The remnants of the Gritters Library building in Northeast Cobb stood in a heaping pile Monday as demolition crews completed their work.
The nearly 50-year-old building in Shaw Park, which closed in June, was torn down as the Cobb County Public Library System begins a rebuilding project that’s expected to take a year.
The new branch on the same site will be much more than a library. The 15,000-square-foot replacement, at a cost of $9.8 million, will include county workforce development programs and the Northeast Cobb Community Center, which is being relocated from another part of Shaw Park.
Gritters patrons are being directed to the Mountain View Regional Library and library staff will be reassigned to other branches until the new library opens next year.
More photos and info about the demolition can be found by clicking here.
An architectural rendering of the new Gritters Library-Northeast Cobb Community Center.
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Lisa Cupid addressed the East Cobb Civic Association at Fullers Park in May.
Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid has scheduled a series of town hall meetings across Cobb County that begin later this month and continue into October, as part of her “All In” theme.
Tour stops include Sept. 7 from 6:30-8 p.m. at East Cobb’s Fullers Park (3499 Robinson Road).
Cupid’s office said the meetings offer residents an opportunity to “learn more about top priorities, which will be followed by networking with staff from county agencies.”
The meeting is free to the public to attend and no RSVP is needed.
Her town halls come after Cobb’s Democratic commissioners voted for a fiscal year 2024 budget of $1.2 billion that didn’t raise the general fund millage rate but that will result in higher tax bills for many residents, due to rising assessments.
Cupid spoke at an East Cobb Civic Association meeting at Fullers Park in late May and was asked at the time if she was considering a rollback to present year 2023 revenue levels. But she stressed the need to meet continuing county funding obligations for public safety personnel, among other things.
Cobb’s two Republican commissioners, including JoAnn Birrell of District 3 in East Cobb, voted againstthe budget and millage rate.
Cupid, a Democrat, is in her first term and is seeking re-election next year, after serving two terms as District 4 commissioner in South Cobb.
Her office didn’t specify her priorities, but she has been calling for a referendum in 2024 that, if passed, would impose a 30-year “Cobb Mobility SPLOST.”
Commissioners have yet to vote on whether to call a referendum as a consultant is preparing a final project list.
She came under fire this spring during one of her State of the County addresses for lashing out at public commenters who have been critical of her, saying that she didn’t have time to “get my panties in a bunch when people come and criticize us . . . We have lives to help, we have a county to move forward, we have agencies to run.”
Cupid’s other town halls also are scheduled from 6:30-8 p.m. on the following dates and at the following locations:
Monday, Aug. 21 – Ron Anderson Community Center, 3820 Macedonia Road, Powder Springs
Monday, Sept. 25 – South Cobb Community Center, 620 Lions Club Drive, Mableton
Thursday, Oct. 5 – South Cobb Recreation Center, 875 Riverside Pkwy, Austell
Monday, Oct. 9– Cobb Civic Center, 548 South Marietta Parkway, SE Marietta
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Cobb County Public Library System patrons who are homebound can check out books and other materials via a new book-by-mail service.
It’s eligible for library cardholders who have a temporary or permanent disability or who have transportation issues that prevent or limit them from coming to their local branch.
Patrons can check up to four books, CDs and DVDs that are then delivered through the U.S. Postal Service for up to nine weeks, and they will be offered pre-paid postage at no cost to them to return to the materials.
Only one batch of materials at a time can be checked out by any given patron who requests them.
For more information, and to fill out an application form to sign up for the program, click here or call 770-528-2343
Cobb commissioners earlier this year approved spending $21,600 in American Rescue Plan Act for the book-by-mail outreach program.
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Commissioner JoAnn Birrell said she didn’t offer a substitute motion to reduce the general fund millage rate by 0.21 mills because she couldn’t get any support.
Cobb’s two Republican commissioners wanted to reduce the general fund millage rate Tuesday before adopting the fiscal year 2024 county budget, but couldn’t get their Democratic colleagues to agree.
Even after more than two dozen citizens pleaded for a cut in the wake of rising property assessments, commissioners voted along party lines to preserve the 8.46 general fund millage rate.
The vote to set the millage rate was 3-2, with the Democrats voting in favor and the Republicans against.
That came after a substitute motion by Republican commissioner Keli Gambrill to roll back the general fund millage rate to 7.168, which would match current FY 2023 revenues.
That motion failed, with Gambrill and fellow Republican JoAnn Birrell voting in favor, and the Democrats opposed.
The vote to adopt the $1.2 billion spending plan, which takes effect on Oct. 1, went along the same 3-2 split.
“I can’t support this budget,” said Birrell, who at a town hall meeting last week said she was working to find a way to cut the general fund rate.
But during a nearly three-hour discussion on the budget Tuesday, she didn’t offer a proposal, saying she couldn’t generate any support from commissioners.
That apparently included Gambrill, whose motion to cut the general fund rate even further took Birrell by surprise.
The difference between the 7.168 and 8.46 mills is 18 percent, according to Cobb Chief Financial Officer Bill Volckmann, and that represents a dollar difference of $54.4 million.
The millage rate action also moved the Cobb fire fund up slightly to 2.99 mills; the rollback rate for that is 2.64 mills.
Residents from around the county spoke during the final public hearing on the millage rate and budget to say that much higher tax bills they’ll pay in October compound their struggles to pay for rising costs for housing, food and utilities.
Some said they or people they know may be priced out of their homes.
Since she moved into her current East Cobb home four years ago, Robin Moody told commissioners her tax bill has gone from $1,900 to $3.500.
“On behalf of Cobb County, we can’t afford this right now,” she said.
Others said that renters will be hurt because their property owners can’t claim homestead exemptions.
A few spoke on behalf of the proposed budget, including Jackie Bettadapur of East Cobb, the former Cobb Democratic Party chairwoman, who asked that the millage rate not be lowered.
She said that Cobb homeowners have been “insulated” with a floating homestead exemption and an exemption from school taxes for homeowners 62 and over, and that the demand for county services is growing, and getting more expensive.
“None of this is free and all of this is subject to inflationary pressures,” she said.
The new budget includes $19 million more in spending than the current FY 2023 budget.
Birrell repeated concerns she expressed at the town hall, saying that while she supports some of the additional spending—especially for public safety salaries and benefits—”these things have to be sustainable.”
She was against the creation of 34 new jobs across county government, and said that her proposed 0.21 mills reduction would take out $8.1 million in spending.
“It’s not much but it’s something,” she said, adding that the only way to stop “overspending” is to roll back millage rate to 7.168.
“Cobb has always been a county that other counties look up to,” Birrell said. “But we’re going in a downward spiral that needs to stop.”
