Cobb commission chairman Mike Boyce wants a 1.7 mills property tax increase to cover a projected $30 million deficit. (East Cobb News file photo)
The details of the fiscal year 2019 Cobb budget proposal will be made at a Cobb Board of Commissioners work session on Monday, with a final town hall meeting Monday night in East Cobb.
Cobb commission chairman Mike Boyce has taken the outlines of his proposed $453 million budget around the county to the public in the last month. Monday’s work session starts at 1:30 p.m., followed by his final town hall meeting at 7 p.m. at the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center (2051 Lower Roswell Road).
The county has produced an interactive, Cobb’s Budget Journey, to detail the deficit, as well as spending and tax rate history over nearly three decades.
Boyce is proposing a general fund property tax increase of 1.7 mills, which would cover the $30 million gap.
Critics of the tax increase held a town hall meeting of their own Friday, and they included East Cobb resident Debbie Fisher, who put together a scathing critique of Boyce’s budget. Click here for the PDF: Town Hall Presentation -Revised.
Entitled “Truth or Fiction,” the PDF points out that Boyce hasn’t proposed any spending cuts and denounces what it calls the “homestead exemption blame game.”
It also suggests some “hard choices” that include cutting the 5-10 percent of low-performing county employees, outsource fleet management, human resources and the county attorney’s office and increase employee health care and pension contributions.
“We don’t have a revenue problem! We have a spending problem,” declares the presentation. “No more taxes until you cut spending.”
On Tuesday, commissioners will hold the first of three required public hearings on the budget, at 9 a.m. in their chambers on the 2nd floor of the Cobb government building, 100 Cherokee St., in downtown Marietta.
The other public hearings are scheduled on July 17 at 6:30 p.m., and on July 25 at 7 p.m., in the same location. Commissioners are set to adopt the budget on July 25.
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A Cobb greenways and trails master plan that would include extensions of the existing Johnson Ferry Trail and Noonday Creek Trail in East Cobb was approved last week by the Cobb Board of Commissioners.
The master plan, developed by Cobb DOT after more than a year of open houses and public feedback sessions, is the first for the county, and features the following components:
increasing connectivity between existing trails;
having trails in all six Cobb cities;
having 92 percent of all existing county parks within a mile of a trail;
having 57 percent of Cobb’s total population also within a mile of a trail.
The master plan also calls for eight “priority trail” projects, including the Johnson Ferry and Noonday Creek trails.
The Noonday Creek extension would cover 3.6 miles almost to the Cherokee County line, at an estimated cost between $11.1 million and $12.2 million.
The approval of the Cobb greenways and trails master plan does not include any additional funding for any projects that may be developed. Those matters would be taken up separately.
The commissioners also were briefed last week about the recommendations for a new Cobb parks master plan for 2018-2028, but there wasn’t a vote taken.
The proposed “investment” over that 10-year period, by a design firm hired to do a master plan study, comes to $239.8 million. The majority of the recommended spending, around $158 million, would be for new facilities and green space development. Another $80 million would be for maintenance of existing facilities.
the creation of an administrative services division;
the creation of a park maintenance plan;
the adoption of a comprehensive revenue policy;
enhanced branding and marketing to help generate revenues;
establishing a rental system for pavilion use;
increasing user fees;
expanded programming for fee generation;
assessing a per-participant maintenance fee;
increase staffing of Cobb Police Park Ranger staff.
Approval of the master plan was put on hold due to questions from commissioners. Approval makes it a “working document” for the county, but funding and spending issues are done in a separate process.
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A group of Cobb citizens opposed to a proposed property tax increase is holding a town hall meeting Friday night in Marietta that’s called “Cobb Budget 101.”
The group includes East Cobb resident Debbie Fisher, and the town hall takes place from 6:30-8:30 Friday at the offices of the Cobb County Republican Party (799 Roswell St.).
It’s not an official Cobb GOP event. Here’s what Jan Barton, another East Cobber involved in efforts to thwart a tax increase, is sending out about the event:
A group of concerned Cobb citizens will present Cobb Budget 101, a different road map from the one presented by the Cobb County Chairman. We will make a case on what caused the purported $30M deficit, how we can remedy the shortfall without a tax increase and present the real history on the Millage Vs. the Tax Digest! There will be a Q&A with budget and finance experts on a panel to answer your questions.
They’ve been vocally opposed to Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce’s proposed 1.7-mills increase in the general fund to solve a projected $30 million budget. Boyce and county budget staff have produced a Cobb Budget Journey interactive that has been featured at a series of town hall meetings and posted on county government web pages.
The final town hall Boyce is having is in East Cobb on Monday, starting at 7 p.m. at the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center (2051 Lower Roswell Road.)
The first of three formal Cobb Board of Commissioners public hearings on the budget proposal required by law takes place on Tuesday.
Budget adoption is scheduled for July 25.
Here’s Boyce’s latest budget video, posted on Tuesday.
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From Cobb County government, issued around 10 a.m. today:
WATER UPDATE – A large broken water main in the Quarles Water Treatment Plant on Lower Roswell Road is resulting in low water pressure across a wide swath of East Cobb. Crews are working on it.
County spokesman Ross Cavitt, around 11 a.m., added this update:
System has been repressurized after break at Quarles Treatment plant. Any customers who see discolored water should run their cold water until it is gone. Contractor working at the plant apparently caused the break, which is being repaired.
We’ll provide more updates as they become available.
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The Cobb tax digest total for this year is better than initially projected.
Stephen White, the Cobb County Tax Assessor, has announced that it’s a record $36.7 billion for 2018, and was approved Thursday by the Board of Tax Assessors.
The tax digest is the taxable value of all commercial and residential property. White said this year’s digest is a nine percent increase over 2017, which was a record $33.6 billion.
“The increase in the tax digest sends a great message to all business owners and property owners,” White said in a statement issued by the county. “The message is that your investment is doing well. We are a desired county for real estate and this is a very strong real estate market we are in.”
