The following East Cobb food scores for the week of Feb. 7have been compiled by the Cobb & Douglas Department of Public Health. Click the link under each listing for inspection details:
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!
For more COVID data from the Georgia Department of Public Health, click here.
COVID case rates in Cobb County have fallen by roughly a half from what they were in late December and early January at the start of the Omicron surge.
As of Wednesday, Cobb and Douglas Public Health said Tuesday that the 14-day average of cases per 100,000 people was 1,075, after peaking at nearly 2,000 around the first of the year.
“That’s definitely some good news, and we are we are heading in the right direction,” CDPH director Dr. Janet Memark told the Cobb Board of Commissioners Tuesday.
But that number, she added, “is still very high.”
The “high” community spread threshold is 100/100K.
The death rate in Cobb also is starting to fall, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health daily COVID status report.
According to date of death figures, the peak was nine deaths on Jan. 14, when the 7-day moving average was nearly five a day. Eight more deaths were reported on Jan. 19. As of Jan. 24, the 7-day moving average is 2.1 deaths per day.
There have been 1,470 confirmed COVID deaths in Cobb since the pandemic was declared in March 2020.
The positivity rate in Cobb for PCR tests also remains high at 17.3 percent (5 percent is considered the high threshold for that metric), but that figure has gone down substantially, from around 30 percent at the Omicron peak.
While Wellstar Kennestone Hospital is off its overall peak, Memark said “we still have a lot of patients in the hospital with COVID-19” and the majority of them are not unvaccinated.
She didn’t provide specifics in her briefing to the commissioners.
As she has done during the pandemic, Memark urged members of the public to wear masks (“the best fitting that you can find”) when going out in the public, and to be vaccinated and boosted.
In Cobb County, the rate for fully vaccinated people is 60 percent, with 65 percent having had one dose. Those fully vaccinated and boosted are 43 percent.
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The Committee for East Cobb Cityhood is holding what it’s calling a virtual information session Thursday, with a bill calling for a referendum nearing passage in the Georgia legislature.
The town hall starts at 6 p.m.; you can register by clicking here.
The group said the webinar will cover 45 minutes and will “present the 5 reasons why East Cobb should become a city.”
Attendees are asked to answer three optional questions at sign-up: selecting the municipal service they believe is most important for East Cobb; whether residents living in the proposed city should be able to vote in a referendum to establish a municipality; and if they’re in favor of a city of East Cobb “with local representation and local control.”
Participants can also leave questions and comments in a separate field.
The group said in an e-mail that an in-person public town hall is being planned but a date has not been set.
Cityhood group members have been visible at legislative committee meetings in recent weeks as HB 841 awaits action in the full Senate.
The legislation has been changed several times since being introduced in 2021 by former State Rep. Matt Dollar, who resigned last week after the bill was passed out of the House.
Among them are moving up a referendum from November to May, and changing the way a mayor is chosen, from having six city council members pick from among themselves to being directly elected by voters.
Those two additions to a substitute bill by Dollar required a second vote by the House Governmental Affairs Committee.
The cityhood group held several virtual town halls last year, but none since a financial feasibility study was released in November that added police and fire services.
A charter in the East Cobb bill also provides for planning and zoning and code enforcement services for a city of around 60,000 people, centered along the Johnson Ferry Road corridor.
The cityhood group said it would have information sessions in January, but it has not done so since the 2022 legislative session began.
Last week, the East Cobb bill was favorably reported out of a Senate committee by a 4-3 vote.
The East Cobb bill is scheduled to be debated and voted on the Senate floor Thursday at 10 a.m. If it is approved there, the bill would become law after being signed by Gov. Brian Kemp.
Three other Cobb cityhood bills are being considered in the legislature. Lost Mountain and Vinings bills are slated for House floor action, and a bill for Mableton cityhood is also pending in the House.
Like the East Cobb bill, they would have referendums in May instead of the original November dates.
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A Democrat who twice came close to toppling one of the Georgia House’s top Republican leaders in the last two elections will be running for the State Senate in 2022.
Luisa Wakeman has announced her candidacy for District 6 in the Georgia Senate, which has been been redrawn to include some of the Mt. Bethel, Sope Creek, Sewell Mill and East Side precincts as well as the Terrell Mill, Powers Ferry and Chattahoochee precincts in East Cobb (see map here).
District 6, which also include portions of Smyrna-Vinings and Sandy Springs, is represented by Democrat Jen Jordan, who is running for lieutenant governor.
Wakeman is an East Cobb resident who lost by fewer than 500 votes in 2020 to State Rep. Sharon Cooper, an East Cobb Republican who is the House Health and Human Services chairwoman.
A former flight attendant and nurse, Wakeman registered her campaign committee last week. Her campaign website can be found by clicking here.
In a release, she said that “this is an important election and we must step up in order to continue to move the state forward. We have a majority party pushing extreme legislation that defies the values of most Georgians. While our kids continue active shooter drills in school, Republican legislators are pushing a law that allows anyone to buy weapons without a license.
