, and he is seeking volunteers with expertise in taxes and finance, planning and zoning, public works and engineering, governance and administration and police and courts. Said Kent:

“A lot of feedback is already coming in via our website from east Cobbers and others with various areas of expertise who want to volunteer to be on study panels that are being established by the East Cobb cityhood committee.”

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!

Revised East Cobb cityhood study adds $1.4M in annual ad valorem revenues

February 2, 2019 1:28 PMJanuary 2, 2019 4:16 PM by Wendy Parker

A week after a group touting East Cobb cityhood released a rosy financial feasibility study, the report was revised with a projection of additional annual revenue.

The report, prepared by Georgia State University researchers and made public Dec. 11, initially included no revenue from the state title ad valorem tax (TATV), explaining that the proposed city of East Cobb has no car dealerships.

But the revised report, which was dated Dec. 18 and made public today, acknowledges that the TAVT calculation is based on where motor vehicles are registered.

The revenue based on vehicles in the proposed city of East Cobb, according to the revised report, would come to nearly $1.4 million a year.

Here’s a link to the revised study, which explains the calculation in detail on Page 8. The estimated revenue table on Page 22 and shown in the chart above includes that line item, which was absent from the initial study (PDF here).

The estimated annual revenue for the City of East Cobb would rise from $48.4 million to $49.8 million. The estimated annual expenses are unchanged, at around $46 million a year.

The expenses would include police, fire and emergency services, planning and zoning and for general administration.

The updated report still concludes that East Cobb cityhood is financially feasible. The Committee for East Cobb Cityhood, Inc. paid $36,000 to commission the report by GSU’s Center for State and Local Finance.

It’s one of two entities, along with the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia, that conducts required feasibility reports for those seeking cityhood.

The two-year process includes state legislation that would call for a referendum to be voted on by residents of a proposed municipality. New cities must provide a minimum of three services.

The revision of the 22-page East Cobb cityhood study noted the addition of the ad valorem revenue and said “no other material changes were made.”

In an e-mail response to a request by East Cobb News, Phil Kent, the public relations consultant for the cityhood group, said the revised study also “answered critics with additional references to the base year 2017 for its property tax analysis.”

We’ve followed up for a further explanation and will update when we get it.

The proposed city of East Cobb includes unincorporated areas of Cobb Commission District 2 that are east of I-75 and outside the Cumberland Community Improvement District.

The population of that area comes to around 96,000.

The initial GSU study was circulated to a select group of community influencers in East Cobb right before Christmas, and some of them had concerns about the numbers and methodology.

One of those citizens, Joe O’Connor, resigned in protest, accusing the cityhood group of a lack of transparency.

Little is known about who is behind the cityhood drive other than its president, Atlanta Country Club resident Joe Gavalis, and G. Owen Brown, founder of the East Cobb-based Retail Planning Corp.

Thea Powell, a former Cobb commissioner who also is part of the ad hoc citizens advisory board, said she found information about East Cobb businesses outdated, going back to 2012, during the aftermath of the recession.

The East Cobb cityhood group has not indicated what its next steps may be or when the public may be informed of its plans.

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 steering committee member resigns, citing lack of transparency

February 2, 2019 1:29 PMDecember 19, 2018 12:47 PM by Wendy Parker

A member of an informal citizens steering committee examining a possible East Cobb cityhood initiative has resigned, saying he and other committee members weren’t being told who funded a $36,000 feasibility study released last week.

Joe O’Connor, a resident of the King’s Cove neighborhood and a longtime community activist, told East Cobb News that he insisted that Joe Gavalis, president of the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood, Inc., offer more clarity about who’s pushing for a portion of East Cobb to become a city.

“I told Joe, ‘you’ve got to be transparent about this,” O’Connor said, recalling his conversation late last week. “His exact words to me were, ‘It’s none of anyone’s business.’ “

In response to questions from East Cobb News, Gavalis on Wednesday did not address O’Connor’s issues with who paid for the feasibility study or his other transparency concerns.

Instead, Gavalis said those who had been invited to serve on an ad hoc citizens group were being made the subject of “some misinformation” by “an attendee who is not for cityhood [and who] chose to share the names of people in the group knowing there were individuals who asked to remain anonymous and who had not made up their minds.”

He said the group is still gathering basic information about possible cityhood. “Many East Cobbers who attended are simply asking questions just like everyone in the aftermath of the Georgia State cityhood feasibility release,” Gavalis said.

East Cobb News contacted some of those individuals. One was upset her name had been given to a reporter and did not want to be interviewed. Some others have not returned messages seeking comment or were unavailable.

O’Connor said he has been friends with Gavalis, a resident of the Atlanta Country Club area, for many years, as they both have served on the Cobb Neighborhood Safety Commission and the Cobb Elder Abuse Task Force.

O’Connor also said he had problems with some of the data and information included in the study compiled by the Georgia State University Center for State and Local Finance. (Read it here, and view a proposed city map here.