Earlier this year tax digest growth of 7.5 percent was predicted, just as county officials were preparing to address a projected fiscal year 2019 budget deficit of at least $30 million.
That’s just a little bit more than this year’s value of the floating homestead exemption. That exemption freezes the taxable value of a home as it pertains to general fund portion of a tax bill.
The floating exemption total this year is $28.4 million, a savings for residential property owners, but as the county noted in a release this morning, “that exemption means the county’s general fund will not fully reap the benefits of the growth in the tax digest.”
In Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce”s proposed FY 2019 budget of $453 million, the homestead exemption total would rise to $35.6 million. He’s seeking a 1.7 mills increase in the general fund.
Boyce has been holding budget town hall meetings around the county, and they will conclude on July 9 at the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center.
Budget adoption and setting of the millage rate is scheduled for July 25.
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The county has acquired the Tritt property in green, a total of 29.7 acres on Roswell Road.
The Cobb Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday to spend $8.3 million to buy some of the Tritt property next to East Cobb Park.
It was a 3-0 vote (with commissioners JoAnn Birrell and Lisa Cupid absent) to purchase 22 acres from Wylene Tritt with proceeds from the 2008 Cobb Parks Bond referendum. She’s donating 7.7 acres and the Friends for the East Cobb Park is donating around $102,000 as part of the acquisition.
The vote was greeted with applause and cheers from the audience, including members of the Cobb Parks Coalition, who pressed for the funding of the bond that commissioners finally approved last year.
However, commissioners funded only $27 million of the original $40 million amount that voters approved 10 years ago, due to legal reasons in the referendum’s payment schedule.
Before the vote, Roberta Cook, active with the Cobb Parks Coalition, spoke during the public comment, bringing a tin cup as a reminder to commissioners that “the $40 million cup is still not full.”
“We are thankful for the Tritt property acquisition and look forward,” she said, to securing the remaining $12.5 million “that will fill up the cup.”
After the vote, Cobb commissioner Bob Ott, whose District 2 includes the Tritt property, saluted Cook and Jennifer Burke of the Friends for Tritt Park. He set a large decorative stein before him, saying it was “my cup” for the Tritt Park.
For now, the newly acquired land will remain as green space. It’s the only land in District 2, which includes most of East Cobb, that was purchased with the parks bond funding.
With that sale, all of the $27 million has been spent. The Tritt parcel was not on the original list of possible property for possible purchase.
Tritt had sued the county in 2016 after her attempt to sell the land to a developer, Isakson Living, for a senior living complex was thwarted due to a rezoning denial. That case was later dropped, and the county entered into lengthy negotiations with her about a sale for park land.
The reason this park is going to be realized, Cobb commission chairman Mike Boyce said, “is because the board agreed to change the list.
“Every one of these commissioners cares passionately about the county,” and not just his or her district. “Because they do that, we’re going to have this property.”
Ott said the first discussions the county had with about Tritt for the land came when Sam Olens was chairman, and continued with his successor, Tim Lee.
But the bond approved by voters in 2008 was not funded then due to the recession.
During the Isakson Living zoning case, East Cobb citizens opposed to that development urged the county to buy the entirety of the 53-acre Tritt land, which reportedly was valued at $20 million.
That was before the bond was finally funded last year. Boyce, who campaigned on providing the funding in his 2016 election victory over Lee, said at times he wished he hadn’t, given the difficulty of some of the negotiations.
Commissioner Bob Weatherford said that “I’ve never worked as hard as I did on these park properties. It’s not as easy as you might think, when you have $27 million and want to buy something.”
Burke said she and her group are “very excited” to have what is being called for now as Tritt Park “for our children and grandchildren.”
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From L-R: Marietta schools superintendent Grant Rivera; Cobb commission chairman Mike Boyce; and Cobb schools superintendent Chris Ragsdale.
Thanks to Nan Kiel of the Cobb County School District for the submitted photo and information about the extension of the Cobb Library PASS system, which took place earlier this week.
It’s a partnership between the CCSD, Marietta City Schools, and the Cobb County Public Library System that enables public school students to use county library system resources with their school IDs. After a pilot period that began in January, the agreement will continue into 2020.
Cobb students no longer need an extra card to access the digital and print resources in the county’s libraries. The new Library PASS initiative, or Public Library Access for Student Success, links K-12 student identification numbers to the new Cobb County PASS accounts.
The Library PASS program, which launched in January 2018, allows students to access library resources from home, the classroom, or in person at a Cobb library. Currently, there are more than 116,000 CCSD students registered with PASS accounts.
During a ceremony at the Switzer Library in Marietta on June 20, CCSD Superintendent Chris Ragsdale; Chairman Mike Boyce, Cobb County Board of Commissioners; and Superintendent Grant Rivera, Marietta City Schools, signed a memorandum of agreement to extend the Library PASS partnership for two years.
Chairman Boyce applauded the commitment and dedication of the three organizations in coming together to change lives by making more educational resources available to students in Cobb County.
“When we have partnerships like this, it shows that the focus in Cobb County is very high onprioritizing education,” said Superintendent Ragsdale. “It is very important to us to make sure thatresources are available to not only students but also parents. To have partnerships like this with the library system is very important. All the resources that we can tap into, that our students and staff cantap into, benefit the goal of student success.”
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Wylene Tritt has lived on former family farmland along Roswell Road since 1950. (East Cobb News photo by Wendy Parker)
More than half of the 53-acre Tritt property that adjoins East Cobb Park on Roswell Road is set to be purchased by Cobb County and preserved as green space.
Cobb commissioners are scheduled to vote on Tuesday on a proposal to acquire 29.7 acres of land owned by Wylene Tritt for a cost of $8.3 million. The funding would come from the 2008 Cobb Parks Bond referendum, inlcuding last year’s $24.7 million in supplemental bond funds.
The proposed contract states that the purchase is for 22 of the acres; Tritt is donating the rest to the county as part of the deal. The Friends for the East Cobb Park, a non-profit citizens group, is donating $102,000 for the land acquisition, according to documents included in Tuesday’s meeting agenda.
