The second annual Noonday Shanty 5K and 10K road race takes place March 25, and will be the first USA Track and Field-certified race to take place at the Noonday Creek Trail.
Registration is underway for the event, which is sponsored by the Town Center Community, including the Town Center CID and its nonprofit partner, the Town Center Community Alliance.
There’s an updated course for 2023, driven by runner feedback from the first race last year, and is designed to offer “a great way to enjoy the outdoors while supporting future greenspace and trail projects in the Town Center area,” according to Town Center Community officials.
The 10- to 12-foot-wide paved Noonday Creek Trail was completed in 2014 and spans seven miles, connecting the Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park’s visitors center to the Bells Ferry Trailhead through the heart of Town Center.
“After last year’s huge success and remarkable turnout, we’re excited to bring this event back to the community and create an opportunity for people to experience Town Center in a different way,” Jennifer Hogan, director of community for the Town Center Community, said in a release. “Town Center is more than retail and commercial properties with more than eight miles of walking trails, multiple public art installations, and several parks and greenspaces throughout the district.”
Participants will experience scenic views, wetlands, bird habitats and public art along the Noonday Creek Trail as well as other Town Center attractions like Aviation Park, Cobb International Airport, and Fifth Third Bank Stadium.
The 10K race starts at 7:45 a.m., followed by the 5K at 8 a.m. Awards will be presented to overall and age-group winners of both sexes, from 10 and under to 70 and over.
The registration fee is $30 through March 21, and $25 for virtual and ghost runners, and $35 for all runners after March 22.
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For a larger view of the revised site plan, click here.
After a month’s break in January (when there are no zoning meetings in Cobb County), a notable East Cobb case that has been on hold for a while will finally get a hearing Tuesday.
The German grocer Lidl’s application to build a 20,000-square-foot store at Canton Road and Piedmont Road is on the consent agenda for the Cobb Planning Commission meeting Tuesday morning.
Zoning items are placed on the consent agenda when there is no known opposition.
As we’ve noted previously, Lidl has tried twice to locate a store in Northeast Cobb, and there hasn’t been any community opposition.
But after Lidl’s initial application for this third venue, there were zoning staff and public safety concerns about a proposed reduction in parking spaces and space for emergency vehicles.
The property is 3.47 acres at the southwest intersection, where a Rite Aid pharmacy once stood.
In late January, Lidl submitted a revised site plan (you can see it here) and a stipulation letter (read it here) outlining some of the changes, including a proposal to construct a deceleration lane for access from Piedmont Road.
The new site plan shows 101 parking spaces (the CRC category being sought requires a minimum of 111 spaces) and an above-ground detention pond has been relocated to “allow room for future DOT roadway improvements,” according to the stipulation letter from Lidl U.S. development manager Deborah Pyburn.
Lidl is proposing to pay a “pro-rata share” of the cost of building the deceleration lane, and would dedicate the right-of-way tot he county after the company assumes ownership of the new store site.
The letter also state’s Lidl’s plans to create fire apparatus access to within 200 feet of all areas of the facility.
Another East Cobb case that’s been waiting for a hearing has been put on hold again. S&B Investments’ plans for a two-story Starbucks at Paper Mill Village have been continued again at the request of the applicant.
In a letter on Tuesday, attorney Garvis Sams asked for the continuance until March after his clients redesigned the architecture, but they haven’t been able to meet with the community about the changes.
The Planning Commission is an advisory board that makes recommendations on zoning cases to the Cobb Board of Commissioners.
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The Cobb County School District is holding its annual school choice transfer application period for the 2023-24 school year during the month of February.
Parents of students can apply to transfer to schools outside of their home zone, based on availability.
Students must be residents of the Cobb school district in order to apply, and cannot be accept of they move outside of the district.
Students needing special education services must apply to schools that provide those services required by the current Individual Education Plan (IEP).
Parents and guardians will be notified if their students were approved for the transfer during spring break, and the deadline to accept an approved transfer is May 26.
More details, including the full list of availability, can be found by clicking here; the following is a list of available spaces at schools in East Cobb. Schools that have no room for transfers are not listed.
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The following food scores for the week of Jan. 30 have been compiled by the Cobb & Douglas Department of Public Health. Click the link under each listing for inspection details:
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Work crews recently demolished a former bank and restaurant building at 4370 Roswell Road (an outparcel at the Merchants Exchange Shopping Center) that will be the new site of the LongHorn Steakhouse.
