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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The rate of COVID-19 transmission in Cobb County is nearing a benchmark figure.
But Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid said it’s not enough to end an emergency declaration she extended last week into March.
At the end of Tuesday’s Cobb Board of Commissioners meeting, Cupid said that the 14-day average of COVID cases per 100,000 people in the county is now 246.
That’s a steep drop from more than 2,500 in January, at the peak of the Omicron surge.
But public health officials consider anything more than 100 cases per 100K a “high” rate of community spread.
“Shall we have rates that that fall below the rates of high transmission, I will be glad to end the order,” she said, adding that she’s also considering the burden on local hospitals.
Cupid didn’t have any specifics on that, but said that she understands public frustration over the order.
“I am no glutton for the punishment that I receive in the e-mails and calls that I get,” said Cupid, who in recent months has been publicly masked, and also tested positive for COVID earlier this month.
“I look forward to the day where I don’t have to wear this mask and we can see all of our county facilities full again.”
The order continues the use of the county’s emergency operations plan and requires citizens attending commission meetings in person to wear masks and observe social-distancing protocols.
A separate mask mandate for indoor county facilities issued by Cobb County Manager Jackie McMorris is set to expire Feb. 28. That mandate includes libraries and indoor recreation facilities.
Cupid said among the metrics she watches is the COVID test positivity rate—five percent is considered high—and indicated that the current rate in Cobb is around eight percent, also down from 22 percent at the start of February.
She said the emergency order could end before the renewed 30-day window, and that “the numbers are dropping, and I am very hopeful that day will be with us soon.”
Cupid did not say if she might issue another order if the case rates in Cobb go over 100.
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The focus will be on District 2, which includes a part of East Cobb, and is scheduled for 6-8 p.m.
You can view the meeting by clicking here; the meeting number is 2308 013 1067. Participants can also call in toll free at 415-655-0003, with the same access code. 2308 013 1067
Four meetings have been scheduled, and will culminate with an in-person open house on April 14, at a location and time to be announced.
Every five years the state requires local governments to update their long-term planning priorities. The last update in Cobb was in 2017 (you can read it here).
The update covers a wide range of planning topics, including land use, transportation, housing, economic development, community facilities, human services, public health, education, natural and historic resources, public safety, intergovernment coordination, disaster resilience, military compatibility and place-making.
For more information on the Comprehensive Plan update, click here.
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The Committee for East Cobb Cityhood interactive map outlines the proposed boundaries down to the neighborhood level. For more detail, click here.
The Committee for East Cobb Cityhood will be holding an in-person town hall meeting on March 7 to discuss the upcoming May 24 referendum.
The town hall starts at 6 p.m. at the Olde Towne Athletic Club (4950 Olde Towne Parkway), but it’s open only for citizens who live in the proposed city boundaries.
The cityhood group announced that the event sold out quickly and no more reservations are being accepted for those wishing to attend in person.
Group spokeswoman Cindy Cooperman said the event room at Olde Towne has a capacity of 300 and she’s received at least that many RSVP requests.
She said the group is working to live-stream the town hall and that likely will be available on its Facebook page.
This will be the first in-person event the group has had since East Cobb cityhood was revived in 2021.
The current cityhood group includes some of the original members, and has not indicated if there will be other in-person meetings before the referendum, other than with specific community and neighborhood associations.
The referendum will ask registered voters in the proposed city whether or not they wish to incorporate. The East Cobb legislation included a map of around 60,000 people, centered along the Johnson Ferry Road corridor.
The law signed by Gov. Brian Kemp last year (you can read it here) includes a charter setting up a governance structure, proposed services and city operating procedures, and election boundaries.
If the referendum is approved, then elections for the mayor and six city council members would take place in November.
The cityhood group also has revised an interactive map produced for the original campaign that allows residents to search by address to see if their neighborhood is in the proposed city.
