East Cobb Politics & Elections

GOP special election candidate opposes East Cobb Cityhood

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A second candidate in an April 5 special election for a legislative seat in East Cobb said this week he’s opposed to East Cobb Cityhood.Mitchell Kaye, Georgia House special election

Mitchell Kaye, a former legislator and one of three Republicans in the four-candidate field for Georgia House District 45, issued a statement Wednesday saying that public safety services for the proposed City of East Cobb “continue to bother me.”

Voters in the proposed city will be deciding in a May 24 referendum on whether to create a city, and to approve a charter on how the city would be governed.

When cityhood legislation was filed in March 2021, it proposed planning and zoning, code enforcement and parks and recreation services.

But when a financial feasibility study was released in November, it included police and fire services. Cityhood leaders said public safety was an issue that kept coming up when they met with citizens and community groups over the last year.

Kaye said the initial services “offer a real benefit to local residents, but unfortunately the original legislation was hijacked to include an unnecessary public safety component.

“The more I looked into the public safety component, the worse it looked. In my 33 years in East Cobb, I have heard no complaints regarding our excellent police and fire protection,” Kaye said in his statement.

“Regarding our own police force, there will be no benefit, but costs will rise with the duplicative requirement for our own municipal court, municipal judge(s) and a jail.”

East Cobb is the only of four cityhood campaigns in Cobb proposing public safety. Lost Mountain and Vinings referendums also will be on May 24, and a Mableton cityhood bill is still pending in the Georgia legislature.

Kaye added further thoughts on his campaign website.

Early voting is underway for the District 45 special election, which was called in February when former State Rep. Matt Dollar, the East Cobb Cityhood bill sponsor, resigned his seat.

Dustin McCormick, the only Democrat in the special election, has said he is adamantly opposed to cityhood.

The other two Republican candidates, Darryl Wilson and Pamela Ayalon, previously told the MDJ they encourage voters to inform themselves about cityhood issues but didn’t state a  personal position. East Cobb News has contacted both seeking further comment.

Wilson replied by saying he doesn’t have a vote on cityhood since he lives outside the proposed boundaries. He also told us this:

“Ultimately, all voices have to be heard and vote on the best way to control the character of your community.

“I believe that is what is about to happen in East Cobb with the referendum.

“The people will decide and I will represent the people.

“If you agree, I really need your vote and all of your neighbors friends in our district with the widest distribution possible.”

Kaye said he supports citizens having the right to vote on a referendum.

But in his statement he said that a friend’s home was destroyed last week by fire (and the man suffered extensive burns), and he noted the extensive response from Cobb Fire.

“They were able to use county-wide departmental resources, resources that a city the size of East Cobb could not,” Kaye said.

“This incident only reinforces my NO position on cityhood. The safety and well being of our community cannot be jeopardized.”

Early voting continues through April 1 for the special election in the current boundaries of District 45. The winner will fill the remainder of Dollar’s term, through the end of this year.

Cobb Elections has more information on who is eligible to vote in the special election, which is different from those who may be voting in the primaries.

McCormick also has qualified for primary in the new District 45. State Rep. Sharon Cooper, a Republican, has qualified after serving in District 43 since 1997.

Cooper is a co-sponsor of the East Cobb Cityhood bill has a primary candidate in Cobb GOP activist Carminthia Moore.

None of the special election GOP candidates qualified to run in the new District 45.

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Early voting continues in Georgia House special election

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Early voting is underway in a special election for a Georgia House seat in East Cobb.Georgia runoff elections

Four candidates are vying to succeed former State Rep. Matt Dollar of District 45.

Republicans on the ballot include former State Rep. Mitch Kaye and Cobb GOP activists Pamela Alayon and Darryl Willson.

The Democratic candidate is Dustin McCormick, a project management official at McKesson.

Early voting began this week and according to Cobb Elections, 353 people have cast ballots.

Of those, 342 have voted at the East Cobb Government Service Center (4400 Lower Roswell Road) and 11 at the Cobb Elections office (746 Whitlock Ave., Marietta). Another 40 ballots have been accepted in absentee voting, out of 194 ballots issued.

Early voting continues at both locations March 21-25 and March 28-April 1 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

There also will be early voting next Saturday, March 26, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the same venues.

The deadline to submit an absentee mail application is March 25, and absentee ballots must be received by 7 p.m. on April 5, which is the special election day for in-person voting.

Dollar resigned on Feb. 1 after nearly 20 years in office to take an economic development job with the Georgia technical college system.

Gov. Brian Kemp called for an April 5 special election to be decided by a “jungle” format, meaning candidates from all parties are running against one another.

If the leading candidate does not get a majority of the votes, there will be a May 3 runoff.

The winner will fill out the rest of Dollar’s term, which expires at the end of the year.

Due to redistricting, District 45 will have new boundaries for the May 24 primaries and the November general election.

None of the Republican candidates in the special election qualified for that race, but McCormick has qualified.

His name will be on the May 24 primary ballot, along with State Rep. Sharon Cooper, a Republican, who currently represents District 43, as has Cobb GOP activist Carminthia Moore.

Cobb Elections has more information on who is eligible to vote in the special election, what the current District 45 boundaries look like, and how you can check your registration status.

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Departing Cobb school board member urges votes for educators

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The Cobb Board of Education member who has represented the Walton and Wheeler high school clusters since 2019 is not seeking re-election this year.

Charisse Davis, Cobb Board of Edcucation
Charisse Davis

Democrat Charisse Davis, who ousted then-incumbent Republican Scott Sweeney in 2018 in Post 6, did not qualify last week for the newly redrawn seat that takes out East Cobb.

The Georgia legislature approved maps submitted by Cobb Republicans over the objections of their county Democratic colleagues.

In a message she posted Tuesday on her Facebook page, Davis explained that redistricting has moved the Walton and Wheeler areas to Post 5, represented by Republican vice chairman David Banks.

