Cobb County Government is accepting applications for organizations and individuals seeking grant funding under the American Rescue Plan Act.
Cobb has been earmarked with $147 million in COVID-19 stimulus funding passed by Congress in the $1.9 trillion legislation in 2021.
Cobb commissioners approved investment guidance to allocate funding in the community health, support services, economic development, county infrastructure and public safety areas.
Those eligible for the grants must meet the following criteria:
Projects must serve Cobb County and its residents
Projects submitted must align with at least one of the five priority areas and at least one subtopic associated with the chosen priority area.
Project submissions from organizations outside of the Cobb County government must align with one or more Economic Development, Support Services, and Community Health subtopics, or Broadband & Digital Equity. Submissions from organizations outside of the Cobb County government will not be considered for Public Safety subtopics or County Facilities or Stormwater.
Projects must support communities impacted or disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. For more information, please see question 3.3.
Projects must consider equity in their project plans.
More information and access to an application link can be found here; the deadline for applying is 5 p.m. on Sept. 9.
Applications will be screened in several areas, including equity, financial continuity, impact, project budget, risk mitigation and impact.
Final funding decisions will be made by the Cobb Board of Commissioners.
Cobb officials will hold two information webinars about the application process on webinars on June 16 at 4:30 p.m. and June 27 at 6 p.m.
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For the second time, Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid will deliver a State of the County address next week.
She’s the featured speaker at the Cobb Chamber of Commerce’s Marquee Monday breakfast on June 13.
The event takes place from 8-10 a.m. at the Coca-Cola Roxy Theatre at The Battery Atlanta (800 Battery Ave.) and will include the Cobb Chamber’s presentation of its Executive Woman of the Year Award (info and registration here).
Until this year, the address from the head of county government had been delivered exclusively to the Chamber audience.
But earlier this year, Cupid added a separate event to invite the larger public. After being unable to get commissioners to provide funding, her “All In” address in April was sponsored by Wellstar Health System and other private donors.
She spoke al length about diversity and demographics and how Cobb can “retain our strength as an affluent suburban county” without leaving other types of communities behind.
That address was before three Cityhood referendums, including one in East Cobb, were rejected by voters last month.
The county government held town halls and launched a Cityhood information page that was criticized in particular by the East Cobb Cityhood group.
Last week, in her weekly e-mail newsletter, Cupid referenced the Cityhood votes by saying that “this should be the start of new dialogue. The town halls, forums, and conversations gave us a great opportunity to hear from residents. Now is the time to consider how we can strengthen county services, create communities with a better ‘sense of place,’ and capture the heightened level of engagement these votes encouraged.
“Residents made it clear they want a role in land use, zoning, and parks programs. Hopefully, this sparks increased community engagement with commissioners and staff when it comes to amendments to our Comprehensive Plan and participation in zoning meetings. In the weeks and months ahead you can also get involved in the county’s transition to a Unified Development Code among other matters like waste collection.”
Now in her second year in office, Cupid sounded some alarm bells with Chamber leaders and local elected officials in 2021 when Cobb commissioners approved a controversial residential rezoning near the Dobbins Air Base reserve accident potential zone.
That resulted in a land swap with the county to resolve the matter, commissioners later approved a code amendment to take away their discretionary power on rezonings around Dobbins.
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When he was hired as a Cobb Police officer in 1990, Stuart VanHoozer said he never thought he would move up the ranks to chief.
It wasn’t something a young man without a military or higher education background ever thought about, living in a basement in Mableton as he took on his first assignment as an officer on a beat, making $5.25 an hour.
“From there I fell in love with this job,” VanHoozer said Tuesday as he was introduced as the new Cobb Police Chief.
After a varied 32-year career in which he served as a patrol officer, heading up narcotics and internal affairs units, a commander at three precincts and most recently, as a deputy chief and interim co-chief, VanHoozer’s appointment was approved in a 5-0 vote of the Cobb Board of Commissioners.
He succeeds Tim Cox, who retired at the end of 2021.
“I came from pretty much nothing,” VanHoozer said in a press conference after the meeting. “All you have to do is be willing to do something great for your community.”
VanHoozer was one of four candidates formally interviewed from an initial applicant pool of 50, and his name was on a final list of three submitted to Cobb commissioners.
County Manager Jackie McMorris recommended him as the sole finalist.
VanHoozer said he was “humbled, but burdened” by his new role, and pledged that “nobody will work harder.”
VanHoozer and his fellow deputy chief Scott Hamilton have been juggling co-interim chief duties since January.
Since 2018, VanHoozer has been a deputy chief, in charge of implementing technology such as facial recognition and license-plate readers.
But intangible qualities were referenced by county leaders who spoke at the introduction.
“One of the things that captivated us was just his general empathy for everyone,” said Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid, who referenced her relationship with him when she represented District 4 in South Cobb.
“He cares about those he serves with and the badge that he wears.”
During heartfelt remarks after his introduction, VanHoozer talked about regular visits he would make to a child care center in South Cobb during his time as the Precinct 2 commander.
The child care center, located across the street from a shopping center known for criminal activity, especially drug-dealing, had been struck by stray bullets.
VanHoozer said he would hug some of the students and look at the bullet holes.
“All I could think about [when] I was commander of that precinct was that nothing can happen to those children while I am here,” he said.
VanHoozer touted his officers, who do what they do “without a whole lot of recognition in most areas,” noting activities behind the scenes, such as buying bicycles for kids and presenting Christmas gifts to children in need.
He also commended community leaders, including some from Austell who recognized police and law enforcement officers earlier in Tuesday’s meeting.
“We need help,” VanHoozer said, referring to open positions for officers. “We want people who are willing to bring their brains and minds together to make Cobb County safer, and to make Cobb County better.”
You can watch the full introductory press conference below.
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Cobb Fire Station 20 has operated on Sewell Mill Road since 1984.