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Judy Boyce speaking at her husband’s memorial service Friday at Mt. Bethel UMC.
Former Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce was remembered by family members, friends and his fellow church members in East Cobb on Friday.
At a memorial service at Mt. Bethel United Church, where he was a member, Boyce was remembered as a faithful member of the U.S. Marine Corps, actively involved in church and community activities, and someone who liked to inspire and motivate others.
Boyce was 72 when he died in January, after suffering two strokes while attending a leadership seminar at the University of Notre Dame, his alma mater.
He served as chairman from 2017-2020, after ousting incumbent chairman Tim Lee in the Republican primary. Boyce lost his re-election bid in 2020 to Democrat Lisa Cupid.
His four years at the head of county government turned out to be culmination of his many local activities in Cobb after he married Judy Boyce, a longtime Marietta resident, 22 years ago.
Other remembrances came from his son Kevin, retired Mt. Bethel senior pastor Rev. Randy Mickler and his successor, Dr. Rev. Jody Ray.
Bob Babcock, a Mt. Bethel member and former U.S. Army officer, talked about Boyce’s efforts to help his fellow veterans to sign up for their benefits. One of them went to a VA doctor as a result and after getting an early diagnosis of cancer, has been a survivor for 10 years.
“Mike’s legacy will never die,” Babcock said. “If you want to look for a legacy, don’t look for a monument, look at the person to the left or the right or in front of you, and ask, ‘How did Mike help you?’
“Most of us,” Babcock said, his voice breaking with emotion. “Most of us. . . Thank God for Mike Boyce.”
Rob Lee, Boyce’s political adviser for both his 2016 and 2020 races for chairman, said one of Boyce’s greatest attributes was his ability to inspire confidence in those around him.
Lee said whenever he felt he wasn’t up to a task, Boyce would say, “I trust you. I’m here because I trust you to help me get to where I want to be. . . . He just makes you want to work harder, to relish the relationship I had with him.”
That relationship, Lee said, transcended politics.
Boyce served 30 years in the U.S. Marine Corps, stationed around the world in his many capacities (Mt. Bethel choir members sang the Marines’ Hymn at the end of the service).
Mickler, who was the senior pastor at Mt. Bethel for 29 years, said “the real Mike Boyce had a streak. I won’t say it was mean, but I wouldn’t want to cross him.”
He said while he was driving Boyce around the campaign trail, Mickler asked him if he was fearful of knocking on doors in a “rough neighborhood.”
“Randy,” Mickler recalls Boyce telling him, “I can kill anybody. . . . 22 times . . . with my hands,” prompting the Mt. Bethel audience to erupt in laughter.
“I said, ‘OK, I got it, I got it,’ ” Mickler said.
At the end of his remarks, and after quoting from 1st Corinthians, Mickler said summing up Boyce’s life, “well done, good and faithful servant. Well done.”
Judy Boyce, a retired flight attendant, has attended Mt. Bethel for more than 40 years. When her husband retired from the Marines, they moved to East Cobb and he plunged right into church and community activities.
In her remarks at the service, she fought back tears talking about his easy-going nature around the house and his simple tastes.
“Mike never had a home,” she said. “He traveled, and when he came to Marietta, he said this was home.”
He liked to entertain people at home for dinner more than meet them at a restaurant, but on Saturdays the Boyces liked to have breakfast at Waffle House.
Boyce’s favorite restaurant was Panda Express and he also liked McDonald’s Happy Meals, she said, “but only the toy.”
“They’re low standards, but they’re mine,” she recalled him telling her, prompting more chuckling from the audience.
“I’m very grateful to God for the 22 years he gave me with Mike,” Judy Boyce said. “Rest in peace my Marine.”
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Gov. Brian Kemp signs the East Cobb cityhood bill with sponsor former Rep. Matt Dollar to his left and Committee for East Cobb Cityhood members (L-R) Scott Sweeney, Cindy Cooperman, Sarah Haas and Craig Chapin.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has signed legislation calling for a May 24 referendum on East Cobb Cityhood.