But Democratic commissioner Monique Sheffield of South Cobb said the county has an obligation “as the Good Book tells us” to help and share with others, especially those in need.
She also reminded citizens that for most of them, their school taxes represent the biggest portions of their tax bills—in some cases more than 60 percent—and noted that some of those complaining to the county don’t go to school board meetings.
Last week the Cobb Board of Education lowered its millage rate by 0.2 mills but also adopted a $1.4 billion FY 2024 budget that is higher than last year.
“I urge you to be more vocal at the school board meetings because that’s where the majority of your tax increase is coming from,” Sheffield said.
Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid said the county simply can’t curtail the millage rate because of growing obligations for services, and said that would have “drastic repercussions” because the county staffing levels haven’t fully recovered from recession years.
She referenced a 2016 rollback pushed through by then-Chairman Tim Lee and supported by Birrell that resulted in a $30 million budget deficit.
His successor, Republican Mike Boyce, got a millage rate increase passed in 2018 that Cupid support but Birrell opposed.
“What we’d be essentially doing is going back and not doing what our citizens expect of us,” Cupid said of a rollback.
“This is not easy for anyone, but if we don’t make decisions today we will have even more dire decisions to make tomorrow.”
Commissioners also voted 5-0 to ratify the school board’s millage rate adoption, as it is required to do so by law. When asked if commissioners had any discretion to do otherwise, County Attorney Bill Rowling said such an action would likely lead to litigation.
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Cobb residents have been up in arms over the prospect of higher property tax bills as Cobb commissioners are scheduled on Tuesday to adopt the fiscal year 2024 budget and millage rates.
Commissioners also are being asked by the Cobb County Water System to raise water and sewer service rates for the second time in less than two years.
An item on Tuesday night’s agenda (you can read it here) is seeking an increase that would raise the average residential bill by more than $5 a month.
The water system said it needs the rate adjustment because it’s costing more to buy chemicals, wholesale water and materials and to dispose of biosolids, as well as to fund “planned infrastructure replacements and upgrades.”
The water system says the average residential customer consumes around 5,000 gallons a month, and is charged around $54.85 for water and sewer and a $7 monthly service charge.
“It should be noted that this is among the lowest rates in the Atlanta Metro area, and it is substantially lower than most other major counties,” the agenda item states.
The rate adjustments would raise water commodity charges (the cost per thousand gallons used) by 7.5 percent and sewer commodity charges by 8.5 percent. The water system also is asking to increase the service charge for all meter sizes.
The rate hike, if approved, would go into effect Oct. 1, when the county’s fiscal year 2024 begins.
“Even with the proposed rate adjustment, our rates will remain lower than other major counties in the metro Atlanta area with our average residential customer,” the agenda item states, “paying $1.35 for the delivery of 100 gallons of treated water, removal of the water once used, treatment of the wastewater to a very high standard, and return of the resource to either Allatoona Lake or the Chattahoochee River where it is available for further use and enjoyment.”
Here is a detailed fee schedule the water agency has submitted with its proposal for a rate increase.
She has been opposed to transferring water system revenues to the county’s general fund and has pushed for that amount to be lowered.
Birrell reiterated that objective at a town hall on Wednesday about the budget and millage rate. The proposed budget would reduce water system revenue transfers from 7 percent to 6 percent.
A final hearing on the proposed budget (details here) and millage rate will be conducted by commissioners at the beginning of the meeting (summary agenda here).
The general fund millage rate is proposed to remain at 8.46 mills but because of rising property tax assessments the state considers that a tax increase and hearings are required.
At Birrell’s town hall and elsewhere citizens have pleaded for a reduction in the millage rate. She said she supports a cut but hasn’t determined how much that might be and needs two other votes from commissioners.
Cobb school board members voted Thursday to adopt a fiscal year 2024 millage rate of 18.7 mills, a 0.2 reduction. But school taxes will still be going up as Cobb announced a record tax digest of $58.1 billion for 2023.
The full agenda for Tuesday’s Board of Commissioners meeting can be found by clicking here.
It begins at 7 p.m. in the second floor board room of the Cobb government building (100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta).
You also can watch on the county’s website and YouTube channels and on Cobb TV 23 on Comcast Cable.
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Cobb Commissioner JoAnn Birrell (right) is questioned by East Cobb resident Debbie Fisher, with Cobb Chief Financial Officer Bill Volckmann looking on. ECN photos.
What was designed to be an open house for Cobb homeowners to sort through assessments and tax bills one-on-one with county officials turned into a contentious town hall over a scheduled vote next Tuesday by the Cobb Board of Commissioners about whether to lower the millage rate on property taxes.
Many of those in attendance Wednesday at the Tim D. Lee Senior Center in East Cobb took aim at the event’s host, District 3 Cobb Commissioner JoAnn Birrell.
For nearly two hours, she and other county officials took questions—and plenty of broadsides—from residents livid at the proposed fiscal year 2024 Cobb government budget of nearly $1.2 billion that holds the line on the general fund millage rate but that has $53 more in revenues.
Under state law, that constitutes a tax increase, and the county has had to hold three public hearings. The final comes Tuesday, before the budget and millage rate are adopted.
At Wednesday’s event, East Cobb resident Jan Barton, a frequent critic of county government spending and a commenter at public meetings, asked Birrell if she planned on voting to reduce the tax rate.
“I’m working on it,” said Birrell, prompting a number of groans. “I’m one vote in five.”
When a resident accused county officials of “not being able to take the heat,” County Manager Jackie McMorris said that “if we didn’t want to take the heat, we wouldn’t be here.”
Birrell said she’s continuing to meet with county officials about finding areas to cut spending—she doesn’t support funding any new positions, for example—but said “something can be worked out.”
She didn’t specify how much of a cut she might propose and where she might find a third, and decisive vote.
(The Cobb Board of Education passed its fiscal year 2024 budget of $1.4 billion based on a 0.2 millage rate reduction, which it is poised to adopt on Thursday, but there are calls for a larger millage rate cut.)
Birrell is one of two Republicans on the commission. Her GOP colleague, Keli Gambrill, also has said she wants to cut the general fund millage rate, which funds most county government operations.
Citizens at the Tim D. Lee Senior Center asked why the county can’t tighten its belt, since they’re having to.
“We don’t need larger government,” said a 91-year-old man, who added that “I have never seen anything as bad as the crap we’ve got right now.”
Others shouted at, interrupted and openly confronted county officials, including County Manager Jackie McMorris during a two-hour meeting that at times descended into chaos.