Davis, a former elementary school teacher and currently a youth services librarian in Fulton County, still lives in the new Post 6.

Davis didn’t indicate in her message why she decided not to run again. East Cobb News has left a message seeking comment, but she encouraged voters to support three candidates in particular, all Democrats.

“It has been an honor serving the students of this district, and I look forward to continuing my career in education and supporting other educators who have answered the call to run for school board: Becky Sayler, Post 2; Dr. Catherine Pozniak, Post 4; and Nichelle Davis, Post 6.

“Continue to support our CCSD schools, hold the board accountable, and vote!”

Nichelle Davis is the only candidate who qualified in Post 6, which includes the Cumberland-Smyrna-Vinings area.

Sayler is one of two Democrats vying in the May 24 primary in Post 2, which includes Smyrna and some of South Cobb. Post 2 first-term Democratic incumbent Jaha Howard, who also was drawn into Post 6, is running for Georgia school superintendent.

Post 4 includes the Kell and Sprayberry and some of the Lassiter clusters. Pozniak, also a Democrat, is a Sprayberry graduate who will be challenging three-term Republican incumbent David Chastain in November.

The current Cobb school board has a 4-3 Republican majority, and for the last three years has wrangled along partisan lines on a number of contentious issues.

Howard and Davis have been at the center of those arguments, particularly over the Cobb school district’s senior tax exemption, equity and racial issues and the district’s response to COVID-19.

Davis also signed a petition started in 2020 to advocate changing the name of Wheeler High School, named after a Confederate Civil War general and which opened in 1965, as Cobb schools were preparing to integrate.

Davis and Howard also sparked a special review by the Cobb school district’s accrediting agency last year after complaining that the GOP majority was silencing them.

Cognia walked back many of the findings of that special review, however, with the exception of criticisms of board governance.

Before the current school board maps were redrawn, Republican Amy Henry, a parent of four students in the Walton cluster, announced her intent to run for Post 6.

Voters in the East Cobb area of what has been Post 6 will next get to vote for Cobb school board representation in 2024, when Banks’ term expires.

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Richardson: ‘I will not step down’ as Cobb commissioner

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Commissioner Richardson priorities

Hours after qualifying ended for the May 24 primary elections, Cobb District 2 Commissioner Jerica Richardson said Friday that she will be “forced” to vacate her office in January.

But in a video message on her Facebook page, the first-term Democrat vowed to fight a reapportionment map that drew her out of her East Cobb residence.

As of Jan. 1, 2023, when the new map takes effect, “I will not live in the qualifying district,” she said, referring to District 2. “I will not be permitted to vote on important county matters starting on that date.”

She said the “bigger issue” is how the new map “invalidates the will of the people and has created a conundrum on the county commission.”

Nearly 100,000 Cobb citizens, Richardson said, will not have a representative for several months” until a special election would be called.

“That is why I have made the decision to not step down as commissioner for District 2,” she said, reading from prepared remarks (you can watch the video here).

Richardson moved into a home off Post Oak Tritt Road last summer, but in February the Republican-dominated Georgia legislature redrew Cobb commission district lines to place most of East Cobb in District 3.

Incumbent Republican JoAnn Birrell has qualified to seek another term in District 3.

Richardson did not qualify for that race, and has until the end of the year to move into the new District 2, which includes the Cumberland-Smyrna-Vinings and Marietta areas and some of the I-75 corridor in North Cobb.

Cobb GOP BOC redistricting map
The new Cobb commission map includes most of East Cobb in District 3 (in yellow), with District 2 in pink.

Richardson didn’t explain why she didn’t qualify in District 3 or say why she isn’t moving to District 2.

“I will not abdicate my position just to seek a future win for my own personal gain. . . . The real problem is the injustice and disservice this map has created for the people,” Richardson said in the video.

“I will not sit back, I will not step down and I will not just say nothing,” she said in a statement that could set off a political and possibly a legal challenge.

She didn’t mention any possible legal action, although she said she’s received legal advice while contemplating her situation.

Richardson, 32, is an enterprise transformation specialist at Equifax whose family moved to the Atlanta area from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

She succeeded three-term Republican commissioner Bob Ott in 2020, edging GOP candidate Fitz Johnson to cement the first all-female county commission in Cobb history.

Her term expires in 2024, and she’s part of a 3-2 Democratic majority on the commission, which had been controlled by Republicans since the 1980s.

“The new mapping lines fundamentally shift our county, both economically and historically,” Richardson said in the video, “and not for the better.”

She said this redistricting process has “ignored the will of the people.”

Richardson said her office has received a “flood” of messages from citizens upset with the maps, which she said were drawn without much community consultation, and that sidestepped normal courtesies to the local delegations.

Cobb Republican lawmakers submitted redistricting maps for the commission and the Cobb Board of Education over the objections of the county delegation’s Democratic leadership.

State Rep. John Carson, a Northeast Cobb Republican who sponsored the commission redistricting bill, countered that his lines would likely maintain a Democratic majority.

In January, Cobb commissioners voted along party lines to recommend a map drawn by State Rep. Erick Allen, a Smyrna Democrat and the Cobb delegation chairman, that would largely maintain the current lines.

Birrell voted against Allen’s map, saying it removed some of her East Cobb precincts. Now she’ll have most of them, running to the Powers Ferry Road corridor.

The other GOP member of the commission, Keli Gambrill of District 1 in North Cobb, was the only candidate to qualify for that office.

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East Cobb Elections Update: Qualifying ends for primaries

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Commissioner Birrell recognized
JoAnn Birrell, Cobb Board of Commissioners

Qualifying for the May 24 primary elections ended at noon Friday, and several races in the East Cobb area will have contested primaries on the ballot.

(You can search through all candidates and all offices statewide by clicking here).

That local ballot will include the East Cobb Cityhood referendum, which will be decided by voters in the proposed city limits (visit our Cityhood page for more).