“As hospitals fill to capacity and frontline healthcare workers have been pushed to exhaustion, legislators used their power to prevent lawsuits from covid-19 harm. After an election where parents, grandparents, frontline workers, waited hours in line to vote, legislators made it even more difficult for Georgians to cast a ballot, especially voters in Black and immigrant communities. We deserve representation that will listen to the people of this district.”
Other Democratic candidates for the District 6 race include Jason Esteves, the former chairman of the Atlanta Board of Education.
Qualifying begins in March for the May 24 primary.
In 2020, the District 43 State House race between Wakeman and Cooper was one of the more expensive legislative races in Georgia, with both candidates raising more than $500,000 combined.
After reapportionment, both Cooper and Wakeman were redrawn into District 45, which has a vacancy after the resignation last week of State Rep. Matt Dollar.
Dollar, the chief sponsor of the East Cobb Cityhood bill, said last fall he would not be seeking re-election.
Redistricting sliced up East Cobb into four State Senate seats. Most of it has been in District 32, which is represented by Republican State Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick since 2017.
That district has been redrawn to include some of Northeast Cobb and parts of Cherokee County. Kirkpatrick is seeking re-election but has a GOP primary opponent in State Rep. Charlice Byrd of Woodstock.
District 56 will include much of the Johnson Ferry Road corridor and has been represented by State Sen. John Albers, a Republican from North Fulton who is sponsoring the East Cobb Cityhood bill in the upper chamber.
District 33 includes the East Marietta area and is represented by Democratic Sen. Michael “Doc” Rhett.”
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With the resignation of State Rep. Matt Dollar this week, his East Cobb cityhood bill is being carried by lawmakers from Acworth and North Fulton.
By this time next week, a bill calling for a referendum to create a City of East Cobb may have passed the Georgia legislature and would await with the signature of Gov. Brian Kemp.
After only 10 days of legislative action, HB 841 easily has flown through the House and a seven-member Senate committee, and likely will be acted on by the full Senate this week.
Although the East Cobb bill was submitted nearly a year ago, that the legislation has taken on dramatic and confusing new dimensions since November, and especially in the last three weeks.
After filing an initial bill with a “city light” set of proposed services—planning and zoning, code enforcement and parks and recreation—then-State Rep. Matt Dollar brought a substitute bill with him to the State Capitol when the 2022 session began.
Instead, it included police and fire services—a controversial part of the initial East Cobb cityhood bill that was abandoned in 2019—along with planning and zoning and code enforcement.
Those were services that were evaluated in a financial feasibility study conducted by Georgia State University researchers and released in November.
That was the first surprise. Cityhood leaders said at the time that there was “unilateral” support for police and fire services from citizens they surveyed over several months, but they never bothered to tell the public about it until the study was done.
So would the three other cityhood bills in Cobb County—Vinings, Lost Mountain and Mableton—that are currently before the legislature.
After the initial committee meeting, Dollar also was questioned extensively about a governance structure that would have six city council members, who would choose a mayor from among themselves every two years.
So Dollar amended his substitute bill yet again, to still have six council members—with two each living in one of three districts—and a mayor elected directly, citywide.
The House Governmental Affairs Committee also heard from Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid, who said the county was still assessing the financial impact of cityhood and that she wanted voters to have more complete information.
While the county has had more than a year to prepare for this moment, the significant change in services in East Cobb, plus additional changes since the bill has been considered in the legislature, should prompt a pause.
What’s the rush to having a referendum in May? Not just in East Cobb, but in the other three proposed cities?
They comprise more than 200,000 people, or roughly a quarter of Cobb’s population, and voters are being asked to consider significant changes to their local governance. These shouldn’t be rammed through the legislature and then onto the May 24 primary ballot.
Dollar—who abruptly resigned his seat in the legislature this week after the House transferred his bill to the Senate—said it was to avoid having a special election in early 2023 for city council elections, should an East Cobb referendum pass in November.
But Cobb taxpayers will soon be footing the bill for a special election to fill the rest of Dollar’s unexpired term, with his successor likely serving only in a caretaking role after the legislative session is over.
At a Senate committee hearing on Thursday, State Rep. Ed Setzler, an Acworth Republican who’s sponsoring the East Cobb and Lost Mountain bills, was asked if he would delay the East Cobb referendum to November.
“The consensus among the community was to get moving,” Setzler said, not bothering to explain who those community members may be.
Another committee member who wanted to see the proposed city council districts that haven’t been released in map form asked to table a motion to favorably report the bill, but that failed.
Most of those doing the questioning on Cobb cityhood bills in the legislature have been Democrats. But Republicans easily control the Georgia legislature, and since Democrats took control of the Cobb Board of Commissioners last year, GOP members of the Cobb delegation have been busy with cityhood bills (the Mableton bill has two Democratic co-sponsors, one of whom voted for the East Cobb bill).
Concerns over controlling development and growth are the focal points of those bills. When the East Cobb bill was filed last year, I thought it was a vast improvement over the 2019 effort, which never made sense with its focus on police and fire services.
The GSU feasibility study for the current bill is scant on details about how an East Cobb city of about 60,000 people could afford and fund full-service public safety services. There would be one police precinct and two fire stations, but the financials are basically line items about annual revenues and expenditures.