There were complaints about the taxpayers’ cost of funding Truist Park and the Cobb special local-option sales tax (SPLOST) that funds maintenance and construction costs unrelated to the operating budget.
When Birrell explained her longstanding effort to reduce the percentage of revenues transferred from the Cobb water system to the general fund—the budget proposal reduces that from 7 to 6 percent—she even got an earful about that.
“Now you’re explaining why people don’t trust government anymore,” East Cobb resident Jim Astuto said.
East Cobb resident Jim Astuto (right) speaks with Cobb CFO Bill Volckmann.
After a woman suggested that citizens stop voting for the SPLOST, McMorris responded that they should be careful what they wish for.
Some growled back at her, and with a bit of sarcasm McMorris said that, “Yes, we wake up every day trying to figure out how to make people mad.”
As Birrell tried to restore order and an open house format, a man standing in the back of room boomed: “It was a non-speaking meeting until everyone started to speak.”
This year’s record Cobb tax digest is $58 billion, is up 15 percent from last year.
Cobb resident Tracy Stephens decries higher spending in the proposed Cobb budget.
That fueled further criticism that the county should learn to do more with less. Bill Volckmann, the county’s chief financial officer, tried to explain that in some categories where spending is higher, a critical factor is a looming recession, and that “we’re trying to prepare.”
That didn’t sit well in the room either.
“As a stupid man sitting on the sidelines, I don’t see how spending more is saving money,” said Tracy Stephens, a home contractor who also has spoken at public hearings on the budget and tax rate.
At a millage rate public hearing on Tuesday, commissioners heard from citizens in South Cobb, including retirees who complained that higher assessments have raised their tax bill by 20 percent or more.
(District 4 commissioner Monique Sheffield, who represents South Cobb, is scheduled to have a town hall meeting on Monday.)
Of the nearly 50 people at Birrell’s town hall, most of them were middle-age and older, including some retirees who said that with inflationary costs for other living expenses, a much higher tax bill threatens to price them out of their homes.
“Some of my neighbors are worried about losing their homes,” said Barton, who handed out a long list of “Questions for Cobb County” prepared by a citizens group, Cobb Tax Revolt.
A woman who just turned 62—making her eligible for the senior exemption from school taxes—said that still won’t help her much.
“I need two other votes,” Birrell said, and explained that her own property assessment has gone up dramatically.
“We’re the people who made East Cobb what it is,” she thundered to applause. “We’re the ones who made the schools what they are. . . . You’re pushing all of us out. We’re getting cheated out of our retirements.”
Birrell replied that “I’m doing the best I can to get support and lower the millage rate.”
She said cutting the rate to the “rollback” rate of being tax neutral to the current-year budget isn’t possible.
There are public safety salary and benefit increases that have been factored in.
“There are other things I don’t agree with that we need to get rid of,” Birrell said. “But I need two other votes.”
East Cobb resident Debbie Fisher asked for the budget and millage rate votes to be postponed, both for Birrell’s purposes and for the public to understand the numbers better.
Mack Cobb, a retired youth sports coach and a former East Cobb Citizen of the Year, referenced the failed East Cobb Cityhood efforts. Opponents said citizens in the proposed city would be paying higher taxes, just as those living in Cobb’s other cities do.
“It got bloody,” he said. “We were told, ‘Don’t vote yes, your taxes will go up.’ Well hello? Thank you very much, but my taxes are going up.”
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“I’m very disappointed that you all are not trying to save us money instead of costing us money,” East Cobb resident John Frank Sanders Jr. told commissioners Tuesday.
The Cobb Board of Commissioners and Cobb Board of Education got an earful this week from Cobb citizens who say their property tax bills will be crippling them and others.
Public hearings are underway as both bodies get ready to set their millage rates for 2023, which has a record tax digest of $58 billion, up 15 percent from last year.
That’s due to tax assessments that across the board are an average of 18 percent higher than last year.
Because neither commissioners nor the school board are “rolling back” to match last year’s revenue collections, the state considers that a tax increase and governing bodies must advertise that and hold hearings.
The proposed fiscal year 2024 Cobb government budget of $1.2 billion includes retaining a general fund tax rate of 8.46 mills. The fiscal year 2024 Cobb County School District budget of $1.4 billion that began July 1 is based on a property tax reduction of 0.2 mills, from 18.9 to 18.7.
But public commenters at those hearings this week said that’s not going to help them that much, and that government should look for ways to tighten its belt when citizens are having to do so.
“I’m very concerned about the most vulnerable members of our community, and that’s the renters,” said Daniel Larkin, a resident of the Meadowbrook neighborhood of East Cobb, at a commission public hearing on Tuesday.
Since rental property owners cannot claim homestead exemptions like homeowners, “they’re going to have to pass the increases on” to their tenants.
“It’s ironic that people talking about affordable housing are driving rising rents” that will hurt tenants more.
The proposed FY Cobb budget is $43 million higher than the current budget, and reflects what county officials say are growing needs for many county services, including fire and emergency services.
Some departments would be getting double-digit percentage increases in their budgets, including public safety.
East Cobb resident Hill Wright likened the county’s appetite for spending to the plight of addicts.
“When they come and bug you to moderate your drug habit, your answer to them is ‘What would you have Cobb County sacrifice? How dare you have Cobb County sacrifice.’ ”
He said when the budget is adopted and the millage rate is set by commissioners on July 25, “you will decide to snort or not to snort.”
John Frank Sanders Jr., who has lived in his East Cobb home since 1982, said Cobb has been a “wonderful place” to live and raise a family.
East Cobb resident Daniel Larkin said commissioners and the school board “are playing a shell game, and there’s no pea under any of the shells.”
“But I can’t believe in the current economic climate we’re debating raising our taxes and not lowering them,” he said, referencing higher costs for groceries, gasoline, housing and interest rates.
“My property value is up but I don’t get the benefit for that. I’m going to live in that house until they drag me out. Yet I have to pay more for that house in addition to all the other expenses that are going up. I’m very disappointed that you all are not trying to save us money instead of costing us money.”
During a budget presentation, Cobb Chief Financial Officer Bill Volckmann said that taking out homestead exemptions, the tax digest growth is closer to 10 percent.
Those exemptions, he said, are 38 percent of residential tax digest, compared to 25 percent less than a decade ago.
“Even if your assessment goes up, you don’t pay any more into the general fund,” he said.
Volckmann also showed a sample tax bill for a resident who saved more than $600 due to the floating homestead exemption.
The Cobb fire fund millage rate, however, doesn’t have that exemption, and that same homeowner would pay $145 more for taxes in that category under the proposed budget.