City of East Cobb

In a response to written questions from East Cobb News over the weekend, Gavalis declined to say who funded the study or to name the individuals serving on the citizens committee.

He said the cityhood group, the Commitee for East Cobb Cityhood, Inc., has received donations from around the community to fund the study but he provided no specifics.

Among those on the citizens committee is former Cobb commissioner Thea Powell. She told East Cobb News that she thinks the cityhood idea is worthy of consideration, but “the process should have started sooner, of going out into the community.”

Powell—who said she hasn’t formed an opinion about whether East Cobb should be a city—referenced recommendations from the Georgia Municipal Association that strongly encourage cityhood advocates to get community input early on.

O’Connor said his first meeting about the cityhood idea was held in the office of G. Owen Brown, founder of the Retail Planning Corp., a commercial real estate firm located at Paper Mill Village. Brown is listed on the cityhood committee’s state filing documents as its incorporator. Gavalis is the only other individual who has been named.

O’Connor said after he first began reading through the study last week, he “immediately saw problems.”

Some of the statistical data was outdated and inaccurate, he said, and he was troubled by the low number of businesses in the proposed East Cobb city (around 3,300), far fewer than those in Alpharetta, Johns Creek and similar cities that were compared (bottom line in the chart below).

The residential-to-commercial split in the proposed city of East Cobb would be 85 to 15 percent.

“That’s a concern,” O’Connor said. “The other cities have a good combination.” In East Cobb, he said, “we’re so much more residential.”

Powell also noted that those business number stats are from 2012. “We’re working on really old figures when the economy wasn’t doing very well,” she said.

In his response to that issue over the weekend by East Cobb News, Gavalis said that the city of Milton, also in North Fulton, has a similar breakdown of its tax base, and there hasn’t been millage rate increase there since 2006.

Gavalis said he was asked to lead a possible cityhood effort after some citizens complained they didn’t think they were getting their money’s worth in county property taxes. He has not said who any of those people are.

Among the service priorities Gavalis indicated for a possible city of East Cobb were police and fire and community development, including planning and zoning.

A cityhood effort is a two-year process, requiring state legislation calling for a referendum that must be approved by voters living within the proposed city area. Cityhood advocates must also provide a feasibility study.

Gavalis told East Cobb News the community will be informed but did not indicate when that might be. Here’s more of what he told us Wednesday:

“We are in the beginning stages of our planning process and are seeking answers to some legitimate and sincere questions at this time. The Committee is not trying to be evasive but instead we have honored requests from participants who did not want their names disclosed since this group is still informal. We want to be transparent but we are compiling answers to questions about the study and formalizing our strategy on the expertise levels that will be needed to provide insight and professional advice.

“When we complete our strategic plan we will finalize who will be formally asked to join us and then we will announce who has accepted.”

With the possibility of legislation coming in the new year, Powell thinks the larger community should have been told more by now.

“Public input is of utmost importance,” she said. “Ultimately it doesn’t matter what I think. They will have the final say.”

O’Connor has been supportive about a city of East Cobb, writing a letter to the editor of The Marietta Daily Journal and commenting on East Cobb News to that effect.

But, he said, that support is based on solid “facts and numbers” and a willingness to make a good-faith effort to inform the public. He doesn’t think that is happening.

“I’ve always said that if you’re hiding something, then you’ve got something to hide,” O’Connor said.

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!

City of East Cobb committee leader declines to identify group, or indicate when public response may take place

February 2, 2019 1:29 PMDecember 15, 2018 7:27 PM by Wendy Parker

The president of a committee exploring possible cityhood for East Cobb is declining to identify those he has been meeting with and is not indicating when the group may begin a community dialogue about the issue.

Joe Gavalis, a resident of the Atlanta Country Club area, said in response to written questions from East Cobb News this weekend that he and others he has been discussing cityhood with are still examining a feasibility study released this week.

That study, commissioned by his Committee for East Cobb Cityhood, Inc., was conducted by Georgia State University researchers, who concluded that based on the data they were given to work with, such a city is “financially feasible.”

The most likely next step would be introduction of state legislation, a two-year process that would require a public referendum. If such a bill is introduced next year, the earliest such a vote could take place would be 2020.

Gavalis said if “a review of the GSU study and the community response indicate a desire to proceed,” the group “will work with our elected officials to introduce appropriate legislation.”

He would not say when the public would be fully briefed on the cityhood group’s plans, only that “meetings with our fellow citizens in our community will be initiated” and media outlets “utilized.”

The group also has launched a website, but there’s no other information there than what’s previously been released.

Gavalis said he began the cityhood inquiry “after hearing that others in our county were looking to form a new city,” a reference to conversations taking place in South Cobb, and to see if a new city of East Cobb would be feasible.

