East Cobb cityhood town hall to mark community ‘reset’

The leaders of an effort to create a City of East Cobb will be holding their own town hall meeting for the first time on Monday, vowing to foster a dialogue with the public about an incorporation process that has stumbled out of the gate.

The town hall meeting starts at 7 p.m. in the auditorium of Walton High School (1590 Bill Murdock Road). A panel discussion moderated by Cynthia Rozzo, publisher of the EAST COBBER magazine, will include Committee for Cityhood in East Cobb members David Birdwell, Rob Eble and Karen Hallacy.

The town hall also will include members of a cityhood effort in Mableton, which like East Cobb has had local legislation introduced to be considered next year.

Last month, Birdwell faced an occasionally rowdy audience at Cobb commissioner Bob Ott’s town hall meeting. It was the first public encounter for the cityhood group, which formed last fall, commissioned a financial feasibility study and hired a lobbyist in the General Assembly with cityhood experience.

The group didn’t say much publicly until last month’s town hall, and the cityhood legislation, sponsored by State Rep. Matt Dollar, was filed the following day.

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Eble told East Cobb News Friday there’s still a lot of information he has to obtain and digest after he joined the group in January, but pledged that he and the others are committed to a “reset” in communicating with the community.

“I wouldn’t vote on it today,” he said, referring to a referendum tentatively eyed for the 2020 Georgia primary next spring if the cityhood bill passes.

There’s still so much to examine, he said, and more feedback from the public to solicit.

He’s a life-long East Cobber, and a Walton graduate, who took a look at the feasibility study, which concluded a city could be created without a tax increase, and thinks it’s worth considering.

“It’s all about the process, and shaping it the way the community wants it,” Eble said.

Since last month’s town hall, he said the group has heard from plenty of East Cobb residents about the study—which he expects to be discussed extensively on Monday—as well as the proposed city boundaries.

For now, the map is the unincorporated East Cobb portion of Ott’s commission district (map here), and would include a population of around 96,000.

The legislation calls for a mayor to be elected citywide and a six-member city council, whose districts have yet to be drawn.

Eble said he’s heard from citizens who live in areas of East Cobb outside of the map, and they wonder why they’re not in it.

He added that the map is subject to change, and that doing so “is under discussion. We want to hear from people.”

Skepticism has abounded since the cityhood effort was revealed, most of all why this is happening in an area where no serious municipal push has been made before.

A member of citizens ad hoc group asked to look at the feasibility study quit in protest of what he called a lack of transparency.

Eble insisted that “nobody is trying to push anything down anybody’s throat.

“Nobody’s trying to prosper off this,” Eble said. “We believe that local citizens of East Cobb are much better equipped to have a say about what happens in their backyards.”

Both the East Cobb and Mableton cityhood groups have said they want more responsive local control over government services than what is provided by Cobb, which has a county-elected chairman and four district members who represent more than 185,000 people each.

The proposed East Cobb city services are police, fire and community development, including planning and zoning.

Eble said the town hall format on Monday will include presentations and questions from the audience, to be submitted on note cards.

The cityhood group also will be appearing at a meeting next month of the Powers Ferry Corridor Alliance. Eble said other meetings are in the works with homeowners groups and civic and business associations. Cityhood representatives also be at next weekend’s Taste of East Cobb event.

“This is education,” Eble said. “There is an opportunity to create a community here.”

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