He also referenced in that bill a rise of nearly $800 in school taxes, even though the Cobb school board lowered the millage rate for the first time in 15 years. But Post 5 board member David Banks of East Cobb wanted a bigger increase, and at budget adoption in May voted present instead.
The school board held two public hearings Thursday for the millage rate, and the small handful of speakers—some who also addressed commissioners—asked them to lower it even more.
Larkin was among them, and he repeated his claims that the commissioners and school board are engaging in “a shell game.
“You’ve made it abundantly clear you’re going to ram this through,” Larkin said, adding that the cutback is “a token percent.”
“I want you to think about the wreckage you’re going to instill on families,” he said. “The rents are very high in this county, and the mortgages are very high. It’s a de facto tax increase. It’s a shell game, but there’s no pea under any of the shells.”
The school board adopted a budget with pay raises for full-time employees between 7.5 percent and 12.1 percent, and the hiring of 11 new officer positions for its police department, which currently has 70 officers.
Laura Judge, an East Cobb resident who is seeking the Post 5 board seat, suggested a tax rate rollback of 0.5 mills, the same as Banks.
“I would like this board and the superintendent and staff to please listen to the folks that come here to ask for some relief on the millage rate,” she said during comments that she later sent out in a press release. “Maybe even listen to the current vice-chair who asked for a rollback of .5 mills.
“I know the budget revolves around what we expected the millage rate to be and rolling back the millage rate means tightening up within our budget. Please listen to the community members who are asking for relief.”
Commissioners will hold another public hearing on the proposed millage rate increase Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. and on July 25 at 7 p.m., when they’re scheduled to adopt the hearing and set the millage rate (more info here).
Cobb Commissioner JoAnn Birrell will have an open house on the budget next Wednesday from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the Tim D. Lee Senior Center (3322 Sandy Plains Road).
The Cobb school board will have a final millage rate hearing next Thursday at 7 p.m. during its voting session, at which the millage rate is to be formally adopted.
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As far as routine business goes with the Cobb Board of Commissioners, approving neighborhood requests for street lights is as routine as it gets.
When at least 75 percent of a subdivision’s residents sign a petition in favor of pursuing a request for a street light district, that request typically gets added to the commissioners’ consent agenda.
There were four such requests on Tuesday’s consent agenda in various parts of the county.
But for an East Cobb subdivision whose residents include some who’ve wanted street lights for decades, a public hearing was called.
There was some opposition from homeowners living in the Brookcliff subdivision, located off Old Canton Road north of Sewell Mill Road, and a public meeting was requested.
Several others turned out to voice their support for the Brookcliff Street Light District, which would assess a monthly street light service charge for homeowners after the lights are installed by Cobb DOT.
Commissioners voted 5-0 with little discussion to approve the request, but Commissioner JoAnn Birrell noted the novelty of the event, which also was discussed at an agenda work session on Monday.
She said in her more than 12 years in office, she doesn’t recall such a hearing over street lights.
The public hearing and ensuing conversation Tuesday spanned more than a half-hour.
Brookcliff opened in the early 1980s and comprises 155 homes, which are valued in the $400,000 range and above.
It’s a neighborhood of rolling hills straddling Sewell Mill Creek to the north. Like many East Cobb subdivision, it has a formal homeowners association with mandatory dues for homeowners who must abide by legally binding requirements and covenants.
Brookcliff also has a swim/tennis facility and other regular activities, such as a garden club and book club.
What Brookcliff doesn’t have are sidewalks and street lights. Some residents have been eager for the latter for almost as long as they have lived there.
Brookcliff resident Walt Strother
Walt Strother, one of the original homeowners of Brookcliff, said during the hearing that trying to get street lights “was never a spur of the moment decision or effort. For the better part of the last 40 years, several marginal attempts have been made, most recently 20 years ago.”
But ineffective HOA leadership and organization undermined those attempts, Strother said.
Three years ago, he added, “there was a collective enough is enough,” beginning a 27-month journey to making a formal application.
That’s 85 percent in response to the question “What can we do to make Brookcliff a better place to live?”
Strother said the response “was immediate and overwhelming. Street lights.”
He noted that Cobb officials in the late 1970s expressed a desire for all neighborhoods to have street lights.
The Brookcliff POA has collected $45,778 in fees from residents to be forwarded to Cobb DOT, which will install poles and lights.
Residents will pay $9.80 a month for 36 months for installation and upfront fees, then will be billed $3.80 a month after that by the Cobb County Water System.
One of his Brookcliff neighbors, Mike Gault, moved there in 1996, and said “Brookcliff has always been an incredibly dark” neighborhood.
He said when he first moved there, he would walk his black Lab at night after work and spent a lot of time dodging cars.
Gault said the lack of street lights also has been an issue with school bus stops in the winter, with shorter daylight hours.
Cindy Krakowski, a Brookcliff homeowner, was opposed to the new street light district, saying the HOA doesn’t have the authority to use money collected for swimming and tennis use, and claimed the organization was in the red by $54,000 this year.
“They knew if they had to ask every homeowner in the neighborhood for $300 for this initiative, they wouldn’t have gotten 75 percent of the votes,” she said.
Mike Kelly, the current Brookcliff POA president, said the body has met the street light requirements and that it properly followed by-laws in doing so.
In referring to Krakowski’s claims, he said “disengagement from the process is not an excuse” and that the POA reached out extensively to residents for feedback, communication and meetings.
He said the $45,788 sum represents the highest cash balance in the POA’s history and in a slide he showed during the hearing, indicated it would be ahead of budget after paying for the street lights.
“There is no diversion of funds,” said Kelly, noting that the street light request was included as a line-item in the POA budget. “There’s no question there’s a mandate from Brookcliff.”
More than 85 percent of Brookcliff residents said they wanted street lights.
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Despite another year of double-digit growth in the county tax digest, the Cobb government fiscal year 2024 budget proposal does not include a reduction in property tax millage rates.
Cobb budget officials presented a fiscal year 2024 budget proposal of $1.2 billion on Tuesday to the Cobb Board of Commissioners (you can read it here), a $43 million increase from the current fiscal year budget of $1.16 billion.
The budget proposal holds the line on the general fund millage rate, which funds most county government operations, at 8.46 mills.
Because that millage rate is not proposed to be rolled back to reflect current revenue and tax digest levels, the state considers that a tax increase and the county must advertise and hold public hearings.
Those hearings will take place on Tuesday, July 11 at 9 a.m., Tuesday, July 18, at 6:30 p.m. and on Tuesday, July 25, at 7 p.m., when the board is scheduled to adopt the budget and set millage rates.
For the second year in a row, the fire fund millage rate that funds fire and emergency services would go up slightly, to 2.99 mills.