The main revenue source would be the 2.86 mills in the current Cobb Fire Fund.
There’s not much in the study about the true cost for salaries and benefits (including pensions) for 71 police officers and an unspecified number of firefighters. Nothing is in the study about expenses needed to train and equip them.
Those aren’t the only areas where the feasibility study conclusions just don’t add up. That’s why the East Cobb bill should be amended to push back the referendum to November.
Voters deserve the time to educate themselves about the issues and to be able to question the lawmakers and cityhood supporters who are putting this before them.
That hasn’t happened since late last summer, before public safety services were added to the financial study, and before the fast-moving event taking place now at the Gold Dome.
There should be public, in-person or hybrid town halls—not the virtual-only meetings that have taken place over the last year—for those purposes. They could be done this spring and fall, as the previous cityhood group did in 2019.
But those pushing the East Cobb bill in the legislature don’t seem to be interested in that.
(None of whom, by the way, actually live in East Cobb with Dollar departed. State Rep. Sharon Cooper is a co-sponsor of the bill and voted for it in the House, but didn’t speak during floor debate. State Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick is more supportive than two years ago but she is running for re-election in a district that doesn’t have the proposed city of East Cobb and is not a sponsor of the bill.)
I agree that they do, but the feasibility study they commissioned is flawed and the legislation that is built around it has changed a lot in such a short amount of time.
It needs to be improved before those voters go to the polls.
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A Georgia House subcommittee on Monday will consider two bills submitted by Cobb Republican legislators to redistrict seats on the Cobb Board of Education and the Cobb Board of Commissioners.
A special subcommittee on redistricting and elections will meet at 3 p.m. Monday to hear HB 1028 and HB 1154.
The agenda and a live viewing link for the meeting can be found by clicking here.
The Republican bills would redraw commission and school board lines very differently than State Rep. Erick Allen, a Smyrna Democrat and the Cobb legislative delegation chairman, has proposed.
Democrats have a 3-2 edge on the current commission, after Republicans have enjoyed majorities since the 1980s. Birrell, who is a Republican, and fellow GOP commissioner Keli Gambrill voted against recommending Allen’s proposed boundaries.
Both Birrell and Gambrill are up for re-election this year. Richardson, a Democrat whose first term expires in 2024, would have to move into the new District 2if the GOP bill is approved. She recently bought a home off Post Oak Tritt Road, which would be in the new District 3 under the GOP bill.
The school board map is identical to boundaries recommended by the four members of the Cobb school board’s Republican majority.
Cobb school board member Charisse Davis
That includes shifting Post 6, which includes the Walton and Wheeler clusters, into the Smyrna-Vinings-Cumberland area.
Like the Republican legislators’ commission map, school board representation in East Cobb would be reduced to one member, Republican David Banks of Post 5, who was re-elected in 2020.
Allen has proposed a map that keeps the seven school board posts very similar to what they are now.
That includes retaining the East Cobb areas of Post 6, which is represented by first-term Democrat Charisse Davis. She lives in the Smyrna-Vinings area and is up for re-election this year, but has not announced her plans.
The Cobb legislative delegation has a one-member Democratic majority. But as is happening in Gwinnett County, Cobb Republicans are attempting an end-around the typical delegation reapportionment process.
The Cobb GOP bills are likely to pass in a Republican-dominated Georgia legislature.
At a press conference earlier this week, Allen decried the Cobb GOP bills. As he was speaking, State Rep. Ed Setzler, a Republican from Acworth and a driving force behind the GOP legislation, crashed the event, leading to some heated discussion.
On Friday, Allen, who is running for lieutenant governor, urged his supporters and other Democrats to attend Monday’s subcommittee hearing on the “inappropriate” bills.
The Cobb County Democratic Committee also decried the “gerrymandered” maps, saying “you need to stand in protest against these shameful acts” and accusing Cobb Republicans of “overthrowing an election by other means.”
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East Cobb resident Dustin McCormick has announced he’s running in a still-to-be-called special election for a Georgia State House seat vacated this week by longtime legislator Matt Dollar.
McCormick, who’s in a financial management position at McKesson Corp., said Friday he’s seeking the short-term post in District 45 and will be running for the same seat in the May primary.
McCormick had already set up a campaign committee for the 2022 elections before Dollar’s abrupt resignation on Tuesday.
Dollar, a Republican, left his office of nearly 20 years shortly after the East Cobb Cityhood bill he sponsors was submitted to the Senate for consideration.
Gov. Brian Kemp has not yet called for a special election, which must be held within the next 30 to 60 days. The successor would fill out the remainder of Dollar’s term, although he or she may not take office until after the current legislative session.
For now, District 45, which includes some of the Pope and Walton High School clusters, has no representative (here are the current boundaries).
McCormick, who lives in the Bishop’s Green neighborhood, opposes East Cobb Cityhood. The bill, which passed a Senate committee Thursday, proposes public safety, planning and zoning and code enforcement services.
McCormick said it’s adding another layer of government and taxation, and said East Cobb residents already “enjoy fantastic Police, Fire, and EMT coverage with some of the best response times in the area.”