It’s been more than a year since the one-acre property’s owner, East Cobb Warren LLC, got a variance from Cobb County to reduce the parking spaces from 57 to 50 and make other site plan changes.
LongHorn has been located at 4721 Lower Roswell Road since 1983, and when it marked its 30th anniversary at that location in 2013, it was the longest-standing original location for the Orlando-based chain.
The standalone building going up where BB & T bank and originally a Black Eye’d Pea restaurant once stood will be roughly the same size as the current location, a little less than 6,000 square feet, according to planning documents submitted with the variance request.
BB & T Marietta LLC sold the property in August 2021 for $2.5 million, according to Cobb property records.
East Cobb News has left a message with LongHorn seeking more details, including a timeline for opening.
Saying farewell
After 36 years in business in East Cobb, Withrow’s Jewelers closed in January due to the retirements of co-owners Jill and Robert Withrow.
The family-owned business was located at the Woodlawn Point Shopping Center, and in a Facebook message, Jill Withrow said that closing was “not a decision we came to lightly, but we hope that over the years we have been successful in our mission to offer exceptional fine jewelry and excellent customer service.”
She said that while she and her husband are looking forward “to slowing down, we will still remain part of the jewelry industry. We will continue to offer custom design, estate and gold buying, and select inventory by private appointment, starting in late spring of 2023.”
Contact information for those latter services: (770) 565-6675, text at (404) 234-2345, or email at withrowjewelers@gmail.com.
The Withrows also are referring customers to David Douglas Diamonds & Jewelry (3605 Sandy Plains Road, Suite 260).
Vacating Parkaire
Anytime Fitness has closed at Parkaire Landing Shopping Center. The last day of business was on Sunday, according to co-owners Julia and Patrick Hogue.
They didn’t cite a reason for the closing, but Parkaire has several gyms and fitness centers, including CycleBar, Rock Box Fitness, Pro Martial Arts and most recently, Pure Barre, which is having raffles and offering other prizes in February leading up to its grand opening in early March.
The Tuesday Morning consignment shop at Parkaire closed in late 2022, and the adjacent Kroger is expanding to include some of that space.
New Business Licenses
We’re going to start listing new businesses coming to the community, which are compiled each week by the Cobb Community Development Agency.
For the week of Jan. 22-27:
J & J Dental, 2230 Roswell Road
Jessen Cabinets, 4651 Woodstock Road, Suite 150
Masterpiece Pools, 3278 Hembree Road
Nicole’s Dog Gone Cute Grooming, 4750 Alabama Road, Suite 105
Niki Gori (licensed professional counselor), 1640 Powers Ferry Road, Suite 18-200
Patel Plastic Surgery, 1519 Johnson Ferry Road, Suite 250
Peakzen (fitness training), 1519 Johnson Ferry Road, Suite 350
The American Woodworker (arts and crafts retail), 1719 Apple Boulevard
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The Cobb Board of Commissioners is holding its annual retreat Wednesday through Friday at the Hilton Inn and Conference Center (500 Powder Springs Street, Marietta).
The three days of meetings will take place from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and are open to the public. Unlike the board’s formal meetings, however, the proceedings of the retreat will not be livestreamed.
The agenda (you can read it here) is focused on an update of the county’s Comprehensive 5-Year Strategic Plan, a process that got underway last fall.
Listening sessions and online feedback have taken place since November under the direction of Accenture LLP, an outside consulting firm being paid $1.45 million by the county to conduct a comprehensive long-range strategic plan that includes a shorter-term element for the years 2023-2027 (scope of work info here).
The overall objective of the plan, according to the county’s statement of need document, is to produce “a clear, unified, community-driven, long-term vision for Cobb County for the next 10 to 20 years.”
Cobb government spokesman Ross Cavitt said Accenture is expected to update commissioners on the surveys, town halls and stakeholder workshops that have taken place thus far, with the goal of presenting a strategic plan proposal by February or March.
The retreat comes as the partisan divide on the five-woman board has escalated over redistricting maps.
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The Cobb County Public Library System is joining with the American Heart Association to promote heart health with a series of Go for Red Women’s Walks.