The Cobb Board of Commissioners on Tuesday approved spending $975,000 to purchase around 3.5 acres of land on Sewell Mill Road at East Piedmont Road for the relocation of Fire Station 20.
The measure was passed on the commission’s consent agenda.
According to an agenda item, the Cobb Fire Department eventually wants to replace the current station at 1298 Hilton Drive—on Sewell Mill Road between East Piedmont and Old Canton Road—that was built in 1984.
That’s eight-tenths of a mile to the west of the property for the potential new site that has owned by the McCleskey Family-East Cobb YMCA.
“To meet response needs and Fire Department’s strategic goals, this station will need to be relocated,” the agenda item states. “While the station construction will not begin immediately, this parcel of land at Sewell Mill Road and East Piedmont intersection is an ideal location for the future station.”
The item also states that the funding for the property acquisition will come from the Cobb Fire Fund, and construction of the new station would commence “in a future budget cycle.”
Last year commissioners rejected a rezoning request for those parcels to become a residential senior living development.
Fire Station 20 has been mentioned in the current East Cobb Cityhood referendum campaign.
Although located in what would remain unincorporated Cobb, Station 20’s current service area includes neighborhoods that are included in the proposed City of East Cobb.
The proposed city would have two fire stations—currently Cobb 15 and 21.
Cobb Fire officials have said at county-sponsored cityhood town halls that slower response times are likely in the City of East Cobb, but a financial feasibility study didn’t provide enough details.
Last week, Cobb government launched a “World Class” web page to tout the Cobb Fire Department on its 50th anniversary.
The East Cobb cityhood group protested, sending out a letter last week alleging the county is actively campaigning against cityhood and demanding those activities stop.
The letter included a reference to an “audacious” sign posted in front of Fire Station 21, which is part of the East Cobb Government Service Center.
That’s where early voting is taking place through May 20.
“Because the Cityhood referendum is on the ballot in that very building, the sign is an illegal piece of campaign material that must be removed at once,” stated the letter to Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid. “It is no coincidence that the only fire station with such a sign as of May 4, 2022 is the one where early voting is occurring.”
When East Cobb News drove by Station 20 on Friday to take the above photo for this story, the same sign had been placed there.
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Cobb commissioner Jerica Richardson’s office said Monday that her scheduled town hall meeting Tuesday night at the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center is being postponed.
Aliye Korucu, Richardson’s administrative assistant, didn’t give a reason beyond saying it was an “unforeseen circumstance.”
According to her website Richardson was planning to go over her 2022 policy agenda, following what she calls her “Priorities Tour” of community meetings.
She said that “we will send out the new date, time, and location as soon as we have everything set.”
Richardson has been holding quarterly town hall meetings across District 2, which includes some of East Cobb as well as the Cumberland-Vinings Smyrna area.
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Stuart VanHoozer, a 32-year veteran of the Cobb Police Department who is currently one of two interim police chiefs, is being recommended as the new Cobb Police Chief.
His appointment is scheduled for a vote Tuesday by the Cobb Board of Commissioners, which is having a regular meeting starting at 9 a.m.
VanHoozer would succeed Tim Cox, who retired at the end of last year.
VanHoozer and Scott Hamilton, another Cobb Police veteran, have been serving as interim co-chiefs since then.
In his time with Cobb Police, VanHoozer has served as a patrol officer, a field training officer, a narcotics officer, an internal affairs officer, a commander of three precincts and as an executive officer to the Director of the Cobb Department of Public Safety.
Since 2018, VanHoozer has served as a deputy chief.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and public services from Kennesaw State University.
A message from Cobb government Monday morning said that there will be a press conference regarding the police chief appointment after the meeting.
Also on Tuesday’s agenda (you can read it here) will be an update on Truist Park and The Battery.
Cobb commissioners also will be asked to consider spending $975,000 to purchase around 3.5 acres of land on Sewell Mill Road at East Piedmont Road for the relocation of Fire Station 20.
The Cobb Fire Department wants to replace the current station at 1298 Hilton Drive—on Sewell Mill Road between East Piedmont and Old Canton Road—that was built in 1984.
The property for the potential new site is owned by the McCleskey Family-East Cobb YMCA.
Last year commissioners rejected a rezoning request for those parcels to become a residential senior living development.
The meeting starts at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the second floor board room of the Cobb government building (100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta).
The hearing also will be live-streamed on the county’s website, cable TV channel (Channel 24 on Comcast) and Youtube page. Visit cobbcounty.org/CobbTV for other streaming options.
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Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid’s 2022 State of Cobb County address last week was entitled “All In,” with messages of an expansive community laced throughout the presentation.
Public and civic leaders delivered those messages, and during a nearly two-hour-long event at Jim Miller Park on Thursday, greetings and entertainment included the Atlanta Braves Heavy Hitters drum corps.
After being sponsored for many years by the Cobb Chamber of Commerce, Cupid opted for a county-funded event. She couldn’t get her colleagues on the Cobb Board of Commissioners to approve the spending, however, and other entities, including Wellstar Health System, provided sponsorship.
Speakers came from the Atlanta Regional Commission and Cobb Chamber of Commerce.
During her remarks (which begin around the 58-minute mark below) Cupid, noted the increasing demographic diversity of the county.
She also said political changes in Cobb—with the Cobb Board of Commissioners going from Republican to Democratic control in the 2020 elections—being most notable.
Cupid is the first Democrat to head county government since the 1980s, and leads a 3-2 Democratic majority that’s made up of black females.
But Cobb Republicans in the Georgia legislature steered through reapportionment maps aimed at limiting Democratic representation on the Cobb commission, school board, legislature and Congress.
In addition, four cityhood referendums will be taking place in Cobb, including one in East Cobb in May.
“It has become very clear to me that the increased sensitivity to this board making similar decisions as boards in the past, and historic redistricting and cityhood efforts are signs of these shifts.
“They have been overwhelming at times, but I would not be standing before you if I did not see a silver lining in the challenges facing our county.”