The land that would be acquired by the county (noted in green in map provided below by Cobb County) would be adjacent to East Cobb Park and at the back of the Tritt property line.
According to information released late Thursday afternoon by Cobb government, the Friends for the East Cobb Park will begin a fundraising drive to purchase the rest of the Tritt property (noted in white, including the Tritt residence) and for future enhancements to the park.
“The chance to purchase some of the Tritt Property is an exciting opportunity and it would preserve a pristine part of Cobb County that could be enjoyed for generations to come,” District 2 Cobb commissioner Bob Ott said in a statement.
“I want to thank Mrs. Tritt for her willingness to work with the county. District 2 has the least amount of available land for parks and this is a significant contribution to the neighbors who have been asking us to look at this property for years.”
Tritt, who’s in her 80s, tried to sell her entire property several years ago for a reported $20 million for the development of a senior living complex. Isakson Living’s purchase of the land was contingent on rezoning, but Cobb commissioners denied the request in 2015 after strong community opposition to a project some considered too dense for the area.
Isakson Living, which is led by the son and brother of U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson, sued the county, but legal action was dropped in 2016. The developer cancelled its contract with Tritt, whose family once held vast farmland in the East Cobb area.
While the Isakson Living case was proceeding, a citizens group was formed called Concerned Citizens of East Cobb, which advocated keeping the Tritt property park land. That effort extended into the formation of Friends of Tritt Park, which sought to gauge public interest in raising money to buy the land.
Doug Rohan, a resident of the Sadlers Walk neighborhood adjacent to the Tritt property, has been involved with both groups and opposed the Isakson living proposal.
He told East Cobb News that “we are thrilled at the prospect and we feel this plan is a very responsible approach to the fiscal interests of the county, the financial needs of the Tritt family, and the public interest that this project has generated.
“It seems like a win/win/win and we are hopeful it proceeds according to plan. We will continue to monitor the progress and we plan to attend the meeting next week to make sure this goes through.”
Cobb’s proposed purchase of the Tritt property comes as commissioners are set to tackle an anticipated $30 million budget deficit for fiscal year 2019 and that could include the possible closing of parks and recreational facilities included on draft lists.
Cobb also is building new parks, including Mabry Park under construction on Wesley Chapel Road. On Saturday, the county is holding a public viewing for recently purchased land on Ebenezer Road in Northeast Cobb that will be developed into a passive park.
Tritt, the aunt of country music star Travis Tritt, moved with her late husband Norris to the property in 1950. He inherited what had been 80 acres of farmland from his aunt, Odessa Tritt Lassiter, and gradually sold off portions to nearby families.
Some of the land was sold to the Bowles family, which in turn sold that land. The property included 13 acres that formed the original boundaries of East Cobb Park, which opened in 1998.
In her will, Lassiter insisted that the trees on her property be preserved, and that “no timber is to be cut off either place except for building and repairs on those farms.”
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An overflow crowd at the East Cobb Senior Center heard Mike Boyce defend his proposed fiscal year 2019 budget of $453 million that would result in a Cobb tax increase.
The Cobb commission chairman’s goal, as he asserted several times during a nearly 90-minute town hall meeting Monday night, is to return to a “level, sustainable millage rate” the county enjoyed before the recession.
He said his proposed increase of 1.7 mills as part of revised budget from an original proposed hike of 1.1 mills, would generate $50 million in additional revenue per year.
Not only would that solve the projected $30 million budget deficit for FY 2019, but it would also replenish reserve funding commissioners have used in recent years to avoid a tax hike.
Cobb government included this tax chart in its revised budget proposal last week.
Several weeks after possible closures of libraries, parks and other “desired” services were made public, Boyce denied threatening to close any of those facilities.
But he said if his fellow commissioners couldn’t agree at least to an extra 1.1 mills, “we will close things. But that’s up to the commissioners.”
After urging citizens to communicate with their commissioners about ensuring those services with a tax increase, there was vigorous applause in the room.
Many citizens were wearing stickers in support of Cobb libraries. Others came on behalf of parks, recreation centers and The Art Place, located next door to the senior center and included on a draft list of options for closure.
Others were opposed to any tax increase, including Lance Lamberton of the Cobb Taxpayers Association, who brought a sign saying “Cut Waste.”
Monday’s meeting was the first of several Boyce is holding through early July, before commissioners are to adopt the budget by the end of next month.
He prefaced his remarks with charts predicting Cobb’s budget shortfall in 2014, with significant rising costs anticipated for the county pension fund, a pay increase for roughly half of county employees and public safety needs.
In public statements, Boyce has noted for several weeks how Cobb’s millage rate has decreased steadily since 1990, even though the county population has risen dramatically, from 450,000 then to more than 750,000 today.
After a 1.51 mills increase in 2011 during the recession, the general fund millage rate went down, again, including a decrease in 2016, right before Boyce defeated then-chairman Tim Lee in a runoff.
Currently, it’s 6.76 mills.
Last year, commissioners spent nearly $20 million in reserves to balance a $405 million general fund budget, leaving only $2.6 million on hand now.
“We simply need to buy things we haven’t bought,” Boyce said.
His revised budget would fund an additional 23 police officers, and provide body cameras for all officers as part of a public safety budget increase of $15 million.
Citizens peppered Boyce with questions about their tax bills, county funding for the Braves stadium and more. While some wondered if what he was proposing was enough, especially about public safety, others didn’t like hearing Boyce adamantly defend raising taxes.
When Ellen Smith (pictured above), an attorney who occasionally argues zoning cases in front of the commissioners, suggested an increase of 3 mills, in part to fully fund the county’s animal services, some citizens loudly grumbled and yelled out, “ask a question!”
When another citizen asked Boyce if he would “be back here next year” should his budget and tax demands not be sufficient, he said that “I don’t know what the future brings.
“But I don’t want to be back here next year.”
Boyce’s final town hall is back in East Cobb on July 9, at the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center at 7 p.m.