Two of the walks will take place at East Cobb branches on Friday—Mountain View Regional Library (3320 Sandy Plains Road) from 9-10 a.m., and the Gritters Library (880 Shaw Park Road) from 2-3 p.m.
February is American Heart Month, and the AHA has designated Friday as National Wear Red Day.
Participants should wear comfortable clothing and athletic shoes as they walk around the library grounds.
The walks are intended for adults, and children are welcome with an adult caregiver.
For information call the Mountain View branch at 770-509-2725 or the Gritters branch at 770-528-2524.
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Police made the arrests at the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection Saturday night, according to warrants.
Two men whom Cobb Police said burglarized a home off Paper Mill Road Saturday night have been arrested, along with the driver of a vehicle who allegedly took them to the scene of the crime.
According to arrest warrants, Alfredo Gallardo and Carlos Arenas broke into a home on Gateside Lane Saturday night shortly after 8 p.m. and stole jewelry and other items.
The home is near the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection (4814 Paper Mill Road), where police on patrol became suspicious after noticing a sole vehicle, a van, in a parking lot, according to one of the warrants.
According to a warrant for the man behind the wheel, Jose Castro, “There did not appear to be any church activities happening at the time officers approached.”
The warrant said Castro produced for an officer an Argentinian identification that he later admitted had a false name and birthdate.
His warrant said Castro provided the other men transportation to the church, then to the victim’s residence.
Warrants for Gallardo and Arenas said that officers went to the home, and two men fled the scene, ignoring commands to stop.
Their warrants said that Arenas left a bag of tools in the residence on the victim’s couch and was found with “a window-breaking tool” when he was arrested. Gallardo was found with a bag of pry bars, according to his warrant.
All three men were charged with first-degree burglary.
Gallardo, 32, of Los Angeles, and Arenas, 32, who is listed as homeless, also were charged with possessing tools of a crime and obstruction of a police officer.
Castro, 19, also listed as homeless, was further charged with giving a false name to law enforcement and loiter prowl.
All three were in custody Monday afternoon at the Cobb County Adult Detention Center on $22,220 bond each, according to Cobb Sheriff’s Office records, which state that they are being held on an immigration detainer for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
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Cobb Police have charged a transient man with the rape of a 12-year-old girl at Shaw Park last weekend.
Douglas Darch, 62, was taken into custody on Jan. 22 and remains at the Cobb Adult Detention Center without bond, according to booking reports.
Police said in a warrant that he approached the girl the day before as she was walking in a wooded area of the park shortly before 6 p.m. He offered her a water bottle, and after she drank from it, she began to feel dizzy, according to police.
The warrant said the suspect then took out a knife and threatened her to do what he told her.
According to the warrant, she was forced to provide oral sex, and the suspect also ordered her to remove her clothing, then touched her genitalia.
The victim further stated in the warrant that she “was in fear for her life or bodily harm.”
Darch is facing felony charges of aggravated child molestation, child molestation, aggravated assault, cruelty to children and making terroristic threats.
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Janine Eveler, the director of the Cobb Board of Elections and Registration, announced Friday that she is retiring after 12 years in the position.
The announcement was issued by Cobb government, which said a search will be launched immediately to hire her successor. Eveler will leave her post after Cobb municipal elections in March.
Eveler was with the Cobb Elections for 18 years after a career in telecommunications.
“I have thoroughly enjoyed my 18 years with Cobb County government,” Eveler said in a statement to the elections board that was included in a release issued by county. “I am very proud of the accomplishments that I and the Elections department have achieved and appreciate the opportunity to serve the citizens of the best county in Georgia.”
She was named the 2021 recipient of Ann Hicks Award, honoring excellence in elections administration, by the Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Elections Officials.
But the 2022 elections in Cobb were marked by controversies and glitches involving the elections office that led to court consent decrees extending the deadline for returning absentee ballots in the general election and the U.S. Senate runoff.
“I am sorry that this office let these voters down,” Eveler said at the time. “Many of the absentee staff have been averaging 80 or more hours per week, and they are exhausted. Still, that is no excuse for such a critical error.”
She told the elections board and Cobb commissioners on several occasions that high turnover among elections workers and volunteers were significant challenges during an election year that included new boundaries due to reapportionment.
