Reader Steve Kleinreichert sends word of two national youth programs that are faith-based alternatives to scouting that will be forming local chapters in East Cobb.
There’s a Feb. 7 organizational meeting for American Heritage Girls and Trail Life USA on Feb. 7 at the Marietta Alliance Church (1787 E. Piedmont Road) starting at 7 p.m.
The program works in tandem but are separated by sex and are for youth between the ages of 5-18. The twin organizations, Kleinreichert tells us in a message, are “tasked with helping to raise Godly kids through adulthood.”
Trail Life USA began in 2013, after the Boy Scouts of America allowed gay youth to join.
American Heritage Girls was formed in 1995 and partnered with the Boy Scouts until membership in the latter was opened to girls. AHG eventually teamed up with Trail Life USA.
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Cobb commissioner JoAnn Birrell listens to Deputy County Attorney Debbie Blair about the board’s rules for abstaining from voting.
The two Republican members of the Cobb Board of Commissioners were asked to leave the elected body’s first meeting of 2023 Tuesday morning after they said they would abstain from voting on agenda items.
GOP members JoAnn Birrell of East Cobb and Keli Gambrill of North Cobb tried to abstain in protest of a commission redistricting map that’s the subject of a lawsuit.
The board’s three Democratic commissioners in October approved a redistricting map that keeps District 2 Democratic commissioner Jerica Richardson in her seat.
But the Republican-dominated legislature approved maps last year that would draw her into Birrell’s District 3, which now covers most of East Cobb.
A lawsuit has been filed opposing the county’s home rule challenge, claiming that only the legislature can conduct reapportionment.
Birrell and Gambrill, who were both re-elected in November, have repeatedly stated that the county-approved map is not legal.
There was a hearing in Cobb Superior Court last week seeking an injunction against the county maps, but a ruling has not been issued.
Before the first agenda item on Tuesday, Birrell asked Cobb Deputy County Attorney Debbie Blair which maps the commission was “operating under” for the meeting.
Blair responded the county map is considered to be in effect. Birrell cited an opinion from the Georgia legislature’s Office of Legislative Counsel (you can read it here) that the commission’s resolution is unconstitutional, and the Georgia Secretary of State’s office has reached the same conclusion.
“It has no bearing whatsoever,” Blair replied, saying that the attorney for plaintiff in the lawsuit—East Cobb resident Larry Savage—was voluntarily dismissing the suit for technical reasons and is expecting to have it refiled.
“That is their opinion,” Blair said of the legal opinions, “that the procedure we conducted was not proper. That is not the opinion of the county.
“Until it is overturned by the courts, it is a valid process that we did follow.”
Democratic Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid tried to prevent Birrell from pressing the issue at that point, saying it wasn’t part of the meeting agenda.
“I’m just not comfortable with the makeup of the board, not knowing, this is still pending,” Birrell said.
“This is a state issue that we don’t control.”
At the first item up for a vote—approval of a typically routine certificate for a swimming pool construction at a home in the Chattahoochee Plantation neighborhood in East Cobb—Birrell and Gambrill abstained.
Cupid initially recorded the vote with the clerk as approval of the certificate by a 3-0 vote with two abstentions, then asked for a legal clarification.
Blair said commissioners cannot abstain from voting unless they have a “valid” conflict of interest that should have been expressed in advance.
They also must leave the dais before abstaining from a vote, Blair said.
“The conflict is the votes with [maps] the county is saying are in place,” Birrell said. “Everything is going to be a conflict, and I’m abstaining.”
Cupid then called for a recess followed by an executive session, according to Birrell, who told East Cobb News after the meeting that the county attorney “advised if a commissioner is present they have to vote unless there is a conflict of interest. I feel that this was a conflict of interest for me since a ruling on the maps has not been decided.”
When the executive session was over, Cupid asked Birrell and Gambrill to cast votes on the same agenda item. They both declined, and Cupid called for another recess and asked her two colleagues to “remove themselves from the dais.”
They were told they would be escorted away by security if they did not leave their seats voluntarily.
When the meeting resumed again, Birrell and Gambrill were absent from the dais, having been dismissed by Cupid. They watched the rest of the meeting in the guest seating area of the board room.
“The chair’s ‘use of force’ by ordering the police officer to remove us from the dais when no crime has been committed would have resulted in a lawsuit against the chair and county,” Gambrill said, as neither “Commissioner Birrell nor I broke any laws.”