Cobb Chief Financial Officer Bill Volckmann said some of the increases in additional revenues in the proposed budget stem from rising tax assessments.
The Cobb Board of Tax Assessors on Wednesday approved the 2023 county tax digest of $58.1 billion, which is up 15.7 percent from last year.
While that figure combines the assessed value of all commercial, residential and other real property in Cobb County, homeowners are feeling the pinch of skyrocketing assessments, and as the average price of a home has surpassed $400,000.
At an East Cobb Civic Association meeting in May, Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid was asked by East Cobb Newsif she was pondering similar relief.
She said she had been hearing from many citizens about their assessments, and said “she couldn’t say” if she would be proposing a cut.
“I could do it and look good,” Cupid said, “but somebody’s going to have to pay the price.”
The proposed FY 2024 budget includes 34 new positions across county government, compared to 147 in the current budget.
Nineteen of those new jobs would be funded through the general fund, and six of them are state-mandated. Four more are for the county’s family advocacy center.
Another 15 jobs are outside of general fund, seven in fire, and in 911.
Volckmann said the fire and emergency services department is struggling to maintain operating revenue due to salaries and benefits for personnel, and that there aren’t capital expenses that are a factor.
Cobb Chief Financial Officer Bill Volckmann
This is the second year of Cobb’s 2022-24 biennial budget process, and some agencies are proposed to have double-digit increases in spending.
A total of $198 million is being earmarked for agencies overseen by elected officials (Board of Commissioners, Sheriff, District Attorney, courts), an increase of 35 percent from fiscal 2023.
Administrative costs are up to $111 million, or nearly a 20 percent jump, and the overall public safety budget is $97 million, or 17 percent higher than the current year.
Budgets for public services (parks, libraries, senior centers, etc.) would go up by 10 percent, as would the budget for support services, which includes facilities and property management, technology and information services and fleet management.
The other proposed millage rates include the Debt Service (Bond Fund) millage at 0.00 mills; the Cumberland Special Services District II millage rate at 2.45, and the Six Flags Special Service District millage rate at 3.50.
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Register with Cobb Police Chief Stuart VanHoozer and Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid.
Mike Register was a man of few words Tuesday, but he insisted on having a lot of people share in his return as Cobb Public Safety Director.
Cobb commissioners on Tuesday voted 5-0 to formally appoint Register to come back to his old job.
For the last year he has been the director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and served as a deputy to Cobb Sheriff Craig Owens.
Register succeeds Randy Crider, who retired at the end of last year and was among those in attendance.
“Thank you for the opportunity to come back,” said Register, who was Cobb police chief and public safety director from 2017-2019.
Many of those he previously served with posed with him for photo ops, along with his wife and retired Cobb NAACP director Deane Bonner.
“Let’s do our job, let’s make Cobb County a better place for all,” he said, noting it’s been a “hard week” in the Cobb public safety community.
A former Cobb Sheriff’s deputy passed away, as did the 18-year-old daughter of Col. Eric Yeager, a 35-year Sheriff’s Office veteran.
Register wore a purple tie in honor of Kylie Yeager, a Marietta High School graduate.
“I’m glad to be home and appreciate the opportunity,” Register said.
Before the vote, Cupid said that “this is a decision [commissioners] all agreed on.”
Commissioner JoAnn Birrell told Register afterward “welcome home.” We’re glad to have you.”
In other action Tuesday, commissioners voted 5-0 to approve spending $720,897 for a sidewalk connecting the Walton High School campus on Bill Murdock Road with a new sports complex on Pine Road at Providence Road.
Commissioners also voted 5-0 to spend $204,000 for state and federal legislative consulting services with Dentons US LLP for 12 months.
Birrell also announced the appointment of East Cobb resident Susan Hampton to the Cobb Neighborhood Safety Commission.
She’s a banking and financial services professional who is the co-chair of the Cobb Public Safety Foundation, which provides support to public safety personnel.
Hampton replaces Larry Sernovitz, who resigned last week as rabbi at Temple Kol Emeth in East Cobb.
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Photo submitted to East Cobb News from an anonymous reader. The Neo-Nazi group left the scene around 10 p.m. Saturday.
The Cobb Board of Commissioners on Tuesday unanimously approved a resolution condemning a Neo-Nazi protest last weekend in front of the Chabad of Cobb synagogue in East Cobb.
The resolution was added to the commissioners’ agenda and was voted on without discussion.
The resolution (you can read it here) also mentioned the distribution of anti-Semitic flyers in metro Atlanta neighborhoods in recent weeks, including some in Cobb:
“WHEREAS, the Board of Commissioners recognizes that any group has the right to free speech and the ability to peacefully protest, demonstrate, and distribute information regarding its beliefs, no matter how reprehensible to others; and
“WHEREAS, when such speech threatens any person, minority group, or religious community, residents should respond by educating others with voices and actions as loud as those spreading the hateful speech;
“NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, the Cobb County Board of Commissioners does hereby denounce the actions of those who threaten members of our community, attempt to shatter the belief that Cobb County is a safe and welcoming place, and call for all to stand against their hate speech and attempts to divide our county.”
Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid made the motion to approve, and District 2 commissioner Jerica Richardson seconded it.
Here’s a portion of Cupid’s statement:
“While disheartened these messages were spread in our county, I appreciate that these events ended peacefully. Our public safety personnel have our complete support, as do members of the Jewish community and those in Cobb who find these displays reprehensible.
“My desire is for no one to perpetuate a heinous history that signifies hate in our county. Cobb is a community that is moving forward, together, and where we are all in, in establishing a county where all can safely live, work, and enjoy.”
And Richardson’s statement:
These actions do not represent the values of the East Cobb community that I know. As soon as I heard where this was going on, I went to the Synagogue. There, I found the most remarkable display of the community coming together to chant, defend, and support our Jewish sisters and brothers at the Synagogue.
On Sunday, there were among many public elected officials who issued denunciations of the protest, which included around 10 people from the Goyim Defense League.
Gov. Brian Kemp, U.S. Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, and state lawmakers also issued statements agains the protest, which was the second incident in Georgia involving the GDL last week. A similar event took place in Macon on Friday, and a public rally of support for a synagogue there was held in response.
A number of other faith communities and organizations also issued calls of support for Chabad, including the Etz Chaim and Temple Kol Emeth synagogues in East Cobb.
A prayer event was scheduled for Wednesday evening at East Cobb United Methodist Church.