Final passage of HB 841 took place on Tuesday in the Georgia House, and the bill was sent to the governor’s office to be signed into law.
Eligible voters inside the proposed East Cobb city limits will decide on incorporation on the same day as the Georgia general primary.
The ballot language included in the bill will ask voters the following question:
“Shall the Act incorporating the City of East Cobb in Cobb County according to the charter contained in the Act be approved?”
If the referendum is approved by a majority of the voters, elections for a mayor and six city council members will take place on the Nov. 8 general election, with the beginning of city operations and a two-year transition to start in January 2023.
The East Cobb legislation is the first of four cityhood bills in Cobb County to be considered in the current legislative session.
The proposed City of East Cobb would have roughly 60,000 people in a 25-square-mile area centered along Johnson Ferry Road, from Shallowford Road south to the Chattahoochee River and from the Fulton County line west to a line roughly along Murdock Road and Old Canton Road. Click here for a larger version of the map.
On Thursday, the Georgia Senate passed similar legislation for Lost Mountain in west Cobb, and is set to vote on a bill for a referendum for Vinings.
A Mableton cityhood bill is still in the House.
All four Cobb cityhood bills call for May referendums, instead of November.
That sparked protests by Cobb government officials, who said they haven’t had time to assess the financial and service impacts.
On Tuesday, they addressed Cobb commissioners as part of a county “cityhood awareness campaign.” The major claim is that more than $45 million would be lost in county revenues if all four cities are created.
More than 200,000 people—nearly a quarter of Cobb’s population—live inside the proposed new cities.
Cobb has had its current existing cities—Marietta, Smyrna, Acworth, Kennesaw, Austell and Powder Springs—for more than a century, after Mableton briefly became a city and then went unincorporated.
Lost Mountain, Mableton and Vinings are proposing “city light” services that are focused on planning and zoning.
East Cobb is proposing planning and zoning, code enforcement and public safety services, and possibly parks and recreation.
At Tuesday’s commission work session, the heads of Cobb’s public safety agencies questioned the East Cobb financial feasibility study conclusions and expressed concerns about staffing, equipment, response time and training for the proposed East Cobb police, fire and 911 services.
The Committee for East Cobb Cityhood said it is planning an in-person town hall meeting for the general public soon, but has not set a date.
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Cobb Fire officials said areas in red would be in the new City of East Cobb (otherwise in blue) but are serviced by county stations. The area in yellow would remain in Cobb but is serviced by what would be a city station.
The leaders of Cobb County government’s public safety agencies said Tuesday that police and fire services for the proposed City of East Cobb are lacking many financial and service details.
During a special called work session of the Cobb Board of Commissioners, the heads of the county’s police, fire and 911 services showed slides highlighting what they’re providing, but said a financial feasibility study for East Cobb raises more questions than answers about what a new city may be able to deliver.
“We’re not here to advocate, but to educate,” Cobb public safety director Randy Crider said during the virtual work session, which included no discussion among commissioners. “But I’ve been asked a lot of questions I don’t have answers for.”
Legislation calling for a May 24 referendum to determine East Cobb Cityhood is awaiting Gov. Brian Kemp’s signature into law. Three other cityhood bills—for Lost Mountain, Mableton and Vinings—also are expected to receive passage, with referendums also in May.
Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid told legislators in January that cityhood votes in all four proposed areas were being rushed, and that the county hadn’t had time to examine the financial and service impacts.
Those presentations were made Tuesday at the work session by Cobb public safety, parks and community development officials.
The county has created a cityhood page that claims an estimated $45 million will be lost annually of all four new Cobb cities are created.
Nearly half of that—around $23 million—would come out of East Cobb, and most of the work session was devoted to East Cobb services, specifically police and fire. The other three cities are proposing “city light” services centered on controlling growth and development.