Cobb Commissioner JoAnn Birrell, a Republican, will have one opponent in the newly redrawn District 3 she has represented for three terms.

Also qualifying in the GOP primary for that seat is Judy Sarden, an attorney and homeschooling consultant (previous post here).

Birrell’s new seat will include most of East Cobb, including what had been in District 2. (That post is held by first-term Democrat Jerica Richardson, who now lives inside District 3. She would have to move into District 2 by the end of the year if she seeks re-election in 2024.)

Christine Triebsch is the sole Democratic candidate to qualify for District 3. She’s an attorney and a former State Senate candidate.

Reapportionment also reduced East Cobb representation on the Cobb Board of Education to two members.

One of them, current chairman David Chastain, has qualified as a Republican in his bid for a fourth term from Post 4, which includes the Kell, Sprayberry and Lassiter high school clusters.

A Wheeler High School graduate, Chastain is a proposal analyst for Lockheed Martin.

The only other candidate to qualify for Post 4 is Democrat Catherine Pozniak, an educational consultant and Sprayberry High School graduate (previous story here).

Post 6 has included the Walton and Wheeler clusters and since 2019 has been represented by Democrat Charisse Davis.

But the East Cobb portion of that seat was redrawn and includes the Cumberland-Smyrna-Vinings area. Davis did not qualify; the only candidate filing for Post 6 is Nichelle Davis, an educational equity advocate and a former Teach for America teacher.

Legislative incumbents opposed

There will be contested primaries in two State Senate seats that include East Cobb.

Ga. State Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick
State Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick

Republican incumbent Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick has qualified in District 32, which includes some of East Cobb and parts of Cherokee County. A Woodstock State House member, Republican Charlise Byrd, had announced for the seat, but qualified instead to retain her District 20 seat.

The other GOP candidate is Andy Soha, who lists himself as self-employed. The only Democrat seeking that seat is Sylvia Bennett, a social worker.

In State Senate 6, the GOP primary field includes financial advisor Fred Glass and Angelic Moore of Atlanta, who owns a business and political consulting company.

The Democratic primary includes Luisa Wakeman, who twice ran for a State House seat in East Cobb, and former Atlanta school board chairman Jason Esteves.

State Rep. Sharon Cooper, a 25-year legislative veteran and the chairwoman of the House Health and Human Services Committee, has qualified in State House District 45. Her GOP primary opponent will be Carminthia Moore, a program manager who’s active with the Cobb Republican Party.

The only Democrat to qualify is Dustin McCormick, who’s also running in an April 5 special election to fill the unexpired term of former State Rep. Matt Dollar (previous story here).

In District 43, a Democratic primary will have restaurant owner Solomon Adesonya and attorney Benjamin Stahl. The winner will face geologist Anna Tillman, a Republican, in November.

East Cobb Republican incumbent House members Don Parsons (District 44) and John Carson (District 46) also qualified, and will have Democratic opposition in the general election.

Redrawn State House seats in East Cobb include District 44 (in orange), which stretches into Cherokee County.

Democratic incumbent Mary Frances Williams of Distict 37 will have a Republican opponent in Tess Redding.

Crowded federal, state races

The East Cobb area will be represented in the U.S. House in two seats following reapportionment.

In District 11, GOP incumbent Barry Loudermilk has qualified, and he will have a Democratic foe in the fall.

The redrawn District 6 includes much of East Cobb and stretches into North Fulton, Forsyth and Dawson counties.

The Republican field has nine candidates who have qualified:

  • Jake Evans, attorney
  • Byron Gatewood, self-employed
  • Megan Hanson, attorney
  • Blake Harbin, business owner
  • Rich McCormick, emergency room physician
  • Paulette Smith, retired business executive
  • Mallory Staples, former teacher, homeschooler and small business owner
  • Suzi Voyles, consultant
  • Eugene Yu, retired

    U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock

The two Democrats running in the 6th District are business owner Bob Christian and international development consultant Wayne White.

U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, who was elected in 2020 to fill the remaining two years of the late Johnny Isakson’s term, will be seeking a six-year term. He has an opponent in the Democratic primary, and five Republicans also are running.

They include current Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black and former UGA football great Herschel Walker.

Gov. Brian Kemp qualified for re-election Thursday in the Republican primary, which includes former U.S. Sen David Perdue and two others.

One of them is Kandiss Taylor of Baxley, Ga., an educator who has been campaigning with a slogan of “Help Me Save Georgia! Jesus, Guns and Babies.”

Former legislator Stacey Abrams, who lost to Kemp in 2018, is running for governor again and also has a Democratic primary opponent.

Four Republicans and 10 Democrats are vying for lieutenant governor after incumbent Republican Geoff Duncan decided not to run again.

Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is being opposed in the primary by David Belle Isle, whom he defeated in 2018, and Congressman Jodi Hice.

Incumbent Republican Georgia School Superintendent Richard Woods is getting a primary challenge from John Barge, his predecessor.

On the Democratic side, current Cobb school board member Jaha Howard is one of four candidates in the field.

Cobb Chief Judge challenged

Those running for judgeships in Cobb County are in non-partisan elections.

Cobb Superior Court Judge Ann Harris qualified without opposition. Current Chief Judge Robert Leonard, who has been on the bench since 2010, has two primary opponents in Charles Ford, a public defender in Fulton County, and private attorney Matt McMaster.

Judge Robert Flournoy is retiring from Superior Court and five candidates have qualified:

  • Sonja Brown, Cobb Magistrate judge
  • Daniele Johnson, private attorney
  • James Luttrell, private attorney
  • Taneesha Marshall, regional counsel, Federal Aviation Administration
  • Gerald Moore, private attorney

Cobb State Court incumbent judges Ashley Palmer, Bridgette Campbell Glenn, Jason Fincher and Eric Brewton have qualified without opposition.

Cobb Solicitor Barry Morgan is retiring, with two Democrats and one Republican qualifying in the race to succeed him.

