East Cobb Government Archives

Cobb tax digest for 2023 projected to grow by 13 percent

April 3, 2023 4:23 PMApril 3, 2023 1:11 PM by Wendy Parker

Cobb tax digest 2023 projection — *Sales for new homes in the Walton Creek subdivision in East Cobb start at $1 million.*

Cobb Tax Assessor Stephen White said the county’s tax digest is expected to grow in 2023 by more than it did in 2022 in a record year as real estate prices continue to skyrocket.

In Cobb TV interview Friday with county communications director Ross Cavitt (you can watch it below), White said the combined residential and commercial tax digest is expected to grow by 13 percent.

The tax digest is the overall value of property—real and personal property, motor vehicles and public utilities—adjusted after exemptions and other items.

In 2022, the Cobb digest grew by 12 percent, to nearly $50 billion, mostly due to rising real estate prices that have nearly doubled in the last five years.

In 2021, the Cobb tax digest was $36.1 billion.

In the interview, White showed a graphic (below) illustrating the rise in the average home sale price in Cobb from $289K in 2018 to $453K in 2022.

In that time, the average home sale price in Cobb has gone up by around 50K a year, according to White’s estimates.

He said toward the end of last year, there were some signs that the growth was slowing, but that home prices will continue to go up.

Cobb 2023 tax digest projections

“As we continue to have this desirability . . . especially in Cobb . . . people want to live here . . . many things that bring people to Cobb continue to work in our favor and continue to make sure that our real estate prices move north.”

Local jurisdictions are required by law to regularly assess properties to maintain fair market values.

Cobb 2023 tax digest projections — *For a larger view, **click here**.*

Each year Cobb assessors carve out a fraction of all properties for fresh assessments (see map).

Of the 245K residential properties in the county, White said, 175K last year experienced a change in value. For commercial properties, 10K of the estimated 13K total also had increased values.

“If there’s a separation between the sales price and our values, then it’s time to bring up our values to the sales price,” White said.

Those rising values prompted some Cobb citizens to object last summer to the fiscal year 2023 county budget. The general fund millage rate stayed the same, while the fire fund budget went up.

The growth in the tax digest resulted in an additional $60 million for the budget, but some complained that inflation was eating away at household budgets that would grow worse with rising assessments.

White said that appeals for tax assessments are low, about 1-2 percent overall.

Full tax assessments will go out in May; the final tax digest is issued in July, as Cobb commissioners consider the fiscal year 2024 budget and just after the Cobb school board finalizes its fiscal year 2024 budget, which goes into effect on July 1.

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Cobb to seek national historic designation for Hyde Farm

May 10, 2024 5:27 PMMarch 17, 2023 5:28 PM by Wendy Parker

Hyde Farm nomination National Register of Historic Places

The Cobb Board of Commissioners on Tuesday approved a resolution for the county to submit an application for the Hyde Farm property in East Cobb to be included on the National Register of Historic Places.

What’s officially called the Power-Hyde Historic District contains 136 acres and is what’s left of an 1840s working farm on Hyde Road, located off Lower Roswell Road near the Chattahoochee River.

The national register, which is part of the U.S. National Park Service, was created in 1996 to identify, evaluate and protect historic places “worthy of preservation.”

Nominations for inclusion start with state historic preservation authorities and must include several criteria for consideration.

In addition to the publicity for earning the designation, properties on the register may be eligible for preservation grants and tax credits.

The Hyde Farm property is jointly owned and run by the county (42 acres) and the U.S. government, the latter being the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area.

More than 40 acres were sold to the Trust for Public Land in the late 1980s, and 95 more acres were told to the same entity in 2004. Cobb purchased 40 acres and the rest went to the National Park Service.

JC Hyde, the last member of the Power-Hyde families to run the farmstead, died in 2008.

Cobb Parks restored the farmstead in 2013 and conducts monthly walking tours.

Cobb Parks also holds a summer fishing rodeo for kids at Hyde Farm, and the property is used for educational purposes, summer camps and classes.

Tuesday’s action means that the county will submit the application to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, Historic Preservation Division for nomination to the national register.

There are more than 40 properties in Cobb that are on the National Register of Historic Places, including the Sope Creek Ruins off Paper Mill Road.

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Gritters Library rebuild to proceed with $1M in ARPA funding

March 17, 2023 5:39 PMMarch 14, 2023 4:07 PM by Wendy Parker

Gritters Library project to proceed

The prospects for the rebuilding of the Gritters Library have looked bleak in recent months, as the project faced a $2.5 million shortfall due to rising construction costs.

Cobb officials have been working to bring down the cost of the project, which had been priced at $10.5 million and included the renovation of the adjacent Northeast Cobb Commnity Center.

On Tuesday, the Cobb Board of Commissioners unanimously signed off on a $9.8 million maximum price tag, including $1 million in funding from the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act.

The contract was awarded to Batson-Cook Company after county officials cobbled together a variety of funding sources to close the gap.

Last month, commissioners closed out spending the last $98 million of the county’s $147 million ARPA allotment, including $21.5 million in economic development projects.

In that funding base is $3.7 million earmarked for CobbWorks, the county’s workforce development agency, which had been planning to build a Workforce Cobb operation at the new Gritters branch.

Gritters Library project to proceed

In addition, the $1.2 million cost for work on the community center will be coming out of the 2022 SPLOST Shaw Park Repurpose project. That building will be demolished and the new community center will be included in the Gritters Library building.

More than $719,000 in savings comes from 2011 SPLOST library projects and fiscal year 2023 library system capital projects.

And District 3 Commissioner JoAnn Birrell, who couldn’t convince her colleagues last September to shore up the gap with general fund revenues, directed the remaining $112,976 of ARPA funding of her $1 million for district projects to the library/community center project.

(You can read more details here.)

“This has been a long time coming,” Birrell said in making a motion to approve the contract. “This is one of my 2016 SPLOST projects that is hopefully coming to fruition.”

She also thanked library advocates, including library trustees and the non-profit Cobb Library Foundation, for their persistence in urging a resolution to the funding issue.

“Team Cobb County,” chairwoman Lisa Cupid said. “There are a number of players in this room working to make this happen.”

“It was truly a team effort,” said a relieved Travis Stalcup, director of the Cobb property management office. “Everybody kicked in. Proud of everybody.”

Gritters Library project to proceed

The Gritters 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.

There was a groundbreaking event in late 2021 after Cobb received a $1.9 million capital outlay grant from the Georgia Public Library Services.

In January, the board’s three Democrats voted to seek another $1 million in state funding. It was at that meeting Birrell and Keli Gambrill, the board’s Republicans, were dismissed from the dais for not voting due to their objections over Cobb’s home rule redistricting challenge.

But on Tuesday, after the 5-0 vote was recorded, the other four commissioners applauded Birrell for her advocacy.

Gritters opened near Shaw Park in 1973. Originally plans called to renovate the library, but county officials later said a complete rebuild was necessary.

The new facility will include 15,000 square feet and in addition to providing traditional library services it will include a hub for workforce development, job skills and lifelong learning.