(You can watch a replay of the meeting below; the sequence above occurred between 4:00 and 40:00, including the recesses.)
Gambrill told East Cobb News in a message Wednesday morning that as far as procedures go, Cupid should have made a motion to rescind the vote in which Gambrill and Birrell abstained before asking them for another vote.
“Coming back from [executive session] and demanding Commissioner Birrell and I to vote when there was no active motion on the floor—is dictatorship at its finest,” Gambrill said.
“In addition, after the chair removed us from the Board, she then changed the vote to 3-0 with Birrell and Gambrill absent. This is false.”
The three remaining commissioners, all Democrats, went through the rest of Tuesday’s meeting agenda.
At the end of the meeting, Cupid remarked that she was hopeful that all five commissioners will be in attendance at the board’s next meeting later this month and that “we will be abiding by the rules of procedure.”
Should the county lose its legal challenge, Richardson may be forced to step down from office, triggering a special election for the remaining two years of her term.
Under state law, Richardson would have had to move into the new District 2 by Dec. 31 to be eligible to run in 2024. But she has vowed to defy what she said has been an “unprecedented” vote by the legislature to reapportion a sitting elected official out of a seat.
Cupid said at Tuesday’s meeting that based on legal advice from the county attorney, the maps approved by the commission’s Democratic majority “are the maps that stand until there is a successful legal challenge in a court of law.”
Birrell and Gambrill also have complained that the county attorney’s office has not sought a response from the Georgia Attorney General’s office, which thus far has not formally weighed in.
“An opinion by the Attorney General’s office is an opinion,” Cupid said. “It does not determine the outcome nor the work of this board.”
Cupid added that “I cannot allow for this board to be a circus for people to share differences of opinion that are completely outside of our rules of procedure.
“I hope that the public understands that and I hope our commissioners understand that.”
In response to questions from East Cobb News, Birrell reiterated her concerns via e-mail that she and Gambrill “have asked for the Attorney Generals’ opinion in the past and again today as this is a state issue.”
The commissioners’ next scheduled meeting is Jan. 24.
The official Cobb Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday celebration takes place next Monday, Jan. 16, at the Jennie T. Anderson Theater at the Cobb Civic Center (548 S. Marietta Parkway).
The festivities, sponsored by the Cobb NAACP, begin at 10 a.m. and will singers, dancers, musicians, spoken word performers and more.
Cobb government offices will be closed; the county will livestream the MLK event at its YouTube page.
Classes and activities in the Cobb County School District also will be closed on Jan. 16.
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From the office of Cobb Commissioner JoAnn Birrell:
Project update: Construction of the Blackjack Mountain 36-inch Water Main Replacement project for Cobb County-Marietta Water Authority (CCMWA)
The contractor has remobilized back to the project site and will begin the Jack and Bore installation underneath Sope Creek at the intersection of Wallace Road and Barnes Mill Road. Due to the rain last week, the contractor will be finishing out drilling and blasting this week at the intersection. They will likely start excavation of the bore pit and possibly begin the underground trenchless jack and bore within the following two weeks.
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Cobb commissioner JoAnn Birrell will be holding a town hall meeting this month to explain how technology is being used for public safety purposes.
Cobb Police Chief Stuart VanHoozer and other department officials will be presenting information at the Tim D. Lee Senior Center (3332 Sandy Plains Road) on Wednesday, Jan. 18, from 6-8 p.m.
The meeting comes after commissioners approved an extension of a contract with a facial recognition technology company to assist law enforcement in identifying suspects in criminal investigations.
Despite some citizen protests, VanHoozer said that the AI platform being used isn’t used for broad surveillance.
“What this product does for the most part is take a photograph of a known offender and compare that to a database that has images that are legally obtained and publicly available so that we can identify that individual,” VanHoozer told commissioners last month, before they voted to continue the contract.
He has said the policies surrounding the use of the facial recognition technology are being crafted carefully and with strict provisions so that citizen concerns “are strongly mitigated.”
Critics said the vendor, Clearview AI, has been hacked and sued multiple times over privacy concerns and has been fined in some European countries.
Commissioners voted unanimously to approve the Clearview AI contract, and the Cobb Police Department’s policy is being finalized.