Primary runoffs are scheduled for June 21.

For more local information, including absentee voting, voter registration, maps and an elections calendar, visit the Cobb Elections website.

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Sprayberry HS grad, educator running for Cobb school board

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Catherine Pozniak, a Sprayberry High School graduate who’s been a teacher and state education administrator, has announced her campaign for Post 4 on the Cobb Board of Education.Catherine Pozniak, Cobb school board candidate

Post 4 includes the Sprayberry and Kell and part of the Lassiter High School clusters in a seat that’s been redrawn for the 2022 elections.

The seat is held by third-term Republican David Chastain, currently the Cobb school board chairman.

Earlier this week Pozniak declared her intent to run in the May 24 primary as a Democrat.

Her campaign website can be found by clicking here.

Pozniak, who graduated from Sprayberry in 1997, also attended Kincaid Elementary School and Daniell Middle School.

She said she’s running because the current Cobb school board hasn’t done much planning to help students recover from disruptions caused by COVID-19 closures, including use of more than $250 million in federal relief aid to help students.

She said “it’s been disappointing to see partisanship from our Board’s leaders when our schools need their support the most.

“The Board hasn’t even laid out goals since 2018, before the pandemic,” Pozniak said. “So of course there isn’t a plan for any of this.”

Republicans currently hold a 4-3 edge on the Cobb school board. Chastain, who has indicated he will be seeking a fourth term, is the only GOP member up for re-election this year.

Pozniak earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Sydney in Australia, a master’s degree from the University of Cambridge, and a doctorate in educational leadership from Harvard University.

She taught in a school on a Lakota reservation in South Dakota and was an assistant state superintendent of education for fiscal operations in Louisiana and the head of an educational non-profit in Baton Rouge, La.

Pozniak currently is principal at Watershed Advisors, an educational and workforce consultancy started by the former Louisiana school superintendent.

Tammy Andress, a former Lassiter PTSA co-president who ran for Post 5 on the Cobb school board in 2020, said Thursday on her former campaign page that she was considering a run for Post 4 this year following redistricting.

But Andress, a Democrat, said she’s supporting Pozniak, whom she said has a “wealth of experience, knowledge, passion, empathy and determination she would bring to our School Board. She’s the real deal!!!”

Austin Heller, a Kennesaw State University student, previously announced his campaign as a Democrat for Post 4, but was drawn out in reapportionment.

Primary qualifying takes place next week.

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Cobb redistricting maps OK’d as primary qualifying approaches

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Redrawn lines for the Cobb Board of Education, at left, and the Cobb Board of Commissioners. For larger views, click here.

Gov. Brian Kemp on Wednesday signed bills redrawing the district lines for elected members of Cobb Board of Commissioners and Cobb Board of Commissioners.

As we noted last week, the bills were sponsored by Republican members of the county’s legislative delegation over the objections of their Democratic colleagues.

Those maps have drawn Cobb school board Post 6 member Charisse Davis and District 2 Cobb commissioner Jerica Richardson out of areas in East Cobb that they represent now.

Candidates who intend to run in Cobb County and and across Georgia in the May 24 primary will be qualifying all of next week, from 9 a.m. March 7 to 12 p.m. on March 11 (more details here).

The Cobb Elections office has posted general information about qualifying here; the deadline to register to vote in the primaries, if you’re not already registered or if you have moved, is April 25. More details can be found by clicking here.

Davis, a Democrat, is one of three Cobb school board members up for re-election in 2022, and has not indicated whether she’ll be seeking re-election.

Post 6 currently includes the Walton and Wheeler clusters but will be confined to the Cumberland-Vinings-Smyrna area where she lives.

The Post 4 seat currently held by Republican chairman David Chastain also is up, and he has said he will be seeking a fourth term representing the Kell, Sprayberry and some of the Lassiter clusters.

A Democrat, Catherine Pozniak, has declared her intent to run for Post 4, as has Austin Heller, a Kennesaw State University student.

The rest of East Cobb will be included in Post 5, currently held by Republican David Banks, whose term expires in 2024. That post will include the Walton and Wheeler and some of the Pope and Lassiter clusters.

The East Cobb area also has been reduced to one county commissioner in the new maps. Current District 3 commissioner JoAnn Birrell, a Republican, is nearing the end of her third full term and has said she will be seeking re-election.

Judy Sarden, an attorney and homeschooling advocate in Northeast Cobb, has announced plans to run in the GOP primary in District 3.

Richardson, a Democrat who is in her first term, is up for re-election in 2024, but she would have to move to the new District 2 by the end of this year.

All legislative seats in Georgia are up for re-election, including four state Senate seats (Districts 6, 32, 33, 56) and five in the state House (Districts 37, 43, 44, 45, 46) that include East Cobb.

All members of Congress will be up for re-election, including the newly drawn 6th District and 11th District that include East Cobb.

Statewide offices include the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Raphael Warnock; governor; lieutenant; governor; attorney general; secretary of state; state school superintendent; and commissioners of public service, agriculture, labor and insurance.

Cobb voters also will be deciding several non-partisan judicial races, as four State Court judge posts and three seats on the Cobb Superior Court will be on the ballot.

Non-partisan judicial races across Georgia include three seats on the Georgia Supreme Court and two seats on the Georgia Court of Appeals.

Also on the May 24 primary day, voters in the proposed city of East Cobb will be voting on a referendum on whether to create a new city (visit our resource page here).

Voters within the current Georgia House District 45 boundaries will be casting ballots next month in a special election to succeed former State Rep. Matt Dollar for the rest of 2022.

That special election is April 5, and the voter registration deadline is Monday.

Four candidates have qualified in a jungle election; and a May 5 runoff would take place if the top vote-getter does not get a majority.

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Cobb commission, school board redistricting maps approved

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Cobb redistricting
Democrats Charisse Davis of the Cobb school board and Jerica Richardson of the Cobb commission have had the East Cobb portions of their districts removed.


