Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr has said it’s his opinion that reapportionment maps passed by the Cobb Board of Commissioners drawing the boundaries for their own districts are “not legally binding.”
But he said his office cannot initiate a lawsuit under state law and would have to wait for a withdrawn lawsuit to be refiled on behalf of an East Cobb resident in order to take part.
Carr’s spokeswoman, Kara Richardson, sent out a brief statement Tuesday:
“It is the opinion of the Georgia Department of Law that the action taken by the Cobb Commission to pass an alternate map was inappropriate and not legally binding. As we have explained repeatedly to interested parties, Georgia law does not grant our Department the authority to initiate a lawsuit in the current situation. We will, however, not hesitate to engage when and where appropriate should a lawsuit be filed by the right party.”
Carr’s opinion is something that Republican commissioners JoAnn Birrell and Keli Gambrill have been seeking as the commission’s redistricting dispute has reached the courts.
East Cobb resident Larry Savage is a Republican former Cobb Commission Chairman candidate who filed a lawsuit in Cobb Superior Court to invalidate the county maps.
His suit was filed against Cobb Board of Elections director Janine Eveler and after a court hearing earlier this month his attorneys have said they will refile against the Cobb Board of Commissioners.
In October Birrell and Gambrill voted against maps approved by the commission’s three Democratic members that would keep one of them, Jerica Richardson of District 2 in East Cobb, in office.
Those maps were drawn by former State Rep. Erick Allen, then the Cobb legislative delegation chairman, but they were never voted on by the Georgia General Assembly.
The maps that were sponsored by Cobb GOP lawmakers and approved by the Republican-led legislature last year would have drawn Richardson out of her seat and into District 3, which would include most of East Cobb.
Richardson has two years remaining in her term and would have had to move into the new District 2 by Jan. 1 to remain in office.
But she said she would not step down or move, and she, chairwoman Lisa Cupid and commissioner Monique Sheffield vowed to challenge the GOP maps under Georgia’s home rule law.
Birrell and Gambrill have said Cobb’s maps are illegal, becuase the legislature is in charge of reapportionment, and opinions by the legislature’s Office of Legislative Counsel and the Georgia Secretary of State’s office reached the same conclusion.
In response to a request for comment from East Cobb News, Birrell said Tuesday that Carr’s “opinion just confirms the legislative counsel’s opinion and secretary of state’s opinion that the county map is illegal and unconstitutional. Leaves it up to the courts to decide.”
Cobb government spokesman Ross Cavitt said the county attorney’s office, which has said the county’s maps are in effect unless and until they are overturned in a court of law, isn’t commenting on Carr’s opinion.
Last week, the Republican commissioners tried to abstain from voting to protest the county maps and were ordered from the dais by Cupid.
Birrell, who was re-elected to a fourth term in November to represent District 3 with the boundaries approved by the legislature, said she’s “not comfortable” voting, not being sure which maps are valid.
She was told by the deputy county attorney that the county maps are the ones she should abide by and that legal opinions are only opinions until a court ruling.
Last Friday, Cupid issued a statement from Cobb County Attorney William Rowling that “even if a person has a good faith belief that a law is unconstitutional or invalid in some way, he or she is not at liberty to simply disregard a law based on that personal belief. Instead, that law must be followed unless and until it is struck down by a court of law.”
Richardson has said the home rule challenge may be unprecedented, but so are the legislature’s maps, which skirted typical courtesies to honor local delegation lines.
She started a political advocacy committee to address the issue, For Which It Stance, incorporated by the Georgia Secretary of State’s office as a 501(c)4 domestic non-profit organization, and whose executive director, Mindy Seger, led the East Cobb Alliance, which fought against the now-defeated East Cobb cityhood referendum.
East Cobb News has left messages with Richardson and Seger seeking comment as well as Jason Thompson, an attorney for Savage.
Allen, who unsuccessfully ran for Georgia lieutenant governor last year, is the new chairman of the Cobb County Democratic Committee.
Carr is a Republican re-elected to a second term last November.
Related:
- Cobb Republican commissioners leave meeting over absentions
- East Cobb resident files lawsuit over Cobb commission maps
- Cobb passes home rule resolution over redistricting in party-line vote
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