Judge rules Cobb home rule claim is unconstitutional

A Cobb Superior Court judge has ruled that Cobb County Government’s invocation of home rule over Board of Commissioners reapportionment violates the Georgia Constitution.

Judge Ann Harris issued a motion for summary judgment on Monday on behalf of plaintiffs David and Catherine Floam, North Cobb residents who along with Commissioner Keli Gambrill filed suit in 2023.

They were contesting a 3-2 vote by the commission in October 2022 along party lines—the board has three Democrats and two Republicans—to challenge electoral maps drawn by the Georgia legislature earlier in 2022.

Those maps, approved as HB 1154 (see map at right), drew Democratic District 2 commissioner Jerica Richardson out of her East Cobb home and placed most of East Cobb in District 3.

The Georgia Constitution stipulates that redistricting of county commission and school board maps is a function of the legislature.

The Republican-led legislature bypassed maps drawn by the Democratic-led Cobb delegation that would have kept District 2 lines largely unchanged (see map at left).

The county’s legal challenge focused on a number of home rule exemptions, passed in 1965 legislation designed to give local governments more control.

But in her ruling (you can read it here), Harris said that law, the Municipal Home Rule Act, and a Constitutional Amendment passed by Georgia voters the next year, does not allow counties to invoke home rule to affect elective county office, including procedures for electing and appointing a county governing authority.

“Cobb County argues that the map is not a procedure,” Harris wrote in her ruling. “Read in the most natural and reasonable way, and giving words their ordinary meaning within the text and context, the Court finds that redistricting is part and parcel of the procedures for an election.”

At the end of her ruling, Harris concluded that “the Court concludes that Cobb County’s Amendment to Act 562 [the home rule law] was an unconstitutional exercise of authority under its Constitutional Home Rule powers, inasmuch as this Court has found it was an action affecting an elective county office and affecting the procedure for election of the county governing authority.”

A separate lawsuit asking that the state-approved maps be implemented is still pending.

Through a county spokesman, Cobb County Attorney Bill Rowling said Monday that his office will be appealing Monday’s ruling.

“We respect the ruling by Judge Harris issued this morning,” Rowling said. “The county has already filed its notice of appeal and looks forward to making our case during the process ahead.”

That filing states that the appeal should be heard by the Georgia Supreme Court.

Qualifying for the 2024 May primaries is in the first week of March; in addition to District 2, the District 4 seat and Cobb Commission Chair—all held by Democrats—will be on the ballot.

The county statement didn’t include a reference to Richardson’s current tenure on the board.

Her term expires at the end of 2024, but it’s uncertain whether she would have to vacate her office immediately.

For Which It Stance, a non-profit advocacy group created by Richardson, issued a statement Monday afternoon denouncing the ruling.

“This ruling casts a spotlight on the Dist 2 Seat, triggering the possibility of an immediate vacancy due to the reinstatement of the state’s HB1154 map,” For Which It Stance Executive Director Mindy Seger said in the statement.

“The unprecedented mid-term vacancy arising from redistricting history in Georgia raises legitimate questions about the potential violation of O.C.G.A 1.3.11, a critical statute addressing the alteration of terms of office.”

Cobb Republican Party Chairwoman Salleigh Grubbs hailed the ruling, saying Harris is “an astute jurist for standing up for the Georgia Constitution. We are happy this case is resolved not only for Cobb County but for every sovereign county in the State of Georgia. Most importantly this is a big win for the voters of Cobb County who were being disenfranchised by this gross overreach and who were left in limbo until this case was resolved.”

Harris held two hearings last year on the lawsuit. Initially filed by East Cobb resident and former Cobb Commission Chairman Larry Savage, the lawsuit later was joined by Gambrill.

But she was later dismissed as a plaintiff after Harris ruled she didn’t have standing.

Gambrill and JoAnn Birrell, the board’s two Republican commissioners, have argued publicly that only the legislature can conduct reapportionment of county elected bodies.

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr also issued a statement last year saying the same thing, but his office did not get involved in the lawsuit.

The Floams are residents whose home previously had been in Gambrill’s District 1, then was placed in Birrell’s District 3.

Gambrill and Birrell were re-elected in 2022 with the legislative-approved maps, and voiced their objections each public meeting of 2023 as the commission operated with the Cobb delegation maps.

The commission’s first meeting of 2024 is Tuesday morning, at which a discussion about the case and the ruling may take place.

East Cobb News also asked the county spokesman how commission business will proceed in the wake of the ruling, but he did not respond.

Kevin Redmon, a Democrat from East Cobb who has announced for the District 2 seat but lives in the legislative-approved District 3, issued a statement Monday.

“Redrawing district lines in the middle of a term opens the path to renegade politics where districts can be pulled into question at any point and for any reason,” he said. “We eagerly anticipate an appeal that will further this discussion, which is critical to Cobb County’s political future.”

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