Two first-term Democrats who represent part of East Cobb on the Cobb Board of Commissioners and the Cobb Board of Education will have different electoral boundaries soon.

The Georgia Senate finalized redistricting bills for both bodies on Wednesday, clearing the way for Gov. Brian Kemp’s signature into law.

The bills were sponsored by Cobb Republicans over the objections of the county’s Democratic-led legislative delegation, and easily passed in the legislature, which has strong GOP majorities.

Cobb GOP BOC redistricting map
For a larger view of the new Cobb commissioners map, click here.

Jerica Richardson, who was elected to commission District 2 in 2020, was drawn out of her district in a map that for the next decade will place most of East Cobb in District 3 (in gold on the map at right).

District 2 has included the Cumberland-Smyrna-Vinings area and part of East Cobb. Richardson moved into a new home off Post Oak Tritt Road last year, but will have to move again by the end of the year if she seeks a second term in 2024.

The new District 2 (in pink) will include Cumberland-Smyrna-Vinings, some of Marietta and other areas along the I-75 corridor.

The bill’s main sponsor, Republican John Carson of Northeast Cobb, has said that his map will likely keep the commission’s current 3-2 Democratic majority.

But Richardson and other Cobb Democrats have been vocal at Georgia Capitol press conferences in opposing the GOP maps.

“This bill essentially overwrites the vote you made 2 years ago and creates a new map that doesn’t take the community’s input into consideration,” Richardson said on her Facebook page Thursday.

“This is a dangerous precedent, and I plan to continue making my voice heard in order to support this community and its needs.”

District 3 commissioner JoAnn Birrell, a Republican, is nearing the end of her third term this year. 

Charisse Davis, who has represented the Walton and Wheeler clusters on the Cobb school board since 2019, also was drawn into a new post that no longer includes East Cobb.

She lives in the Cumberland-Smyrna-Vinings area, which forms the heart of the new Post 6. Davis is up for re-election but has not announced whether she’s seeking re-election.

Cobb school board redistricting town hall
For a larger view of the new Cobb school board post map, click here.

East Cobb News has left a message with Davis seeking comment.

She noted on her Facebook page recently that the Cobb GOP maps affecting her, Richardson and current 6th District U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath are “ensuring that the east Cobb area will no longer have representation from any of the Black women whose districts currently include east Cobb.”

While East Cobb has been solid terrain for Republicans, Democrats have been making gains in recent elections as the once-conservative county undergoes significant demographic and political change.

Only on the Cobb school board do Republicans have a local majority.

For the last three years, the school board has held a 4-3 GOP edge (after Republicans previously enjoyed a 6-1 advantage), and has been roiled controversies that generally have fallen along partisan lines.

The shifting lines for the school board also reduce East Cobb representation to two members. They are current chairman David Chastain, a Republican who has said he will be seeking another term in 2022 for Post 4, and David Banks, the GOP vice chairman whose Post 5 will now cover most of the Walton and Wheeler areas.

Davis and fellow first-term Democrat Jaha Howard, also of the Smyrna area, have been in the middle of disputes over the senior tax exemption, equity issues, student discipline matters and the Cobb County School District’s COVID-19 response.

The new maps put Davis and Howard, currently of Post 2, together. But he has announced he is running for Georgia School Superintendent this year.

(PLEASE NOTE: The process of redistricting elected school board posts has nothing to do with the boundaries of school attendance zones, which are drawn by school district administrative staff and are done mainly to balance out school capacity.)

McBath, completing her second term, has switched to the 7th district, which includes most of Democratic-leaning Gwinnett County after the legislature redrew the 6th to create a GOP-friendly seat that includes East Cobb, North Fulton, part of Forsyth County and Dawson County.

Part of East Cobb also is included in newly redrawn 11th District, which is represented by Republican Barry Lowdermilk.

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NE Cobb resident announces campaign for Cobb commissioner

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Judy Sarden, an attorney and homeschooling advocate who lives in Northeast Cobb, has announced her campaign for District 3 on the Cobb Board of Commissioners.Judy Sarden, Cobb commission candidate

She is running in the May 24 Republican primary, and has lived in Cobb County for 15 years, initially residing in South Cobb.

District 3 is currently held by Republican JoAnn Birrell, whose third term expires at the end of 2022.

Sarden announced her campaign on Friday, and in a release said that she “understands first-hand why people move to and stay in Cobb County as well as the challenges that Cobb families face—specifically, zoning issues, county finance accountability, keeping taxes low, providing the best education for our children and maintaining an active and vibrant community.”

She said that her objective “is to serve the people of District 3 as a Commissioner who listens to her constituents and who ensures that their voices are heard at the county level. She understands that regardless of who a constituent voted for, our County commissioner represents all residents of her district and she hopes to help our community begin to healafter the divisiveness of the recent past.”

Sarden’s campaign website can be found here. She filed her declaration of intent to run on Feb. 11. Qualifying for the primaries is March 7-11.

On her campaign site, Sarden also mentioned East Cobb Cityhood, which is also on the primary ballot for eligible voters in the proposed city.

Sarden said while she supports voters having the right to decide on whether to become a city, “there appear to be many unanswered questions that the original feasibility study did not answer and that need to be addressed and debated before a vote should occur.”

She said the referendum is taking place along a “rushed timeline” and linked to a special work session held by commissioners last week (previous ECN story here).

While the current District 3 boundaries do not include the proposed city of East Cobb, a bill moving through the Georgia legislature would redraw the seat to cover the proposed city, and most of the East Cobb area in general.

Sarden and her husband homeschool two children and she also has an adult son and two grandchildren. The family attends First Baptist Church in Woodstock.

She earned a business degree from Auburn University and law degree from Samford University, and has been a corporate attorney for more than 20 years.

Sarden also has written a book about homeschooling and has spoken around the country on that topic.