In the Post 4 Cobb Board of Education general election race in East Cobb, 1,112 voters registered in the Sandy Plains 1 precinct were incorrectly given ballots to vote in the Cobb Board of Education Post 4 race.
They live in Post 5, also in East Cobb, following redistricting earlier in 2022.
The error was corrected, but 111 votes that had already been cast could not be changed. Republican incumbent David Chastain defeated Democrat Catherine Pozniak by 3,686 votes to win re-election.
A city council race in Kennesaw in November was reversed after data from a memory card was not uploaded promptly after the general election.
The appointed elections board also added one Sunday of early voting for the general election, a change that Eveler opposed in favor of a longer Saturday.
She also attributed some of the errors to a new state law limiting the window for absentee ballots and dropbox locations for them.
“The Board of Elections appreciates Janine’s service and commitment to Cobb County and the opportunity we’ve had to work with her to address concerns and challenges related to the changing elections landscape in this state,” elections board chairwoman Tori Silas in the Cobb release.
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Most of the former Bed Bath and Beyond store at The Avenue will be taken up by a new Barnes & Noble location.
Nearly a dozen years after losing a major book retail store, The Avenue East Cobb is getting another one.
North American Properties, the retail center’s management company, confirmed to East Cobb News Friday that Barnes & Noble will be filling part of the former Bed Bath & Beyond space by this summer.
The Atlanta Business Chronicle reported earlier Friday at that Barnes and Noble will be testing a smaller concept, occupying 15,000 square feet at The Avenue, much less than its typical 25,000-square-foot size of standalone stores.
It will be the first such smaller store in Georgia, and is “intended to mimic the ambience, coziness and personal touch found in independent bookshops,” the ABC report said.
A story in The New York Times last April said Barnes & Noble CEO James Daunt developed the concept, stemming from his days running Waterstones, a major book retailer in his native Britain:
“His theory was that chain stores should act less like chain stores and like more independent shops, with similar freedom to tailor their offerings to local tastes. It worked, and he returned Waterstones to profitability.
“He repeated that approach at Barnes & Noble. . . . Barnes & Noble has also concentrated on selling books, instead of the vast assortment of items that it once carried and that were only tangentially — if at all — related to reading.”
“We’re excited Barnes is coming,” an NAP spokeswoman said, adding that the rest of the BB & B space—which totalled more than 21,000 square feet—will be subdivided.
Borders was a staple of The Avenue in its early years before the company went into liquidation in 2011. That space is now occupied by the Michael’s craft store, which moved from the nearby East Cobb Crossing Shopping Center.
Since then, the East Cobb area has been served by independent and smaller book store chains.
Currently, there’s a Half Price Books location at Woodlawn Square, and Bookmiser operates a independent store on Roswell Road near Robinson Road West.
Barnes & Noble has three other locations in Cobb County, near Cumberland Mall and Town Center at Cobb and at The Avenue West Cobb.
The Avenue is currently undergoing a makeover that includes “jewel box” buildings with restaurants and small retail space, a public plaza and valet parking, and is increasing events.
NAP’s overhaul got underway before Christmas, with a portion of the back parking lot fenced off for construction.
Most of that project is expected to be finished by the summer, but the NAP spokeswoman said Barnes and Noble hasn’t given a more specific opening date.
She said several other leases of new retail tenants will be announced in the coming weeks, and that the Lululemon pop-up shop has converted into a full-time store at The Avenue.
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After 31 years on Bells Ferry Road, the Tommy Nobis Center will be moving to another area of Cobb County.
The non-profit that assists young people and adults with disabilities in getting or returning to employment announced Thursday it will be relocating to the former Cobb Chamber of Commerce building on Interstate North Parkway near Truist Park.
In a release, the Tommy Nobis Center said it has sold the Bells Ferry Road facility and is leasing it back while its new headquarters undergoes renovations.
“The new building will be better suited to the services provided by TNC and position them to serve more people in the hub of surrounding businesses,” according to the release, which said a capital campaign is being launched to help support the transition.
The former Chamber building holds 25,000 square feet that the Tommy Nobis Center said provides more classroom space for expanding services.
The Tommy Nobis Center, named after the late Atlanta Falcons star linebacker, was formed in 1977.
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“I like Jerica . . . but this has been taken too far,” East Cobb resident Debbie Fisher said.