In addition to CobbWorks, Gritters has partnerships with the Northeast Cobb Business Association, SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) and nearby higher educational institutions.

Gritters Library project to proceed

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Cobb ethics board dismisses complaint against Richardson

March 26, 2023 2:08 PMMarch 13, 2023 5:45 PM by Wendy Parker

Cobb Ethic Board dismisses Richardson ethics complaint

The Cobb Board of Ethics has dismissed a complaint filed by an East Cobb resident against Commissioner Jerica Richardson.

In a special meeting Monday, the board voted 6-0, with one member absent, to dismiss the complaint, saying it did not find “specific, substantiated evidence to support a reasonable belief” of an ethics violation.

It’s the first step under the Cobb County code to consider ethics complaints and is an “investigatory review.” If the board had voted the other way, it could have set a hearing date to formally consider whether an ethics violation occurred.

(You can watch a replay of the fill meeting below.)

Debbie Fisher, an East Cobb political activist, filed the complaint in late January, saying that Richardson was engaged in a conflict of interest due to a political action committee she formed to fight her redistricting by the Georgia legislature.

Richardson, who is part of the Cobb Board of Commissioners’ Democratic majority, voted in October in favor of the county invoking home rule powers to conduct reapportionment.

They are challenging Georgia legislative maps passed last year that would draw her out of her East Cobb home in District 2 in the middle of her term.

Richardson also created a 501(c)(4) non-profit, For Which It Stance, for the purpose of “protecting local control, empowering local voices,” and seeks financial donations, sells merchandise and offers memberships ranging from $25 to $100 a month.

Fisher, a local Republican activist who said she was representing herself, alleges that’s a conflict and at Monday’s hearing, recounted her complaints. (In addition to seeking a reprimand and/or censure of Richardson, Fisher wants to void Richardson’s votes on the maps, which would result in a 2-2 deadlock.)

“This organization creates a conflict of interest, a direct and indirect financial benefit,” Fisher told the Ethics Board members, referring to For Which It Stance.

“Its existence creates the appearance of impropriety and it is evident that Commissioner Richardson is using her position as an elected official for private gain by selling favors and merchandise and giving preferential treatment by selling access and favor to the organization’s members.”

But Justin O’Dell, a Marietta attorney representing Richardson at the hearing, noted her status as the first woman and African-American to represent District 2, and her election in 2020 was “an historic one” in that it ensured a black female Democratic majority.

“Ever since that time, there has been and continues to be an effort to undermine the results of that election, through legislative and other means,” O’Dell said.

He included various cityhood movements in Cobb (three of which failed, including East Cobb), as examples of efforts undertaken so that “individuals who don’t feel like they ought to be represented by Commissioner Richardson can have their wish despite the results of the election.”

O’Dell said elected officials have a “fundamental” right to engage in political advocacy and speech in the course of doing their jobs.

He said “what’s being attempted here is an end run” around the legal proceedings involving Cobb’s home rule challenge to the legislative maps, “and should be dismissed as such.

“They are asking you essentially to declare her actions void as a means to bypass what they have been unable to do through the courts,” O’Dell said, “by having you void these actions and undo the map.”

Most of the ethics board members said they were unpersuaded by the complaint, and that they were looking for evidence of the claims of financial benefit for Richardson going into the hearing.

“We don’t have any evidence that Ms. Richardson has profit,” ethics board member Cynthia Ann Smith said. “But we don’t have any evidence that she didn’t either.”

Board chairman Carlos Rodriguez spelled out the differences in the ethics code between compatible and incompatible employment, as they related to an elected officials’ discharging of their official duties.

The code, he said, precludes commissioners from using their office to benefit in for-profit entities, not non-profits.

“In my mind, it doesn’t really even matter whether she received some sort of compensation as a member of For Which It Stance or not,” he said, “as long as it’s not incompatible with her public duty and responsibility.”

Board member Janet Savage said “we have not seen any hardcore evidence that there was private gain” for Richardson.

The ethics board is a seven-member body appointed by the Cobb Board of Commissioners, the Cobb Tax Commissioner, the Cobb Sheriff, the Cobb Solicitor General, the chief judges of the Cobb probate and magistrate courts and the clerk of the Cobb State Court.

Fisher has 30 days to appeal the decision in Cobb Superior Court.

Cobb commission redistricting bill tabled in Georgia Senate

March 7, 2023 11:21 PMMarch 7, 2023 2:44 PM by Wendy Parker

Legislation that would have reimposed the reapportionment lines for the Cobb Board of Commissioners that were approved by the Georgia legislature in 2022 won’t advance in the current session.

Cobb GOP BOC redistricting map — *Cobb commission maps passed by the Georgia legislature would include most of East Cobb in District 3 (gold).*

SB 236, sponsored by State. Sen. Ed Setzler, a West Cobb Republican, was tabled in the Senate on Monday, which was crossover day in the Georgia General Assembly.

Bills that didn’t pass out of their original chambers by crosover day aren’t considered for the rest of the session.

The bill (you can read it here) was introduced by Setzler after the three Democrats on the Cobb commission voted last fall to invoke a home rule challenge to redistricting lines that drew one of them, Jerica Richardson of East Cobb, out of District 2 in the middle of her term.

Setzler’s bill, co-sponsored by two Republicans, Kay Kirkpatrick and John Albers, who represent parts of East Cobb, was favorably reported out of a Senate committee last week.

Setzler agreed to revise the bill to include language that would allow Richardson to complete her term, which expires in 2024.

A companion bill by Setzler, SB 124 (you can read it here), would “restate constitutional limitations” on counties from determining redistricting lines.

But with a lengthly slate of bills on crossover day, Setzler’s bills weren’t debated or brought to a vote after being tabled.

Since January, the five-woman Cobb commission has been conducting meetings honoring a redistricting map drawn last year by former State Rep. Erick Allen, then the Cobb legislative delegation chairman, that would keep Richardson in District 2.

The two Republicans, JoAnn Birrell of District 3 in East Cobb and Keli Gambrill of West Cobb, tried to abstain from voting at the first meeting, protesting maps they said were unconstitutional.

They were ordered from the dais by Democratic chairwoman Lisa Cupid and since then have begun meetings reading their objections into the record.

Late last month, Gambrill and East Cobb resident Larry Savage filed a lawsuit in Cobb Superior Court challenging the home rule declaration.

That suit has not yet been scheduled for a hearing, according to court records.

Setzler, who was elected to the Senate last year, was the co-sponsor last year as a member of the House of three failed Cobb cityhood referendums.

He became a co-sponsor of the East Cobb legislation that was approved and signed into law. But voters in the proposed city of East Cobb defeated it with more than 73 percent saying no.

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Cobb hires consultants for 2024 transit sales tax referendum

March 1, 2023 4:06 PMMarch 1, 2023 9:04 AM by Wendy Parker

The three Democrats on the Cobb Board of Commissioners Tuesday voted to spend more than $500,000 to hire three separate consulting firms to help the Cobb Department of Transportation prepare for a transportation sales tax referendum in 2024. Cobb transportation sales tax consultants

The contracts will be for developing project lists and providing planning and engineering services, as well as conducting community outreach.

Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid has proposed a one-percent, 30-year sales tax for transit, but the board’s two Republican members are opposed to anything longer than five years.

What’s been called the Cobb Mobility SPLOST, or M-SPLOST, would fund mass transit services as well as traditional transportation options, including resurfacing.

The county set aside $400,000 for consulting services for the M-SLPOST referendum, but on Tuesday spending that was approved totaled $529,839:

WSP USA, Inc., $207,205
Kimley-Horn & Assciates, $192,795
CDM-Smith, Inc., $129,839

Republican commissioners JoAnn Birrell and Keli Gambrill voted against the contracts, objecting to the long-term nature of the proposed 30-year sales tax.

State law gives local governments that option, and they also could levy a five-year, one-percent tax for surface projects, which Birrell has supported.

While commending Cobb DOT director Drew Raessler and his department for their efforts, Birrell said that “all along I have said I cannot support a 30-year tax. . . . Getting anybody to get on the same page up here is a difficult task.”

The county held town halls and other public events in 2021 for a sales tax referendum targeted for 2022, but put that on hold when mayors of Cobb’s cities objected to a 30-year tax.

Gambrill asked Raessler why more outreach was necessary, and he said that it would be more targeted, especially to those in cities and community improvement districts to hear “what type of projects they would like to see.”

Cupid said that “I think we have a significant opportunity to invest in our future, at least just to ask the citizens the questions, to flesh out with the mayors what the options are.

“This isn’t a done deal yet. But hopefully we’ll get the data to support where we could potentially go, with additional help fleshing out what the [project] lists are.”

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

East Cobb resident, commissioner file redistricting lawsuit

March 7, 2023 2:33 PMFebruary 25, 2023 11:38 AM by Wendy Parker

East Cobb resident commissioner file redistricting lawsuit

East Cobb resident Larry Savage has refiled a lawsuit against Cobb County’s home rule legal challenge over redistricting maps for the Cobb Board of Commissioners.

His co-plaintiff in the action filed Thursday in Cobb Superior Court is Cobb Republican Commissioner Keli Gambrill.

Their suit (you can read it here) was filed against the county and the Cobb Board of Registration and Elections. The latter was the sole defendant in the initial suit filed by Savage but was withdrawn after an initial hearing before Judge Ann Harris in January.

The refiled suit seeks a writ of mandamus to order Cobb to recognize redistricting maps approved last year by the Georgia General Assembly.

Those maps drew current District 2 commissioner Jerica Richardson out of her East Cobb home in the middle of her term.

Instead, she and the board’s other two Democrats passed a resolution last October to recognize a redistricting map drawn by the former Cobb legislative delegation chairman that would keep Richardson in her seat.

That action included the filing of an amended map with the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, even after Gambrill and fellow GOP Commissioner JoAnn Birrell were re-elected in November according to the legislature-approved maps.

The new lawsuit continues to claim that the county is violating the Georgia Constitution, which permits only the legislature to conduct reapportionment.

The suit said that Gambrill, who represents District 1 in north and west Cobb, is a plaintiff as an individual citizen, not in her role as a commissioner.

The resolution passed by the commission Democrats, the lawsuit alleges, “was an overt misuse and abuse of the home rule authority” and described their amended map as “illegal, unconstitutional and not binding.”

The legislative map drew most of East Cobb into District 3, which Birrell has represented since 2010. Savage, a former candidate for Cobb Commission Chairman in 2012, 2016 and 2020, was drawn into the new District 3 for the 2022 election.

But the Cobb map, which the county said took effect on Jan. 1, puts him back in District 2, which includes some of East Cobb and the Cumberland-Vinings area.

“Mr. Savage has a legally protected interest in enduring his vote fairly and legally translates into representation on the BOC and that his district and the county at large is represented fairly and constitutionally,” said the lawsuit, filed by Atlanta attorney Ray S. Smith III.

Proposed Cobb commission redistricting map — *Maps approved by the Cobb commission’s Democrats would keep Jerica Richardson of East Cobb in the District 2 (in pink) that she currently represents.*

The lawsuit said that the Cobb Board of Commissioners “created a conflict for the BOE [Board of Elections] in carrying out its duties” to conduct and certify elections.

Gambrill and Birrell were ordered from the board’s dais at the commission’s first meeting of the year when they attempted to abstain from voting as a protest against the county maps.

Chairwoman Lisa Cupid said that was a violation of board policy. Since then, the two Republican commissioners have voted, but have begun each meeting reading formal statements of objection.

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr has issued an opinion claiming the Cobb maps are not legally binding, but said his office could take no action until a lawsuit was filed.

The Cobb commission Democrats have claimed in their resolution that they’re justified in invoking home rule over redistricting due to the “unprecedented” redistricting maps passed by the legislature.

Richardson, whose term expires in 2024, has contended that while the county’s action may be unprecedented, so is the legislature’s action in drawing a sitting incumbent official out of her seat.

An East Cobb resident, Debbie Fisher, has filed an ethics complaint against Richardson, saying the commissioner is engaged in a conflict of interest due to a political action committee she formed to fight the legislative maps.

State Sen. Ed Setzler, a Republican from West Cobb, has filed a bill that would specifically prohibit counties from using home rule powers over redistricting. Two co-sponsors of the bill, SB 236 (you can read it here), are his GOP colleagues Kay Kirkpatrick and John Albers, who represent parts of East Cobb.

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Cobb commissioners approve American Rescue Plan Act spending

February 14, 2023 7:01 PM by Wendy Parker

Cobb commissioners on Tuesday approved spending more than $98 million in federal funds under the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act for 80 community-based projects and initiatives.

The broad categories for the funding include infrastructure, community health, economic development, public safety and non-government support services.

Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid said “these funds will be transformational” as she thanked county officials and Deloitte, the outside consultant hired to help the county strategize how to use the money.

“It’s not just what’s immediately before us with the impact of COVID, but we can look at the future and say ‘How can we set this county up for success?’ ”

Cobb was allocated more than $147 million in APRA funding, and with Tuesday’s votes, has only $11 million remaining.

County department heads organized subcommittees in each of the five categories to screen applications, determine eligibility, select participants and assign funding recommendations.

The process also included community and public feedback. More than 200 separate applications were made, by county government departments as well as non-profit agencies.

The requests included health-related efforts to mitigate against COVID-19 (including expanding court space for social-distancing purposes), food distribution, stormwater management upgrades, expanding WiFi at county facilities, workforce development, mental health and substance abuse programs, rental assistance, home repairs for the elderly and financially disadvantaged and equipment for first responders.

Here’s how the funding will be broken down:

Infrastructure ($19.3 million)—Summary | Details
Community health ($23.8 million)—Summary | Details
Economic development ($21.5 million)—Summary | Details
Public safety ($10 million)—Summary | Details
Support services ($23.2 million)—Summary | Details

Three of the five votes were unanimous votes by the commissioners. Commissioner Keli Gambrill of North Cobb voted against the community health and housing funding, saying she opposed more rental and mortgage assistance beyond what Cobb had paid using CARES Act funds in 2021.