In a release issued Friday, he said that “I’m thrilled to run to represent the community that has given me and my family so much. I believe in a responsive government that preserves our quality of life and focuses on the issues that matter to your family.”
According to his website McCormick’s other priorities would be to update the current model of state funding for public schools and to implement anti-bullying programs in schools.
He also supports hate crimes legislation and supports expanding Medicaid.
McCormick and his partner Misty, and have two children, Audrey and Finley.
He is an active member of the Bishop’s Green HOA, the East Cobb Civic Association, Rotary Club of East Cobb, Cobb County Democrats, and Cobb County Chamber of Commerce.
He earned a finance degree from Georgia Southern University and an Executive MBA from the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business.
District 45 will have new boundaries for the primary and general election this year (see map).
Dollar announced his retirement in the fall, after he and State Rep. Sharon Cooper, an East Cobb Republican who represents District 43, were drawn into the same legislative seat.
The only other candidate who’s set up a campaign committee for District 45 for the primary and general election is Carminthia Moore, who is active with the Cobb GOP.
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The following East Cobb food scores for the week of Jan. 31have been compiled by the Cobb & Douglas Department of Public Health. Click the link under each listing for inspection details:
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!
State Rep. Ed Setzler also is a co-sponsor of the Lost Mountain Cityhood bill.
The East Cobb Cityhood bill was approved by a Georgia Senate committee on Thursday, clearing the way for possible final passage next week.
By a vote of 4-3, the Senate Local Government Operations Committee favorably reported the bill, despite concerns from some panel members and a member of a citizens group against East Cobb cityhood.
One of those concerns—a district residency requirement for city council candidates—was addressed when State Rep. Ed Setzler, a West Cobb Republican and a bill co-sponsor—added clarifying language.
The other issue—pushing back a referendum to November instead of May, as was adopted in a substitute bill in the House—Setzler was not willing to entertain.
The bill now goes to the Senate Rules Committee, which could schedule the bill for a floor debate and full passage next week (the legislature doesn’t meet on Friday).
The East Cobb Cityhood legislation is the first of four such bills in Cobb to reach the Senate during the current session.
Bills calling for referendums in Lost Mountain and Vinings were favorably reported out of a House committee on Wednesday. A Mableton cityhood bill also is pending.
Also on Wednesday, Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid said the county will be pushing an “awareness campaign” about cityhood as it relates not only to county government finances, but also explaining its current delivery of services.
Setzler and State Sen. John Albers, a North Fulton Republican who is sponsoring the East Cobb bill in the upper chamber, appeared before the Senate committee Thursday.
So did several members of the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood.
Mindy Seger of the East Cobb Alliance, which opposes cityhood, pointed out that the bill passed by the House does not include language about city council residency requirements.
Under the bill, all six city council members would be elected at-large. However, there are three council districts, with each of them having two members who must reside in those districts.
The bill passed by the House requires anyone running for the city council to have been a resident of the city for at least a year (line 201 of the bill linked to above).
It doesn’t mention the district requirement, so Setzler asked for an amendment—noted in bold type—saying that “no person shall be eligible to serve as councilmember unless that person shall have been a resident of the city and the district from which he/she is elected for 12 months prior to the date of the election of members of the city council.”
Seger also said the May referendum date should be pushed back, a suggestion that some committee members also made.
Setzler said it would be ideal for a referendum in May, and if passed, with mayor and city council elections in November as preparations begin to start up a city in early 2023.
After the amendment passed, State Sen. Michelle Au, a Democrat from Johns Creek, asked if that’s “a real deadline.”
If it’s on the November ballot, Au asked, couldn’t a startup date be decided in the future.
Setzler said that a “consensus” of community feedback during virtual town halls conducted over the last year was “to get moving” early in the next year.
Another Democratic committee member, Sen. Emanuel Jones of Decatur, moved to table the bill because no demographic or district boundaries were provided, among other information he said was incomplete.
That motion failed before the committee voted to favorably report the bill.
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Lisa Cupid speaking to the House Governmental Affairs Committee in January.
Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid spoke out Wednesday against fast-moving cityhood efforts in the Georgia legislature and bills by Republican lawmakers that would override local redistricting efforts by the county’s legislative delegation.
Cobb spokesman Ross Cavitt sent a statement late Wednesday afternoon from Cupid, who said county officials have hired a consultant to evaluate the financial impact of legislation that could create four new cities, including one in East Cobb.
Those bills would also call for referendums in Vinings, Mableton and Lost Mountain in West Cobb. According to initial filings of those bills, those votes would have taken place in November.
But like the East Cobb bill that just passed the House, the other bills have been revised to move up the referendums in May instead.
She also said then she wasn’t opposed to new cities but “I’m opposed to persons having to vote and not having clear and accurate information beforehand.”
In her Wednesday statement, Cupid said that “the county understood that some of these initiatives could appear on the ballot in November.
“The impact analyses cannot be completed by the May primary, so I and staff will be much more active in assessing our impact internally and in educating citizens, both in city limits and outside, about the financial impact in Cobb.”