An East Cobb resident opposed to Cobb County’s attempt to use home rule powers to conduct reapportionment has filed an ethics complaint against Commissioner Jerica Richardson, whose bid to stay in office is at the heart of the controversy.
Debbie Fisher alleges in her complaint to the Cobb Board of Ethics that Richardson is engaged in a conflict of interest due to a political action committee she formed to fight her redistricting by the Georgia legislature.
In her complaint filed on Monday (you can read it here), Fisher said Richardson should have recused herself from discussion and two votes in October in which the commission’s Democratic majority approved redistricting maps that would have kept her District 2 relatively unchanged.
In addition to seeking a reprimand and/or censure of Richardson, Fisher wants to void Richardson’s votes on the maps, which would result in a 2-2 deadlock.
Last year, the Georgia legislature passed HB 1154, which contains maps that placed Richardson’s home in East Cobb into District 3, where Republican JoAnn Birrell was re-elected in November.
In addition to vowing that she wouldn’t step down, Richardson set up a 501(c)(4) non-profit last March, For Which It Stance, Inc., to fight what she said was an “unprecedented” move to draw a sitting elected official out of office.
In what she and her supporters have called “Jerica-mandering,” Richardson has insisted that home rule is legal and necessary to invoke for redistricting so that her 200,000 constituents have representation.
The For Which It Stance website said it was dedicated to “protecting local control, empowering local voices,” and seeks financial donations, sells merchandise and offers memberships ranging from $25 to $100 a month.
Unlike 501(c)(3) non-profits, a 501(c)(4) organization can “push for specific legislative outcomes that align with our values and core mission,” according to the For Which It Stance site.
Fisher further alleges in her complaint Richardson “also violated the code of ethics by failing to disclose, in writing or verbally, the conflict and the collection of money through the 501(c)(4) Corporation’s website which clearly creates a Fiduciary conflict of interest that disqualifies Commissioner Richardson from participating in discussion in whole or part and from voting on this issue.”
Commissioner Jerica Richardson
The ethics board is a seven-member body appointed by the Cobb Board of Commissioners, the Cobb Tax Commissioner, the Cobb Sheriff, the Cobb Solicitor General, the chief judges of the Cobb probate and magistrate courts and the clerk of the Cobb State Court.
Under a local ordinance, the ethics board has 60 days to conduct an initial review to determine if there’s enough evidence in the complaint to warrant a further investigation. The complaint could be dismissed or the board could set a hearing date to formally consider whether an ethics violation occurred.
Fisher is a local Republican activist who told East Cobb News that “I like Jerica and I don’t necessarily agree with how the maps were redrawn but this has been taken too far.”
East Cobb News has contacted Richardson and East Cobb resident Mindy Seger, the executive director of For Which is Stance, seeking comment.
Seger would say only that For Which It Stance “will not be commenting on the complaint at this time.”
East Cobb News also contacted Lynn Rainey, the attorney for the ethics board, who said Richardson has 30 days to respond to the complaint.
Richardson, a Democrat, was elected to a four-year term in 2020, succeeding longtime Republican Bob Ott, in a District 2 that included some of East Cobb and the Cumberland-Vinings area.
In 2021, she moved into a home off Post Oak Tritt Road, which at the time was located in her District 2.
The Cobb delegation, which had a one-Democrat majority, approved maps that would have kept Richardson in District 2. But that map was never voted on, as Cobb GOP legislators did an end-run around that longstanding courtesy.
Under Georgia law, Richardson would have had to move into the new District 2 by Dec. 31 of last year to run for re-election in 2024.
After the commission Democrats voted in October to file the county delegation maps with the state, Birrell and fellow Republican commissioner Keli Gambrill objected, saying those maps are unconstitutional.
Gambrill suggested then that Richardson recuse herself, citing a conflict of interest.
Richardson didn’t respond to those concerns, and said before the second vote that “this is beyond partisanship. This is about the balance of power among all 159 counties and the state General Assembly. This ensures that future state and federal politics won’t play a role in our local government’s daily operations.”
Earlier this month, Birrell and Gambrill tried to abstain from voting at the commission’s first meeting when they were told the county maps would be in force. They left the dais after an executive session and as Chairwoman Lisa Cupid threatened to have them escorted away by security, saying board policies didn’t allow them to abstain without a “valid” conflict.