That was also the centerpiece of the original East Cobb legislation filed in March 2021 by former State Rep. Matt Dollar. Public safety was added last fall, as researchers from Georgia State University were conducting a financial feasibility study.
That study, released in November, concluded a City of East Cobb of around 60,000 people was financially feasible, even with public safety services estimated at costing $14 million a year.
The East Cobb bill also calls for planning and zoning, code enforcement and parks and recreation services.
More than half of the proposed city’s estimated $27 million in annual revenues would come from the 2.86 mills transferred from the Cobb Fire Fund.
At Tuesday’s work session, Crider repeated concerns he expressed to legislators that the East Cobb study is “just general” about public safety issues, including staffing, equipment, response time and training.
“We need to know what’s expected of us,” he said, referring to what may be included in intergovernmental and mutual aid agreements, similar to what the county provides in backup roles with Cobb’s six existing cities.
Crider said there aren’t enough details in the East Cobb study about exactly what specialty units a new city’s police department may have, such as SWAT units.
The East Cobb study also calls for a city fire department to consist of two stations—21 on Lower Roswell Road, at the East Cobb Government Service Center, and 15 on Oak Lane.
In showing commissioners a map of the proposed city, Cobb Fire Chief Bill Johnson said he has concerns about response time.
That’s because some parts of the proposed city (in red on the map) are served by stations that would remain in unincorporated Cobb. An area that would be located just outside of the city (in yellow) is now serviced by Station 15, which would be in the new city.
He also said he didn’t know how the East Cobb fire department would be staffed. The City of Roswell, for example, has many firefighters who work part-time shifts when off-duty from full-time jobs in other fire departments.
Stuart VanHoozer, the interim Cobb Fire Chief, and Cobb 911 Director Melissa Altiero also said they were unclear how their departments may be asked to provide support to a proposed City of East Cobb.
But Cindy Cooperman, a spokeswoman for the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood, called the county’s response “disappointing,” saying the county “has not properly briefed their staff on the well-established process in Georgia to form a city.”
Should a City of East Cobb referendum be approved, elections for a mayor and six city council members would take place in November, with a two-year transition period starting in January 2023.
She said the newly elected officials would work with a transition committee appointed by the governor to formalize processes and details for transferring services to be provided by the new city.
“This is not something new,” she said, referring to similar processes that have taken place in recent years in Milton, Johns Creek and Peachtree Corners. “These cities are thriving and have happy residents as a result.”
Cooperman also said that the “internal analysis of county staff is not credible when it suggests that the cost offset to $45M in revenue will only be approximately $450K.
“The county’s rushed attempt at an analysis was not thorough enough because many vital details on actual costs still need to be disclosed by the county.
“They had a year to analyze this properly and failed to do so,” Cooperman said.
The only direct meeting between East Cobb Cityhood forces and the county was in April of 2021 between Dollar and Cupid.
Cooperman said the cityhood group reached out to Cupid for a meeting in November with the addition of police and fire services, but has not yet heard back.
He provided a statement from Cupid referencing the Dollar meeting and saying that “I met other proponents about the effort approximately 2-3 weeks ago during a legislative meeting. They said they wanted to meet again and we will work on making that happen.”
Cooperman said the cityhood group is planning an in-person town hall after the Cobb County School District winter break next week, but a specific date has not been set.
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For a larger view of the proposed East Cobb city council districts, click here.
The Georgia House on Monday adopted Senate substitute legislation to call for a referendum for a proposed City of East Cobb.
HB 841 (you can read it here) was approved by a 96-62 vote in the lower chamber without debate, and will be sent to Gov. Brian Kemp to be signed into law.
It would establish a May 24 referendum for voters in the proposed city to decide whether or not to incorporate.
The county is spending more than $40,000 for lobbyists to oppose the cityhood bills.