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Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce holds his first budget town hall meeting Monday at the East Cobb Senior Center. (East Cobb News file photo)
A revised Cobb budget for fiscal year 2019 would keep open libraries and parks that had been put on draft lifts as options for closures because of the county’s projected $30 million deficit.
The revised budget, which Boyce explained in his weekly video (see bottom of this post), comes to $453 million for the general fund. The current budget for the general fund is $405 million.
In addition, the proposed budget would would add police officer positions and purchase body cameras for law enforcement and have Sunday opening hours at regional libraries (including the Mountain View branch in East Cobb).
It also would keep open the UGA Cobb Extension Service and the county animal services department. Those agencies also have been mentioned for possible elimination.
The millage rate increase he is seeking is 1.7 mills, above the 1.1-mill hike he had initially sought. While the 1.1 mills could cover the $30 million gap, Boyce said additional funds are necessary to restore county services to what they were before the recession.
He said based on feedback from Cobb citizens, especially in regards to libraries and parks facilities, the message is clear.
“We’re not closing anything,” Boyce said. “From what I’ve heard and seen, people like these amenities and want us to keep them. But I have to find a way to pay for them.”
Boyce, who begins a series of budget town hall meetings on Monday at the East Cobb Senior Center, also laid out how much a 1.7-mill increase would cost property owners (see chart below), with annual jumps ranging from $170 to $1,700, based the the taxable value of their homes.
After a testy Cobb budget retreat this week, Boyce got no “clear direction” from other commissioners about what proposal to take to the public. East Cobb commissioner Bob Ott has maintained that he wants to see more spending cuts before he would support any kind of increase.
Northeast Cobb commissioner JoAnn Birrell has said “everything is on the table” but that she didn’t favor shutting down parks facilities.
East Cobb facilities that have appeared on draft lists prepared by department heads and made public include the East Cobb Library, Fullers Park and Fullers Recreation Center, the Mountain View Aquatic Center, Mountain View Community Center and The Art Place.
Other budget details include restoring eliminated Cobb DOT maintenance positions and increasing right-of-way mowing contracts. Proposed cuts include $2 million in local grant matches and information services contracts.
Boyce said he’s gotten many e-mails from citizens complaining about unmowed grass along county roads and potholes.
On Wednesday, Cobb government asked in a social media posting for the public’s patience in handling a long backlog of transportation maintenance calls. It said Cobb DOT received 300 requests for service in a seven-day period and that the backlog includes 1,800 work orders.
“At current staffing levels, DOT is completing about 20 work orders per day,” according to the message.
“Do we want to have a county with a high quality of life serviced by the best staff in Georgia?” Boyce said in his video. “Or do we want to live in a mediocre county staffed and funded by a sub-par budget?”
He also said that “these town halls make a difference.”
Monday’s town hall meeting at the East Cobb Senior Center (3332 Sandy Plains Road) starts at 7 p.m. The town halls continue through July 9 at the Sewell Mill Library, followed by three public budget hearings that are required by law.
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East Cobb commissioners Bob Ott (left) and JoAnn Birrell (right) wouldn’t support Chairman Mike Boyce’s call for a property tax increase of 1.1 mills at Tuesday’s budget retreat at the Cobb Civic Center. (East Cobb News photos by Wendy Parker)
One of the objectives laid out before a Cobb budget retreat on Tuesday was for county commission chairman Mike Boyce to “leave . . . with clear direction from the board.”
That board, the four district members of the Cobb Board of Commissioners, provided him with nearly everything but that in a three-hour meeting at the Cobb Civic Center. Instead, Boyce left openly frustrated as he begins a series of budget town hall meetings next week, starting Monday at the East Cobb Senior Center.
He’s proposed a millage rate increase he says will close a $30 million budget deficit that’s projected for fiscal year 2019. During the retreat, told the commissioners “if we want to keep what we have, the bill is 1.1 mills,” a reference to his recommendation to raise the general fund millage rate.
Revealed earlier are draft lists of possible closures of libraries, parks and other “desired” services that have galvanized public pleas to preserve them, and in some cases, by raising taxes.
Here’s a Cobb Budget Journey interactive the county has released to provide background on the budget and millage history in recent years.
Commissioners picked away at a number of budget expenses, such as the cost of new police vehicles, transferring operating costs for the Cobb Safety Village to the Cobb Fire Department and proposed Sunday library hours, unwilling to give Boyce an unqualified yes vote.
Bob Weatherford of West Cobb, who is in a runoff election the day before the budget is to be adopted in July, told Boyce that “you’re asking us to commit to something before we’ve had the town halls.”
Even South Cobb commissioner Lisa Cupid, his most reliable ally on the budget, wondered aloud about having town hall meetings to solicit more public feedback, since “every single e-mail references [full funding of libraries]. They’re telling us it’s a matter of priority.”
Boyce kept making the case that “I’d rather have something to take to the people.
“I have to pass a budget, but I also have to count votes,” Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce told commissioners at the retreat.
“What I’m asking the commissioners is to join me in this program,” he said. “I get it. You don’t want to stick your neck out. But this isn’t hard.
“It’s $30 million in an economy of billions,” Boyce said, his voice rising. “You would think we’re living in Albania! I just don’t understand.”
Near the end, Boyce said even if the tax rate went up two mills, it’s still lower than most other local governments in metro Atlanta.
“We owe it to the people of this county to continue this level of service,” he said, suggesting that if they couldn’t, headlines would read that they’re closing things like parks and libraries.
Some county government department heads and staffers in attendance loudly applauded when he said that. Boyce received even louder applause when he said:
“I will pay a huge political price. But I’m willing to pay it. I don’t want to live in a county that’s worse than when I came here.”
After the retreat, East Cobb commissioner Bob Ott told East Cobb News that he “heard some frustration” and credited Boyce with providing more budget details than what commissioners have received in past years. Ott has said for several months that he wants to see more proposed spending cuts before he’s willing to consider a tax increase.
He couldn’t support a millage rate increase on the spot “because I haven’t seen the cuts.