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4 candidates qualify in East Cobb Ga. House special election

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Georgia House District 45 map
For a larger view of the current District 45 map, click here.

Three Republicans and one Democrat have qualified for a special election in April for a Georgia House seat in East Cobb.

According to the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, the candidates competing in a “jungle” election in District 45 are the following:

  • Mitchell Kaye, a Republican;
  • Pamela Alayon, a Republican;
  • Dustin McCormick, a Democrat;
  • Darryl Wilson, a Republican.

Qualifying ended Friday afternoon. The special election was called for April 5 by Gov. Brian Kemp after former State Rep. Matt Dollar resigned on Feb. 1.

His successor will serve through the end of the year, when Dollar’s term expires.

In the May 24 primary, candidates for the newly drawn District 45 will be running in a separate election. Qualifying for primaries in all races takes place from March 7-11.

McCormick, a project management official at McKesson, had previously announced plans to run in the May primary in the new District 45.

Kaye is a former state representative who served District 45 for a decade, from 1993-2003, before Dollar began his tenure in the legislature.

Alayon is a hospitality recruiting franchisee who ran for chair of the Cobb Republican Party in 2021.

Wilson is a commercial airline pilot who was the chairman of the 6th Congressional District Republican Party and also ran for Cobb GOP chair.

In the special election, the four candidates will be competing together. If the top vote-getter does not receive a majority, a runoff between the top two finishers would take place on May 3

Dollar, who took a job with the state’s technical college system, said last fall he was not running for re-election after 20 years in office.

He and State Rep. Sharon Cooper, an East Cobb Republican who represents District 43, were drawn together during reapportionment.

Dollar was the main sponsor of the East Cobb Cityhood bill that was passed into law this week.

Voters in the proposed City of East Cobb will decide on whether to create a new city on May 24.

McCormick has stated his opposition to the proposed city of East Cobb.

The Cobb Elections office said there are 12 precincts in the county with voters who are eligible to vote in the special election:

  • Chestnut Ridge; Dickerson; Dodgen; Hightower; Murdock; Mt. Bethel 1; Mt. Bethel 3; Pope; Roswell 1; Roswell 2; Sewell Mill 1; Timber Ridge

Voters can check their eligibility for the special election by visiting the Secretary of State’s office My Voter Page.

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East Cobb Cityhood bill signed into law; May 24 referendum set

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East Cobb Cityhood bill signed
Gov. Brian Kemp signs the East Cobb cityhood bill with sponsor former Rep. Matt Dollar to his left and Committee for East Cobb Cityhood members (L-R) Scott Sweeney, Cindy Cooperman, Sarah Haas and Craig Chapin.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has signed legislation calling for a May 24 referendum on East Cobb Cityhood.

Final passage of HB 841 took place on Tuesday in the Georgia House, and the bill was sent to the governor’s office to be signed into law.

Eligible voters inside the proposed East Cobb city limits will decide on incorporation on the same day as the Georgia general primary.

The ballot language included in the bill will ask voters the following question:

“Shall the Act incorporating the City of East Cobb in Cobb County according to the charter contained in the Act be approved?”

If the referendum is approved by a majority of the voters, elections for a mayor and six city council members will take place on the Nov. 8 general election, with the beginning of city operations and a two-year transition to start in January 2023.

The East Cobb legislation is the first of four cityhood bills in Cobb County to be considered in the current legislative session.

The proposed City of East Cobb would have roughly 60,000 people in a 25-square-mile area centered along Johnson Ferry Road, from Shallowford Road south to the Chattahoochee River and from the Fulton County line west to a line roughly along Murdock Road and Old Canton Road. Click here for a larger version of the map.

Revised East Cobb city map

On Thursday, the Georgia Senate passed similar legislation for Lost Mountain in west Cobb, and is set to vote on a bill for a referendum for Vinings.

A Mableton cityhood bill is still in the House.

All four Cobb cityhood bills call for May referendums, instead of November.

That sparked protests by Cobb government officials, who said they haven’t had time to assess the financial and service impacts.

On Tuesday, they addressed Cobb commissioners as part of a county “cityhood awareness campaign.” The major claim is that more than $45 million would be lost in county revenues if all four cities are created.

More than 200,000 people—nearly a quarter of Cobb’s population—live inside the proposed new cities.

Cobb has had its current existing cities—Marietta, Smyrna, Acworth, Kennesaw, Austell and Powder Springs—for more than a century, after Mableton briefly became a city and then went unincorporated.

Lost Mountain, Mableton and Vinings are proposing “city light” services that are focused on planning and zoning.

East Cobb is proposing planning and zoning, code enforcement and public safety services, and possibly parks and recreation.

At Tuesday’s commission work session, the heads of Cobb’s public safety agencies questioned the East Cobb financial feasibility study conclusions and expressed concerns about staffing, equipment, response time and training for the proposed East Cobb police, fire and 911 services.

The Committee for East Cobb Cityhood said it is planning an in-person town hall meeting for the general public soon, but has not set a date.

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Former East Cobb GOP legislator running in special election

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Mitchell Kaye, who held a Georgia House seat in East Cobb for a decade, announced Wednesday he is running in the special election for District 45.Mitchell Kaye, Georgia House special election

Kaye served from 1993-2003, and was the first Jewish Republican elected to the Georgia legislature.

In a press release announcing his campaign, Kaye said he’s running because “it is important that this seat remain Republican.”

The special election was called for April 5 after longtime GOP Rep. Matt Dollar resigned to take a job with the state technical college system.

His successor will serve the rest of Dollar’s term, through the end of the year.

A primary for the new District 45 will be held in May. State Rep. Sharon Cooper, an East Cobb Republican who has held the nearby District 43 since 1997, has been drawn into the new 45.

Qualifying began Wednesday and continues until 1 p.m. Friday for the special election, which will be held in a “jungle” format, meaning candidates of all parties will be running together.

If the leading candidate does not get a majority of the vote, a runoff will take place on May 3.