For information about the town hall, contact Kimberly Jorgensen at Kimberly.Jorgensen@cobbcounty.org or call 770-528-3317.
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Four new members of the Cobb Community Foundation began two-year terms on Jan. 1, helping direct a non-profit organization that manages charitable funds for local individuals, families, for-profit and non-profit organizations.
“Like all our board members, these four individuals are all so well-respected and deeply connected to Cobb County. I cannot wait to see the impact they will have as we continue to grow our donor advised and other charitable funds so we can do even more to help our community thrive,” said CEO Shari Martin in a release this week.
CCF’s tasks include connecting donors with causes, awarding CCF grant funds, conduct the Cobb Human Needs Assessment, provide scholarships and more.
The new board members are:
Carole Cox, Senior Portfolio Manager at GLOBALT Investments; Previous Southern Regional Director of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Institute; Current Board Member of the Atlanta Society of Finance and Investment Professionals (ASFIP); Member of Finance Committee of Early Learning Property Management Inc.
Darion Dunn, Managing Partner at Atlantica Properties; Formerly with the Buckhead CID, Croy Engineering, and Harrington, George & Dunn, P.C.; Currently Serving on Boards of the Chattahoochee Technical College Foundation, The Center for Family Resources, Open Doors, and Star-C and on the Advisory Board of the Georgia Tech School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Cheryl Richardson, City of Marietta Councilwoman of Ward 1 and Founding Attorney at Richardson Legal Services, PC; Retired U.S. Army, Member of State Bar of Georgia & Cobb County Bar Association; Former Associate Judge for Marietta Municipal Court; Currently serving as Administrative Hearing Officer for City of Marietta and teaching at Kennesaw State University.
Ray Thomas, President of Mableton Improvement Coalition; Founder of MIC’s HOA Network; Mableton Citizen of the Year 2022; Currently Serving on Austell Gas System Board; Current Member of Cobb County Police Precinct Discussion Group and Chattahoochee Riverlands Greenway Trail Work Group.
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The Credit Union of Georgia announced this week donated more than $100,000 in philanthropic donations in 2022, supporting a number of local nonprofit organizations in Cobb County and metro Atlanta.
Credit union employees vote annually to select the local charities to support, with events throughout the year that included monetary donations, volunteerism and donations of food, clothing, toys and personal hygiene items.
Employees also donated more than 650 hours to the community, attended more than 1100 local events and sponsored over 400 local events.
“Credit Union of Georgia is dedicated to our members, communities and local charities,” said Brian Albrecht,
President/CEO of Credit Union of Georgia said in a statement. “We hope that our ongoing efforts of giving back can create a lasting impact in the communities we serve.”
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The Cobb County School District will be holding commencement exercises for the Class of 2023 from its 16 traditional high schools in late May.
On Friday the district released full details of its graduation schedule, which lasts from May 22 to May 27.
Ceremonies begin on Monday, May 22, and continue through the evening of Saturday, May 27.
Each of the six high schools in East Cobb will be holding graduation at the KSU Convocation Center:
Kell High School: Monday, May 22, 7:30 p.m.
Pope High School: Tuesday, May 23, 7:30 p.m.
Walton High School: Wednesday, May 24, 7:30 p.m.
Lassiter High School: Thursday, May 25, 10 a.m.
Sprayberry High School: Friday, May 26, 7 p.m.
Wheeler High School: Saturday, May 27, 2:30 p.m.
The Cobb school district has set up a specialcommencement page that will be updated in the spring with more specifics, including parking, livestreaming and DVD ordering.
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Post 4 board member David Chastain taking the oath of office for his third term.
The Cobb Board of Education’s Republican majority elected two of their own members Thursday to serve as officers for 2023.
The board also voted to approve a meeting calendar for the year, and along partisan lines, declined to alter some of the meeting dates.
At the board’s organizational meeting, two new members and outgoing chairman David Chastain were publicly sworn in, after officially taking the oath of office prior to the meeting.
Chastain, of Post 4 in East Cobb (Kell, Lassiter and Sprayberry clusters), showed some emotion when he left his seat to be sworn in by Cobb Superior Court Judge Kelli Hill, joined by his wife Lori.
A Wheeler High School graduate, Chastain was re-elected to a third-term in November in a bitterly contested campaign with Democratic newcomer Catherine Pozniak in a race that preserved the GOP majority.