“A lot of what he asked for today we heard in October” at the commissioners’ previous retreat, Ott said.
Ott doesn’t support closing any parks or recreation facilities that were disclosed last week and contained on a draft list of possible options for budget reduction. They include Fullers Park and Fullers Recreation Center in East Cobb.
“I’m not going to support closing something that is heavily used,” Ott said.
District 3 commissioner JoAnn Birrell said that “I have no interest in closing parks.” Birrell, who is up for re-election in November, told East Cobb News she’s eager for the town hall meetings to get more citizens’ input before budget deliberations begin in July. She said she’s received many messages both in support of and against a tax increase.
The Mountain View Arts Alliance is asking members to fight to keep The Art Place open.
“We’re still looking at everything,” she said, adding that “shutting down” items on draft lists “won’t add up to $30 million.”
On the draft parks and recreation list in her Northeast Cobb district are the Mountain View Aquatic Center, the Mountain View Community Center and The Art Place.
The Mountain View Arts Alliance, a non-profit citizens’ group that provides support for The Art Place, has distributed a letter urging its members speak out at town hall meetings and contact their commissioners:
“Increasing the millage rate would provide the funds necessary to close the 30 million dollar budget gap. This money goes toward programs ranging from road maintenance to emergency services to libraries to the PARKS department, which encompasses The Art Place as well as dozens of recreation facilities and public parks.”
The MVAA is also asking its supporters to “please wear your brightest blue to show support at town hall meetings.”
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A rendering of a proposed park in Mableton, along the Chattahoochee River, includes Civil War earthworks.
An East Cobb resident who asked Cobb commissioners Tuesday to include the name of a Confederate general in the name of a new county park along the Chattahoochee River upset the commissioner who took the action item off the meeting agenda.
During a public comment period, Mary Stevens, who said she lives in East Cobb, wants the name of Gen. Joseph Johnston to be part of a proposed park in the Mableton area that includes Civil War earthworks.
Stevens said the Civil War wasn’t fought over slavery and that “had it been so bad for the freed slaves they would have left the South.”
She said blacks served the Confederate Army as cooks, chaplains and other laborers and that “naming the park anything that does not include the name of Joseph Johnston is historically inaccurate.”
Johnston was the general in charge of Southern forces that fought Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman’s Union Army at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain and the Battle of Atlanta in 1864.
Cobb commissioner Lisa Cupid, who represents Mableton and South Cobb and is the board’s only African-American, tabled a proposal to designate the 103-acre tract as the Mableton Chattahoochee River Line Park.
A master plan for what some South Cobb residents preferred to be called the Mableton Discovery Park was approved by commissioners in March. Cobb has owned the land that’s also been known as Johnston’s River Line since 1990, but finalizing the name has been a thorny matter that has been delayed before.
Cupid said she understood there would be those with different perspectives, which is why she favored the Mableton Chattahoochee River Line Park name as a compromise.
“It’s very clear that this is a very sensitive issue that I don’t think was dealt with very sensitively” by Stevens, said Cupid, saying she was “deeply offended” by her remarks.
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Cobb commission chairman Mike Boyce explained the budget situation to the East Cobb Business Association in January. (East Cobb News file photo)
A few hours before holding a budget retreat, Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce said Tuesday morning that no decisions have been made about how to close a projected $30 million deficit.
During a public comment session at the Board of Commissioners meeting, several East Cobb Boy Scouts asked that the Mountain View Aquatic Center and The Art Place not be closed.
Those facilities were included on a draft list prepared by the Cobb Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Department and made public last week. They outlined possible cost savings as options for balancing the budget and include several parks, pools and community centers around the county.
Also on the list are the Mountain View Community Center, Fullers Park and the Fullers Recreation Center in East Cobb.
“All that it is is a working document,” Boyce said, explaining that county department heads have been asked to be prepared to answer questions commissioners may have about the cost of individual facilities as they begin budget deliberations.
The retreat is taking place Tuesday afternoon at the Cobb Civic Center.
Thus far, however, such options have been publicized only for senior services, libraries and parks and recreation. Also listed for possible elimination are the UGA Cobb Extension Service and Keep Cobb Beautiful.
Boyce had a town hall at the East Cobb Senior Center in January to hear from the public about fee increases at senior centers.
In February, a draft list of nearly $3 million in possible service cuts to the library system included the full closure of the East Cobb Library.
A formal budget proposal by Boyce has not been released as he prepares for several budget town hall meetings, starting next Monday at the East Cobb Senior Center. Another town hall will take place July 9 at the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center.
“If you think it’s hard for you, it’s hard for us,” Boyce told the scouts.
He said that during the budget town halls, “we are going to find out what we’re going to continue to fund” based on public feedback, with the goal of producing a budget that “reflects our conservative values.”
Boyce has suggested a 1.1-mills increase in the property tax rate that would cover the deficit. But East Cobb’s commissioners are cool to that. District 2’s Bob Ott said he wouldn’t support a hike without seeing considerable savings presented first. JoAnn Birrell of District 3, who is seeking re-election in November, said she isn’t in favor of a tax increase either.
The parks and recs draft list identified around $3.3 million in savings, and about a third of that, $1.1 million, is in Birrell’s Northeast Cobb district.
She also reminded the Boy Scouts that no decisions have been made and asked for their and other feedback at the town halls.
“We’d like to hear from you again,” she said.
An East Cobb resident whom commissioners have heard from often renewed her concerns about library cuts during the public comment period Tuesday.
Rachel Slomovitz, who organized the Save Cobb Libraries group, said she has more than 2,100 signatures on a petition, and pleaded with commissioners not to “take away the most elemental of services.”
She said Cobb could have “book deserts” if steep cuts are made, citizens will suffer from having few computers for job-hunting and students will lose additional learning resources outside school.
“When you take away a library, there are outcomes you cannot imagine,” said Slomovitz, who supports a tax increase to prevent library cuts.
“I am here also to ask why you don’t have the courage to do what’s right for Cobb. Why make Cobb citizens feel as though they are about to lose everything?”