And the Georgia chapter of the Council on Islamic American Relations also issued a statement:
“We condemn this deeply-disturbing antisemitic incident and stand in unwavering solidarity with the Jewish community in the face of blind hatred. Such abhorrent acts of hate and bigotry have no place in our society and must be unequivocally condemned. Together, we will stand against this hatred and work toward a future in which every individual can live free from fear and discrimination.”
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On Tuesday the Cobb Board of Commissioners will vote on confirming his appointment, which was announced late Thursday afternoon by Cobb County government.
Register was both Cobb police chief and public safety director between 2017 and 2019, then resigned for what he said were family reasons.
In 2021, he was named one of the top assistants to newly elected Cobb Sheriff Craig Owens, a former Cobb police officer.
In August 2021, Register left that job after he was appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp to head the GBI. Register succeeded Vic Reynolds, a former Cobb District Attorney and current Cobb Superior Court judge.
“It has been an honor to be the director of the GBI and serve under one of Georgia’s greatest governors, Brian Kemp,” Register said in the county release.
“I leave a great law enforcement agency with some of the most dedicated and competent professionals I have ever worked with. I look forward to leading the tremendous men and women who make up public safety in Cobb County and once again serve a great community.”
Register would succeed Randy Crowder, who retired at the end of 2022. Current Cobb Fire Chief Bill Johnson also has been serving as interim public safety director.
Public safety includes the county’s police, fire and emergency services, emergency management, 911 and animal services departments.
Register has had a 30-year career in public safety, including a stint as Clayton police chief. He is a past member of the Georgia Peace Officers Standard Training Council and the state Judicial Qualification Commission and served on the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces’ Executive Board.
“We are thrilled that he has agreed to come back and lead Public Safety in Cobb,” Chairwoman Lisa Cupid said in the Cobb government release. “We are making tremendous strides in public safety, and it will be a tremendous benefit to our citizens to have a director who has already forged relationships in the community and has a deep understanding of the opportunities we have as a county.”
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Karen Hallacy, an East Cobb resident who’s been active in various civic activities, has been reappointed to serve on the Development Authority of Cobb County.
The authority is a seven-member body appointed by the Cobb Board of Commissioners that approves bond requests and other incentive packages for businesses and corporations.
Hallacy, a former lobbyist for the Cobb County School District who lives in the Walton High School area, has been on the Development Authority since 2013.
She was reappointed to another term by the full Cobb Board of Commissioners on Tuesday in a 4-0 vote, with Chairwoman Lisa Cupid absent. Most recently, Hallacy had been serving as the authority’s secretary/treasurer.
Hallacy hasn’t always supported some of the more high-profile and controversial tax abatement requests that have come before the authority.
Among those she opposed was for the Kroger superstore that’s set to open later this summer at the MarketPlace Terrell Mill on Powers Ferry Road, and she cited setting a precedent for retail businesses.
Hallacy also has been a member of the Cobb Elder Abuse Task Force and is a former president of the Georgia PTA.
Also on Tuesday, commissioners voted $4-0 to spend $495,292 for design work for the Johnson Ferry Road-Shallowford Road intersection project (previous ECN post here).
Kimley-Horn of Atlanta will develop the design concept for the $15 million project, most of which is coming from federal sources.
Commissioners also voted Tuesday to spend $8.132 million to purchase two vacant office buildings in an industrial park. The buildings are on 10 acres on West Oak Circle and West Oak Parkway and include 85,000 square feet. They would house official documents that are required for the Cobb County Records Services Division to retain and archive.
The records are currently held at a number of facilities around the county. Renovations are expected to cost another $1.362 million.
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Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid will deliver the 2023 State of the County Address to the Cobb Chamber of Commerce on Monday.
The event begins at 11:15 a.m. Monday at the Coca-Cola Roxy Theatre in The Battery Atlanta.
She will “discuss the county’s biggest successes and milestones from 2022, as well as her goals for 2023 to continue moving the county forward,” the Chamber said in a release.
The address before the business group had been the signature “state of the county” event for her predecessors.
But when she took office in 2021, Cupid created a separate event that has included other county and elected officials and representatives from the Atlanta Regional Commission and community organizations.
The theme of those addresses has been “All In,” and at the Jennie Anderson Theatre last month she responded to her critics, including some citizens who have spoken during public comment sessions at Cobb Board of Commissioners meetings.
In addition to Cupid’s address, the Cobb Chamber’s Cobb Executive Women program will present the 2023 Woman of Distinction award.
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Bill Byrne, who served as Cobb Commission Chairman from 1993—2002, has been named to the board of the Cobb Taxpayers Association.
“Byrne’s appointment to our Board comes at a critical time for the County,” Cobb Taxpayers Association Chairman Lance Lamberton said.
The citizens group made the announcement Friday, and Byrne will serve as one of six board members, including chairman Lance Lamberton and vice chairman Jim Astuto, an East Cobb resident.
“We are flattered that someone of Bill Byrne’s stature has agreed to serve on our board,” Lamberton said in a statement. “In his 10 years as BOC Chairman, he served with distinction and presided over a period of historic business and residential growth in the County. That record of accomplishment, combined with his strong commitment towards the taxpayer’s best interests, will bode well for CTA in the next year and a half.”
The Cobb Taxpayers Association was founded in 2005 and scrutinizes Cobb County government finances, spending and tax issues. In the past it has been opposed to extending the Cobb Special-Purpose Local-Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) that funds construction and maintenance projects for county government and public schools.
“Byrne’s appointment to our Board comes at a critical time for the County, which is facing the threat of one of the largest tax increases in its history,” Lamberton said, referring to a proposed transit tax which could be on the November 2024 ballot.
Cobb commissioners in March voted to approve spending more $500,000 to hire three separate consulting firms to help the Cobb Department of Transportation prepare for the referendum.
Lamberton spoke at that meeting against the tax, saying that “if mass transit is so dad gum important to you, then move to a place where it makes sense. That place is not Cobb County.”
Earlier this year, Lamberton filed an ethics complaint against a member of the Cobb Transit Advisory Board, but that was dismissed by the Cobb Board of Ethics last month.
Lisa Cupid, the current Cobb Commission Chairwoman, is floating a 30-year transit tax, but the current board’s two Republicans are opposed to anything longer than five years.
Commissioners would determine the length of a sales tax referendum, and more public feedback is being sought.
In the Cobb Taxpayers Association release, Byrne said that “I believe the County has lost its way over the past two decades, and has adopted a tax and spend policy which would have been unthinkable while I was BOC Chairman. But through it all, CTA has fought tooth and nail against the tax and spending interests, and has some impressive wins in its column despite being outspent by its opponents by as much as 100 to one.”
Byrne ran for his old job in 2012, but was defeated by then-incumbent Tim Lee in a Republican runoff.