The only other special election candidate who has announced is Democrat Dustin McCormick.

Kaye has lived in East Cobb for more than 30 years and is a financial and valuation analyst. He and his wife Amy have three children and two grandchildren and are members of the Chabad at Cobb synagogue.

He also has written a column for the Atlanta Jewish Times publication.

During his time in the legislature, Kaye was a deputy minority whip when Republicans were in the minority.

He received a legislator of the year award from the Eagle Forum for supporting parental rights in education. Kaye also worked to repeal a state tax on used cars.

The Republican-dominated Georgia General Assembly reapportioned Congressional and legislative seats in November in an attempt to solidify their majorities.

Democrats have filed lawsuits claiming the redrawn lines are diminishing black voting power, especially in former conservative areas like Cobb that are electing more Democrats.

In his campaign release, Kaye said that “unless a judge throws out the reapportionment maps, the winner of this election will not serve a single day when the legislature is in session, and it is critically important that constituent services go uninterrupted.”

If the lines must be redrawn in a special session, Kaye said, “I have been through these reapportionment battles before. Now is not the time for on the job training as experience is more important than ever.”

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Qualifying starts Wednesday for Ga. House special election

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Georgia House District 45 map
For a larger view of the current District 45, click here.

Qualifying for an April 5 special election to fill the Georgia House seat 45 in East Cobb will take place Wednesday through Friday of this week.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a release that qualifying will take place at the Georgia State Capitol (2 MLK Jr. Drive, Suite 802, Floyd West Tower, Atlanta) from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday, and from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Friday.

The qualifying fee is $400.

The special election was called last week by Gov. Brian Kemp after the resignation of longtime Republican State Rep. Matt Dollar, who has taken a job with the state’s technical college system.

The successor will fill out the remainder of Dollar’s term, which expires Dec. 31. Candidates and voters must live within the current boundaries of District 45 (map here), which also includes some of North Fulton.

That seat will be redrawn for the May primary and November general election. Dollar said last fall he was not seeking re-election after he and GOP State Rep. Sharon Cooper of the nearby 43rd district were drawn together.

The last day to vote in the special election is March 7, and advance voting will begin on March 14. A runoff, if needed, would take place May 3.

Thus far Democrat Dustin McCormick is the only candidate who has announced his candidacy for the special election. He also said he will be running in the new District 45.

The Cobb Elections office said there are 12 precincts in the county with voters who are eligible to vote in the special election:

  • Chestnut Ridge
  • Dickerson
  • Dodgen
  • Hightower
  • Murdock
  • Mt. Bethel 1
  • Mt. Bethel 3
  • Pope
  • Roswell 1
  • Roswell 2
  • Sewell Mill 1
  • Timber Ridge

Voters can check their eligibility for the special election by visiting the Secretary of State’s office My Voter Page.

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East Cobb Cityhood bill gets final passage in Ga. legislature

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East Cobb City Council district map
For a larger view of the proposed East Cobb city council districts, click here.

The Georgia House on Monday adopted Senate substitute legislation to call for a referendum for a proposed City of East Cobb.

HB 841 (you can read it here) was approved by a 96-62 vote in the lower chamber without debate, and will be sent to Gov. Brian Kemp to be signed into law.

It would establish a May 24 referendum for voters in the proposed city to decide whether or not to incorporate.

A second vote in the full House was needed after the Senate passed a substitute bill on Thursday that included clarifying language about proposed city council districts.

The six city council members will be chosen citywide, but they will have to live in the district they seek to represent (see map).

The House version of that bill did not indicate that.

The bill is the first of four Cityhood bills in Cobb County that has passed the legislature.

Last week, Cobb County government published a Cityhood Resource Page that angered members of the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood.

The county is spending more than $40,000 for lobbyists to oppose the cityhood bills.

Cobb officials estimate the impact to the county budget would be more than $45 million a year if all four proposed cities—East Cobb, Vinings, Lost Mountain and Mableton—would come into being.

The financial estimates contend that nearly half of those revenues would come from a City of East Cobb of around 60,000 residents along the Johnson Ferry Road corridor.

The county also has protested moving up the referendums in each of the four Cobb cities from November to May, saying it would put an additional burden on Cobb Elections for the general primary.

But the East Cobb Cityhood group questions the county’s financials and objected to taxpayer money being spent to fight the bills.

The Vinings and Lost Mountain bills have passed the House and are headed for the Senate; the Mableton bill is being heard by a House committee.

The Cobb Board of Commissioners is holding a special work session Tuesday at 6 p.m. to cover cityhood issues, including potential impact on county finances and services.

It’s a virtual-only event and can be viewed on the county’s YouTube channel.

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Ga. House passes GOP Cobb school board, commission maps

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Cobb school board redistricting town hall
The proposed Cobb Board of Education map passed by the House would remove Post 6 from East Cobb. For a larger version click here.

Mostly along party lines, the Georgia House on Monday approved Republican-sponsored bills redistricting seats on the Cobb Board of Education and the Cobb Board of Commissioners.

They now will be considered by the Senate.

The bills drew opposition from members of the Democratic majority in the Cobb legislative delegation, who accused their GOP colleagues of skirting local courtesies during reapportionment.

But Republicans dominate in the Georgia legislature, and the House voted 94-59 to approve the school board map approved in December by the GOP-led Cobb school board.

The House also voted 95-64 to approve a commission map drawn by GOP State Rep. John Carson of Northeast Cobb that he said would likely still maintain the current 3-2 Democratic majority.

But Democratic lawmakers objected to redrawing current Democratic District 2 Commissioner Jerica Richardson and District 3 Republican Commissioner JoAnn Birrell into the same East Cobb-based district.

Birrell and Keli Gambrill, the other GOP commissioner from District 1 in North Cobb, are both up for re-election this year.

If the commission map is approved, Richardson would have to move inside the boundaries of the new District 2 if she runs for a second term in 2024.