She said while she’s “not here to thwart efforts towards determining the future of one’s community,” she wants to “ensure some sense of transparency and to better educate Cobb Citizens, more broadly, about how cityhood can impact all here.”
At a committee hearing Wednesday to consider the Lost Mountain and Vinings bills, Cobb Deputy County Manager Jimmy Gisi said the county government will be creating an “awareness campaign” detailing current county services, especially those that the proposed cities would be providing.
Of the four, only East Cobb would provide police and fire services, after the initial bill called for planning and zoning, code enforcement and parks and recreation.
Public safety services were included in a financial feasibility study issued in November, but did not detail specific costs for personnel salaries, staff training and equipment.
At the East Cobb bill’s House committee hearing, Cobb Public Safety Director Randy Crider said that given that the proposed East Cobb fire department would have only two stations serving a city with 25 square miles, “how much are we going to be relied on to provide support?”
The East Cobb bill was given its first reading in the Senate on Wednesday and was referred to the State and Local Governmental Operations Committee.
The committee is scheduled to meet at 12 p.m. Thursday to consider that bill. You can watch it live by clicking here.
The Vinings and Lost Mountain bills were reported favorably out of committee and will likely be scheduled for a House floor vote next week. The Mableton bill was filed Jan. 10 and has had a second reading but has not been scheduled for committee action.
On Tuesday, State Rep. John Carson, a Northeast Cobb Republican, filed a bill to redistrict the four district seats on the Cobb Board of Commissioners in dramatically different fashion than Smyrna Democrat Erick Allen, the Cobb delegation chairwoman who would keep those lines similar to what they are now.
Carson’s bill would put the two commissioners representing East Cobb—Republican JoAnn Birrell and Democrat Jerica Richardson—in the same district.
The commission’s three Democrats, including Cupid, supported Allen’s map, but Birrell and Republican commissioner Keli Gambrill were opposed.
In her statement late Wednedsay, Cupid said that while Carson’s map would likely keep a 3-2 Democratic majority, “his iteration of the map occurred without communication to the full Board of Commissioners. It is unclear to me if he consulted with the local state delegation regarding his proposed map.”
Cupid further said that “no pothole is seeking an R or D for resolution. His map certainly undermines the respectfulness of elected leadership of this county when it fully draws someone out of an area that they have been elected to represent. It also furthers political polarization when districts must be drawn that are either Republican or Democrat and not a combination of both which can result in balanced thought within the leaders that represent them.”
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Most of East Cobb would be included in Cobb Commission District 3 (in yellow) in a bill filed by GOP legislators.
Like they did regarding reapportionment for the Cobb Board of Education, Republican legislators in Cobb County have filed their own map for the redistricting of Board of Commissioner seats that are separate from the county’s legislative delegation leaders.
In HB 1154, filed Tuesday by several GOP House members—including three from East Cobb—both county commissioners representing East Cobb would be drawn into the same district.
The current boundaries of Cobb commission District 3. For a larger view click here.
The lead sponsor of the bill is John Carson of Northeast Cobb, and his lines would place most of East Cobb inside District 3, currently held by three-term Republican JoAnn Birrell.
She’s up for re-election in 2022, along with fellow Republican Keli Gambrill of North Cobb.
They both voted against a recommended map drawn by State Rep. Erick Allen, a Smyrna Democrat and the Cobb delegation chairman, that was supported by the commission’s three-Democrat majority.
Birrell said she did not support that map because it has taken out some of her East Cobb precincts.
Like the school board map, the GOP proposal would reduce representation in East Cobb.
Currently, District 2 includes East Cobb north of Powers Ferry Road and east of East Piedmont Road, reaching up through the Johnson Ferry-Shallowford area and including the area around Mabry Park.
That seat has been held since 2021 by Democrat Jerica Richardson, who succeeded three-term Republican Bob Ott, and whose term expires in 2024.
She had been living in the Cumberland-Smyrna area, but last summer moved into a new home off Post Oak Tritt Road.
Under Carson’s bill, that area would be included in the new District 3 (in yellow on the map at the top), which would stretch down to the Powers Ferry Road corridor. District 2 (in pink in the same map) would fall along the I-75 corridor from Kennesaw and through Marietta and retain most of the Cumberland-Vinings-Smyrna areas.
The current East Cobb portion of District 2. For a larger view click here.
Districts 2 and 3 were redrawn in 2014 to balance population.
Birrell lost some of her Northeast Cobb base in exchange for more areas in and around the city of Marietta. In 2018, she was re-elected with only 51 percent of the vote.
Until 2020, she had been part of a 4-1 Republican majority on the commission. But Richardson defeated GOP candidate Fitz Johnson to succeed the retiring Ott and former commissioner Lisa Cupid ousted GOP chairman Mike Boyce to create a 3-2 Democratic majority.
The Cobb Republican bills aren’t the only ones that would usurp usual county delegation deference in local redistricting.
Typically the full legislature honors the votes of county delegations to redraw local lines. But both the Cobb and Gwinnett delegations have slight Democratic majorities.
GOP lawmakers in Gwinnett have filed similar bills as that once heavily Republican county has swung toward Democrats.