Speaking to the East Cobb Civic Association this week, Cupid said that a transit tax—which would fund road as well as mass transit projects—has “never been put out to vote” in Cobb’s history.
“We have a lot of people that are not able to access workforce opportunities” due to a lack of mass transit opportunities in Cobb, she said, adding that “a lot of businesses are bypassing Cobb” as a result.
The only CobbLinc bus line in the East Cobb area runs along Powers Ferry Road. A previous line that traversed Roswell Road linking Marietta with Sandy Springs was discontinued in 2011 as part of budget cuts due to the recession.
“I would ask that you consider that there are others among you who can utilize this service,” Cupid said.
She said at the same meeting that she “can’t say” for now if she’ll propose rolling back the county’s general fund millage rate this year despite skyrocketing property assessments.
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A formal presentation is expected in June, and on Wednesday Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid addressed that topic and others in a mini-state of the county update to the East Cobb Civic Association.
She said her own assessment has gone up by 25 percent on the home she bought in Smyrna two years ago.
Cupid also pointed out the need to continue a new step-and-grade salary and promotional system for public safety personnel, among other priorities in the current $1.2 million FY 2023 budget.
“All of that has to be funded,” Cupid told the ECCA audience of about 40 people at the Fullers Park Recreation Center. “We are fortunate that we have the coffers to do this.”
Cobb commissioners voted last year in a partisan split to maintain the general fund millage rate—which provides most of the revenues for county government—at 8.46 mills, while slightly raising the fire millage rate.
Cupid and the board’s other two Democrats, including Jerica Richardson of East Cobb, voted for that budget, while the two Republican members, including JoAnn Birrell of East Cobb, were opposed.
Some citizens spoke then for a millage rate cut, in light of inflation and amid broader economic concerns.
After the meeting Wednesday, Cupid was asked by East Cobb News if she might be considering a millage rate reduction for the 2024 budget.
She said that “she can’t say” for the moment, not just because the budget proposal is still being put together, but also because of the need to continue making strides to improve salaries for county employees and other priorities.
Last year, Birrell and GOP commissioner Keli Gambrill said the millage rate should be cut back due to rising revenues from a tax digest that grew by more than 12 percent.
This year’s digest is expected to be 13 percent, and could be larger when it is finalized next month.
The Cobb Board of Education last month passed an FY 2024 budget of $1.4 billion that includes generous salary increases but also cuts the millage rate for the first time in 15 years.
Cupid said her concern is if the board does cut back, the funding issues she’s mentioned for several years “will roll over and over” into coming years.
She admitted that concerns from citizens about rising assessments “is the most I’ve ever heard” in her near-decade on the board.
“Those concerns are being heard,” she told East Cobb News. “I can certainly understand the concerns they have.”
Cobb commissioners last reduced the general fund millage rate in 2016, when then-chairman Tim Lee was in a runoff with Mike Boyce, who defeated him then to become chairman.
But the county faced a $32 million budget shortfall two years later, and Boyce pushed through a millage rate increase that his fellow Republican commissioners opposed.
Boyce, whom Cupid defeated in 2020, said the hike was necessary to maintain Cobb’s status as a “five-star county.”
She isn’t using language like that, but reiterated her long-standing complaints—stemming from the time she was the only Democrat on the board—about “kicking the can down the road” when it comes to spending priorities.
“I could do it and look good,” Cupid said, referencing a tax cut proposal, “but somebody’s going to have to pay the price.”
She said Cobb has made some headway on addressing those long-term needs, including restoring some key capital maintenance funding, but “we still have a ways to go.”
Before Wednesday’s meeting, ECCA officials handed out an information sheet about how citizens can appeal their assessments.
Cobb Tax Assessor Stephen White said roughly 1-2 percent of Cobb property owners file an appeal. The deadline for submitting an appeal is June 26, and more information can be found by clicking here.
Cupid also encouraged property owners to learn about homestead exemptions and other exemptions they may qualify for that could reduce the assessed value of their homes.
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The Gritters Library branch opened in Shaw Park in 1973, funded by the county’s first library bond issue.
In less than a month the longstanding Gritters Library branch in Northeast Cobb will be closing for good.
The Cobb County Public Library System announced the closing date on Thursday, two months after the Cobb Board of Commissioners finalized a $9.8 million contract for a rebuilding of the branch that’s also to include the Northeast Cobb Community Center.
The final day of service for Gritters is Saturday, June 17, with the doors shuttering forever at 5 p.m.
Both facilities are located at Shaw Park, and the new building will more than double in size from the present Gritters, to around 15,000 square feet.
Gritters patrons will be served by the Mountain View Regional Library (3330 Sandy Plains Road) during the closure. An estimated opening date for the new facility has not been announced.
Gritters opened in November 1973 in Shaw Park, built with funding from Cobb’s first library bond issue (that bond issue also funded the East Marietta Library, which was replaced by the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center in 2019).
But as the surrounding community has grown—the library system estimates Gritters serves a population of 62,000 and nearly a dozen schools—the tiny branch has been overloaded.
The Gritters rebuild project was included in the 2016 Cobb SPLOST, with $6.8 million originally budgeted for the library and $1.2 million for the community center. Initially plans called for renovations, but county officials later determined that a complete rebuild was needed for the aging, outdated branch.
There was a groundbreaking event for the new Gritters in late 2021 after Cobb received a $1.9 million capital outlay grant from the Georgia Public Library Services.
But construction costs have soared since then, and efforts to start construction appeared to have stalled last fall, with a $2.5 million shortfall.
In March, county staff proposed filling that gap with $1 million in funding from the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act, $1.2 million for the community center from the 2022 SPLOST Shaw Park Repurpose project, and $719,000 in savings comes from 2011 SPLOST library projects and fiscal year 2023 library system capital projects.
Gritters will serve as a hub for CobbWorks workforce development programs. The ARPA funding included a $3.7 million earmark for CobbWorks, which was planning to expand into Gritters beforehand.
In addition to CobbWorks, Gritters has partnerships with the Northeast Cobb Business Association, SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) and nearby higher educational institutions.
The new Gritters facility will house a library, the Northeast Cobb Community Center and workforce development, job skills and lifelong learning programs.
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Most subdivisions in East Cobb were developed on property that allows only single-family residential use. ECN file.
The draft of the Cobb County Five-Year Strategic Plan was released last week, and the second of two public hearings before the Cobb Board of Commissioners is scheduled for May 23.
The plan, which will help set county government policy and goals from 2023-2028, recommends strategies “for achieving success indicators,” as the study’s consultants have phrased it, that for the most part are not very controversial.