Board chairs cannot serve two years in a row, but the vice chair position can.
Second-term Republican Brad Wheeler of Post 7 in West Cobb was elected chairman on a 4-3 vote, and for the third consecutive year, GOP member David Banks of Post 5 in East Cobb was elected vice chairman, also by the same 4-3 partisan vote.
The three Democrats all were nominated for vice chairman, but each vote failed 3-4, also along partisan lines. Democrat Tre’ Hutchins of Post 3 in South Cobb was nominated for chairman but that voted failed 3-4.
“It is an honor to serve as the Board Chair of a District that has earned a reputation for delivering a world-class education thanks to Cobb’s dedicated school staff and supportive families and community,” Wheeler said in a statement issued by the Cobb County School District after the meeting.
“I am looking forward to continuing that legacy as we work together to keep schools’ focus on academic excellence, and ensure every Cobb student succeeds.”
The board also voted along the same partisan lines to defeat an amendment to the meeting schedule that would return to a schedule of work sessions and voting meetings on separate days.
Newcomer Becky Sayler of Post 2 in Smyrna offered the amendment, saying she has received feedback from the public, including teachers.
For those six months—May, August, September, October, November and December—she suggested having the separate meeting dates.
Currently, the agenda is posted two days before board meetings. Changing the schedule this way, Sayler argued, “would give us time to have more community engagement and feedback.”
The public didn’t know about the proposal until the Tuesday before a Thursday vote, at which there were vocal protests and a recess during the meeting.
“It was a very quick turnaround,” Sayler said, adding that the Cobb County Association of Educators has expressed interest in some of the meeting date changes in addition to others in the public.
“If we decide not to do it, let the people know why,” she said.
Wheeler said that in his experience with both formats, the current schedule “saves the district staff a lot of time . . . I think it works better as is.”
Also sworn in on Thursday was newcomer Democrat Nichelle Davis of Post 6, which previously had included the Walton and Wheeler clusters.
Davis, a former teacher, is in a post that includes the Cumberland-Vinings-Smyrna area after reapportioned maps took effect Jan. 1. She succeeds Charisse Davis (no relation), who did not seek re-election.
The Post 5 boundaries have expanded to include Walton, Wheeler and the Pope clusters and some of the Lassiter cluster.
The school board holds a work session in the afternoon and an evening voting session on the same day once a month.
The board meeting schedule for 2023 is as follows, with work session starting times tentative:
Thursday, January 19, 2023
*2:00 p.m. Work Session – Public Comment
Followed by Executive Session
7:00 p.m. Board Meeting – Public Comment
Thursday, February 16, 2023
*2:00 p.m. Work Session – Public Comment Followed by Executive Session
7:00 p.m. Board Meeting – Public Comment
Thursday, March 23, 2023
*2:00 p.m. Work Session – Public Comment Followed by Executive Session
7:00 p.m. Board Meeting – Public Comment
Thursday, April 13, 2023
*2:00 p.m. Work Session – Public Comment Followed by Executive Session
7:00 p.m. Board Meeting – Public Comment
Thursday, May 18, 2023
*2:00 p.m. Work Session – Public Comment Followed by Executive Session
7:00 p.m. Board Meeting – Public Comment
Thursday, June 15, 2023
*2:00 p.m. Work Session – Public Comment Followed by Executive Session
7:00 p.m. Board Meeting – Public Comment
Thursday, July 20, 2023
*2:00 p.m. Work Session – Public Comment Followed by Executive Session
7:00 p.m. Board Meeting – Public Comment
Thursday, August 17, 2023
*2:00 p.m. Work Session – Public Comment Followed by Executive Session
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The following food scores for the week of Jan. 2 have been compiled by the Cobb & Douglas Department of Public Health. Click the link under each listing for inspection details:
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Leland Cavorley, one of four Cobb school students whose parents have filed a federal lawsuit.
The parents of four medically fragile students in the Cobb County School District who filed a federal lawsuit in 2021 to impose a mask mandate and other COVID-19 mitigation measures have won a round in court.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta in late December reversed a lower court ruling in November 2021 that denied the plaintiffs a preliminary injunction in their attempt to mandate masks and other precautions in order for the affected students to safely attend classes in-person.
The ruling, issued by a three-judge panel (you can read it here), said the Cobb school district failed to make “reasonable modifications or accommodations” under guidelines issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control for those students to attend classes at their home schools.