During that process, he said, “hundreds of neighbors, business owners and social groups were engaged in recent months about their interest in creating a city in East Cobb. Many asked me to spearhead a loose-knit group to help foster debate regarding the idea.”

He did not identify anyone by name. The only other name that has been made public about the cityhood committee is G. Owen Brown, who is listed on state filing documents as the group’s incorporator. Brown is the founder of the Retail Planning Corporation, an East Cobb-based commercial real estate firm located on Johnson Ferry Road.

Gavalis said that one of the driving forces behind East Cobb cityhood is more local control of government services. Currently, he said, each of the four Cobb district commissioners serves 175,000 people. In the City of East Cobb map that’s been proposed, each city council member would represent around 12,000 citizens, “who would be better served regarding local services and other issues.”

Commissioner Bob Ott, who represents District 2 that covers the proposed city map, has pointed out previously that roughly 40 percent of property tax revenue comes from his district. He has said some residents have told him they don’t think they’re getting their money’s worth.

His district also includes the Cumberland-Vinings-Smyrna area, with major corporate and commercial offices, but it is not part of the proposed City of East Cobb.

For a more detailed map of the proposed City of East Cobb, click here.

When asked which services were priorities for the cityhood group, Gavalis said that community development (which includes planning and zoning), police and fire “are high on the list.” State law requires new cities to provide a minimum of three services.

Gavalis is a retired federal agent who serves on the Cobb Neighborhood Safety Commission and has also been on the Cobb Elder Abuse Task Force. He noted that regarding East Cobb cityhood, “discussions have always taken place since former Cobb Commissioner Bill Byrne proposed a city [in the 2012 elections], and there have always been cityhood movements in metro Atlanta over the last decade.”

Gavalis said there is an East Cobb cityhood steering committee that “is an unofficial group of citizens with knowledge of our community who have volunteered to look at the issues of forming a new city with no pre-set determination for or against a city.”

He said those individuals, whom he also declined to identify, are also examining the feasibility study.

That study cost $36,000, according to a copy of the contract East Cobb News obtained through an open records request. Here’s the full report, which was delivered to the cityhood group on Dec. 7.

Gavalis also would not identify who paid for the study, saying only that “citizens, neighbors and business owners have financially contributed for the cost.” He’s anticipating other donations in the future but would not elaborate.

He also declined to indicate how much the group is paying Phil Kent, CEO of the Cobb-based Insider Advantage political publication and panelist on the Fox 5 public affairs program “The Georgia Gang.” Kent has been retained by the cityhood group to serve in a public relations capacity.

The proposed City of East Cobb map that the cityhood group released doesn’t include all of what’s considered East Cobb. With a population of 96,000, it contains only unincorporated Cobb east of I-75 that is in Cobb Commission District 2, and outside the Cumberland Community Improvement District.

Asked why areas north of Sandy Plains Road are not included in the map, Gavalis would say only that the map “uses boundaries of voting districts already set by the legislature. The proposed map is clean, with no conflicting boundaries.”

The feasibility study indicated that no property taxes would need to be levied above what East Cobb residents are paying for county services.

Gavalis also was asked to respond to citizens who may be happy with the services they’re getting and worry that they might be asked to pay for another layer of government.

“Many residents are not happy and have concerns about the county adequately addressing the values and wishes of East Cobbers.”

He also would not identify those residents or specify their concerns.

Gavalis said that the proposed city is based on a tax base that’s 85 percent residential and 15 percent commercial, similar to Milton in North Fulton. He said officials there have indicated they have not raised the millage rate since 2006.

The GSU study for East Cobb suggested a millage rate of 2.96 and said it may even begin operations with a surplus of nearly $3 million.

“A smaller government can focus on providing the services important to their residents in a timely fashion and can work closely with their citizens to create the type of community they desire,” Gavalis said.

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!

Modeling after Milton

East Cobb News Cityhood Coverage

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Share this post:

Like this:

Questioning budget assumptions

Mapping a new city

East Cobb News Cityhood Coverage

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Share this post:

Like this:

Revising the map?

Skepticism remains

More East Cobb News Cityhood Coverage

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Share this post:

Like this:

Related stories

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Share this post:

Like this:

Subject to change

The legislative process

East Cobb News Cityhood Coverage

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Share this post:

Like this:

Related story

East Cobb News Cityhood Coverage

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Share this post:

Like this:

Questioning motives

East Cobb News Cityhood Coverage

The art of persuasion

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Share this post:

Like this:

Related Coverage

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Share this post:

Like this:

East Cobb News Cityhood Coverage

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Share this post:

Like this:

Related coverage

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Share this post:

Like this:

Related coverage

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Share this post:

Like this:

Related coverage

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Share this post:

Like this:

Related coverage

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Share this post:

Like this:

Related coverage

Who else is involved?

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Share this post:

Like this:

Related coverage

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Share this post:

Like this:

Share this post:

Like this:

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Share this post:

Like this:

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Share this post:

Like this:

Share this post: