A lawsuit was filed this week trying to stop a referendum on Vinings cityhood, with implications for similar upcoming votes in East Cobb and Lost Mountain.
That’s because bills passed by the Georgia legislature this year calling for referendums in those three areas of Cobb on May 24 include language that’s being challenged on state constitutional grounds.
The lawsuit was filed Monday in Cobb Superior Court by Joseph Young, a Vinings resident who is a state lobbyist and was legislative director to former Gov. Roy Barnes (you can read the suit by clicking here).
The suit, filed against Cobb County and Elections Director Janine Eveler (her name is misspelled as “Everler” throughout the court filing), alleges that the Vinings bill is unconstitutional because it violates Georgia’s home rule laws.
The lawsuit, assigned to Cobb Superior Court Chief Judge Robert Leonard, is asking that the referendum either be removed from the May 24 ballot or delayed to the Nov. 8 general election.
A hearing has not been scheduled.
Georgia cities must provide at least three services from a list of 14 specified under state law.
But home rule laws also give cities and counties discretionary powers to choose which services they provide. The lawsuit alleges that the legislature cannot dictate what services a city can provide under a local law, which the Cobb cityhood bills were.
Young’s lawsuit contends that the Vinings bill would require a new city, if approved by voters in a referendum, to provide specific services: planning and zoning, code enforcement and parks and recreation.
A spokeswoman for the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood said Friday that the Vinings lawsuit “is a flagrant attempt to legislate from the bench.”
In response to an inquiry from East Cobb News, Cindy Cooperman said that the Vinings, East Cobb and Lost Mountain bills “are modeled on the laws that created other municipalities in Georgia, like Sandy Springs, Milton, and Stonecrest.”
She noted Young’s political ties and wondered why he didn’t testify against the Vinings bill when it was being considered by the legislature.
Section 1.12 of the East Cobb bill (you can read it here) states the following about service provision, in lines 157-161:
“Except as provided in subsection (c) of this section, the city shall exercise the powers enumerated in subsection (a) of this section only for the purposes of planning and zoning, code adoption and enforcement, parks and recreation, police and law enforcement services, fire and emergency services, and those items directly related to the provision of such services and for the general administration of the city in providing such services.”
Lost Mountain’s bill includes a charter calling for the provision of planning and zoning, code enforcement and sanitation services.
All three bills have been signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp. A fourth Cobb cityhood bill in Mableton is yet to be signed, but it doesn’t contain the same language about specific provision of services.
A Mableton referendum would take place in November.
“We are confident that the Court will see this lawsuit for what it is, frivolous, and not permit this interference with any of the cityhood referendums,” Cooperman said.
The response echoes comments by the Vinings Exploratory Committee, the group behind Vinings Cityhood, which called the lawsuit “an attack on the democratic process.”
The lawsuit comes as debates are nearing for the East Cobb cityhood referendum.
The first, on April 19, is being sponsored by the East Cobb Business Association. Another, on May 4, is being organized by the Rotary Club of East Cobb at Pope High School.
Cobb County government is continuing its series of cityhood town halls with a session on Tuesday at the Cobb Civic Center, starting at 6:30 p.m.
Related:
- Anti-Cityhood sign to be removed from shopping center
- County officials take Cityhood town halls to East Cobb
- ECBA, Rotary Club to hold cityhood debates
- GOP special election candidate opposes cityhood
- East Cobb News Cityhood information page
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I guess the East Cobb group doesn’t believe in the courts to do the right thing. It’s not legislating from the courts, it’s following the law. Now making it political, the city crowd is opening our eyes to what this is really all about.
Absolutely right. “Legislating from the bench”–when you have no argument, just mindless slogans to wow the rubes