Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid will deliver the annual State of the County address next Thursday, May 4, at 7 p.m. at the Jennie T. Anderson Theatre (548 S. Marietta Parkway).
She will continue her theme of “ALL IN for Cobb,” during the address, introducing individuals “demonstrating integrity, inclusiveness, investment in others, innovation, and intelligent decision-making for the county,” according to an announcement for the event.
It will be preceded by a reception at the adjacent Cobb Civic Center from 6:15 —7 p.m.
The address is free and open to the public, you’re asked to RSVP by clicking here.
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Cobb commissioners will be asked Tuesday night to approve extra funding and a time extension for an outside consultant to complete a strategic plan for county government.
The Cobb County Manager’s office is seeking an additional $285,000 and eight weeks for Accenture LLP to develop the five-year strategic plan, which was approved by commissioners last fall.
The cost of the contract at the time was $1.45 million, and a draft plan was presented to commissioners last week.
But according to an agenda item, more time and money are needed after commissioners wanted the plan to be made public and discussed at a town hall meeting, and for final tasks to be completed.
‘Given the contract with Accenture has recently expired, funding and an eight-week time extension are required to accomplish additional tasks, including community engagement, and synthesizing the data,” the agenda item states.
Accenture is a management and professional services consulting firm that assigned several of its staffers to the Cobb strategic plan project.
Here’s what Accenture presented to the county in order to finish the job, which would include a revised draft plan, more public feedback and final publication.
The vote to approve the consultant was a party-line 3-2, with Democrats in favor and Republicans against.
JoAnn Birrell and Keli Gambrill objected to the cost and questioned the need for such a study, which was designed to give policy makers a long-term (10- to 20-year) vision for meeting those future service needs.
Also on Tuesday, commissioners will honor the state championship basketball teams from Wheeler and Kell high schools and will recognize East Cobb’s Temple Kol Emeth synagogue on its 40th anniversary.
The Cobb Board of Commissioners meeting starts at 7 p.m. at the second floor board room of the Cobb government building (100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta). You can read through the full agenda by clicking here.
You also can watch on the county’s website and YouTube channels and on Cobb TV 23 on Comcast Cable.
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The Cobb Board of Commissioners will hold a work session Tuesday afternoon for briefings on the county’s housing assessment and economic development initiatives.
The work session starts at 1:30 p.m. at the second floor board room of the Cobb government building (100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta).
You also can watch on the county’s website and YouTube channels and on Cobb TV 23 on Comcast Cable.
The housing assessment was compiled by the Atlanta Regional Commission “to get an understanding of current housing inventory, availability, and needs which can serve as a tool to inform the County in considering future housing goals and policy,” according to an agenda item.
Earlier this month, Cobb Tax Assessor Stephen White projected county tax digest growth in 2023 to be 13 percent, increasing due to rising average home sale prices. Last year, the average home sale in Cobb was nearly $453,000.
The economic development initiatives will be presented by Sabrina Wright, who was named the county’s economic development director last year.
Commissioners will hold a regular meeting Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the same venue and with the same viewing options. That meeting agenda can be found here.
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State Rep. Sharon Cooper, a Republican from District 45 in East Cobb, is the featured speaker at the East Cobb Civic Association‘s monthly meeting on Wednesday.
The meeting takes place at 7 p.m. at Fullers Park (3499 Robinson Road), and is open to the public.
Cooper, the chairwoman of the Georgia House Public Health Committee, is expected to review the recently concluded 2023 legislative session.
The East Cobb Civic Association is an all-volunteer organization of around 9,000 homeowners that influences development in the community by getting involved in zoning and code matters, as well as transportation, community service and other issues.
The meetings are held the fourth Wednesday of each month and include a discussion of and recommendations on zoning cases to be heard by the Cobb Planning Commission and Cobb Board of Commissioners.
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District 2 Cobb Commissioner Jerica Richardson will hold a town hall meeting next week to reveal her 2023 priorities.
The town hall takes place at 6 p.m. on Thursday, April 20 at the Boy Scouts of America (1800 Circle 75 Pkwy, Atlanta), followed by a networking event at 7:30 p.m.
The networking features members of Richardson’s community cabinet, citizens who are chosen to advise on various topics, including infrastructure, housing and zoning, transportation, courts, education, public safety, seniors and more.
Richardson held a “priorities tour” earlier this year to gather public feedback on topics to emphasize in the current year.
It’s her first town hall since the county became embroiled in legal action over its home rule challenge to commission redistricting that has directly affected her.
The Georgia legislature approved maps last year that would draw her out of her home in District 2 in the middle of her term and moving most of East Cobb into District 3.
She and the two other Democrats on the Cobb Board of Commissioners voted in October to submit maps to the Georgia Secretary of State’s office that would make few changes to the previous District 2 lines, which included some of East Cobb and the Smyrna-Cumberland-Vinings area.
The board’s two Republicans have publicly objected at every meeting this year. One of them, District 1 commissioner Keli Gambrill, has filed two lawsuits against the county, saying that the home rule challenge is unconstitutional and that only the legislature can conduct reapportionment.
East Cobb resident Debbie Fisher filed an ethics complaint against Richardson in February, alleging she was engaging in a conflict of interest after setting up a non-profit to advocate against the legislature’s redistricting maps. But the Cobb Board of Ethics dismissed the complaint.
Since she took office in 2021, Richardson has sought public input on priorities in the first quarter (2021, 2022).
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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.
“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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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.
“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.”
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.
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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.
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 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.
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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.
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.”
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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.
Cobb commission maps passed by the Georgia legislature would include most of East Cobb in District 3 (gold).
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.
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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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:
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!
Cobb commissioner Jerica Richardson is holding meetings with citizens during the month of February as part of her annual “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.”
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!
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.
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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.
“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.
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“I like Jerica . . . but this has been taken too far,” East Cobb resident Debbie Fisher said.
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.”
Commissioner Jerica 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.
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.
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.’
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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.”
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Democrats conducted the Jan. 10 Cobb Board of Commissioners meeting by themselves after their Republican colleagues were ordered from the dais by Chairwoman Lisa Cupid (center).
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.
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.
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!
Richardson was elected in 2020 in District 2, which has included some of East Cobb and the Cumberland-Vinings area.