She discussed the county’s desired response to inclusiveness, transportation, COVID-19 and public health, the county budget, public safety, affordable housing, innovations through technology, the proposed Unified Development Code.
“Our diversity is just not racially or geographically,” she said. “It’s economically. We are one of the state of Georgia’s most affluent counties, yet 70,000 of our residents live in poverty.”
She also asked how Cobb can “retain our strength as an affluent suburban county” without leaving other types of communities behind.
Cupid alluded to a total of nearly 700 new county employees that have been requested by government department heads to meet service demands for a county of more than 700,000 people.
“This is hard work that the board is going through,” she said, “but it is necessary work to get where we want to be.”
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Residential property values in Cobb are expected to rise by 13.15 percent in 2022.
Cobb Tax Assessor Stephen White is predicting that the county’s tax digest will grow by more than 10 percent this year, the first double-digit yearly increase in more than two decades.
In a release issued by Cobb government, White said that the projected rise of 10.49 percent is based on an additional $5 billion increase in the value of residential, commercial and personal property as of March 31.
That includes a predicted growth of 13.15 percent in residential values, an increase of 6.56 precent in commercial values and 0.83 percent more in personal property values.
The tax digest is the overall value of property—real and personal property, motor vehicles and public utilities—adjusted after such things and homestead exemptions and the senior school tax exemption.
For 2022, the tax digest is projected to be a record $48.4 billion. The 2021 tax digest is $36.1 billion.
In a statement accompanying the county release, White said that due to the strong real estate market in Cobb “it is apparent we need to make changes to values that are reflective of what properties are worth. Many neighborhoods have properties selling for more than our value. The majority of our residential properties will see an adjustment in their Fair Market Value on their assessment notice because our value for last year is no longer reflective of what properties are worth.”
The final 2022 tag digest numbers will be revealed in July. Residential assessment notices go out to Cobb homeowners in May and commercial assessments are issued in June.
White’s prediction comes as Cobb commissioners are bracing for a summer budget season.
In recent weeks, they’ve been hearing budget requests from department heads that total around $1.2 billion, an increase of nearly $180 million more than the current fiscal year 2022 budget.
Much of that comes from combined requests to add nearly 700 county employees to address staff shortages in a number of departments.
Only four new full-time positions were filled in the current budget and none were approved for FY 2020.
Commissioners are expected to adopt a fiscal year 2023 budget by the end of July.
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Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid will deliver the annual State of the County address on Thursday.
The event typically has been sponsored by the Cobb Chamber of Commerce but this year she opted for it to be conducted independently by county government.
The address comes as Cobb commissioners and county government officials are preparing for budget season—Cobb’s fiscal year starts on Oct. 1—and with four cityhood campaigns on elections ballots this year.
County department heads have been submitting their budget requests in recent weeks, and their requests total around $1.2 billion, an increase of nearly $180 million more than the current fiscal year 2022 budget.
Much of that comes from combined requests to add nearly 700 county employees to address staff shortages in a number of departments.
Only four new full-time positions were filled in the current budget and none were approved for FY 2020.
Cobb officials also have been addressing the three cityhood referendums coming up on May 24, including East Cobb, Vinings and Lost Mountain, and a likely referendum in November in Mableton.
At a town hall meeting last week at the Sewell Mill Library, they repeated estimates that if all four cityhood referendums pass—affecting more than 200,000 people, more than a quarter of Cobb’s population—the county would lose an estimated $41 million a year.
In April, Cobb commissioners will get a preview of the 2022 county tax digest, which typically is formalized in July as they are completing budget adoption.
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Cobb communications director Ross Cavitt (at lectern) reads questions for department heads at the Sewell Mill Library.
The latest in a series of what Cobb government officials are calling objective “information sessions” about four cityhood referendums came to East Cobb this week.
One of those referendums will take place May 24 for a proposed City of East Cobb, which was the focus of a town hall Thursday at the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center.
(You can watch a replay of the nearly hour-long town hall at the bottom of this post.)
Commissioners JoAnn Birrell and Jerica Richardson, whose districts include East Cobb, also attended, but they spoke only briefly, saying they can’t publicly take a position.
“I encourage you to ask the hard questions,” Richardson said, “because this is about your future. We want to make sure that you’re equipped with the information that you need so you can make the best decision for you and your family.”
She said she didn’t know at the time that she was supposed to have been impartial, although county officials typically have been mum on other referendums, including Special Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) extensions.
Cobb finance officers estimate the county could lose more than $41 million in annual revenue if all four cities—East Cobb, Lost Mountain, Mableton and Vinings, totalling more than 200,000 people—are created, with only a few hundred thousand dollars in savings.
Of that, around $23 million of that would come out of East Cobb, which unlike the other proposed cities wants to provide police, fire and E911 services.
That was the subject of many of the audience questions read by Cobb communications director Ross Cavitt.
Cobb public safety department heads repeated many of the same points they made at a March 10 town hall, saying the East Cobb financial feasibility study has incomplete information.
They said that transferring equipment and facilities and mutual aid agreements would have to be negotiated, and response times and fire insurance rates would likely rise for those living in a city of East Cobb.
Interim Cobb Police Chief Scott Hamilton said that response times vary, depending on what kind of call is dispatched, but that a “city would probably have fewer officers for major calls.”
Interim Cobb Police Chief Scott Hamilton, left, and Cobb Deputy Fire Chief Michael Schutz
Michael Schutz, the deputy Cobb Fire Chief, noted a recent house fire in Indian Hills that prompted a response from nearly 30 personnel and several engines and trucks.
In rattling off the staff and equipment at the two proposed East Cobb fire stations (currently Cobb 15 and 21), he said the numbers don’t come close to that total.
The East Cobb city hall would be located at the East Cobb Government Service Center, and a question was asked about how much it would cost to transfer that facility.
Cavitt read a statement prepared by the Cobb County Attorney that state law specifies only two hard figures about transferring county properties to a new city—$5,000 for a fire station (minus engines and other equipment) and $100 an acre for public park land.