On Tuesday, the two Republican commissioners cast votes but issued statements of protest and disputed the Jan. 10 meeting minutes saying they voted to go into executive session when they insisted they had not.
East Cobb resident Larry Savage is expected to refile a lawsuit soon in Cobb Superior Court challenging the county’s home rule stance.
The same year, Savage filed ethics complaints against the four Cobb commissioners who voted for the stadium deal, but those were also dismissed.
The only commissioner not subject to that complaint was Cupid, then a district commissioner for South Cobb.
In defending the vote to approve Cobb delegation maps instead of the state-approved maps in October, Cupid said “this is not something that we can just move past . . . this is not something that we can just take lying down.’
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The Taste of East Cobb will be back at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church May 6 for its annual food festival to benefit the Walton High School band programs.
The event (basic info here), sponsored by the Walton Band Parent Association, lasts from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the South parking lot of the church (955 Johnson Ferry Road) rain or shine.
In addition to food samplings from local restaurants and eateries, the Taste of East Cobb includes live jazz music—from the Walton band students, of course—a kids’ fun zone, sand art and face painting, products and services from other local businesses and vendors, a silent auction and the “Best of Taste of East Cobb” voting competition.
(Last year’s food winners included Smallcakes at The Avenue East Cobb and McCray’s Tavern at Parkaire Landing.)
Event admission is free and food tickets cost $1 each.
The Taste of East Cobb is accepting applications for restaurants, vendors and sponsors, with the latter ranging between $750 and $5,000.
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The following food scores for the week of Jan. 23 have been compiled by the Cobb & Douglas Department of Public Health. Click the link under each listing for inspection details:
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!
The Cobb County School District announced this week that Walton High School student Catherine Kexuan Jiao has been named one of the top 300 teenage scientists in the nation in the Regeneron Science Talent Search 2023.
In a release, the district said Jiao, a senior, will receive $2,000 and Walton will be awarded $2,000 for having a Society for Science scholar (full list here).
Her project was “The Implications of Smart Tip Nudging: A Data-Driven Behavioral Economic Study.”
Jiao was selected from an initial group of nearly 2,00 students from across the country “based on their outstanding research, leadership skills, community involvement, commitment to academics, creativity in asking scientific questions and exceptional promise as STEM leaders demonstrated through submitting their original, independent research projects, essays, and recommendations,” according to the district release.
The Society for Science, founded in 1921, fosters the expansion of scientific literacy, STEM education and scientific research.
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. has been a sponsor of the science talent search, which dates back 82 years, since 2017.
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As we have noted before (including last week with the forthcoming Westfield Tavern), restaurants and bars in Cobb have to take a few extra steps to get an alcohol pouring license if they come up against distance requirements in the county ordinance.
The Righteous Que barbecue restaurant at the Piedmont Commons Shopping Center has been open since 2012, and in December applied for a beer and wine license (it’s closed on Sundays).
As usual, the Cobb Business License Division denied the application, because the restaurant at 1050 E. Piedmont Road is less than 300 feet from a residence and less than 600 feet from the McCleskey Family-East Cobb YMCA, which is considered a park and subject to that distance requirement.
If an applicant appeals, that is heard by the Board of License Review, which is an appointed body that typically issues a reversal unless there is opposition or other circumstances.
There wasn’t opposition to the Righteous Que liquor license, and during the Jan. 5 appeal hearing the restaurant’s attorney said the plans are to serve beer and wine only, with customers taking their drinks to their tables after ordering, and that there will not be a bar.
Righteous Que’s opening hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday-Saturday. The attorney said that employees are being trained to check identification of customers at the time of beer and wine purchases, and that 90 percent of the business is expected to come from food sales.
“Additionally, the premises has been licensed in the past and granting a license now will not adversely affect on the residents or YMCA,” the restaurant stated as part of the appeal.”
Righteous Que moved into space that previously had been a Mexican restaurant and said that employees found to have violated the underage sales ordinance will be immediately terminated.
The review board reversed the denial 5-0, with the final say going to the Cobb Board of Commissioners, who approved the reversal Tuesday on their consent agenda.
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Two weeks after being removed from the meeting dais after trying to abstain, the two Republican members of the Cobb Board of Commissioners cast votes on Tuesday.
