East Cobb Cityhood group fined $5K for disclosure violations

East Cobb Cityhood debate
Craig Chapin and Cindy Cooperman of the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood at a March forum.

The Committee for East Cobb Cityhood has been fined $5,000 for failing to file a required campaign finance disclosure form before the May 24 referendum.

The Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission issued a fine of $4,875 in September, after imposing a late reporting fee of $125 on May 9.

Ballot committees are required by law to submit full disclosures before a referendum; the East Cobb Cityhood group maintained it wasn’t obligated as a 501 (c)(4) organization.

A complaint was filed by Bob Lax, a leader of the anti-cityhood East Cobb Alliance.

The cityhood referendum was soundly defeated with 73 percent of the vote against incorporating a population of 60,000 people along the Johnson Ferry Road corridor.

According to the state ethics agency, the East Cobb Cityhood group reported raising $112,525 and spending $64,338.

(You can read the full report by clicking here.)

It was the only ballot committee involved in Cobb cityhood referendums that did not file a report. The East Cobb Alliance report filed on May 9 showed total contributions nearing $30,000.

The largest contributor to the East Cobb Cityhood committee was Owen Brown, founder of the Retail Planning Corp., a commercial real estate firm, and who is one of the group’s founders.

He contributed $20,000, and several others contributed $5,000 or more, some of them corporate executives.

Nearly $49,000 of the cityhood group’s expenses were for political consulting services and billboard ads.

Related:

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

3 thoughts on “East Cobb Cityhood group fined $5K for disclosure violations”

  1. Matt Dollar donated $500, not $5K as stated in the article.

    $66K of the ECC donations were from the 30067 zip code -which includes the Atlanta Country Club area.

    Plus another $35K was donated by people who also reside in 30067, but used their business address.

Comments are closed.