After the town hall, Sarah Haas, a member of the Committee for Cityhood in East Cobb, took issue not only with some of the county finance and staffing estimates, but also with the scope of the county’s information campaign (including an online resource page).
“It’s hard for me to believe that this information is purely educational,” she said. “I get the sense that they’re trying to instill fear, uncertainty and doubt, more than to provide information.”
Haas said the “financials don’t pass the smell test,” including county estimates that fire expenses in East Cobb would come to $12 million (the cityhood group’s financial study estimates an annual fire department budget of $5.7 million).
She said that previous cityhood efforts have always come with issues to be hammered out during a two-year transition period, including finances. A feasibility study provides only an outline for what a future city might provide.
“I’d love to have a crystal ball and say that this is what we should create as a budget,” said Haas, who led the cityhood group’s recent town hall meeting.
“There are always going to be unanswered questions about cityhood. We’re doing our best job to educate people about the benefits of a city.”
He’s concerned about high-density development issues that have prompted all four cityhood campaigns in Cobb County.
A member of the Cobb Neighborhood Safety Commission, Smith said he’s perplexed about the addition of public safety services in East Cobb, which also would provide planning and zoning and code enforcement services.
But he said recent zoning decisions on the Cobb Board of Commissioners—including the East Cobb Church mixed-use development and a controversial rezoning around Dobbins Air Base that resulted in an unusual land swap—have led to him support cityhood.
“It’s about having local control of zoning,” Smith said, adding that Cobb’s building codes are also a problem.
Smith said given recent developments, it’s crucially important to have a more locally focused governing body writing those codes to retain East Cobb’s suburban character and control how redevelopment—commercial and residential—is handled.
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Cobb government said Tuesday that the next town hall will be coming to East Cobb next week, on Thursday, March 24, at the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center (2051 Lower Roswell Road).
The town hall starts at 6:30 p.m. and will focus on the proposed City of East Cobb. It will be livestreamed on the county’s YouTube channel.
Members of the public also can ask questions in advance by e-mailing: cityhoodquestions@cobbcounty.org.
Last week’s town hall focused heavily on police, fire and 911 services for the proposed City of East Cobb.
Of the four cityhood movements in Cobb, only East Cobb is proposing public safety services. County officials have said since the East Cobb bill passed through the Georgia legislature that major questions remain about how those services will be provided and how the county will provide backup.
The East Cobb referendum is May 24, along with referendums in Vinings and Lost Mountain. Those proposed cities are focusing on preservation and development concerns.
At a town hall on March 7, leaders of the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood said they’re “low density fans,” in response to charges by opponents that the initiative is being backed by developer interests.
A Lost Mountain town hall is scheduled for April 7 at Lost Mountain Park (4845 Dallas Highway, Powder Springs), and Vinings town hall will take place on April 21 at a venue to be announced.
A bill on Mableton cityhood passed the Georgia House last week and needs to be approved in the Senate for a referendum in November.
Plans also are forthcoming for two East Cobb cityhood events: April 19 by the East Cobb Business Association; and May 4 by the Rotary Club of East Cobb at Pope High School.
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Hours after qualifying ended for the May 24 primary elections, Cobb District 2 Commissioner Jerica Richardson said Friday that she will be “forced” to vacate her office in January.
But in a video message on her Facebook page, the first-term Democrat vowed to fight a reapportionment map that drew her out of her East Cobb residence.
As of Jan. 1, 2023, when the new map takes effect, “I will not live in the qualifying district,” she said, referring to District 2. “I will not be permitted to vote on important county matters starting on that date.”
She said the “bigger issue” is how the new map “invalidates the will of the people and has created a conundrum on the county commission.”
Nearly 100,000 Cobb citizens, Richardson said, will not have a representative for several months” until a special election would be called.
“That is why I have made the decision to not step down as commissioner for District 2,” she said, reading from prepared remarks (you can watch the video here).
Richardson moved into a home off Post Oak Tritt Road last summer, but in February the Republican-dominated Georgia legislature redrew Cobb commission district lines to place most of East Cobb in District 3.
Richardson did not qualify for that race, and has until the end of the year to move into the new District 2, which includes the Cumberland-Smyrna-Vinings and Marietta areas and some of the I-75 corridor in North Cobb.
The new Cobb commission map includes most of East Cobb in District 3 (in yellow), with District 2 in pink.
Richardson didn’t explain why she didn’t qualify in District 3 or say why she isn’t moving to District 2.
“I will not abdicate my position just to seek a future win for my own personal gain. . . . The real problem is the injustice and disservice this map has created for the people,” Richardson said in the video.
“I will not sit back, I will not step down and I will not just say nothing,” she said in a statement that could set off a political and possibly a legal challenge.
She didn’t mention any possible legal action, although she said she’s received legal advice while contemplating her situation.
Richardson, 32, is an enterprise transformation specialist at Equifax whose family moved to the Atlanta area from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
She succeeded three-term Republican commissioner Bob Ott in 2020, edging GOP candidate Fitz Johnson to cement the first all-female county commission in Cobb history.
Her term expires in 2024, and she’s part of a 3-2 Democratic majority on the commission, which had been controlled by Republicans since the 1980s.
“The new mapping lines fundamentally shift our county, both economically and historically,” Richardson said in the video, “and not for the better.”
She said this redistricting process has “ignored the will of the people.”
Richardson said her office has received a “flood” of messages from citizens upset with the maps, which she said were drawn without much community consultation, and that sidestepped normal courtesies to the local delegations.
Cobb Republican lawmakers submitted redistricting maps for the commission and the Cobb Board of Education over the objections of the county delegation’s Democratic leadership.
State Rep. John Carson, a Northeast Cobb Republican who sponsored the commission redistricting bill, countered that his lines would likely maintain a Democratic majority.