The parents, including Sara Cavorley of East Cobb, filed the lawsuit in October 2021, claiming that their childrens’ educational rights under the Americans With Disabilities Act were being denied when the Cobb school district dropped its mask mandate for the 2021-22 school year.
Cavorley said her son Leland, then 13, was unable to attend classes at Simpson Middle School because he suffers from leukemia. In an East Cobb News profile published before the lawsuit, Cavorley explained how her other children, who were attending classes in person at schools without mask mandates, worried they would expose Leland to COVID-19.
After requiring masks for the 2020-21 school year, the Cobb school district—which previously had been sued by parents opposing the mandates—made them optional, but offered parents a virtual learning program.
Cavorley said she was unaware of that option, and eventually withdrew her children from in-person classes, although the deadline to sign up for online learning had passed.
But Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale, a member of the health board, abstained from voting, saying the Cobb school district was following all but the mask recommendations, and he hadn’t had time to see the revised resolution before the meeting.
In his August 2021 decision to drop the mask mandate, Ragsdale said that some areas with mandated masks in schools have no lower COVID-19 figures than those without mandates, and that he wanted to leave it to parents to decide what is best for their families.
The Cobb school district said in its response to the suit that the parents were “simply complaining about not receiving their preferred educational services—not a deprivation of access to education altogether.”
A federal district judge in Atlanta agreed, and denied the restraining order on the grounds that the plaintiffs were not likely to win their case on the merits.
The appeals court rejected the Cobb school district’s claim that the lawsuit was moot, saying the issue is about more than a mask mandate.
The case is being remanded back to the district court, which must “analyze whether virtual schooling is a reasonable accommodation for in-person schooling, not education in general,” the appeals court ruling states.
“The students argued that CCSD ignored those recommendations and continues to disregard CDC guidance in this respect,” the ruling concludes. “Therefore, this remains a live controversy.”
The suit was filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center, whose senior staff attorney, Eugene Choi, said in a statement this week that “school districts cannot relegate students with disabilities to home virtual programs because of their disabilities. Instead, schools must make reasonable accommodations and modifications so that students with disabilities can safely and meaningfully access their schools in-person.”
Last month, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced a settlement involving a similar lawsuit that acknowledged that universal masking is a “reasonable modification” under the ADA, after he previously had banned mask mandates in schools.
The settlement affects 10 school districts, which must determine whether masks would be required, or they would make other modifications to satisfy the rights of the students with disabilities.
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Cobb PARKS said Wednesday that heavy rains Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning had flooded some county parks, prompting their closures.
Noonday Park remains closed, and East Cobb Park reopened at 1 p.m. Wednesday, according to the department’s social media postings.
Also closed is Fullers Park off Robinson Road.
The sun came out on Wednesday afternoon, as the rainy weather that greeted the new year began to taper off.
A flood warning had been in effect until noon Wednesday, as several inches of rain fell in the Cobb area and metro Atlanta.
Some roads were closed in parts of North Fulton, but there were no specific reported closures in Cobb.
Cobb government said in a social media message Wednesday morning that “Cobb DOT is not reporting any significant travel issues at this hour.”
A flood warning was issued in Cobb along the Chattahoochee River at Georgia Highway 280.
Motorists should turn around and drive away from flooded roads instead of trying to pass through them.
The weather system included thunderstorms and flash flooding, and a tornado reported south of Atlanta.
Today’s highs are expected to reach around 70, with lows in the low 50s, and the temperatures will be getting cooler.
Highs will drop to the high 50s and around 60 over the next few days, with lows falling into the 40s and 30s over the next several nights, according to the National Weather Service.
But we will have sunny skies through Saturday, with a 40 percent chance of rain on Sunday.
Rain also is in the forecast for early next week.
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Harry Kone, who survived wounds at the Battle of Guadalcanal and was a public school teacher before moving to East Cobb to be close to family, died on Dec. 30 at the age of 102, according to a notice posted on social media by his church.
Unity North Atlanta Church announced on its Facebook page that Kone passed away Friday at 2:30 p.m. “mid way through his 102nd year of blessing this world and this church.”
His full obituary can be found by clicking here. A Celebration of Life service is scheduled for Unity North on Feb. 4 at 3 p.m.
Kone had been featured in local media outlets in recent years and was interviewed elsewhere about his military service during World War II.
Shortly before his 100th birthday in August 2020 Kone told East Cobb News that “I never worry about tomorrow” because of his experiences as a Marine.
“From then on, I never worried about much. I had plans, but I didn’t worry about what I’m going to do tomorrow,” he said.
“This is what worries a lot of people,” Kone said, but “if I’m dead tomorrow, I don’t have to worry.”
Kone and his late wife Marjorie raised two daughters and a son in the Chicago area, where he was a teacher for 40 years.
Harry Kone marking his 99th birthday at a Marine League event in Woodstock.
They moved to East Cobb in 1995 to be near their children, including daughter Sue Lind, who later became her father’s caregiver.
He got active in local veterans organizations, including the Squire “Skip” Wells Marine Corps League, and was a member at Unity North Church on Sandy Plains Road.
In 2021, the Cobb Board of Commissioners recognized him for his 101st birthday and declared Harry Kone Day in the county. He was a supporter of ongoing efforts to establish a Cobb Veterans Memorial.
His centenary birthday came during the COVID-19 pandemic, but he was able to meet with family members in a socially-distanced fashion.
Kone was born Aug. 16, 1920 in Baltimore, Md., the only child of a railway clerk and a homemaker, Kone was an avid reader, the habit instilled by his mother.
In 1939, he moved to Milwaukee to work as a welder, and attended a branch of the University of Wisconsin on a scholarship to help develop children’s programming in the very early days of television.
He was living in a boarding house there when he met his future wife.
After the Pearl Harbor attack on Dec. 7, 1941, Kone enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and was a machine-gunner. He was wounded after being strafed by Japanese fighter planes.
Kone was honorably discharged in 1945 and also was awarded a Purple Heart.
A bout with tuberculosis kept him in a Veterans Administration hospital for two years.
In 2019 he was profiled by the American Veterans Center, and the year before, he spoke with the Atlanta History Center (see video below).
He and Marjorie Kone were married 65 years until her death in 2011.
In addition to his daughter Sue Lind, Kone is survived by a son, Stuart Kone of Douglasville, four grandchildren, and three great grandchildren.
He also was preceded in death his other daughter, Barbara Bechely, who also lived in Marietta.
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Several dozen young children and their parents turned out at the Mountain View Regional Library Saturday morning for a kid-themed “Noon Year’s Eve” party, one of several put on by the Cobb County Public Library System.
Kids made crafts, danced to music, played games, and at 12 noon sharp, enjoyed a balloon drop, followed by the inevitable popping of the balloons—some accidental, some not.
The event also provided information to parents about youth activities at the Cobb library system.
Cobb library branches are closed Sunday and Monday and will reopen at their regular hours on Tuesday.
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!
But there were some other stories of note that transpired during the year—some of them to continue into 2023—that we’d like to include in this final wrap on a very busy year in the East Cobb community:
At East Cobb News, we would like to thank all of our readers and wish all in the community a Happy New Year!
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The East Cobb Cityhood referendum was one of three that went down to defeat, along with Lost Mountain and Vinings. In November, voters in Mableton barely approved a cityhood referendum, making it the first new city in Cobb County in more than a century.
But the East Cobb campaign was different from the rest, especially the increasingly contentious tone of the debate.
It started in late 2021, when the East Cobb cityhood group sprung a surprise on the public, adding expensive police and fire services that the other cityhood movements did not include.
Instead of a city of more than 100,000 floated in 2019, the 2022 proposed map showed a population of around 60,000 for a city of East Cobb, roughly along the Johnson Ferry Road corridor.
During the 2022 Georgia legislative session, former Rep. Matt Dollar made several changes to legislation calling for the East Cobb referendum, including moving it up from November.
After committee hearings, more changes were made to how the East Cobb city council members and mayor would be selected. Cobb government officials expressed concern that they wouldn’t have time to assess the possible financial impact to the county if cityhood referendums passed.
But the East Cobb bill eased through the legislature, and Dollar promptly resigned his seat to take state government job.
For the next two months, public events got even more heated.
Supporters of cityhood said a new city would curb an incursion of high-density development in East Cobb that was trending elsewhere in the county.
Opponents said a new layer of government wasn’t needed, and that taxes and other local government costs would go up.
