Cobb to propose ordinance to redraw commission districts

Cobb County Government has placed a legal ad announcing a proposed resolution that would amend the county code to enable the Board of Commissioners to redraw commission districts.

The ad published Friday in The Marietta Daily Journal states that the measure will be discussed at commission meetings on Oct. 11 and Oct. 25, with a vote scheduled on the latter date, to invoke home rule powers under the Georgia Constitution.

Home rule powers are used to amend local legislation, although redistricting duties typically have been the province of the Georgia General Assembly.

Earlier this year, Republican-dominated legislature approved Cobb commission district boundaries that redrew District 2 Commissioner Jerica Richardson out of her seat, which includes some of East Cobb.

The first-term Democrat moved to a home off Johnson Ferry Road last year that starting on Jan. 1, 2023 will be in District 3, which covers most of East Cobb.

But under state law, by that date she would have to reside inside the new District 2 boundaries, which include the Cumberland-Smyrna area and much of the City of Marietta.

The county’s legal ad indicates that the proposed ordinance, which would take effect Jan. 1, would not affect upcoming general elections in November. District 3 commissioner JoAnn Birrell, a Republican, is seeking re-election to a fourth term.

Richardson vowed in March that “I will not step down” and hinted at a challenge to the new lines that she did not specify at the time.

In an interview with East Cobb News on Friday, Richardson admitted that the proposed resolution is out of the ordinary. But so was the act of the legislature, she said, adding that in trying to come up with a response, “we realized there is no playbook.”

She insisted that it’s not about her staying in office but addressing a precedent of the legislature, which ignored a vote by the Cobb delegation to adopt maps drafted by Democratic Rep. Erick Allen of Smyrna, the delegation chairman, that would have kept the current lines roughly the same.

Allen’s bill, HB 1256, got a vote of of the majority of the Cobb delegation but did not come up for a vote in the legislature. Instead, Republican House members John Carson of East Cobb and Ed Setzler of North Cobb sponsored HB 1154 that included the maps that were eventually adopted and signed into law.

Richardson said it’s the first time in state history a sitting elected official had been drawn out of a district during reapportionment.

“For me, it’s about the principle,” Richardson said. “Will there be a check and balance to state control?”

She said she “was very surprised” at the GOP end-around and added that “I did hope Cobb County wouldn’t succumb where a portion of the delegation would be breaking away” from what she called a “gentleman’s handshake.”

City governments have had such home rule powers for years; should Cobb’s resolution be adopted and withstand any legal challenges it could have implications for county governments around Georgia.

Cobb government spokesman Ross Cavitt said a copy of the proposed resolution, which would include the Allen maps, isn’t immediately available and “won’t come before the board until the October meetings.”

He later distributed a statement from Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid backing the proposed resolution.

She said that “the drastic nature of the state’s action has undermined the cooperation that generally does occur and should occur with counties and their local delegation when redrawing district lines. It has also undermined the expectation voters should have in trusting that those they elect to serve will be able to do so.

“I could not sit idly by and watch the integrity of this board’s composition and our citizens’ vote be callously undermined.”

Birrell told East Cobb News Friday she is against changing the maps approved by the legislature.

“Not only does it cause confusion for the citizens of Cobb County which is entirely disrespectful, it isn’t even legal,” she said.

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

Richardson said her understanding of the home rule law is that since Allen’s map was signed off by the legislative reapportionment office, that satisfies state constitution provisions for invoking home rule.

“I’m going off counsel that has been provided to the board,” she said. “I trust them on so many other matters, I trust them on this.”

She said she didn’t think about moving to the new District 2 “because I’ve been in this community.”

When she was a student at Georgia Tech, her family moved to a neighborhood near The Avenue East Cobb and her brothers attended Walton High School.

After living in an apartment in the Delk Road area, Richardson said she bought her home in the Johnson Ferry-Post Oak Tritt area because “I was looking for a home as a young adult, growing into your career and into a community where I am from.”

She said she didn’t consider running in the new District 3 because she would have had to resign her position and a special election would be called for District 2.

Richardson has organized a political advocacy committee, For Which It Stance Inc., that was incorporated by the Georgia Secretary of State’s office as a 501(c)4 domestic non-profit organization.

That was created in March, as she announced her plans to contest the redrawn lines; the executive director of For Which It Stance is Mindy Seger, who led the East Cobb Alliance, which fought against the now-defeated East Cobb cityhood referendum.

Seger told East Cobb News that For Which It Stance was “set up to engage the community on issues of encroachment of governing powers,” the first of which is Richardson’s bid to stay in office.

Seger sent out a For Which It Stance press release Friday saying that “a Georgia elected official has never been forcibly removed from office during their term by the state’s redistricting process. . . Many Cobb residents have been anticipating a county response to this overreach of state control. That day is here.”

The release goes on to say that county action to invoke home rule “sets the scene for a legal battle that could create a powerful check and balance between state and local control. . . . If Commissioner Richardson is forced to resign, nearly 200,000 residents and Cobb’s economic epicenter, including the Battery, will be left unrepresented until her seat can be filled.”

A website has been set up for that campaign, called DrawnOutGA, which said that Richardson was not gerrymandered but “Jerica-mandered.”

The website has online petition and donations button, and there will be a “Local Control Summit” on Oct. 8 that includes “community courses” and a dinner.

Seger said plans for that event are still in the works, including a location.

Related:

• Cobb school board chairman trailing in campaign fundraising
• Cobb to add Sunday voting in 2022 general electio
• East Cobb News Politics & Elections page

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