The fiscal year 2019 budget is scheduled to be adopted on July 25, after the town halls and three public hearings.
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State Rep. John Carson, a Republican from Northeast Cobb who was the primary sponsor of Georgia’s new hands free law that takes effect July 1, sent this message out today:
ATLANTA – State Representative John Carson (R-Marietta) today clarified that Georgia drivers may utilize music streaming applications and that there will not be a set enforcement grace period after House Bill 673, the Hands-Free Georgia Act, takes effect on July 1, 2018. Rep. Carson sponsored HB 673 during the 2018 legislative session of the Georgia General Assembly, and Governor Nathan Deal recently signed this measure into law to create a hands-free driving law in Georgia.
“According to recent data, we believe the public awareness of this new law is already saving lives,” said Rep. Carson.“We encourage all Georgians to implement the best practices stated in the Hands-Free Georgia Act prior to July 1, 2018, for the safety of all commuters on Georgia’s roadways.”
According to a recent press release from the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, drivers can listen to music streaming apps on their phone while driving under the new law, but they cannot activate their apps or change music through their phone while driving.Music streaming apps that are programmed and controlled through the vehicle’s radio system are allowed.However, music streaming apps that have video are not allowed since the law specifically prohibits drivers from watching videos.
Additionally, the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, the Georgia Department of Public Safety and local law enforcement officers recently reminded Georgia drivers that the law does not contain a 90-day grace period for enforcement.Many officers will be issuing warnings for violations in the first months of the law as part of the education effort, but citations can and will be issued starting July 1 where law enforcement officers believe they are warranted, especially those violations that involve traffic crashes.
This new hands-free driving law will prohibit drivers from holding or supporting a wireless telecommunication device or a stand-alone electronic device while operating a vehicle. Additionally, this measure will maintain the ban on texting, emailing and internet browsing while driving, but will also prohibit watching or recording videos while driving.GPS navigation and voice-to-text features will still be permitted.
For more information on HB 673, please click here.
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The East Cobb Library has been in operation only since 2010 at Parkaire Landing Shopping Center. (East Cobb News photos by Wendy Parker)
The Cobb budget crisis will soon be addressed in serious detail by the Cobb Board of Commissioners, which is holding a budget retreat on Tuesday.
The week after that, next Monday, June 18 to be exact, at the East Cobb Senior Center, budget town halls will start around the county. There will be another one in our community, on July 9, at the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center.
Like the proposed library cuts, the cuts on parks and rec “draft list,” if enacted, would absolutely crush the provision of popular services.
Like the proposed library cuts, closing all of the parks and rec facilities on that list wouldn’t do much to close the deficit.
In East Cobb, the “draft list” includes Fullers Park and the Fullers Recreation Center, the Mountain View Aquatic Center, The Art Place and the Mountain View Community Center.
A little more than $3 million, to be exact, is what the parks and rec savings would add up to countywide. The library cuts would amount to less than that, roughly $2.9 million.
Along with new membership fees and increases for classes and rentals at senior centers, the possible elimination of the UGA Cobb Extension Service and shutting down Keep Cobb Beautiful (also on the parks and rec list), that still doesn’t equal what the county spends every year to pay off its obligations for SunTrust Park and other costs for Atlanta Braves games and events there.
The work of local artists on display at the $10.3 million Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center, which opened last December.
As I wrote back in February: SunTrust is untouchable, having been placed on the “must” list of budget items that are required to be appropriated by commissioners every year.
Parks, libraries and senior services are not. They’re merely on the “desired” list.
Yet the cost of delivering services has grown the most in public safety, transportation, courts, community development and water and sewer.
Library hours have not been added back to their pre-Recession totals. Cobb’s unwillingness to have Sunday library hours anywhere except the Switzer branch, but only during the school year, is ridiculous.
The library system’s budget details were laid out in painful detail months ago. Employees in these endangered departments know their jobs may be eliminated.
Why are these low-cost, high-impact services, which add exponentially to our qualify of life, vulnerable to being gutted with a record tax digest predicted for 2018?
Citizens skeptical of paying higher property taxes think it’s a ploy by Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce to get a millage rate increase. He wants to add 1.1 mills to your property tax bill, which would just about cover the $30 million.
Getting you stoked up over the possibility of losing your library, or park, is an old tactic. His predecessor, Tim Lee, did the same thing. It worked during the Recession, when tax rates went up.
The county released a “Cobb budget journey” explainer this past week with information to bolster the argument that our current general fund millage rate is just about tapped out.
We’re paying a lower millage rate now than in 1990, despite the Cobb population having grown from 450,000 then to around 750,000 now. The tax hike imposed during the Recession was brought down a couple years ago, foolishly, by Lee, with a millage rate reduction right before losing his runoff with Boyce, and just as SunTrust became fully operational.
That vote only added to the budget jam that exists now.
I’m not wild about a tax increase either, and many homeowners are already paying higher tax bills because their assessments have gone up, some dramatically.
Instead of grazing around the edges, threatening to close parks and libraries and the Cobb Safety Village and whatnot, it’s time to tackle the truly big-ticket items. There’s got to be an honest conversation about what it really costs to properly serve a fast-growing county with basic, local government services.
Cobb is no longer the sleepy bedroom community it was when our family moved here in the mid-1960s. Many who simply wanted a quiet refuge in a ranch house on a wooded lot (some built by my father, a now-retired home contractor) are finding the density, traffic, noise and increasingly urban feel to Cobb, and even East Cobb, alarming.
So do I. That’s why a visit to a park, or a library has become something much more than a treat. For me, it’s almost essential to do this, at least once a week, or when I can.
But the truth is we require more public safety services, more court services, more transportation services, more zoning services, more water and sewer services. The current millage rate, even what Boyce has proposed, likely will not cover all of what’s required in a few years. Even if he gets his wish, it may not be enough.
Cobb commissioners recently spent $1.7 million to purchase land on Ebenezer Road for a future passive park.