All of the projects that were approved had to meet federal ARPA guidelines, as well as guidelines approved by commissioners that they won’t cost the county recurring expenses when the programs expire.

The projects typically will last for two years, and deputy county manager Jimmy Gisi said at Tuesday’s meeting that the ARPA funding must all be spent by the end of 2026.

Cobb government has set up a special ARPA page with more information.

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Cobb commissioners to consider $98M in ARPA spending requests

February 10, 2023 6:18 PMFebruary 10, 2023 2:02 PM by Wendy Parker

Cobb Republican commissioners contest meeting minutes

Spending requests of more than $98 million from the American Rescue Plan Act will be presented to the Cobb Board of Commissioners on Tuesday.

Cobb County government was allocated $147 million from the federal government in ARPA funding, and last November commissioners unanimously approved using $20 million of that total to raise salaries, improve retention and fill vacancies in public safety agencies.

At Tuesday’s meeting, they will hear details of spending proposals pertaining to infrastructure, community health, economic development, public safety and support service needs stemming from the COVID-19 response.

Last year commissioners voted on the five priority areas. The following totals have been proposed per category, with an overview and project-by-project specifics, with the projects lasting two years:

Infrastructure ($19.3 million)—Summary | Details
Community health ($23.8 million)—Summary | Details
Economic development ($21.5 million)—Summary | Details
Public safety ($10 million)—Summary | Details
Support services ($23.2 million)—Summary | Details

The requests, formulated by county department heads, are comprehensive and wide-ranging, including health-related efforts to mitigate against COVID-19 (including expanding court space for social-distancing purposes), food distribution, stormwater management upgrades, expanding WiFi at county facilities, workforce development, home repairs for the elderly and financially disadvantaged and equipment for first responders.

They were put together after months of meetings with county government and non-profit service providers and other community “stakeholders,” according to the agenda items.

Each project is broken down according to several factors, including whether it aligns with the ARPA funding categories. The evaluation considerations for each included “equity,” geographic location, projected impact and “financial continuity,” with the proviso that projects won’t cost the county money beyond the limits of the ARPA funding.

Each priority area will be considered individually at Tuesday’s meeting.

The biggest single request is $7 million to construct the South Cobb Public Health Center, which Cobb and Douglas Public Health said in agenda item “will address many of the public health gaps that exist due to the pandemic and other historical circumstances.”

Another $5.8 million is being proposed for the Healthy County Building Initiative, which will target HVAC upgrades for “select” county facilities based on indoor air quality and COVID mitigation measures.

A total of $4.9 million would be granted to SelectCobb, the economic development arm of the Cobb Chamber of Commerce, and Cobb Works, the Cobb Collaborative and other agencies to assist “child care learning centers and family child care learning homes with their current workforce challenges.”

An estimated $4.5 million would be distributed in grants to the early childhood education and day care industry “to help offset the cost of retaining and recruiting workers in this difficult labor market for a specific segment of the economy that has a profound impact on families.”

Another $4 million would be earmarked for Habitat for Humanity of Northwest Metro Atlanta to build 14 single-family “affordable homes” for citizens with incomes at or below 65 percent of the area median income.

The estimated cost of each home would be $362,725.00 each, and the agenda items states it would be “helping to close the racial wealth gap by creating equity for homeowners.”

Also requested under economic development is $3.96 million for the “Cobb County Business Boot Camp,” which would provide training and assistance for minority business owners.

The commission meeting begins at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the second floor board room of the Cobb government building (100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta), and the full agenda can be found by clicking here.

There are two public comment periods, one at the beginning and the other near the end, with a maximum of six speakers each who are limited to speak for five minutes.

You also can watch on the county’s website and YouTube channels and on Cobb TV 23 on Comcast Cable.

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Richardson conducting ‘Priorities Tour’ during February

February 8, 2023 5:48 PM by Wendy Parker

Cobb commissioner Jerica Richardson is holding meetings with citizens during the month of February as part of her annual “Priorities Tour.” Richardson priorities tour

As she has done in her first two years in office, Richardson is seeking feedback about issues in District 2 and Cobb County, ranging from economic development, transit, health, government finance, housing, the arts and more.

Other priorities included environmental justice and SMART communities, a concept built around technology- and data-driven innovations to guide urban transition for a range of public services.

The SMART communities tab for the 2022 priorities tab says it complements another priority, “Building a Better Cobb,” focused on infrastructure improvements, as well as enhancements to public safety.

The current priorities tour comes as Richardson and her Democratic colleagues on the Cobb Board of Commissioners are legally challenging reapportionment maps that would draw her out of District 2.

A lawsuit contesting the county on its claim of home rule powers is expected to be refiled soon by East Cobb resident Larry Savage, a former commission chairman candidate.

Richardson’s priorities tour is different from town halls that have open to the general public

“These tour stops are highly collaborative, and you and your organization or group will have the opportunity to offer changes in real-time during her presentation,” says a message included in Richardson’s e-mail newsletter this week.

“Please note these tours are private and virtual only, and may include anyone from your group. We ask for at least three people to join the call to ensure that it is as effective as possible.”

If you want to sign up for a tour stop, click here for more information.

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Cobb commissioners holding 2023 retreat this week

January 31, 2023 2:52 PM by Wendy Parker

Cobb Republican commissioners contest meeting minutes

The Cobb Board of Commissioners is holding its annual retreat Wednesday through Friday at the Hilton Inn and Conference Center (500 Powder Springs Street, Marietta).

The three days of meetings will take place from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and are open to the public. Unlike the board’s formal meetings, however, the proceedings of the retreat will not be livestreamed.

The agenda (you can read it here) is focused on an update of the county’s Comprehensive 5-Year Strategic Plan, a process that got underway last fall.

Listening sessions and online feedback have taken place since November under the direction of Accenture LLP, an outside consulting firm being paid $1.45 million by the county to conduct a comprehensive long-range strategic plan that includes a shorter-term element for the years 2023-2027 (scope of work info here).

The overall objective of the plan, according to the county’s statement of need document, is to produce “a clear, unified, community-driven, long-term vision for Cobb County for the next 10 to 20 years.”

Cobb government spokesman Ross Cavitt said Accenture is expected to update commissioners on the surveys, town halls and stakeholder workshops that have taken place thus far, with the goal of presenting a strategic plan proposal by February or March.

The retreat comes as the partisan divide on the five-woman board has escalated over redistricting maps.

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Cobb Elections director announces retirement after 12 years

January 27, 2023 5:27 PM by Wendy Parker

Janine Eveler, Cobb Elections director announces retirement — *Janine Eveler*

Janine Eveler, the director of the Cobb Board of Elections and Registration, announced Friday that she is retiring after 12 years in the position.

The announcement was issued by Cobb government, which said a search will be launched immediately to hire her successor. Eveler will leave her post after Cobb municipal elections in March.

Eveler was with the Cobb Elections for 18 years after a career in telecommunications.