The Cobb Republican bills would go through a similar process, first being heard in a House committee.
HB 1028, the Cobb GOP school board redistricting bill, was revised on Tuesday and has not yet been scheduled for committee consideration.
The Cobb commissioners redistricting bill will have a first reading in the House before being assigned to a committee.
Allen has called a press conference for Thursday morning at the Georgia Capitol to address Cobb redistricting issues.
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Cobb County government said Wednesday that Lisa Cupid, chairwoman of the Board of Commissioners, is isolating after testing positive for COVID-19.
A social media posting said Cupid got tested at Jim Miller Park “after feeling ill earlier this week” and said her symptoms are improving.
“I can only imagine how people who are not vaccinated deal with this virus,” she said in a statement. “If you have not been vaccinated and boosted, I urge you to do so and if you feel ill please get tested for your sake and others.”
Cupid has been presiding over public meetings in-person at the Cobb government building off the Marietta Square while the rest of her colleagues, county staff and the public have been participating remotely.
She extended a previous emergency declaration through Feb. 22 due to rising COVID-19 transmission in Cobb.
Virtual meetings will continue through mid-February, including next Tuesday’s commission meeting.
On Monday, County Manager Jackie McMorris lifted capacity limits in larger county facilities, but she is keeping a mask mandate in place through the expiration of the emergency declaration.
According to Cobb and Douglas Public Health, the 14-day average of COVID-19 cases in Cobb County is 1,651.
That’s down from a peak of nearly 2,700 in January, but still far above the “high” transmission threshold of 100/100K.
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A funeral Mass for former Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce will be livestreamed Thursday morning from South Bend, Ind.
The service begins at 9:30 a.m. at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, and can be viewed by clicking here.
It’s on the campus of the University of Notre Dame, Boyce’s alma mater.
He and his wife Judy had been attending a leadership program there when he was stricken with the first of two strokes on Jan. 14. Boyce died nine days later, after undergoing surgery, at the age of 72.
A message posted Monday on Boyce’s CaringBridge page said that “Judy has been overwhelmed by your outpouring of love and prayers. May God richly bless each and every one of you.”
Another posting on Wednesday said that Boyce, a retired Marine colonel who served 30 years in the Corps, will be interred with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery at a date to be determined.
Boyce, a Republican, served as chairman from 2017-2020 after ousting former chairman Tim Lee.
Boyce, who lived in East Cobb, was an active member of Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church.
A memorial service will be held there on Feb. 18 at 10 a.m.
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The Cobb County School District announced Tuesday that school bus drivers and monitors received another $1,200 retention bonus in their December paychecks.
The district distributed bonuses for drivers and monitors in May, and in a release said that new employees in those positions who have been hired by Feb. 28 will receive a $1,000 bonus.
“Our bus drivers and monitors are the reason 70% of our students make it to school every day,” Cobb school district Chief Operations Officer Marc Smith said in the release.
“They are valuable members of our Cobb Schools team, and we want to make sure we keep them on our team. At the same time, we also have the opportunity to hire new safety-minded professionals.”
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State Rep. Matt Dollar speaking in favor of the East Cobb Cityhood bill on the House floor last Thursday.
State Rep. Matt Dollar, a Republican who is the chief sponsor of the East Cobb Cityhood bill that just passed the House, is resigning his seat in the Georgia legislature, effective today.
Dollar, who has represented District 45 since 2003, said in a release that he is leaving to become the deputy commissioner of economic development for the Technical College System of Georgia.
“Having been born and raised in Marietta, it has been the greatest honor of my life to serve the citizens of House District 45 in the Georgia House of Representatives,” Dollar said in a statement. “I want to thank the people of East Cobb for putting their trust in me, as well as Speaker David Ralston for the confidence he has shown in me during my time as a member of the Georgia House. I look forward to my new role at TCSG and to continue helping Georgia companies grow and succeed.”
Tuesday was the ninth of the 40-day Georgia legislative session, which is scheduled to run into early April.
He initially announced his resignation during a floor speech after the East Cobb Cityhood bill was sent to the Senate for consideration.
There will be a special election for a successor to serve the rest of Dollar’s term; previously he had announced he wouldn’t be seeking re-election in November.
Gov. Brian Kemp has 10 days to call for the special election, which will take place within the next 30 to 60 days.
Dollar and State Rep. Sharon Cooper, an East Cobb Republican who represents District 43, were drawn into the same legislative seat during reapportionment in November.
However, another Cobb lawmaker, Democratic Rep. David Wilkerson, asked for a notice to reconsider, which meant it could have been voted again by the House.
But on the House floor Tuesday, Wilkerson’s motion to reconsider the bill was rejected by a vote of 97-68.
After that, Dollar moved to transmit the East Cobb Cityhood bill to the Georgia Senate, and that was approved by a vote of 100-63.
The bill, if passed by the legislature, would call for a May referendum by voters within the boundaries of the proposed City of East Cobb.
If that referendum should pass, voters in the city would then choose a mayor and six city council members in November, with the City of East Cobb beginning operations in early 2023.