In January, Cobb commissioners voted along party lines to recommend a map drawn by State Rep. Erick Allen, a Smyrna Democrat and the Cobb delegation chairman, that would largely maintain the current lines.
Birrell voted against Allen’s map, saying it removed some of her East Cobb precincts. Now she’ll have most of them, running to the Powers Ferry Road corridor.
The other GOP member of the commission, Keli Gambrill of District 1 in North Cobb, was the only candidate to qualify for that office.
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“The last thing we want to do is remove services for residents of unincorporated Cobb,” Cobb Fire Chief Bill Johnson said.
Public safety services for the proposed City of East Cobb generated much of the discussion at a town hall meeting held Wednesday night by Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid.
It’s the first of several town halls county officials will be holding in the coming weeks as voters in East Cobb, Lost Mountain and Vinings will decide cityhood referendums on May 24. A Mableton cityhood bill is still being considered in the Georgia legislature.
County leaders said they cannot take official positions on cityhood, but said their sessions are meant to be informational.
Questions were submitted by citizens in advance and read on index cards by Cobb public information officer Ross Cavitt.
(You can watch a replay of Wednesday’s town hall, which lasted around an hour, by clicking here. Dates and locations for future town halls are to be determined.)
At a Cobb Board of Commissioners work session in February, county finance head Bill Volckmann said the impact to the county budget would be $41.4 million annually if all four cities are created. (The county has created a cityhood page that is being updated.)
Of that, they estimate $23 million would come out of East Cobb alone (East Cobb cityhood leaders have taken issue with those financials, saying they’re misleading).
That’s because only East Cobb is proposing to have its own police and fire departments and an E911 service.
The leaders of those agencies for Cobb County government said at the town hall they’re still learning about the details of those services in East Cobb.
But they all said it’s likely that response time for those services will rise for citizens in a new City of East Cobb.
East Cobb would have two fire stations—current Cobb Station No. 21 on Lower Roswell Road and current Cobb Station No. 15 on Oak Lane.
Cobb Fire Chief Bill Johnson said those two stations would have to expand their current footprints by 13 percent to serve a City of East Cobb with nearly 60,000 residents and covering 25 square miles.
The problem, he said, is that citizens on the western edge of the city are currently served by Station No. 20 on Sewell Mill Road, No. 3 on Terrell Mill Road, No. 19 on Powers Ferry Road and No. 3 next to the Mountain View Regional Library, all of which would remain in unincorporated Cobb.
“They absolutely will see an increase in their response time,” Johnson said.
Should a City of East Cobb be formed, mutual aid agreements would be negotiated with Cobb Police and Cobb Fire, which have similar agreements with the existing six cities in the county, to provide backup.
Cobb Fire officials said citizens in the red shaded areas in the proposed East Cobb city and currently serviced by fire stations in unincorporated Cobb would have higher response times.
An East Cobb Police Department would be stationed at current Cobb Precinct 4 headquarters, with an estimated 71 officers, according to a financial feasibility study prepared for the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood.
Interim Cobb Police Chief Scott Hamilton echoed Johnson, and said that “if anybody needs help, we’ll come. At the end of the day, we’re a family and we all take care of each other. But response times are going to get longer.”
Cobb public safety leaders said they haven’t had any contact with East Cobb Cityhood proponents, but some meetings are slated to begin next week.
Cobb E911 director Melissa Altiero said she’s unclear if East Cobb would be handling its own emergency calls or have them answered by Cobb.
She said Cobb answers calls inside the City of Marietta, which has its own police and fire services, “and it’s a seamless response.”
Transferring calls from one call center to another, she said, takes an average of 40 seconds.
Altiero also said she would be concerned about misrouted calls further delaying response time in a City of East Cobb, and said there’s nothing in the East Cobb financial study about what kind of radio system it would have.
That study proposes transferring the 2.86 mills in the Cobb Fire Fund to provide the main revenue source for a city with an estimated $27.7 million annual budget (and that also provide planning and zoning, code enforcement and possibly parks and recreation services).
Johnson said that would amount to $14 million in lost revenue for the Cobb Fire Department, out of annual budget of $110 million.
What that would mean for the county fire department is uncertain, financially or in affecting its service levels.
“The last thing we want to do is remove services to unincorporated Cobb,” Johnson said. “The citizens have come to expect a high level of service and we want to continue to provide that service.”
Before those remarks, Cavitt read a citizen question to Cupid about whether the county would increase taxes to offset the loss of revenue due to new cities being formed, but she deflected it.
“It depends,” Cupid said. “But I am not aware of a new city that has been formed that has not raised taxes.
“If somebody can show me a new city that has not raised taxes, then no, your taxes won’t be raised. Will they be raised immediately, if this moves forward on the May ballot? The answer is no.
“In the short run, no would be a qualified answer. But in the long run, I have yet to be pointed to a new city that has not been formed where they have not had some increases in taxes.”
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The 2016 Cobb SPLOST (Special Local-Option Sales Tax) expired at the end of 2021.
But county officials say the five-year revenue collection period generated nearly $114 million more than projected revenues.
So on Tuesday, they went before the Cobb Board of Commissioners to identity eligible projects on the 2016 list that needed additional funding.
Commissioners adopted a recommended list to fund projects in transportation, fire, parks, property management and the Cobb Sheriff’s Office to the tune of $31.8 million.
(You can read a line-item list of the projects by clicking here.)
The biggest chunk ($15.1 million) will go to Cobb DOT, including $8.5 million in local matching funds for state and federal projects; $3 million for drainage system improvements; $2 million to repair a sinkhole on Leland Drive and $1 million for the Silver Comet Trail Connector.
Another $5.7 million will be used for a firing range facility and equipment to be shared by the Cobb Police Department and the Cobb Sheriff’s Office, as part of $6.8 million dedicated for property management projects.
Parks facilities will receive $4.1 million, and an additional $2 million for the Cobb Sheriff’s Office will go for replacing vehicles and maintaining jail facilities.