“I have thoroughly enjoyed my 18 years with Cobb County government,” Eveler said in a statement to the elections board that was included in a release issued by county. “I am very proud of the accomplishments that I and the Elections department have achieved and appreciate the opportunity to serve the citizens of the best county in Georgia.”

She was named the 2021 recipient of Ann Hicks Award, honoring excellence in elections administration, by the Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Elections Officials.

But the 2022 elections in Cobb were marked by controversies and glitches involving the elections office that led to court consent decrees extending the deadline for returning absentee ballots in the general election and the U.S. Senate runoff.

They included the failure to mail more than 1,000 absentee ballots for the Nov. 8 general election due to what Eveler said was a “human error” by an elections worker.

“I am sorry that this office let these voters down,” Eveler said at the time. “Many of the absentee staff have been averaging 80 or more hours per week, and they are exhausted. Still, that is no excuse for such a critical error.”

She told the elections board and Cobb commissioners on several occasions that high turnover among elections workers and volunteers were significant challenges during an election year that included new boundaries due to reapportionment.

In the Post 4 Cobb Board of Education general election race in East Cobb, 1,112 voters registered in the Sandy Plains 1 precinct were incorrectly given ballots to vote in the Cobb Board of Education Post 4 race.

They live in Post 5, also in East Cobb, following redistricting earlier in 2022.

The error was corrected, but 111 votes that had already been cast could not be changed. Republican incumbent David Chastain defeated Democrat Catherine Pozniak by 3,686 votes to win re-election.

A city council race in Kennesaw in November was reversed after data from a memory card was not uploaded promptly after the general election.

The appointed elections board also added one Sunday of early voting for the general election, a change that Eveler opposed in favor of a longer Saturday.

She also attributed some of the errors to a new state law limiting the window for absentee ballots and dropbox locations for them.

“The Board of Elections appreciates Janine’s service and commitment to Cobb County and the opportunity we’ve had to work with her to address concerns and challenges related to the changing elections landscape in this state,” elections board chairwoman Tori Silas in the Cobb release.

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

East Cobb resident files ethics complaint against Richardson

January 26, 2023 8:27 PMJanuary 26, 2023 3:44 PM by Wendy Parker

An East Cobb resident opposed to Cobb County’s attempt to use home rule powers to conduct reapportionment has filed an ethics complaint against Commissioner Jerica Richardson, whose bid to stay in office is at the heart of the controversy.

Debbie Fisher alleges in her complaint to the Cobb Board of Ethics that Richardson is engaged in a conflict of interest due to a political action committee she formed to fight her redistricting by the Georgia legislature.

In her complaint filed on Monday (you can read it here), Fisher said Richardson should have recused herself from discussion and two votes in October in which the commission’s Democratic majority approved redistricting maps that would have kept her District 2 relatively unchanged.

In addition to seeking a reprimand and/or censure of Richardson, Fisher wants to void Richardson’s votes on the maps, which would result in a 2-2 deadlock.

Last year, the Georgia legislature passed HB 1154, which contains maps that placed Richardson’s home in East Cobb into District 3, where Republican JoAnn Birrell was re-elected in November.

In addition to vowing that she wouldn’t step down, Richardson set up a 501(c)(4) non-profit last March, For Which It Stance, Inc., to fight what she said was an “unprecedented” move to draw a sitting elected official out of office.

In what she and her supporters have called “Jerica-mandering,” Richardson has insisted that home rule is legal and necessary to invoke for redistricting so that her 200,000 constituents have representation.

The For Which It Stance website said it was dedicated to “protecting local control, empowering local voices,” and seeks financial donations, sells merchandise and offers memberships ranging from $25 to $100 a month.

Unlike 501(c)(3) non-profits, a 501(c)(4) organization can “push for specific legislative outcomes that align with our values and core mission,” according to the For Which It Stance site.

Fisher further alleges in her complaint Richardson “also violated the code of ethics by failing to disclose, in writing or verbally, the conflict and the collection of money through the 501(c)(4) Corporation’s website which clearly creates a Fiduciary conflict of interest that disqualifies Commissioner Richardson from participating in discussion in whole or part and from voting on this issue.”

Under a local ordinance, the ethics board has 60 days to conduct an initial review to determine if there’s enough evidence in the complaint to warrant a further investigation. The complaint could be dismissed or the board could set a hearing date to formally consider whether an ethics violation occurred.

Fisher is a local Republican activist who told East Cobb News that “I like Jerica and I don’t necessarily agree with how the maps were redrawn but this has been taken too far.”

East Cobb News has contacted Richardson and East Cobb resident Mindy Seger, the executive director of For Which is Stance, seeking comment.

Seger would say only that For Which It Stance “will not be commenting on the complaint at this time.”

East Cobb News also contacted Lynn Rainey, the attorney for the ethics board, who said Richardson has 30 days to respond to the complaint.

Richardson, a Democrat, was elected to a four-year term in 2020, succeeding longtime Republican Bob Ott, in a District 2 that included some of East Cobb and the Cumberland-Vinings area.

In 2021, she moved into a home off Post Oak Tritt Road, which at the time was located in her District 2.

The Cobb delegation, which had a one-Democrat majority, approved maps that would have kept Richardson in District 2. But that map was never voted on, as Cobb GOP legislators did an end-run around that longstanding courtesy.

Under Georgia law, Richardson would have had to move into the new District 2 by Dec. 31 of last year to run for re-election in 2024.

After the commission Democrats voted in October to file the county delegation maps with the state, Birrell and fellow Republican commissioner Keli Gambrill objected, saying those maps are unconstitutional.

Gambrill suggested then that Richardson recuse herself, citing a conflict of interest.

Richardson didn’t respond to those concerns, and said before the second vote that “this is beyond partisanship. This is about the balance of power among all 159 counties and the state General Assembly. This ensures that future state and federal politics won’t play a role in our local government’s daily operations.”

Earlier this month, Birrell and Gambrill tried to abstain from voting at the commission’s first meeting when they were told the county maps would be in force. They left the dais after an executive session and as Chairwoman Lisa Cupid threatened to have them escorted away by security, saying board policies didn’t allow them to abstain without a “valid” conflict.

On Tuesday, the two Republican commissioners cast votes but issued statements of protest and disputed the Jan. 10 meeting minutes saying they voted to go into executive session when they insisted they had not.

East Cobb resident Larry Savage is expected to refile a lawsuit soon in Cobb Superior Court challenging the county’s home rule stance.

In perhaps its best-known case in recent years, the Cobb ethics board dismissed a complaint against then-commission chairman Tim Lee in 2014 for his handling of the Atlanta Braves stadium deal.

The same year, Savage filed ethics complaints against the four Cobb commissioners who voted for the stadium deal, but those were also dismissed.

The only commissioner not subject to that complaint was Cupid, then a district commissioner for South Cobb.

In defending the vote to approve Cobb delegation maps instead of the state-approved maps in October, Cupid said “this is not something that we can just move past . . . this is not something that we can just take lying down.’