“People are really seeing the value of not increasing the size of government, but shifting important services to a more local level. I want to thank my colleagues for their bi-partisan support of this effort,” Dollar said.
Shortly after Dollar announced his resignation, the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood sent out a message congratulating and thanking him for his cityhood efforts.
“We would like to thank Rep. Matt Dollar for sponsoring HB841, which in large part, has been made possible by his commitment to listening closely to what residents want out of their community’s future plans,” the cityhood group’s message said. “In partnership with the support of East Cobbers, Cityhood will incorporate our great community into one cohesive whole by preserving the character of our community not just now but down the line as well. We appreciate Rep. Dollar’s perseverance and commitment to this goal and wish him the very best in his next endeavor.”
Dollar, a realtor and graduate of Pope High School, was the chairman of the House Creative Arts and Entertainment Committee. In 2020 he sponsored a bill to update the state’s film tax credit.
He also served on House committees on Appropriations, Economic Development, Transportation, Insurance, Motor Vehicles, Energy, Utilities & Telecommunications and Interstate Cooperation during his legislative tenure.
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The GBI said a Hyundai Elantra spotted on Johnson Ferry Road Monday afternoon belonged to a south Georgia woman who was found dead in her home.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Tuesday that a vehicle stolen from a woman found dead in her South Georgia home on Monday has been spotted in the East Cobb area.
A GBI release Tuesday said a 2006 Black Hyundai Elantra was seen Monday afternoon along Johnson Ferry Road.
The Hyundai was seen near 313 Johnson Ferry Road at 12:22 p.m. Monday, according to the GBI.
That’s located near the intersection of Johnson Ferry and Powers Road, below Lower Roswell Road.
The GBI said the car, which has a temporary Georgia tag of C0521643, belonged to a woman who was found dead in her home in Dawson, Ga., on Monday.
The GBI said after 2 p.m. Monday, Dawson Police responded to a call of an unresponsive person at a home. When police arrived, according to the GBI, they found Annie Josie Chappell, 59, who was dead.
The GBI didn’t indicate how the woman died, nor did it provide any further information about the incident.
Dawson is located in Terrell County, near Albany.
The GBI is asking anyone with information to call the Dawson Police Department at 229-995-4414 or the GBI’s regional investigate office in Sylvester at 229-777-2080.
Anonymous tips can also be submitted by calling 1-800-597-TIPS(8477), online at https://gbi.georgia.gov/submit-tips-online, or by downloading the See Something, Send Something mobile app.
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AARP Tax-Aide volunteers will provide free tax assistance at three Cobb County libraries in February through mid-April. This service is provided by appointment only.
Mountain View Regional Library: Thursdays, Feb. 3 – April 14, 10 am – 2 pm. Patrons must come in person to the library during designated hours to make an appointment for a future date.
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Town Center at Cobb will host the American Red Cross for a blood driveon Wednesday, Feb. 2 and Thursday, Feb. 3 from noon-5 p.m. Donations are urgently needed as the organization is experiencing its worst blood shortage in decades.
Why get involved? Here are some quick facts, courtesy of the American Red Cross:
Someone needs blood every two seconds in the U.S.
Just one pint of blood can save up to three lives.
Approximately 36,000 units of red blood cells are needed in the U.S. every day.
Approximately 38 percent of the U.S. population is eligible to donate – yet less than 10 percent actually do.
The American Red Cross supplies approximately 40 percent of the nation’s blood supply.
WHERE:Town Center at Cobb – Upper Level JCPenney Wing 400 Ernest Barrett Pkwy Kennesaw, GA 30144
HOW: Visit redcrossblood.org using sponsor code ‘tcac’ to schedule an appointment in advance. Reservations are recommended but are not required. To learn more, please visit towncenteratcobb.com.
The American Red Cross is following FBA blood donation eligibility guidance for potential donors who have received a COVID-19 vaccination. To determine eligibility, donors that have received a vaccine should know the name of the manufacturer. To learn more, please visit redcrossblood.org.
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An employee at Blackwell Elementary School in Northeast Cobb has been charged with eavesdropping and cruelty to children after Cobb Police said a student saw a surveillance camera in a boys bathroom this week and reported it to a teacher.
A warrant taken out on Friday against Justin Julian, 37, of Acworth, shows that he has been charged with three counts of unlawful surveillance and one count of first degree child cruelty—all felonies—after separate alleged incidents at the Canton Road school on Wednesday.
He was taken into custody on Friday and was released from the Cobb County Adult Detention Center Saturday on a $15,000 bond, according to Cobb Sheriff’s Office records.
The warrant alleges that Julian placed a camera in a boys bathroom and on Wednesday afternoon observed a 10-year-old boy using the urinal. According to the warrant, the boy saw the camera “and was distraught and notified a school teacher.”
The warrant also alleges that Julian watched an 8-year-old boy and another 10-year-old boy use the urinal via a bathroom camera during the same time period.
Neither the warrant nor a message that went out to the Blackwell community specified Julian’s job at the school.
The Blackwell message said that school officials reported the allegations “to the local authorities and worked closely with them throughout the investigation.”
The staff member, the Blackwell message said, “is no longer allowed in our school building.”