But one of those recommendations under the housing category could prove to become a subject of interest as the county continues to gather feedback.
The plan’s three “success indicators” for housing include aiming for an “adequate quantity and availability of housing types.”
One of the recommended strategies under that section is to develop a process to “evaluate and adapt land use policies that promote exclusionary zoning and inhibit a variety of housing options across the County.”
Exclusionary zoning is the practice of allowing only certain kinds of zoning categories in certain areas, and has come up frequently in communities across the country—especially suburban ones—in regard to affordable housing in recent years.
Shortly after the Biden Administration took office the White House issued comments about exclusionary zoning along similar lines, saying that such practices “drive up housing prices, poorer families are kept out of wealthier, high-opportunity neighborhoods. This, in turn, leads to worse outcomes for children, including lower standardized test scores, and greater social inequalities over time.”
Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid has mentioned affordable housing frequently, including at a contentious town hall meeting last summer in East Cobb when she said that “people who work here should be able to afford to live here.”
In recent years, a number of local and state governments have acted to limit or ban exclusionary zoning, as it has been described by some activists as racially and economically discriminatory.
Such bans have been approved in California, and there’s a proposal in New York state to do the same. Similar measures also have been adopted in Minneapolis and Arlington, Va.
There’s no such language suggesting or proposing a ban in the Cobb strategic plan draft, which goes onto to recommend that other strategies to address affordable housing include setting a countywide housing mix goal, and to ensure that a proposed Unified Development Code, should that be approved, “enable a variety of housing types.”
Atlanta became the first city in Georgia to ban exclusionary zoning in 2017, and a year later Brookhaven created an “inclusionary” zoning code and outlawed short-term rentals.
Housing data included in the strategic plan draft indicates that Cobb has a median gross rent of $1,367 a month and a nedian home value of $263,150.
The strategic plan draft was prepared by Accenture LLP, which the county is paying $1.45 million. A proposal to provide another $285,000 and a time extension was dropped last month by commissioners, who said they would hold extra meetings and feedback sessions instead.
The plan is designed to give policy makers a long-term (10- to 20-year) vision for meeting those future service needs, in addition to the more immediate 5-year range.
The draft submitted by Accenture includes seven topic, or “strategic outcome” areas—community development, economic development, governance, housing, infrastructure, mobility and transportation and public safety.
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Cobb commissioners on Tuesday approved a design contract for Ebenezer Downs Park.
By a 5-0 vote, they approved spending $238,450 for Pond & Company, an architectural and engineering firm in Peachtree Corners, to do the work.
“Long time coming, we’re all excited,” commissioner JoAnn Birrell said in making the motion to approve the contract. “Let’s get started.”
Pond & Company recreational projects include the Mableton Town Square, the West End BeltLine Trail in Atlanta and Atlanta BeltLine Corridor design.
Ebenezer Downs Park sits on 18 acres on Ebenezer Road near Canton Road and includes a lake, which has been used for recreational fishing, including Cobb PARKS fishing rodeos.
The park’s master plan for a passive park also include a lakeside pavilion, walking trails, a playground and a 30-space parking lot. One of the former homes on the site would be used for small events, including wedding receptions and private parties, and public restroom facilities would be built.
Included in the design contract are cost estimating, bidding assistance and construction administration services.
The county purchased the property in 2018 with proceeds from the 2008 Cobb Parks Bond referendum.
Funding for the design and construction comes from the 2022 Cobb SPLOST (Special Local-Option Sales Tax), with a cap of $3 million.
A construction timeline hasn’t been announced; a contract for construction will require separate approval by commissioners.
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“I feel bad for those who think this is Cobb County,” Cupid said in reference to certain public commenters who speak at Board of Commissioners meetings.
Continuing tensions between Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid and some public commenters who have been speaking at public meetings boiled over again this week, following her remarks delivered at her annual State of Cobb address.
Near the end of that speech last Thursday (you can watch the video replay below; her speech begins around the one-hour mark), Cupid took aim at citizens who have been critical of her tenure, as well as media coverage.
“I’ve got more important things to do than to sit here and read a gossip column about what people think the BOC is doing,” she said. “Or to get my panties in a bunch when people come and criticize us during public comment. We have lives to help, we have a county to move forward, we have agencies to run.”
Those comments came after several references to what she said was political polarization in Cobb since she and a black female Democratic majority on the five-member commission was elected in 2020, claiming that “I have never seen boards of commissioners treated the way we are.”
Cupid said that “what happens if someone comes to Cobb and opens up the paper? Or goes to a BOC meeting? They might think we’re bass-ackwards. I’m serious! That’s not who we are.”
She encouraged citizens who agree with her “All in Cobb” theme to sign up to comment at meetings.
But some of the frequent commenters she’s sparred with had their own response at Tuesday’s commission meeting.
East Cobb realtor Pam Reardon said that “I wish that we could get away from calling people racists, which unfortunately the chair did.”
Reardon, who’s been active in Cobb Republican politics and supported East Cobb cityhood, argued that what Cupid is objecting to are political differences.
“When we come to this podium and talk, we are adamant about our values and the way we want our government to run,” said Reardon, who has been a critic of county budget, tax and spending priorities, as well as high-density zoning.
Pam Reardon
“We are not racists. We are just having a different point of view. . . . We cannot be ‘One Cobb’ if we have a commissioner who is dividing us.”
She also opposes a 30-year transit tax referendum next year that Cupid is floating, saying “we do not want MARTA in Cobb” because crime will increase.
Another regular to that podium, Leroy Emkin, read from a blistering column in Spotlight South Cobb News that called Cupid’s speech a ‘State of Contention Address.’
That publication was founded Shelia Edwards, a black Democrat who lost to current Post 4 commissioner Monique Sheffield in 2020 in the campaign to succeed Cupid.
Edwards, who has been highly critical of Cupid on a regular basis, said in the column about the State of Cobb address that “an evening with Cupid would not be complete unless she introduced race to defend or complain about whatever is going on with her. This time it was credited for the unfair criticism she gets on her leadership. The chairwoman said the attacks on her administration were unprecedented and implied they were racially motivated.”
After hearing Emkin read those remarks, Cupid said that “I’m trying to think when I mentioned race at all. I find it odd to be impugned as a racist by those who bring up race more than I do.”
The political insider column in the Marietta Daily Journal concluded Wednesday by saying that “We don’t know if Chairwoman Cupid’s reference to ‘gossip column’ was directed at Around Town, but we can admit that over the years we’ve been called much worse.”
Cupid is scheduled to appear in East Cobb later this month, as the featured speaker at the May 31 meeting of the East Cobb Civic Association.
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Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid will deliver the 