Although redistricting bills must be passed by the entire legislature, local delegations typically move maps forward for full House and Senate votes.

Cobb GOP BOC redistricting map
Most of East Cobb would be drawn into District 3 on the Cobb Board of Commissioners in a map approved by the Georgia House.

But in the last election cycle, Democrats became the majority on the Cobb commission, which previously had a 4-1 Republican majority.

Republicans hold a 4-3 edge on an increasingly fractious Cobb school board, with a mostly partisan split on a number of issues.

The GOP map would move Post 6—the Walton and Wheeler clusters currently represented by Democrat Charisse Davis—into the Smyrna-Vinings area.

The Walton, Wheeler and Pope clusters would be included in a new Post 5, where four-term Republican David Banks is the incumbent.

The Sprayberry, Lassiter and Kell clusters would be reformed into Post 4, whose current member is Republican David Chastain.

Chastain has indicated he will be seeking a fourth term this year. Davis, in her first term, has not said whether she’s running again in 2022.

(PLEASE NOTE: The process of redistricting elected school board posts has nothing to do with the boundaries of school attendance zones, which are drawn by school district administrative staff.)

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Special election for Ga. House seat in East Cobb is April 5

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Gov. Brian Kemp has set April 5 as the date for a special election to fill a Georgia House seat in East Cobb.Georgia runoff elections

That’s the day after the final day of the Georgia General Assembly’s 2022 session.

The vacancy in House District 45 was created when longtime State Rep. Matt Dollar, a Republican first elected in 2002, resigned his seat on Feb. 1.

He has been the chief sponsor of the East Cobb Cityhood legislation that is nearing passage in the legislature.

The special election will be held in jungle format—meaning candidates of all parties will be running together.

The successor will fill out the rest of Dollar’s term, which is through the end of the year.

During reapportionment in November, District 45 was redrawn to include both Dollar and Republican State Rep. Sharon Cooper, who has represented adjoining District 43 since 1997.

Last fall, Dollar announced he would not be seeking re-election. He stepped down shortly after the East Cobb Cityhood bill was transmitted to the Senate, saying he was taking an economic development job with the state technical college system.

The only candidate who has announced an interest in the special election thus far is Democrat Dustin McCormick.

He also said he will be running in the May 24 primary for the new District 45 seat.

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East Cobb Cityhood bill passes Ga. Senate; returns to House

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State Sen. John Albers
State Sen. John Albers

The Georgia Senate on Thursday adopted a bill that would establish a cityhood referendum for East Cobb, but the legislation needs further action by the House.

By a 31-18 vote, the Senate approved HB 841, which would call for a May 24 referendum.

The bill that passed the Senate was a substitute from a Senate committee that included clarifying language on residency requirements for city council candidates.

That’s why the bill has to go back to the House, since a different version was passed there.

A motion by Sen. John Albers, the Senate sponsor of the East Cobb bill, to transfer the bill to the full House passed 30-16, but it didn’t get the required two-thirds of a majority vote.

Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan referred the bill back to the lower chamber in “normal order,” meaning it has to go through the committee process.

Albers, a Republican from North Fulton whose district will include the proposed East Cobb city boundaries next year, said that voters in East Cobb deserve the right to self-determination through a referendum.

He noted that in the last 17 years, 11 cityhood bills in Georgia have been voted in, and 10 of them have passed.

“We do not create cities,” he said from the Senate well. “We only create opportunities for citizens in those areas to create them.”

Two Democratic senators spoke against the bill, mainly for the timing of the referendum.

The original East Cobb bill was to have been in November, but was moved up to May in a change made during the House committee process by former State Rep. Matt Dollar.

He was the bill’s chief sponsor before resigning after it was sent to the Senate.

Sen. Michelle Au of Johns Creek, a member of the Senate State and Local Government Operations Committee, said that while “I don’t have an objection to cityhood movements,” the May referendum is an “arbitrary deadline.

“There’s no reason that I can see that we need to rush.”

Three other Cobb cityhood bills—Lost Mountain, Vinings and Mableton—also have May referendums.

Au said more time is needed for the financial impact of those new cities, if they come to pass, on Cobb County government.

State Sen. Michael “Doc” Rhett, a Democrat from South Cobb, made the same point, and also said the May referendums would be hard for Cobb Elections to include on an already full primary ballot.

“I understand the need for autonomy,” Rhett said. “Let’s slow down.”

Voting for the East Cobb bill was Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick, a Republican from East Cobb. She did not speak from the Senate floor on behalf of the bill.

Her district currently includes the proposed East Cobb area but is not under new boundaries redrawn in reapportionment.

She was opposed to the East Cobb cityhood bill when it first came up in three years ago but said recently she was supportive of letting voters decide on whether to have a city.

The East Cobb Cityhood group is having a virtual information session Thursday at 6 p.m.; you can register by clicking here.

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Former East Cobb State House candidate running for Ga. Senate

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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

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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Editor’s Note: Why the rush for Cobb Cityhood referendums?

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State Rep. Matt Dollar
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.

After a House committee approved Dollar’s substitute in mid-January, the East Cobb Republican lawmaker came back to the same panel to amend his bill a week later.

That’s because his bill would move up the referendum date to allow voters in the proposed East Cobb boundaries to decide on cityhood from November to May.

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.)

East Cobb cityhood supporters have been making the repeated point that that citizens deserve the right to have a referendum.

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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House subcommittee to hear Cobb GOP redistricting bills

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Cobb Commissioner Jerica Richardson
Cobb Commissioner Jerica Richardson

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.

In the case of the former, District 2 commissioner Jerica Richardson and District 3 commissioner JoAnn Birrell would be placed in the same district covering most of East Cobb.

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 2 if 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
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.

(Setzler is also pushing cityhood bills, including Lost Mountain in his district and is a co-sponsor of the East Cobb Cityhood bill that passed a Senate committee Thursday.)

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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