But they did so under protest, introducing formal statements that they wanted read into the record before every vote, reiterating their objection to reapportionment maps passed by the board’s Democratic majority the Republicans say are unconstitutional and illegal.
Republicans Keli Gambrill and JoAnn Birrell also challenged the accuracy of the minutes of the Jan. 10 meeting—most of which they watched from the back of the room—saying that a meeting video did not properly convey the details of an executive session that had been called, and that they say falsely recorded the two Republicans as casting a vote to go into executive session when they did not.
“The clerk has us voting when we did not vote,” Gambrill said, adding that in her first term in office, she couldn’t recall not voting to approve meeting minutes.
Chairwoman Lisa Cupid also asked Gambrill and Birrell to vote again on the first vote of the meeting, for a swimming pool construction permit, for which they initially tried to abstain. A nearly 29-minute recess ensued.
Board policies do not permit abstentions unless there is a valid financial conflict of interest. But a motion for another vote on the swimming pool item was not made after the meeting resumed. When Birrell and Gambrill declined to vote, Cupid asked them to leave the dais and later asked for security to remove them.
At Tuesday night’s meeting, Gambrill asked for a forensic audit of the video to be conducted by an outside party, and for commissioners’ votes to be electronically recorded from now on.
In response, Cupid said that commissioners are responsible for the keeping of minutes and that the county clerk [Pam Mabry] is being unfairly burdened.
“It’s an unfortunate day when we bring it up in a public manner,” Cupid said, prompting some groans from the spectators, and later added that an attempt to “dress down our county clerk was disrespectful.”
Cupid said that there was “not complete sync with the communication on the dais with the recording. But the truth is still the truth. What the eyes saw cannot be unseen and the truth that occurred cannot be undone.”
Cupid said commissioners voted to go into executive session, and “if you did not believe that they should have not participated. I hope this never happens again.”
But Birrell, whose District 3 boundaries are in dispute, she also couldn’t vote for the minutes for the first time during her tenure, which just began a fourth term.
She said there were several discrepancies in the proposed minutes, and Cupid’s directive for them to leave the dais wasn’t recorded.
Birrell repeated Gambrill’s complaint that a vote that was recorded as 3-2 that she said was accurately a 3-0 vote.
“I’m not demeaning Pam,” Birrell said, referring to Mabry. “A lot of this was procedures that were taken that I don’t agree with.”
Her District 2 East Cobb colleague, Democrat Jerica Richardson, said she supported the minutes because “the statements in it are ones I recall.”
She also told Mabry that “your integrity is not in question.”
Tuesday’s votes to approve the Jan. 10 meeting minutes passed 3-2, with the Democrats voting in favor and the Republicans opposed.
Citizens spoke on both sides of the redistricting issue, which is expected to be resumed in Cobb Superior Court when East Cobb resident Larry Savage refiles a lawsuit that had been withdrawn, challenging the county maps.
Mindy Seger of East Cobb, who leads Richardson’s political action committee to stop the legislative maps, said the county’s home rule challenge is necessary because the legislature’s actions to ignore the Cobb delegation-drawn map sets “a dangerous precedent.”
Local maps, Seger said, “are local matters to be handled locally.”
But Marietta resident Leroy Emkin said speakers arguing on behalf of the county map “are missing the point.
“The point is the law. [Commission] district boundaries are voted on by the state legislature and signed into law by the governor. . . . At the present time it is clear that no county has the authority [to draw maps]. The law is the law.”
The last speaker of the night, Donald Barth of the Cloverdale Heights neighborhood in the city of Marietta, summed up the confusion of citizens who aren’t sure who their commissioner is.
He’s been redistricted before, from District 4 to District 2 and now to District 3—he thinks.
“Does anybody know where in the hell I belong?” Barth said. “Because Marietta don’t want me.”
At the end of the meeting, during commissioners’ remarks, Birrell read from a second prepared statement, saying that Cobb’s home rule challenge has “increased tensions” on the board.
She said she and her constituents in District 3 have been harmed, the latter by not knowing who their duly elected official is, even though she was re-elected in November under the state-approved maps that have been certified by the Cobb Board of Elections.
“If the amended [county] map is the law, what does that do to the voters of all the county? Please continue to pray for all of us.”
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