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Cobb Republican commissioners vote, contest meeting minutes

January 24, 2023 10:47 PMJanuary 24, 2023 9:18 PM by Wendy Parker

Cobb Republican commissioners contest meeting minutes

Two weeks after being removed from the meeting dais after trying to abstain, the two Republican members of the Cobb Board of Commissioners cast votes on Tuesday.

But they did so under protest, introducing formal statements that they wanted read into the record before every vote, reiterating their objection to reapportionment maps passed by the board’s Democratic majority the Republicans say are unconstitutional and illegal.

Republicans Keli Gambrill and JoAnn Birrell also challenged the accuracy of the minutes of the Jan. 10 meeting—most of which they watched from the back of the room—saying that a meeting video did not properly convey the details of an executive session that had been called, and that they say falsely recorded the two Republicans as casting a vote to go into executive session when they did not.

“The clerk has us voting when we did not vote,” Gambrill said, adding that in her first term in office, she couldn’t recall not voting to approve meeting minutes.

Chairwoman Lisa Cupid also asked Gambrill and Birrell to vote again on the first vote of the meeting, for a swimming pool construction permit, for which they initially tried to abstain. A nearly 29-minute recess ensued.

Board policies do not permit abstentions unless there is a valid financial conflict of interest. But a motion for another vote on the swimming pool item was not made after the meeting resumed. When Birrell and Gambrill declined to vote, Cupid asked them to leave the dais and later asked for security to remove them.

At Tuesday night’s meeting, Gambrill asked for a forensic audit of the video to be conducted by an outside party, and for commissioners’ votes to be electronically recorded from now on.

In response, Cupid said that commissioners are responsible for the keeping of minutes and that the county clerk [Pam Mabry] is being unfairly burdened.

“It’s an unfortunate day when we bring it up in a public manner,” Cupid said, prompting some groans from the spectators, and later added that an attempt to “dress down our county clerk was disrespectful.”

Cupid said that there was “not complete sync with the communication on the dais with the recording. But the truth is still the truth. What the eyes saw cannot be unseen and the truth that occurred cannot be undone.”

Cupid said commissioners voted to go into executive session, and “if you did not believe that they should have not participated. I hope this never happens again.”

But Birrell, whose District 3 boundaries are in dispute, she also couldn’t vote for the minutes for the first time during her tenure, which just began a fourth term.

She said there were several discrepancies in the proposed minutes, and Cupid’s directive for them to leave the dais wasn’t recorded.

Birrell repeated Gambrill’s complaint that a vote that was recorded as 3-2 that she said was accurately a 3-0 vote.

“I’m not demeaning Pam,” Birrell said, referring to Mabry. “A lot of this was procedures that were taken that I don’t agree with.”

Her District 2 East Cobb colleague, Democrat Jerica Richardson, said she supported the minutes because “the statements in it are ones I recall.”

She also told Mabry that “your integrity is not in question.”

Tuesday’s votes to approve the Jan. 10 meeting minutes passed 3-2, with the Democrats voting in favor and the Republicans opposed.

Citizens spoke on both sides of the redistricting issue, which is expected to be resumed in Cobb Superior Court when East Cobb resident Larry Savage refiles a lawsuit that had been withdrawn, challenging the county maps.

Mindy Seger of East Cobb, who leads Richardson’s political action committee to stop the legislative maps, said the county’s home rule challenge is necessary because the legislature’s actions to ignore the Cobb delegation-drawn map sets “a dangerous precedent.”

Local maps, Seger said, “are local matters to be handled locally.”

But Marietta resident Leroy Emkin said speakers arguing on behalf of the county map “are missing the point.

“The point is the law. [Commission] district boundaries are voted on by the state legislature and signed into law by the governor. . . . At the present time it is clear that no county has the authority [to draw maps]. The law is the law.”

The last speaker of the night, Donald Barth of the Cloverdale Heights neighborhood in the city of Marietta, summed up the confusion of citizens who aren’t sure who their commissioner is.

He’s been redistricted before, from District 4 to District 2 and now to District 3—he thinks.

“Does anybody know where in the hell I belong?” Barth said. “Because Marietta don’t want me.”

At the end of the meeting, during commissioners’ remarks, Birrell read from a second prepared statement, saying that Cobb’s home rule challenge has “increased tensions” on the board.

She said she and her constituents in District 3 have been harmed, the latter by not knowing who their duly elected official is, even though she was re-elected in November under the state-approved maps that have been certified by the Cobb Board of Elections.

“If the amended [county] map is the law, what does that do to the voters of all the county? Please continue to pray for all of us.”

You can watch the full meeting below.

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Activist groups organize over Cobb electoral map dispute

January 24, 2023 2:10 PMJanuary 21, 2023 2:05 PM by Wendy Parker

A political advocacy committee started by Cobb commissioner Jerica Richardson to fight against legislative maps that would draw her out of her seat is encouraging those who support her to speak out when commissioners meet on Tuesday.

The For Which It Stance group wants to “fill the room” and speak during public comment sessions as a home rule dispute continues to roil the five-woman board.

The notification was amplified on the Facebook page of the Cobb County Democratic Committee. Cobb electoral map dispute

The Cobb County Republican Party has posted a similar notice on social media, urging its supporters to “show up and support our state constitution.”

On Jan. 10, Republican commissioners JoAnn Birrell and Keli Gambrill tried to abstain from voting, saying maps approved by the three Democrats on the board are unconstitutional under Georgia law.

They were told by Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid that they could not abstain without a valid conflict and eventually were removed from the dais, watching the rest of the meeting from the back of the room.

Whether that scenario may repeat itself Tuesday is uncertain. When asked by East Cobb News what she plans to do at the meeting, Birrell said only that “I will be making a statement next week.”

Birrell began her fourth term in January after being re-elected under new boundaries in District 3, which includes most of East Cobb.

Those maps were approved by the Georgia legislature after Cobb GOP lawmakers skirted the common courtesy of honoring local delegation maps.

The Cobb delegation had a one-member majority, and commission maps drawn by former chairman Erick Allen would contain most of Birrell’s former district, including some of Northeast Cobb, the Town Center area and city of Marietta.

That map, which Birrell opposed, was never voted on by the legislature, but it’s what the county has submitted to the state, and it’s the one the county attorney’s office is saying is currently valid.

Cobb electoral map dispute Richardson was elected in 2020 in District 2, which has included some of East Cobb and the Cumberland-Vinings area.

She moved to a home off Post Oak Tritt Road last year, and under state law, would have had to move into the new District 2 to seek re-election next year.

That’s because the legislative maps drew District 2 to include Cumberland-Vinings, Marietta and most of the Kennesaw-Town Center area and took out East Cobb.

But Richardson isn’t budging, as the county is claiming home rule provisions that Republicans said do not apply when it comes to reapportionment.

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr this week agreed, saying the county maps are “not legally binding.”

But there’s not an active lawsuit to contest the county maps. East Cobb resident Larry Savage withdrew a suit in Cobb Superior Court and is planning refile it soon.

In the meantime, said Mindy Seger, the executive director of For Which It Stance, the option that would cause the least harm and disruption to is to honor the county maps and keep Richardson in office until the courts decide the matter.