The warrant states that Julian was required to wear an ankle monitor before he was released and he is not allowed to have contract with children 16 or under, or linger anywhere children of that age range are present.
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Mike Boyce took plenty of heat at a budget town hall at the East Cobb Senior Center from citizens angry about his proposed tax increase in 2018 (ECN file).
On a chilly, but sunny Saturday in early November 2019, Mike Boyce was visiting with veterans on Old Canton Road at United Military Care, a non-profit that helps veterans in need.
The occasion was a barbecue luncheon to observe Veterans Day, and a few dozen people turned out for hamburgers, hot dogs and the sounds of a local band playing 1960s pop songs that resonated with memories of the Vietnam War.
The group was the Tunnel Rats, and as Boyce took a seat next to mine in the sun, he told me over the music, “I’ve got their CDs.”
A retired Marine colonel, Boyce was too young to suit up for that conflict, but his 30 years in the Corps shaped what became for him a life of service in uniform and beyond.
On this occasion, he wasn’t glad-handing or politicking as Mike Boyce, Cobb Commission Chairman, but as a veteran himself, and a private citizen appreciative of the service and sacrifices of others.
He was as approachable and interested in hearing from his fellow veterans as he was during the many town hall and other public meetings he conducted during his four years in office, even from citizens furious when he proposed a property tax increase.
For Boyce, serving in public office was no different than the military. After he lost his re-election bid in 2020, he participated in a leadership program at his alma mater, the University of Notre Dame.
That’s where he was two weeks ago when he suffered two strokes. In announcing his death on Tuesday at the age of 72, his wife Judy Boyce said he was “having the time of his life,” mentoring students, riding his bicycle around the inviting Notre Dame campus (I’ve been there, and it’s fantastic) and starting a new chapter in his life.
Like many in Cobb County, I was shocked to hear the news. Judy Boyce said in a message that her husband’s strokes were “unrecoverable.”
A funeral Mass for Boyce will take place next Thursday, Feb. 3, at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in South Bend, Ind., starting at 9:30 a.m. It may be live-streamed and updates will be posted here.
A memorial service also is scheduled for Feb. 18 at 10 a.m. at Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church (4385 Lower Roswell Road), where Boyce was a member.
When he left office, Boyce remained high-energy, vigorous and spirited.
That’s how he approached the job he inherited from Tim Lee, whom he defeated as chairman in 2016, campaigning against his predecessor’s handling of the Atlanta Braves stadium deal.
Boyce ran a true grassroots campaign, dutifully knocking on doors and spending plenty of time around the county, and not just his base in East Cobb. He was vastly outspent and didn’t have the county’s business and political leadership behind him, but he prevailed.
It was a slog, as were many of the budget town halls and other public meetings he conducted during an eventful four years in public office. But his Marine persona was unmistakeable.
As he liked to say about some of those political conflicts, “I’ve been through a lot worse.”
After taking plenty of flack at the East Cobb Senior Center at a budget town hall meeting, Boyce didn’t pack up his presentation materials and quickly scuttle away. Instead, he stuck around to hear citizens agitated about their taxes going up.
As much as he let them sound off, Boyce never backed away from what he said was the necessity of passing a “restoration budget,” one that provided additional funding for parks and libraries, among other things, for Cobb to remain “a five-star county.”
There also was the Mike Boyce who had some gruff Great Santini moments.
During a budget retreat, weary that commissioners weren’t signing on to the tax hike, he blurted out “I get it. You don’t want to stick your neck out. But this isn’t hard. It’s $30 million in an economy of billions. You would think we’re living in Albania! I just don’t understand.”
In the end, he got the third vote he needed. Commissioner Bob Weatherford, a Republican who provided it, was promptly voted out of office.
The Cobb Republican Party, which never warmed up to Boyce, spoke out against the increase.
So did former Commissioner Thea Powell, an East Cobb Republican whom Boyce had appointed to the Cobb Planning Commission.
Not long after calling the proposed tax increase “a dog’s breakfast,” she was summarily replaced.
The “Tax Hike Mike” moniker was born as the political winds in Cobb County were changing.
In 2018, Democrats even made headway in Republican East Cobb, snaring a Congressional and a school board seat.
Boyce often mentioned how the job of chairman was much more than he ever imagined, but as he decided on running for re-election, I asked him: “Are you up for this?”
Without hesitation, he said “Yes.”
I saw him at other community events, including occasionally slipping in at an East Cobb Business Association luncheon when a zoning meeting ended early.
Boyce wasn’t always there to make a public speech, but was hobnobbing with the locals.
At heart, I think Mike Boyce was a citizen-servant who never saw himself as a professional politician.
One of Boyce’s finest moments in public office came in November 2020, shortly after he had been defeated by commissioner Lisa Cupid.
Amid the partisan bickering over Georgia’s voting in the presidential election, Boyce offered “a transition in grace,” saying that “we acknowledge the voice of the people, we hear them and we move on.”
That was the guiding spirit that prompted Boyce to get into public office, and that’s how he left it.
While his family grieves and our community mourns, we should consider ourselves grateful for his commitment to service, and the example he set.
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