In addition to the anti-cityhood East Cobb Alliance, cityhood proponents had to go up against Cobb government officials who said they were providing objective information at town hall meetings.
As the referendum date neared, lawsuits were filed to stop the East Cobb, Lost Mountain and Vinings votes, citing unconstitutional provisions.
But a Cobb judge ordered the referendums to go ahead as scheduled.
The East Cobb Alliance turned up the heat further, alleging that the cityhood group added police and fire because it needed the Cobb fire fund millage to avoid imposing additional property tax rates for a new city.
The cityhood group denied that charge and another by the Alliance for not filing a campaign finance report, saying it wasn’t required.
The cityhood group scrubbed much of its online presence and said little after the vote, telling East Cobb News in a prepared statement that “make no mistake; the facts have not changed. East Cobb will be under increasing growth and tax pressure from Cobb County to urbanize our community. Our polling told a different story from the results last night. Cobb’s policy direction explains why the county worked so hard to stop the cityhood effort(s).”
Mindy Seger of the East Cobb Alliance said after the referendum that there’s an interest in trying to “raise the bar for Georgia’s Cityhood process. The community has the mic, we hope those in authority are listening.”
In October, the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood was fined $5,000 by the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission and submitted a campaign financial disclosure report showing that it had raised $112,525 and spent $64,338.
The East Cobb Alliance reported total contributions nearing $30,000 and disbanded its operations.
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Cobb commissioner JoAnn Birrell said Friday she won’t be holding a scheduled swearing-in ceremony in public next week because of a court hearing about county redistricting.
Birrell said in a statement in her weekly e-mail newsletter that “due to a conflict in scheduling with the hearing regarding home rule I will be sworn in at a private ceremony. Thanks for understanding.”
She was to have taken the oath on Wednesday afternoon at the Cobb Board of Commissioners meeting room for her fourth term in office, representing District 3 in East Cobb, followed by a reception.
The Republican-dominated General Assembly approved a map this year (see bottom) to draw Richardson, a first-term Democrat, out of her home in East Cobb, which would mostly be in District 3.
Savage’s claims echo those of Birrell and other state and local Republican officials.
But Richardson, local Democratic leaders and her other supporters have said 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.
Larry Savage
Cobb officials filed a contested map—proposed by Democratic Cobb legislative delegation chairman Rep. Erick Allen but which were never voted on by the legislature—with the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, anticipating a legal challenge.
Under state law, Richardson would have to change her legal residence to the new District 2 by Saturday in order to run for re-election in 2024, but she said she’s not moving.
Should the county’s legal challenge fail, Richardson would likely be removed from office and a special election would be called to fill the remainder of her term.
Birrell has said publicly that what happened to Richardson is unfair but that the home rule challenge is “politically motivated.”
During the legislative session, Cobb commissioners attended delegation meetings as the maps were being drafted.
Birrell opposed Allen’s map, which included much of the city of Marietta, concerned it wasn’t majority-Republican. She won with only 51 percent of the vote in 2018, but got 59 percent in winning re-election in a mostly-East Cobb district in November.
In recent months, both commissioners representing the East Cobb area have attended a number of public events in what would be the new District 3, including a town hall Richardson held regarding the delayed Lower Roswell Road traffic project.
Birrell also has included news and information about developments in what would be her new district that are currently in District 2.
The court hearing on Wednesday will be heard by Judge Ann Harris.
A Cobb commission district map at left was submitted by the county to challenge the legislative-approved map at the right. District 2 is in pink, District 3 in yellow.
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After a bone-chilling, sub-freezing Christmas, East Cobbers will be ringing in the new year with warmer, albeit wetter, weather.
There was plenty of late-afternoon activity at East Cobb Park Wednesday as temperatures rose into the 60s and sunshine bathed the skies.
There’s an 80 percent chance of rain Friday night and 70 percent during the day Saturday, with highs staying in the low- to mid-60s.
The rain will taper off for New Year’s Eve, down to 20 percent, as revelers attend fireworks celebrations and other festivities.
New Year’s Day on Sunday will be partly sunny with highs in the mid 60s. Monday and Tuesday highs are forecast in the high 60s. Rain returns on Monday night and there’s a 90 percent chance of showers Tuesday night.
Rain will taper off in the middle of the week, with highs Wednesday cooling off to the mid 50s.
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