East Cobb Cityhood foes ramp up efforts to defeat referendum

In a little less than three months, voters in the proposed City of East Cobb will be asked whether they want to form a new city.

A grassroots citizens group that formed in 2019 to fight an initial cityhood campaign is accelerating its efforts to defeat a May 24 referendum that could create a city of around 60,000 people.

But just as in the first cityhood quest, the East Cobb Alliance said a new city would also create needless levels of government, increase taxes, cause confusion among citizens about service provision and delay public safety response time.

“You don’t need another layer of government to change what doesn’t need changing,” said Mindy Seger, the group’s president, during an information session Saturday at the Chimney Springs subdivision clubhouse.

The East Cobb Alliance—which has more than 1,300 followers on its Facebook page—also has sharpened its talking points as public meetings are being scheduled on both sides of the issue.

On Monday, the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood will hold its first in-person town hall since cityhood was revived last year.

The pro-cityhood forces have said the area isn’t getting effective representation on the Cobb Board of Commissioners, whose four district members represent nearly 200,000 people each.

As the cityhood bill worked its way through the Georgia legislature, they testified that local control—East Cobb would have a mayor and six city council members—would be more responsive.

But Seger, who debated pro-cityhood leaders in 2019 before that effort was abandoned—took issue with that claim.

In a talking point called “Follow the Money,” she noted that while the current cityhood group has new members who are making public rounds, some individuals behind the scenes remain from the original effort.

They include Owen Brown, the founder of the Retail Planning Corp., which manages Paper Mill Village, Woodlawn Square, Woodlawn Commons and other shopping centers in the area.

He’s a voter in Florida, Seger said, and therefore can’t vote in the referendum. Neither can Matt Dollar, the former legislator who sponsored the East Cobb bill, then resigned the day after it passed the House.

He’s moved to a new home in what would remain unincorporated East Cobb. Lawmakers who carried the legislation after that are in Acworth and North Fulton.

The only other East Cobb co-sponsor of the bill—State Rep. Sharon Cooper—didn’t speak on its behalf in the legislative sessions.

“If this was such a good idea, why didn’t he buy a house inside the city borders?” Seger said, referring to Dollar. “Is this really about local control or special interest control?

“What are they looking to get out of this?”

Seger also delved into the proposed police and fire services for the City of East Cobb, which were not in the initial bill and were added in November (the other services would be planning and zoning and code enforcement).

The East Cobb financial feasibility study estimated that fire services would cost $5.7 million a year. But Cobb fire officials, in a recent commissioners work session, placed that figure at more than $12 million a year.

There would be two fire stations in East Cobb, No. 21 at the East Cobb Government Service Center and No. 15 on Oak Drive.

“That’s a big difference, and I think the county’s estimate is more accurate,” she said, adding that such expenses as the cost of fire engines and training firefighters (as well as police officers) have not been factored into the financial study.

The pro-cityhood group has said that such details are typically worked out during a two-year transition period, including mutual aid agreements.

As for police, the study estimated a staff of 71 officers (79 staffers are currently working out of Cobb Police Precinct 4).

“The challenge and cost of recruiting and training officers is difficult everywhere,” Seger said. “How is a new city going to compete with that?”

That point was echoed by former Cobb Chamber of Commerce CEO David Connell, who attended one of the East Cobb Alliance sessions.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” he said during the presentation, saying that Cobb’s public safety services are highly rated. “Taxes will go up and don’t let anyone tell you different.”

Also in the audience was engineering consultant Geoff Seguin, who lives in a nearby neighborhood. He said he was initially open to the subject of cityhood, but said after getting information from both sides, he’s “strongly opposed to it.

“There are too many unknowns,” said Seguin, who’s lived in East Cobb resident since 1989 and whose children graduated from local schools.

Life in the community, he said, “is pretty darn good” and said he doesn’t see any reason to change the form of local government.

What especially persuaded him was serving on a citizens group that worked with the attorney for Northpoint Ministries for a mixed-use development that includes the East Cobb Church.

After months of discussions and numerous delays, Cobb commissioners approved a rezoning request at Johnson Ferry and Shallowford Road in October.

While the community was split on the issue, Seguin said he was impressed by the effort by Northpoint and county officials, especially regarding stormwater and legal concessions his group asked for.

He also found Commissioner Jerica Richardson (who attended an earlier East Cobb Alliance session Saturday) and former planning commissioner Tony Waybright responsive during the process.

“It made me a believer in local government,” Seguin said, referring to county government. He said when citizens get involved at that level, “it works.”

Monday’s town hall organized by the cityhood group is sold out, but is being livestreamed  on its Facebook page starting at 6 p.m.

On Wednesday, Cobb County government will hold an information session, and with similar referendums in Lost Mountain, Vinings and possibly Mableton, it has launched a cityhood information page.

The East Cobb Business Association will hold an East Cobb Cityhood forum on April 19, and the Rotary Club of East Cobb will be holding a similar session for Pope High School in early May.

Those plans are still being finalized.

Related:

• East Cobb Cityhood supporters defend police and fire plans
• East Cobb Cityhood group to hold in-person town hall
• East Cobb Cityhood bill signed into law; May referendum set
• Cobb officials question East Cobb police and fire proposals
• East Cobb Cityhood bill gets final passage in Ga. legislature
• Cobb government, Cityhood advocates ramp up talking points
• East Cobb Cityhood bill passes Senate; returns to House
• Editor’s Note: Why the rush with Cobb Cityhood bills?
• Cupid speaks out on cityhood, redistricting issues
• East Cobb News Cityhood page

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