The Cobb Fire training facility will get $3.7 million for renovations.
Cobb voters approved a new six-year SPLOST for county government projects in November.
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East Cobb cityhood group member Sarah Haas explains how a mayor and city council members would be elected in November if the May 24 referendum passes.
In their first face-to-face meeting with the public, leaders of the East Cobb Cityhood effort on Monday addressed claims that development interests are driving their campaign.
It’s a charge that’s been made since the cityhood movement first began in 2019, and was renewed over the weekend by a group opposed to the May 24 East Cobb referendum.
At a town hall meeting Monday at Olde Towne Athletic Club, the Committee for East Cobb Cityhoodonce again stressed that their main objective is fostering local control of basic services and preserving the suburban nature of the community.
On Saturday, a citizens group opposed to the new city pointed out that the pro-cityhood group’s behind-the-scenes leader is a longtime retail real estate executive and expressed concern that high-density development wouldn’t be far behind.
The tax base of the proposed City of East Cobb is 91 percent residential and nine percent commercial, according to a financial feasibility study prepared for the cityhood group.
Chapin’s remark drew considerable applause, and followed emphatic remarks by former State Rep. Matt Dollar that having elected officials who live in the East Cobb area, and not other parts of the county, is vital to shaping the future of the community.
“They care. They give a damn about what goes here because they live here,” said Dollar, the bill’s main sponsor who resigned from the legislature last month. “It’s local control. It’s people you know making the decisions.”
That’s been the thrust of the cityhood group’s messaging since it was revived in 2021. Unlike the abandoned 2019 effort, this one has been centered around planning and zoning, especially in light of the East Cobb Church rezoning case last year that galvanized residents on either side in the Johnson Ferry-Shallowford corridor.
In noting the future of two major retail centers—Parkaire Landing and The Avenue, the latter of which is slated for a major overhaul—committee spokeswoman Cindy Cooperman said an East Cobb city government would be better-suited to work as a partner in redevelopment than a county government that’s serving nearly 800,000 with five commissioners.
“That brings more seats to the table, especially when it comes to zoning,” she said. “It really is a question of scale.” For a number of years, she said, the Cobb commission “worked fine.”
The East Cobb Cityhood group said citizens of a new city will pay the same taxes as they do now.
Fellow committee member Sarah Haas said that “it is our desire to tailor [certain services now provided by the county] to the community.”
The cityhood group also was pressed to back up its pledge that property taxes wouldn’t be raised beyond the millage rates that would be transferred from county government.
The proposed city would provide five of the 17 current services provided by the county—planning and zoning, code enforcement, police, fire and parks and recreation.
Residents of the city of East Cobb would still pay a tax bill of 30.35 mills (with 18.9 mills going to the Cobb County School District) as residents in unincorporated Cobb.
The city’s main funding source would be transferring the 2.86 mills of the current Cobb Fire Fund.
“Cities manage better—it’s a smaller footprint,” Chapin said, noting that state law does not permit duplication of services between cities and counties. “It’s not another layer of government.”
But the addition of police and fire services to the mix, and a financial feasibility study, has raised more questions.
While audience members on Monday did not directly ask questions—they were read from index cards by a moderator—cityhood group leaders were asked to explain how public safety facilities would be acquired.
The proposed city would house its police station at the current Cobb Precinct 4 headquarters along with current Cobb fire station 21 at the East Cobb Government Service Center, and also include current Cobb fire station 15 on Oak Lane.
Cooperman cited state law calling for a $5,000 transfer fee for those facilities and “their fixtures,” which she said included equipment (which the East Cobb Alliance disputes).
How a City of East Cobb might purchase the county-owned former Tritt property next to East Cobb Park is “unknown,” according to the cityhood group.
Should a city be created, she said, mutual aid agreements would be crafted during a two-year transition period.
That transition, should it come to pass, also might include negotiations with the county over parks and recreation services.
Parks and recreation services were examined in the feasibility study, but questions remain on how a City of East Cobb would acquire land adjacent to East Cobb Park.
In 2018 Cobb purchased 22 acres of the Tritt property with SPLOST funds, and the 2022 SPLOST referendum, if passed, includes the purchase of the remaining 24 acres of that land.
The Tritt property has been envisioned as being an extension of East Cobb Park, featuring pedestrian trails.
Cityhood group member Scott Sweeney said the process for obtaining that land (at $100 an acre), should a City of East Cobb come to fruition, would be an “unknown,” and Dollar said “it will just get worked out.”
Citizens also asked about the impact of an East Cobb city on schools, which are operated separately by the Cobb County School District.
Sweeney, a former Cobb school board member, stressed that a new city wouldn’t change the current senior exemption from school taxes for homeowners 62 and older.
With cityhood referendums on the May 24 ballot in Lost Mountain and Vinings as well as East Cobb, Cobb County government is holding a cityhood town hall Wednesday at 6 p.m. (more information here).
At least two other East Cobb referendum forums have been scheduled for now: April 19 by the East Cobb Business Association, and on May 4 at Pope High School by the Rotary Club of East Cobb.
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“Is this really about local control or special interest control?” said Mindy Seger, president of the East Cobb Alliance, questioning the claims of cityhood forces.
In a little less than three months, voters in the proposed City of East Cobb will be asked whether they want to form a new city.
A grassroots citizens group that formed in 2019 to fight an initial cityhood campaign is accelerating its efforts to defeat a May 24 referendum that could create a city of around 60,000 people.
But just as in the first cityhood quest, the East Cobb Alliance said a new city would also create needless levels of government, increase taxes, cause confusion among citizens about service provision and delay public safety response time.
The East Cobb Alliance has printed flyers detailing its arguments against cityhood.
“You don’t need another layer of government to change what doesn’t need changing,” said Mindy Seger, the group’s president, during an information session Saturday at the Chimney Springs subdivision clubhouse.
The East Cobb Alliance—which has more than 1,300 followers on its Facebook page—also has sharpened its talking points as public meetings are being scheduled on both sides of the issue.