Cobb officials estimate the impact to the county budget would be more than $45 million a year if all four proposed cities—East Cobb, Vinings, Lost Mountain and Mableton—would come into being.
The financial estimates contend that nearly half of those revenues would come from a City of East Cobb of around 60,000 residents along the Johnson Ferry Road corridor.
The county also has protested moving up the referendums in each of the four Cobb cities from November to May, saying it would put an additional burden on Cobb Elections for the general primary.
But the East Cobb Cityhood group questions the county’s financials and objected to taxpayer money being spent to fight the bills.
The Vinings and Lost Mountain bills have passed the House and are headed for the Senate; the Mableton bill is being heard by a House committee.
The Cobb Board of Commissioners is holding a special work session Tuesday at 6 p.m. to cover cityhood issues, including potential impact on county finances and services.
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The proposed Cobb Board of Education map passed by the House would remove Post 6 from East Cobb. For a larger version click here.
Mostly along party lines, the Georgia House on Monday approved Republican-sponsored bills redistricting seats on the Cobb Board of Education and the Cobb Board of Commissioners.
They now will be considered by the Senate.
The bills drew opposition from members of the Democratic majority in the Cobb legislative delegation, who accused their GOP colleagues of skirting local courtesies during reapportionment.
The House also voted 95-64 to approve a commission map drawn by GOP State Rep. John Carson of Northeast Cobb that he said would likely still maintain the current 3-2 Democratic majority.
But Democratic lawmakers objected to redrawing current Democratic District 2 Commissioner Jerica Richardson and District 3 Republican Commissioner JoAnn Birrell into the same East Cobb-based district.
Birrell and Keli Gambrill, the other GOP commissioner from District 1 in North Cobb, are both up for re-election this year.
If the commission map is approved, Richardson would have to move inside the boundaries of the new District 2 if she runs for a second term in 2024.
Although redistricting bills must be passed by the entire legislature, local delegations typically move maps forward for full House and Senate votes.
Most of East Cobb would be drawn into District 3 on the Cobb Board of Commissioners in a map approved by the Georgia House.
But in the last election cycle, Democrats became the majority on the Cobb commission, which previously had a 4-1 Republican majority.
Republicans hold a 4-3 edge on an increasingly fractious Cobb school board, with a mostly partisan split on a number of issues.
The GOP map would move Post 6—the Walton and Wheeler clusters currently represented by Democrat Charisse Davis—into the Smyrna-Vinings area.
The Walton, Wheeler and Pope clusters would be included in a new Post 5, where four-term Republican David Banks is the incumbent.
The Sprayberry, Lassiter and Kell clusters would be reformed into Post 4, whose current member is Republican David Chastain.
Chastain has indicated he will be seeking a fourth term this year. Davis, in her first term, has not said whether she’s running again in 2022.
(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.)
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The East Cobb cityhood group has released a map of proposed city council districts. To see a larger view, click here.
With one cityhood bill—in East Cobb—nearing passage in the Georgia legislature and three others likely to follow, Cobb County government has accelerated efforts to counter what’s been a rapid effort to put referendums before voters in those four localities in May.
The county government has published a special page it calls its Cityhood Resource Center to provide information to citizens about the potential impacts of cityhood.
Like the East Cobb legislation, bills are being considered to allow voters in proposed cities of Lost Mountain (West Cobb), Vinings and Mableton to vote in referendums on May 24, the date of the 2022 primary election.
The East Cobb bill passed the Senate Thursday but must go back to the House since a slightly different version was adopted.
But that bill could be finalized and signed by Gov. Brian Kemp into law by early next week.
County officials have protested that moving up the referendums from November to May won’t give them enough time to assess the financial and service impact, should any or all those proposed cities be formed.
A “summary impact” page prepared by the county claims an annual figure of $45.4 million would be lost in revenues if all four cities are created, with the lion’s share of that sum—$23.5 million—coming out of the area of the proposed city of East Cobb.