She said Richardson’s fight is about the “representation of 200,000 people,” her District 2 constituency, who were the subject of an unprecedented action by the legislature—drawing out an incumbent elected official.

Savage’s initial lawsuit sought a preliminary injunction to uphold the state maps. That would trigger Richardson’s removal from office and a special election.

If that were to happen, and the county then won its home rule claim, Seger said, that would create even more chaos than what the Republicans are saying is happening now.

Seger, who was a leader of the anti-cityhood East Cobb Alliance, also encouraged Birrell and Gambrill to show up and vote—not abstain—and represent their constituents.

The commission meeting begins at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the second floor board room of the Cobb government building (100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta), and the full agenda can be found by clicking here.

There are two public comment periods, one at the beginning and the other near the end, with a maximum of six speakers each who are limited to speak for five minutes.

You also can watch on the county’s website and YouTube channels and on Cobb TV 23 on Comcast Cable.

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Attorney general: Cobb commission maps ‘not legally binding’

January 18, 2023 12:42 AMJanuary 17, 2023 5:58 PM by Wendy Parker

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr has said it’s his opinion that reapportionment maps passed by the Cobb Board of Commissioners drawing the boundaries for their own districts are “not legally binding.”

But he said his office cannot initiate a lawsuit under state law and would have to wait for a withdrawn lawsuit to be refiled on behalf of an East Cobb resident in order to take part.

Carr’s spokeswoman, Kara Richardson, sent out a brief statement Tuesday:

“It is the opinion of the Georgia Department of Law that the action taken by the Cobb Commission to pass an alternate map was inappropriate and not legally binding. As we have explained repeatedly to interested parties, Georgia law does not grant our Department the authority to initiate a lawsuit in the current situation. We will, however, not hesitate to engage when and where appropriate should a lawsuit be filed by the right party.”

Carr’s opinion is something that Republican commissioners JoAnn Birrell and Keli Gambrill have been seeking as the commission’s redistricting dispute has reached the courts.

East Cobb resident Larry Savage is a Republican former Cobb Commission Chairman candidate who filed a lawsuit in Cobb Superior Court to invalidate the county maps.

His suit was filed against Cobb Board of Elections director Janine Eveler and after a court hearing earlier this month his attorneys have said they will refile against the Cobb Board of Commissioners.

In October Birrell and Gambrill voted against maps approved by the commission’s three Democratic members that would keep one of them, Jerica Richardson of District 2 in East Cobb, in office.

Those maps were drawn by former State Rep. Erick Allen, then the Cobb legislative delegation chairman, but they were never voted on by the Georgia General Assembly.

The maps that were sponsored by Cobb GOP lawmakers and approved by the Republican-led legislature last year would have drawn Richardson out of her seat and into District 3, which would include most of East Cobb.

Richardson has two years remaining in her term and would have had to move into the new District 2 by Jan. 1 to remain in office.

But she said she would not step down or move, and she, chairwoman Lisa Cupid and commissioner Monique Sheffield vowed to challenge the GOP maps under Georgia’s home rule law.

Birrell and Gambrill have said Cobb’s maps are illegal, becuase the legislature is in charge of reapportionment, and opinions by the legislature’s Office of Legislative Counsel and the Georgia Secretary of State’s office reached the same conclusion.

In response to a request for comment from East Cobb News, Birrell said Tuesday that Carr’s “opinion just confirms the legislative counsel’s opinion and secretary of state’s opinion that the county map is illegal and unconstitutional. Leaves it up to the courts to decide.”

Cobb government spokesman Ross Cavitt said the county attorney’s office, which has said the county’s maps are in effect unless and until they are overturned in a court of law, isn’t commenting on Carr’s opinion.

Last week, the Republican commissioners tried to abstain from voting to protest the county maps and were ordered from the dais by Cupid.

Birrell, who was re-elected to a fourth term in November to represent District 3 with the boundaries approved by the legislature, said she’s “not comfortable” voting, not being sure which maps are valid.

She was told by the deputy county attorney that the county maps are the ones she should abide by and that legal opinions are only opinions until a court ruling.

Last Friday, Cupid issued a statement from Cobb County Attorney William Rowling that “even if a person has a good faith belief that a law is unconstitutional or invalid in some way, he or she is not at liberty to simply disregard a law based on that personal belief. Instead, that law must be followed unless and until it is struck down by a court of law.”

Richardson has said the home rule challenge may be unprecedented, but so are the legislature’s maps, which skirted typical courtesies to honor local delegation lines.

She started a political advocacy committee to address the issue, For Which It Stance, incorporated by the Georgia Secretary of State’s office as a 501(c)4 domestic non-profit organization, and whose executive director, Mindy Seger, led the East Cobb Alliance, which fought against the now-defeated East Cobb cityhood referendum.

East Cobb News has left messages with Richardson and Seger seeking comment as well as Jason Thompson, an attorney for Savage.

Allen, who unsuccessfully ran for Georgia lieutenant governor last year, is the new chairman of the Cobb County Democratic Committee.

Carr is a Republican re-elected to a second term last November.

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Cobb to seek additional state funds for new Gritters Library

January 11, 2023 5:57 PMJanuary 11, 2023 2:08 PM by Wendy Parker

Gritters Library rendering

Facing a $2.5 million shortfall to rebuild the Gritters Library branch, the Cobb Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday to seek additional state funds.

The board voted 3-0 to apply for a $1 million grant from Georgia Public Library Services, a division of the state board of regents, that would go toward construction costs.

In late 2021, commissioners approved an $8.6 million construction contract, including $1.9 million from the state, to build the Northeast Cobb library branch that’s nearly 50 years old, as well as renovate the adjacent Northeast Cobb Community Center.

The current Gritters branch has outdated restrooms and poor drainage has resulted in mold and mildew.

Among the programs that would be part of the new building would include digital literacy training and job training and workforce development with CobbWorks.

In 2018, Cobb commissioners approved spending $2.9 million from the 2016 Cobb SPLOST to renovate Gritters, but a rebuild of the branch was recommended at a cost of $6.8 million.

There was a groundbreaking for the new library in December 2021. But rising construction costs have pushed the price tag to $10.5 million. Last September, commissioner JoAnn Birrell asked her colleagues to approve using county reserve funds to make up the difference, but she couldn’t get the support and withdrew the request.

“It’s near and dear to my heart and it kills me not to be able to move this forward,” she said at the time. “We’ve got some work to do, but we’ll get there.”

It’s not clear where the rest of the funding would come from if another state grant is approved, and at Tuesday’s meeting, Birrell wasn’t on the dais to speak to the issue.

She and fellow Republican commissioner Keli Gambrill were spectators in the board room, removed from their seats after being ruled in in violation of board policies by abstaining from voting in a dispute over the commission’s electoral maps.

Abby Shiffman, an East Cobb resident who is head of the Cobb library system’s board of trustees, said during a public comment session that the Gritters project was first identified in 2014. The current branch, built in 1973 in Shaw Park she said, has been declared a “subpar building” by Cobb property management officials.