Some question the wisdom of spending millions on future park land and opening new facilities built with SPLOST money, but that operate with county budget funds.
Those are valid issues, as is the subject of SPLOST reform. These topics are likely to be hashed out during the hot summer budget months ahead. They have to be part of an eventual effort to get ahead of budget issues.
In order for that to happen, Cobb leaders have to offer something of a vision for the county that hasn’t been forthcoming for years, even before the recession.
I’m admittedly a bleeding heart for parks and libraries, but scapegoating the services that Cobb has nickeled-and-dimed for decades, and playing a game of emotional blackmail with the public, isn’t the way to do that.
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Fields at Fullers Park, where the East Side Baseball Association plays. (East Cobb News photos by Wendy Parker)
A draft plan that would cut roughly 15 percent of the Cobb Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Department budget lists several East Cobb parks and recreational facilities for possible permanent closure. They include the Fullers Park and Recreation Center, the Mountain View Aquatic Center and The Art Place.
Cobb PARKS director Jimmy Gisi has included those facilities, as well as the Mountain View Community Center, on a list of parks, recreational and community centers and other facilities under its purview as options for budget cuts that come to $3.3 million.
Cobb County government is facing a fiscal year 2019 budget deficit of at least $30 million, and commissioners will hold a retreat next week before budget town hall meetings take place around the county through early July.
Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce has proposed a 1.1-mill increase in the general fund property tax millage rate to cover the $30 million gap.
Earlier this year Cobb Library director Helen Poyer recommended cuts of nearly $3 million, or around 25 percent of that department’s budget to be reduced, including the closure of East Cobb Library.
Many of the East Cobb items on the parks and recreation list have undergone extensive renovations and maintenance in recent years with money from SPLOST and not property tax revenues.
There are facilities in each of the four Cobb Board of Commissioners districts that are on the draft list. By far, the deepest cuts would come in District 3 in Northeast Cobb, represented by JoAnn Birrell.
A total of $1.1 million in cost-savings has been identified there: The Art Place, Mountain View Aquatic Center and Mountain View Community Center.
The aquatic center budget is more than $600,000 a year, the most expensive of the items on the draft list. It’s heavily used by high school and club youth swimming teams, as well the general public. The facility was renovated with $1.4 million in 2011 SPLOST funding.
The Art Place, which offers art classes, has art gallery events and sales and an outdoor amphitheater. It’s also the home for numerous community concerts and theater presentations, including those of the Mountain View Arts Alliance and CenterStage North, has a budget of more than $500,000 a year.
Both the aquatic center and The Art Place are part of a consortium of county government services on Sandy Plains Road that includes the East Cobb Senior Center and the Mountain View Regional Library.
The Mountain View Community Center, with a budget of around $6,000 a year, also is in that complex, located next to the former Mountain View Elementary School. The county spent nearly $160,000 last year to make renovations on the small building, which was closed for several months.
The Fullers Park and Recreational Center on Robinson Road cost a combined $315,000 a year to operate, and serve as the home for the East Side Baseball Association and other youth and recreational entities. In recent years the rec center was renovated with nearly $1.2 million in SPLOST funds.
The Atlanta Braves also paid for the renovation of a baseball field at Fullers Park in 2015 as part of its “Chipper Jones Field” community outreach program.
Those are the only two facilities in Commisioner Bob Ott’s District 2 that are on the draft list.
Also included in the draft plan for possible elimination is Keep Cobb Beautiful, with an annual budget of more than $200,000, and which has a strong advocate in Birrell.
The list of the possible parks closures comes as new East Cobb parks projects are underway, or will be soon.
That amount is included in the current fiscal year 2018 budget commissioners voted to fully fund the 2008 Cobb Parks Bond referendum.
Those are passive parks, with minimal cost and staffing compared to what’s been included on the draft plan. Other possible closures include the Lost Mountain Park and Tennis Center and the Ward Recreational Center in West Cobb, and the South Cobb Aquatic Center and South Cobb Recreation Center.
Mabry Park’s annual operating budget is expected to be $104,000, paid via property tax revenues. Funding details for the development of the Ebenezer Road park have not been determined. The county is holding a public preview for that park on June 23.
The county is also spending $284,000 in property tax revenues in both the library and parks budgets for the current fiscal year to operate the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center, which opened in December 2017. It replaced the East Marietta Library and cost $10 million in SPLOST funding to construct.
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But before that, the Board of Commissioners will gather next week for a budget retreat.
That meeting is next Tuesday, June 12, at 1 p.m. in the Hudgins Hall Conference/Multipurpose Room of the Cobb County Civic Center (548 South Marietta Parkway).
Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce has advocated raising the millage rate on property taxes as a way for the county to continue to deliver what he calls “five-star” services.
The county government is facing an estimated deficit for fiscal year 2019 of at least $30 million.
Boyce has initially suggested a millage increase of 1.1 mills (which would generate an extra $30 million in revenue) to the current general fund rate of 6.76.
In his weekly video update with county communications director Ross Cavitt (view below), he said that “1.1 mills just puts the finger in the dike.”
A full proposal to fund a balanced budget hasn’t been presented. However, the head of the county library system has proposed cutting nearly a quarter of the system’s $12 million budget and closing the East Cobb Library.
East Cobb’s commissioners generally have opposed property tax increases. Bob Ott of District 2 has said that he wouldn’t support an increase without seeing substantial cuts first. JoAnn Birrell of District 3 won her GOP primary last week after publicly opposing raising property taxes.
In the video, Boyce showed charts illustrating how Cobb’s millage rate has steadily come down over the last 25 or so years, being raised to address the recession. Two years ago, then-chairman Tim Lee, facing Boyce in a runoff, proposed an overall millage rate reduction to 9.85 (and 6.66 for the general fund) that passed, with Ott and Birrell voting with him.
“We have had a lower millage rate although our population has increased by more than 300,000” since the 1990s, Boyce said.
The town hall meetings are scheduled around the county, including another in East Cobb on July 9 at the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center.