The pro-cityhood forces have said the area isn’t getting effective representation on the Cobb Board of Commissioners, whose four district members represent nearly 200,000 people each.
As the cityhood bill worked its way through the Georgia legislature, they testified that local control—East Cobb would have a mayor and six city council members—would be more responsive.
But Seger, who debated pro-cityhood leaders in 2019 before that effort was abandoned—took issue with that claim.
In a talking point called “Follow the Money,” she noted that while the current cityhood group has new members who are making public rounds, some individuals behind the scenes remain from the original effort.
They include Owen Brown, the founder of the Retail Planning Corp., which manages Paper Mill Village, Woodlawn Square, Woodlawn Commons and other shopping centers in the area.
He’s a voter in Florida, Seger said, and therefore can’t vote in the referendum. Neither can Matt Dollar, the former legislator who sponsored the East Cobb bill, then resigned the day after it passed the House.
He’s moved to a new home in what would remain unincorporated East Cobb. Lawmakers who carried the legislation after that are in Acworth and North Fulton.
The only other East Cobb co-sponsor of the bill—State Rep. Sharon Cooper—didn’t speak on its behalf in the legislative sessions.
A number of homes in Chimney Springs, which has more than 700 homes, are sporting anti-cityhood yard signs.
“If this was such a good idea, why didn’t he buy a house inside the city borders?” Seger said, referring to Dollar. “Is this really about local control or special interest control?
“What are they looking to get out of this?”
Seger also delved into the proposed police and fire services for the City of East Cobb, which were not in the initial bill and were added in November (the other services would be planning and zoning and code enforcement).
The East Cobb financial feasibility study estimated that fire services would cost $5.7 million a year. But Cobb fire officials, in a recent commissioners work session, placed that figure at more than $12 million a year.
There would be two fire stations in East Cobb, No. 21 at the East Cobb Government Service Center and No. 15 on Oak Drive.
“That’s a big difference, and I think the county’s estimate is more accurate,” she said, adding that such expenses as the cost of fire engines and training firefighters (as well as police officers) have not been factored into the financial study.
As for police, the study estimated a staff of 71 officers (79 staffers are currently working out of Cobb Police Precinct 4).
“The challenge and cost of recruiting and training officers is difficult everywhere,” Seger said. “How is a new city going to compete with that?”
That point was echoed by former Cobb Chamber of Commerce CEO David Connell, who attended one of the East Cobb Alliance sessions.
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” he said during the presentation, saying that Cobb’s public safety services are highly rated. “Taxes will go up and don’t let anyone tell you different.”
Also in the audience was engineering consultant Geoff Seguin, who lives in a nearby neighborhood. He said he was initially open to the subject of cityhood, but said after getting information from both sides, he’s “strongly opposed to it.
“I’ve not met anybody who said they’re for” cityhood, said East Cobb resident Geoff Seguin, at right.
“There are too many unknowns,” said Seguin, who’s lived in East Cobb resident since 1989 and whose children graduated from local schools.
Life in the community, he said, “is pretty darn good” and said he doesn’t see any reason to change the form of local government.
After months of discussions and numerous delays, Cobb commissioners approved a rezoning request at Johnson Ferry and Shallowford Road in October.
While the community was split on the issue, Seguin said he was impressed by the effort by Northpoint and county officials, especially regarding stormwater and legal concessions his group asked for.
He also found Commissioner Jerica Richardson (who attended an earlier East Cobb Alliance session Saturday) and former planning commissioner Tony Waybright responsive during the process.
“It made me a believer in local government,” Seguin said, referring to county government. He said when citizens get involved at that level, “it works.”
Monday’s town hall organized by the cityhood group is sold out, but is being livestreamed on its Facebook page starting at 6 p.m.
On Wednesday, Cobb County government will hold an information session, and with similar referendums in Lost Mountain, Vinings and possibly Mableton, it has launched a cityhood information page.
The East Cobb Business Association will hold an East Cobb Cityhood forum on April 19, and the Rotary Club of East Cobb will be holding a similar session for Pope High School in early May.
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With COVID-19 case rates continuing to fall and new CDC guidance easing risk levels and other recommended restrictions, Cobb County Manager Jackie McMorris has lifted the mask mandate for indoor county facilities.
In addition to government office buildings, that means that masks are also optional again at libraries, senior centers and indoor recreation buildings.
The mandate has been in place since the Omicron variant surge began in December.
Masks are still required inside Cobb courthouses, which are operating under a separate order from the Georgia Supreme Court.
An emergency declaration continues in Cobb, but the county issued a release Monday saying that too “is expected to be terminated this week based on the continuing trend of lower transmission rates in the county.”
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Democrats Charisse Davis of the Cobb school board and Jerica Richardson of the Cobb commission have had the East Cobb portions of their districts removed.
Two first-term Democrats who represent part of East Cobb on the Cobb Board of Commissioners and the Cobb Board of Education will have different electoral boundaries soon.
The Georgia Senate finalized redistricting bills for both bodies on Wednesday, clearing the way for Gov. Brian Kemp’s signature into law.
The bills were sponsored by Cobb Republicans over the objections of the county’s Democratic-led legislative delegation, and easily passed in the legislature, which has strong GOP majorities.
For a larger view of the new Cobb commissioners map, click here.
Jerica Richardson, who was elected to commission District 2 in 2020, was drawn out of her district in a map that for the next decade will place most of East Cobb in District 3 (in gold on the map at right).
District 2 has included the Cumberland-Smyrna-Vinings area and part of East Cobb. Richardson moved into a new home off Post Oak Tritt Road last year, but will have to move again by the end of the year if she seeks a second term in 2024.
The new District 2 (in pink) will include Cumberland-Smyrna-Vinings, some of Marietta and other areas along the I-75 corridor.
The bill’s main sponsor, Republican John Carson of Northeast Cobb, has said that his map will likely keep the commission’s current 3-2 Democratic majority.
