County officials take Cityhood town hall to East Cobb

Cityhood town hall EastCobb — *Cobb communications director Ross Cavitt (at lectern) reads questions for department heads at the Sewell Mill Library.*

The latest in a series of what Cobb government officials are calling objective “information sessions” about four cityhood referendums came to East Cobb this week.

One of those referendums will take place May 24 for a proposed City of East Cobb, which was the focus of a town hall Thursday at the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center.

(You can watch a replay of the nearly hour-long town hall at the bottom of this post.)

Commissioners JoAnn Birrell and Jerica Richardson, whose districts include East Cobb, also attended, but they spoke only briefly, saying they can’t publicly take a position.

“I encourage you to ask the hard questions,” Richardson said, “because this is about your future. We want to make sure that you’re equipped with the information that you need so you can make the best decision for you and your family.”

During her 2020 campaign, Richardson said she was opposed to East Cobb cityhood, and recently attended an information session held by the East Cobb Alliance, which opposes citiyhood.

“We’re here to educate, we can’t advocate, one way or the other, on cityhood,” said Birrell, who was adamantly opposed to an East Cobb cityhood campaign in 2019 when the proposed boundaries pushed into her district.

She said she didn’t know at the time that she was supposed to have been impartial, although county officials typically have been mum on other referendums, including Special Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) extensions.

Cobb finance officers estimate the county could lose more than $41 million in annual revenue if all four cities—East Cobb, Lost Mountain, Mableton and Vinings, totalling more than 200,000 people—are created, with only a few hundred thousand dollars in savings.

Of that, around $23 million of that would come out of East Cobb, which unlike the other proposed cities wants to provide police, fire and E911 services.

That was the subject of many of the audience questions read by Cobb communications director Ross Cavitt.

Cobb public safety department heads repeated many of the same points they made at a March 10 town hall, saying the East Cobb financial feasibility study has incomplete information.

They said that transferring equipment and facilities and mutual aid agreements would have to be negotiated, and response times and fire insurance rates would likely rise for those living in a city of East Cobb.

Interim Cobb Police Chief Scott Hamilton said that response times vary, depending on what kind of call is dispatched, but that a “city would probably have fewer officers for major calls.”

Michael Schutz, the deputy Cobb Fire Chief, noted a recent house fire in Indian Hills that prompted a response from nearly 30 personnel and several engines and trucks.

In rattling off the staff and equipment at the two proposed East Cobb fire stations (currently Cobb 15 and 21), he said the numbers don’t come close to that total.

The East Cobb city hall would be located at the East Cobb Government Service Center, and a question was asked about how much it would cost to transfer that facility.

Cavitt read a statement prepared by the Cobb County Attorney that state law specifies only two hard figures about transferring county properties to a new city—$5,000 for a fire station (minus engines and other equipment) and $100 an acre for public park land.

After the town hall, Sarah Haas, a member of the Committee for Cityhood in East Cobb, took issue not only with some of the county finance and staffing estimates, but also with the scope of the county’s information campaign (including an online resource page).

“It’s hard for me to believe that this information is purely educational,” she said. “I get the sense that they’re trying to instill fear, uncertainty and doubt, more than to provide information.”

Haas said the “financials don’t pass the smell test,” including county estimates that fire expenses in East Cobb would come to $12 million (the cityhood group’s financial study estimates an annual fire department budget of $5.7 million).

She said that previous cityhood efforts have always come with issues to be hammered out during a two-year transition period, including finances. A feasibility study provides only an outline for what a future city might provide.

“I’d love to have a crystal ball and say that this is what we should create as a budget,” said Haas, who led the cityhood group’s recent town hall meeting.

“There are always going to be unanswered questions about cityhood. We’re doing our best job to educate people about the benefits of a city.”

Among those in attendance Thursday was former Cobb Planning Commission member Andy Smith, also a 2020 Cobb commissioner candidate.

He’s concerned about high-density development issues that have prompted all four cityhood campaigns in Cobb County.

A member of the Cobb Neighborhood Safety Commission, Smith said he’s perplexed about the addition of public safety services in East Cobb, which also would provide planning and zoning and code enforcement services.

But he said recent zoning decisions on the Cobb Board of Commissioners—including the East Cobb Church mixed-use development and a controversial rezoning around Dobbins Air Base that resulted in an unusual land swap—have led to him support cityhood.

“It’s about having local control of zoning,” Smith said, adding that Cobb’s building codes are also a problem.

Smith said given recent developments, it’s crucially important to have a more locally focused governing body writing those codes to retain East Cobb’s suburban character and control how redevelopment—commercial and residential—is handled.

The East Cobb Business Association and the Rotary Club of East Cobb will be having debates on the cityhood referendum in April and May, featuring the cityhood group and the East Cobb Alliance.

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