That’s nearly 25 square miles centered along the Johnson Ferry Road corridor, with nearly 60,000 people.
The populations of the proposed cities of Lost Mountain and Mableton would be larger than East Cobb.
But East Cobb is the only one of the four cityhood bills that would include police and fire services.
The East Cobb legislation calls for transferring the 2.86 mills in the current fire fund as the main source of city revenues.
On its cityhood page, the county said that while there will be some reduction in expenses if new cities are created, “any savings are not expected to be more than the loss of revenue to the county. This will in all likelihood not reduce the county’s general fund millage.”
In a message sent out Thursday in her official e-mail newsletter, Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid said that “I am not here to thwart efforts towards determining the future of one’s community. As chairwoman of the county, I am here to ensure some sense of transparency and to better educate Cobb Citizens, more broadly, about how cityhood can impact all here.”
The county also is spending money for lobbyists, including former Cobb Commission Chairman Sam Olens. He’s a partner with Dentons, a large law firm, and he and another lawyer there, Daniel Baskerville, are being paid in excess of $10,000 each, according to the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission.
Other Cobb lobbyists are deputy county manager Jimmy Gisi and former State Rep. Ed Lindsey, who also is being paid more than $10,000 to oppose the cityhood bills.
But those efforts may be too late.
The Lost Mountain and Vinings bills passed the House and are being considered in the Senate. The Mableton bill is being heard by a House committee.
On Wednesday, the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood blasted the county’s lobbying efforts, saying that “we condemn the use of county taxpayer funds to mobilize paid lobbyists at the Georgia Capitol to work against passage of the cityhood bills.”
The group claimed that the lobbying decisions were made “without the consent of the Commission as a whole, and can only be interpreted as an attempt to deny citizens the right to vote for or against cityhood through a referendum.”
During a virtual information session Thursday night (you can watch a replay here), the East Cobb cityhood group reiterated its main thrust during the last year, that the citizens of the proposed city should have the right to self-determination.
During the call, cityhood leaders took issue with the county’s financial conclusions, and pointed out that the wrong map of the proposed East Cobb city was being used.
They emphasized the main reason for a revival of East Cobb cityhood—first introduced in 2019—was to preserve its suburban nature and stave off high-density development.
In addition to public safety, the other proposed services in the bill are planning and zoning, code enforcement and parks and recreation.
“Redevelopment is coming to East Cobb, one way or another,” committee member Sarah Haas said, adding that “we believe that local government is the best course to chart the future of the community.”
While Cupid said that “there is marginal voter turnout in May primaries,” Craig Chapin, the East Cobb group chairman, said this year’s primaries should be high given interest in the gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races, among others.
The county also included a memo from Cobb Elections director Janine Eveler to Gisi saying that including as many as four cityhood referendums on an already-crowded primary ballot reflecting newly reapportioned seats would create “additional complications to our workload” and increases “the risk level for error and failure to meet deadlines. If you have any influence with legislators, I would respectfully ask that the cityhood referendums be held until the November election, rather than conducting them in May.”
The East Cobb bill has been sponsored by Matt Dollar, who resigned his seat in the legislature on Feb. 1. On Thursday’s virtual meeting, he said that he was told by the Cobb Elections office that Feb. 15—this coming Tuesday—would be the deadline that would be needed to run a required local notice in order for the referendum to be on the May ballot.
He didn’t address Eveler’s concerns about staffing and time compression. Her office also has to oversee a special election to fill Dollar’s term for the rest of the year and that has been called for April 5.
The desire to have a referendum in May, Dollar said, would be that if it passes, mayoral and city council elections could be held in November, and a city could be better prepared to be operational at the start of 2023.
“We get to have the city leadership onboarded when the city takes effect,” he said, adding that the transition to full cityhood is expected to take two years.
The East Cobb Cityhood group said it would be holding another virtual session and an in-person town hall, but didn’t give any dates.
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