She countered comments at a Monday work session that library officials “keep coming back for more funds . . . but this is not true.

“This is not just a rebuild of a library in dire need,” Shiffman said. “This is an investment to fit the meeds of our taxpayers and all of the citizens of Cobb County.”

Before the vote, Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid said that “we will be looking for unique ways to support this” but she did not suggest how the rest of the funding would be derived.

Based on public feedback, she told her colleagues, “this is an important project and I appreciate your support in moving this forward.”

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Cobb Republican commissioners leave meeting over abstention

January 11, 2023 4:20 PMJanuary 10, 2023 11:36 AM by Wendy Parker

Cobb Republican commissioners abstain — *Cobb commissioner JoAnn Birrell listens to Deputy County Attorney Debbie Blair about the board’s rules for abstaining from voting.*

The two Republican members of the Cobb Board of Commissioners were asked to leave the elected body’s first meeting of 2023 Tuesday morning after they said they would abstain from voting on agenda items.

GOP members JoAnn Birrell of East Cobb and Keli Gambrill of North Cobb tried to abstain in protest of a commission redistricting map that’s the subject of a lawsuit.

The board’s three Democratic commissioners in October approved a redistricting map that keeps District 2 Democratic commissioner Jerica Richardson in her seat.

But the Republican-dominated legislature approved maps last year that would draw her into Birrell’s District 3, which now covers most of East Cobb.

A lawsuit has been filed opposing the county’s home rule challenge, claiming that only the legislature can conduct reapportionment.

Birrell and Gambrill, who were both re-elected in November, have repeatedly stated that the county-approved map is not legal.

There was a hearing in Cobb Superior Court last week seeking an injunction against the county maps, but a ruling has not been issued.

Before the first agenda item on Tuesday, Birrell asked Cobb Deputy County Attorney Debbie Blair which maps the commission was “operating under” for the meeting.

Blair responded the county map is considered to be in effect. Birrell cited an opinion from the Georgia legislature’s Office of Legislative Counsel (you can read it here) that the commission’s resolution is unconstitutional, and the Georgia Secretary of State’s office has reached the same conclusion.

“It has no bearing whatsoever,” Blair replied, saying that the attorney for plaintiff in the lawsuit—East Cobb resident Larry Savage—was voluntarily dismissing the suit for technical reasons and is expecting to have it refiled.

“That is their opinion,” Blair said of the legal opinions, “that the procedure we conducted was not proper. That is not the opinion of the county.

“Until it is overturned by the courts, it is a valid process that we did follow.”

Democratic Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid tried to prevent Birrell from pressing the issue at that point, saying it wasn’t part of the meeting agenda.

“I’m just not comfortable with the makeup of the board, not knowing, this is still pending,” Birrell said.

“This is a state issue that we don’t control.”

At the first item up for a vote—approval of a typically routine certificate for a swimming pool construction at a home in the Chattahoochee Plantation neighborhood in East Cobb—Birrell and Gambrill abstained.

Cupid initially recorded the vote with the clerk as approval of the certificate by a 3-0 vote with two abstentions, then asked for a legal clarification.

Blair said commissioners cannot abstain from voting unless they have a “valid” conflict of interest that should have been expressed in advance.

They also must leave the dais before abstaining from a vote, Blair said.

“The conflict is the votes with [maps] the county is saying are in place,” Birrell said. “Everything is going to be a conflict, and I’m abstaining.”

Cupid then called for a recess followed by an executive session, according to Birrell, who told East Cobb News after the meeting that the county attorney “advised if a commissioner is present they have to vote unless there is a conflict of interest. I feel that this was a conflict of interest for me since a ruling on the maps has not been decided.”

When the executive session was over, Cupid asked Birrell and Gambrill to cast votes on the same agenda item. They both declined, and Cupid called for another recess and asked her two colleagues to “remove themselves from the dais.”

They were told they would be escorted away by security if they did not leave their seats voluntarily.

When the meeting resumed again, Birrell and Gambrill were absent from the dais, having been dismissed by Cupid. They watched the rest of the meeting in the guest seating area of the board room.

“The chair’s ‘use of force’ by ordering the police officer to remove us from the dais when no crime has been committed would have resulted in a lawsuit against the chair and county,” Gambrill said, as neither “Commissioner Birrell nor I broke any laws.”

(You can watch a replay of the meeting below; the sequence above occurred between 4:00 and 40:00, including the recesses.)

Gambrill told East Cobb News in a message Wednesday morning that as far as procedures go, Cupid should have made a motion to rescind the vote in which Gambrill and Birrell abstained before asking them for another vote.

“Coming back from [executive session] and demanding Commissioner Birrell and I to vote when there was no active motion on the floor—is dictatorship at its finest,” Gambrill said.

“In addition, after the chair removed us from the Board, she then changed the vote to 3-0 with Birrell and Gambrill absent. This is false.”

The three remaining commissioners, all Democrats, went through the rest of Tuesday’s meeting agenda.

At the end of the meeting, Cupid remarked that she was hopeful that all five commissioners will be in attendance at the board’s next meeting later this month and that “we will be abiding by the rules of procedure.”

Should the county lose its legal challenge, Richardson may be forced to step down from office, triggering a special election for the remaining two years of her term.

Under state law, Richardson would have had to move into the new District 2 by Dec. 31 to be eligible to run in 2024. But she has vowed to defy what she said has been an “unprecedented” vote by the legislature to reapportion a sitting elected official out of a seat.

Cupid said at Tuesday’s meeting that based on legal advice from the county attorney, the maps approved by the commission’s Democratic majority “are the maps that stand until there is a successful legal challenge in a court of law.”

Birrell and Gambrill also have complained that the county attorney’s office has not sought a response from the Georgia Attorney General’s office, which thus far has not formally weighed in.

“An opinion by the Attorney General’s office is an opinion,” Cupid said. “It does not determine the outcome nor the work of this board.”

Cupid added that “I cannot allow for this board to be a circus for people to share differences of opinion that are completely outside of our rules of procedure.

“I hope that the public understands that and I hope our commissioners understand that.”

In response to questions from East Cobb News, Birrell reiterated her concerns via e-mail that she and Gambrill “have asked for the Attorney Generals’ opinion in the past and again today as this is a state issue.”

The commissioners’ next scheduled meeting is Jan. 24.

Water main replacement work to begin under Sope Creek

January 10, 2023 6:04 AM by Wendy Parker

Sope Creek water main replacement work begins — *Open Street Map*

From the office of Cobb Commissioner JoAnn Birrell:

Project update: Construction of the Blackjack Mountain 36-inch Water Main Replacement project for Cobb County-Marietta Water Authority (CCMWA)

The contractor has remobilized back to the project site and will begin the Jack and Bore installation underneath Sope Creek at the intersection of Wallace Road and Barnes Mill Road. Due to the rain last week, the contractor will be finishing out drilling and blasting this week at the intersection. They will likely start excavation of the bore pit and possibly begin the underground trenchless jack and bore within the following two weeks.

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

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