But Richardson and other Cobb Democrats have been vocal at Georgia Capitol press conferences in opposing the GOP maps.
“This bill essentially overwrites the vote you made 2 years ago and creates a new map that doesn’t take the community’s input into consideration,” Richardson said on her Facebook page Thursday.
“This is a dangerous precedent, and I plan to continue making my voice heard in order to support this community and its needs.”
District 3 commissioner JoAnn Birrell, a Republican, is nearing the end of her third term this year.
Charisse Davis, who has represented the Walton and Wheeler clusters on the Cobb school board since 2019, also was drawn into a new post that no longer includes East Cobb.
She lives in the Cumberland-Smyrna-Vinings area, which forms the heart of the new Post 6. Davis is up for re-election but has not announced whether she’s seeking re-election.
For a larger view of the new Cobb school board post map, click here.
East Cobb News has left a message with Davis seeking comment.
She noted on her Facebook page recently that the Cobb GOP maps affecting her, Richardson and current 6th District U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath are “ensuring that the east Cobb area will no longer have representation from any of the Black women whose districts currently include east Cobb.”
While East Cobb has been solid terrain for Republicans, Democrats have been making gains in recent elections as the once-conservative county undergoes significant demographic and political change.
Only on the Cobb school board do Republicans have a local majority.
For the last three years, the school board has held a 4-3 GOP edge (after Republicans previously enjoyed a 6-1 advantage), and has been roiled controversies that generally have fallen along partisan lines.
The shifting lines for the school board also reduce East Cobb representation to two members. They are current chairman David Chastain, a Republican who has said he will be seeking another term in 2022 for Post 4, and David Banks, the GOP vice chairman whose Post 5 will now cover most of the Walton and Wheeler areas.
Davis and fellow first-term Democrat Jaha Howard, also of the Smyrna area, have been in the middle of disputes over the senior tax exemption, equity issues, student discipline matters and the Cobb County School District’s COVID-19 response.
The new maps put Davis and Howard, currently of Post 2, together. But he has announced he is running for Georgia School Superintendent this year.
(PLEASE NOTE: The process of redistricting elected school board posts has nothing to do with the boundaries of school attendance zones, which are drawn by school district administrative staff and are done mainly to balance out school capacity.)
McBath, completing her second term, has switched to the 7th district, which includes most of Democratic-leaning Gwinnett County after the legislature redrew the 6th to create a GOP-friendly seat that includes East Cobb, North Fulton, part of Forsyth County and Dawson County.
Part of East Cobb also is included in newly redrawn 11th District, which is represented by Republican Barry Lowdermilk.
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George Hitchcock, who lives near East Cobb Park, showed commissioners this week photos of flood damage to his property from the Sept. 7, 2021 storms.
Cobb Commissioner Jerica Richardson will be holding a virtual town hall meeting Tuesday to evaluate options to address continuing stormwater problems stemming from heavy flooding last fall.
Richardson said the meeting is a “follow up” to a previous meeting she held for homeowners who sustained heavy damage from those storms, and who have been critical of the county’s response.
The town hall via Zoom takes place from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, and the public can sign up by clicking here.
A number of homeowners in Richardson’s East Cobb district have expressed frustration at being told they’re responsible for making repairs ranging from $25,000-$250,000 for what they said was flooding caused by poor stormwater infrastructure.
Several East Cobb residents sounded off to commissioners again on Tuesday about their continuing plight.
Hill Wright, who lives in the Spring Creek neighborhood off Holt Road, has been coordinating an effort to press the county for a stronger response, and said he talks to previously affected residents every time it rains.
“What I hear is that the damage is worse or it’s happening again,” he said during a public comment session. “They tell me they don’t know how long they can hang on, or if the next storm will push them over the edge.”
Dan Larkin, a resident of the Meadow Brook neighborhood off Powers Ferry Road, said one of his neighbors had four feet of water flood their home during the September storm.
Stormwater is collecting in two vacant lots on Oriole Drive, and the amount has been escalating due to runoff from new homes in areas “that should never have been built on.
“This is not looking out for the public at all,” Larkin said. “What will be done to keep this from happening again?”
Rebecca Klein bought a home in 2020 near a creek that feeds into Sope Creek, close to the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center.
She said on the night of Sept. 7, “I looked in horror as that peaceful little creek raged to eight feet deep in our back yard.”
There was muddy water in the basement that rose to more than three feet.
The cleanup, Klein said, wasn’t the problem. The floods destroyed her neighbor’s driveway and crushed the culvert in her yard, creating a sinkhole near the foundation of her home.
She said she was told by the Cobb stormwater office that it had no record of the culvert and the homeowners may have installed it.
“This is not possible,” Klein said, her voice breaking with emotion. The culvert “was far too large for us to install with the house in the way. There’s no possible way of the county not knowing as this crosses three properties.”
She said she was told she would be responsible for what she said are six-figure repairs.
“How in the world can a homeowner afford these repairs?” she said. “How can the county pick and choose what to maintain?
“We are facing financial ruin on a home we haven’t even lived in for two years. Every time it rains, I cringe in fear that that hole is going to get bigger.”
George Hitchcock, who lives off Robinson Road near East Cobb Park, said on Sept. 7 his neighborhood received 6-7 feet of stormwater runoff from Robinson Creek. His driveway and those belonging to two neighbors were washed out.
“We recognize that this was a unique event, but in the last two months we’ve had two more flash floods,” Hitchcock said. “Even an inch of rain now is enough to put the creek up and out of its bounds.”
He said while he has FEMA flood insurance, it wouldn’t cover the repair costs from the Sept. 7 flooding, resulting in a “significant out-of-pocket expense.”
At the end of the meeting, Richardson announced the town hall, saying that her presentation will detail a “comprehensive list . . . . of options that we can take as a community to curb this issue holistically.”
She said some items can be addressed immediately, while others will require more time, but the objective is to address the problem systemically.
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