Commissioners will hold public hearings on the budget and millage rate on July 10, 27 and 25, with adoption of both scheduled for July 25.
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Major Canton Road transportation improvements are coming, and the public is invited to learn more about them and ask questions of Cobb DOT staff at an open house on Tuesday.
The open house is from 5-7 p.m. at Blackwell Elementary School (3470 Canton Road), which is about the midway point along a route on Canton Road for the biggest project in this corridor.
The project, numbered X2602 (details here) includes the addition of turn lanes and sidewalks from the Cherokee County line to Kurtz Road, and also involves changes at the Canton Road-Piedmont Road intersection. It’s estimated to begin early next year, with a completion date in mid-2020 at a cost of $2.6 million.
Another project, X2304 (details here), will add a northbound right turn lane onto Canton Road at the intersection of Highland Terrace, just south of Shallowford Road. Construction is expected to begin late next year and the cost estimate is $696,000.
Tuesday’s open house will not have a formal presentation.
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One resident quipped in reference to the question and photo above included in an image survey about future development in the Johnson Ferry-Shallowford community: “Did Cobb lose a war to Romania?”
When Cobb community development officials recently asked Johnson Ferry-Shallowford residents to respond to an “image preference survey” of potential future development in the area, the blowback was swift, angry and occasionally sarcastic.
Suggested photos contained in the lengthy survey (see examples below) included plenty of high-rise residential and commercial buildings that are typical in urban areas, sunny resorts and even other countries.
Residential high-rise building.
What they didn’t look like to a good number of those responders was anything like what’s in the suburban Johnson Ferry-Shallowford area now, or what they want to see in the future.
That’s just one of the many subject areas that community development staff is surveying. A final public input session is scheduled for May 9 at the Chestnut Ridge Christian Church (2663 Johnson Ferry Road).
To be sure, the image preference survey did include some photos of single-family dwellings and low-rise office and retail space that looks fairly typical for what’s in the East Cobb area that’s the subject of an ongoing evaluation by county officials.
Residential development.
But many posts over the weekend at the East Cobbers Against High Density Development Facebook group (which has around 1,000 members) tore into much of what the survey was serving up, fearing that there weren’t going to be many other choices besides the high-density options they were asked to comment on.
A few examples of the sharp replies:
“Basically they’re saying we don’t have a choice in the sense of no traditional housing on normal sized, decent lots. They are steering us in their direction, none of which is desirable to the vast majority of us who prefer no high density and more neighborhood like.”
“Even the single family options were right on top of each other.”
“I don’t know why there is a question about what people want. We want what we had when we chose to move here. Single family homes, large lots with room for kids to play, good schools and low crime, libraries that were open etc., and that is slowly disappearing.”
“I tried to make sure they knew they were reaching: ‘Did Cobb lose a war to Romania?’ “
Office/retail/commercial building.
Cobb commissioner Bob Ott, whose District 2 now includes the Johnson Ferry-Shallowford community, weighed in on the Facebook group page, saying he had nothing to do with the survey selections and that what was being suggested was only to solicit feedback.
“This is not some consulting firm telling you what you have to accept. Let’s give staff some credit for taking this to the public for their thoughts,” he said.
To which a resident replied: “Then please give us choices that reflect homes on one acre lots. Nothing remotely resembling that was offered in the pictures presented.”
Similar image preference surveys have been done in previous corridor studies in Ott’s district, including the Powers Ferry Road area and Johnson Ferry Road.
We posted yesterday about the Johnson Ferry design guidelines that are coming up for commission adoption tonight, five years after they were presented. Those guidelines incorporate community feedback, and some of the generic photos in that presentation were included in the JOSH image preference survey.
Public space.
Some of the image survey responders simply asked that future development conform to the current and future land use plans in the area.
Ott said he would have the image survey redone. The original still exists, for now, and includes suggestions on sidewalks, cycling paths, greenspace, public space, stormwater retention ponds and more.
He also reminded citizens who thought their feedback was being sought for political reasons with primaries next month that he’s not up for election this year.
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It’s been nearly five years since the Johnson Ferry Design Guidelines were unveiled and revised following numerous public hearings.
As part of the Johnson Ferry Urban Design project from 2009-11, the guidelines were to meant to foster greater aesthetic unity along one of East Cobb’s busiest commercial corridors, ranging from standards for streetlights and sidewalks to landscaping, park benches and other public amenities.
However, those guidelines have never been acted upon by the Cobb Board of Commissioners. That may change at Tuesday’s commission meeting, which includes an agenda item to adopt the guidelines. The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the second floor meeting room of the Cobb government building, 100 Cherokee St., in downtown Marietta.
UPDATED: The guidelines, which were part of the consent agenda, were passed by a 5-0 vote Tuesday night.
Here’s a brief description of why this is coming up now:
“Recently, discussions between the District Commissioner, staff, and members of the community have occurred to bring the Design Guidelines forward for formal consideration by the Board of Commissioners. If approved by the Board of Commissioners, staff will use the guidelines as recommendations to work with property owners when zoning applications, variance applications, and site plans are submitted for review and/or consideration.”
As was the case when the guidelines were made public in 2013, they would apply to commercial property owners who go through the rezoning process and variance applications, as noted above. The design evolution could take many years.
The corridor area is along Johnson Ferry between Roswell Road and the Chattahoochee River (see below streetscape map from the final urban design guidelines).
What’s on Tuesday’s agenda doesn’t look substantially different from where the issue was left in 2013. According to the introduction, the guidelines are “intended to assist architects, engineers, planners, developers and community members to make more informed design decisions based on community preference.”
They also had the support of the East Cobb Civic Association. The design study was prompted by East Cobb commissioner Bob Ott, who also commissioned corridor studies for the Powers Ferry area and, currently, in the Johnson Ferry-Shallowford communitythat is now part of his District 2.
Ott said after the vote that the guidelines were held up because “some folks had issues” back in 2013 but said he wanted to get them adopted with upcoming rezonings and variances to consider.
The guidelines will be incorporated into the design plan’s developmental standards.
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