Cobb OKs emergency HVAC repairs at adult detention center

The Cobb Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday to spend $1.7 million in an emergency request to replace an air conditioning unit at the Cobb Adult Detention Center, but not before some—ahem—heated discussion.

Commissioners voted 4-0 to approve the request by the Cobb Sheriff’s Office to purchase a new 500-ton chiller that is nearly 40 years old.

An agenda items states that “the unit is now at high risk of imminent failure, which poses a severe threat to the facility’s ability to maintain critical climate control.”

The agenda item states that the work will take six weeks to install, and that the vendor is MaxAir Mechanical of Marietta. The aging unit was first installed in 1987, according to the agenda item.

The funding will come out of the county’s general fund, which prompted questions by Commissioner Keli Gambrill, and as the county’s fiscal year 2026 budget hearings take place in July.

She noted that several representatives of the Sheriff’s Office were in attendance, “and that’s where the citizens tend to get upset . . . that the Sheriff’s Office isn’t a good steward of tax dollars when we have emergency issues like this.”

She asked why the funding wasn’t coming from the Sheriff’s Office capital budget, and whether it should be a county responsibility (meaning coming from the general fund).

While Cobb jail operations are funded by the county, the Sheriff is an elected Constitutional officer. Gambrill wondered if current Sheriff Craig Owens budgeted for a new chiller.

“We’re not budgeting for a simple thing that is needed to ensure that the facility remains habitable,” she said, “for people who choose not to be there.”

Commissioner Monique Sheffield said that “over the years, with the last administration in particular”—a reference to former Sheriff Neil Warren, whom Owens ousted in 2020—”the items were not addressed in a timely fashion. And we all know the longer you defer maintenance, the more costly it becomes.”

Gambrill had said that she was aware that Warren had been earmarking some operational funds for an eventual replacement, and asked why that money weren’t being used now.

Flynn Broady, a former Cobb District Attorney who is a legal advisor to the Sheriff’s Office, said the funding request was deferred from the current budget, and told Gambrill that “you knew that. We have pushed this back as far as we can. But the time has come” for new equipment, “and if you don’t do it now, we’re going to be in a world of hurt, and the county will be spending a whole lot more money.”

Broady said that “these chillers are a different breed than what we’ve had before” and they are easier to maintain.

He said that Sheriff’s Office staffers turned out Tuesday to stress the importance of getting new chillers.

Commissioner JoAnn Birrell of East Cobb said she understands the urgency of the situation, but “I do have a problem with the way this was done.”

She said she didn’t like the funding coming from the general fund “when there’s no way to reimburse it.”

In response to Sheffield’s comments, she said that “this is [Owens’] fifth year in office. In five years, he would know that this was an issue.”

In a later interaction, Gambrill put another question to Broady, whom she called “Mr. Flynn,” and in his response he addressed her as “Ms. Gambrill.”

“That’s Commissioner Gambrill,” she shot back.

“My name is Mr. Broady,” he replied.

Gambrill, who ended up voting for the emergency funding, suggested that the board adopt a policy to appropriate funding for constitutional officers on a monthly basis, saying that “we have a spending problem in many areas of the county.”

Chairwoman Lisa Cupid was absent from Tuesday’s meeting.

Commissioners also approved spending $278,900 to replace grass baseball fields with synthetic turf at Fullers Park. Most of the funding is coming from East Side Baseball, which is donating $207,000.

Another $145,151 will be spent to create a network security administrator position in the Cobb Information Technology Services Department, after a data breach was discovered in March that county officials acknowledged was a ransomware attack.