Cobb budget cuts

Boyce: ‘No decisions’ have been made about Cobb budget cuts

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Mike Boyce, Cobb budget cuts
Cobb commission chairman Mike Boyce explained the budget situation to the East Cobb Business Association in January. (East Cobb News file photo)

A few hours before holding a budget retreat, Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce said Tuesday morning that no decisions have been made about how to close a projected $30 million deficit.

UPDATE: Cobb chairman proposes revised budget, keeping parks and libraries open

During a public comment session at the Board of Commissioners meeting, several East Cobb Boy Scouts asked that the Mountain View Aquatic Center and The Art Place not be closed.

Those facilities were included on a draft list prepared by the Cobb Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Department and made public last week. They outlined possible cost savings as options for balancing the budget and include several parks, pools and community centers around the county.

Also on the list are the Mountain View Community Center, Fullers Park and the Fullers Recreation Center in East Cobb.

“All that it is is a working document,” Boyce said, explaining that county department heads have been asked to be prepared to answer questions commissioners may have about the cost of individual facilities as they begin budget deliberations.

The retreat is taking place Tuesday afternoon at the Cobb Civic Center.

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Thus far, however, such options have been publicized only for senior services, libraries and parks and recreation. Also listed for possible elimination are the UGA Cobb Extension Service and Keep Cobb Beautiful.

Boyce had a town hall at the East Cobb Senior Center in January to hear from the public about fee increases at senior centers.

In February, a draft list of nearly $3 million in possible service cuts to the library system included the full closure of the East Cobb Library.

A formal budget proposal by Boyce has not been released as he prepares for several budget town hall meetings, starting next Monday at the East Cobb Senior Center. Another town hall will take place July 9 at the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center.

“If you think it’s hard for you, it’s hard for us,” Boyce told the scouts.

He said that during the budget town halls, “we are going to find out what we’re going to continue to fund” based on public feedback, with the goal of producing a budget that “reflects our conservative values.”

Boyce has suggested a 1.1-mills increase in the property tax rate that would cover the deficit. But East Cobb’s commissioners are cool to that. District 2’s Bob Ott said he wouldn’t support a hike without seeing considerable savings presented first. JoAnn Birrell of District 3, who is seeking re-election in November, said she isn’t in favor of a tax increase either.

The parks and recs draft list identified around $3.3 million in savings, and about a third of that, $1.1 million, is in Birrell’s Northeast Cobb district.

She also reminded the Boy Scouts that no decisions have been made and asked for their and other feedback at the town halls.

“We’d like to hear from you again,” she said.

An East Cobb resident whom commissioners have heard from often renewed her concerns about library cuts during the public comment period Tuesday.

Rachel Slomovitz, who organized the Save Cobb Libraries group, said she has more than 2,100 signatures on a petition, and pleaded with commissioners not to “take away the most elemental of services.”

She said Cobb could have “book deserts” if steep cuts are made, citizens will suffer from having few computers for job-hunting and students will lose additional learning resources outside school.

“When you take away a library, there are outcomes you cannot imagine,” said Slomovitz, who supports a tax increase to prevent library cuts.

“I am here also to ask why you don’t have the courage to do what’s right for Cobb. Why make Cobb citizens feel as though they are about to lose everything?”

The fiscal year 2019 budget is scheduled to be adopted on July 25, after the town halls and three public hearings.

 

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East Cobb Library proposed for closure due to county budget cuts

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East Cobb Library, Cobb budget cuts

What East Cobb Library advocates have feared for months has come to pass: Their branch, the second busiest in the Cobb County Public Library System, has been formally recommended for closure due to Cobb County government budget cuts.

UPDATE: Cobb chairman proposes revised budget, keeping parks and libraries open

Several months after Cobb commissioner JoAnn Birrell suggested closing the East Cobb Library, the branch is included on a proposed list of eight library closings or consolidations from the library system to the commissioners.

The Cobb library system has set up an “I Love My Library” page on its website with information about the draft budget proposal, submitted by library director Helen Poyer.

The other library branches that would be closed under the proposal include Kemp Memorial in West Cobb, Lewis A. Ray and Windy Hill in Smyrna, Sweetwater Valley in Austell and Sibley in Marietta. In addition, the Acworth and Kennesaw branches would be consolidated.

The proposed budget cuts also include the elimination of all part-time staff positions, and hours would be cut nearly in half, from the current 780 hours a week throughout the system to 424.

The proposed library cuts would total nearly $3 million, or about 25 percent of the system’s current fiscal year operating budget of $12 million.

Cobb County officials say they’re facing a fiscal year 2019 deficit of at least $30 million, and have been directing department heads to recommend cuts in services to balance the budget.

“We need to really fight, now that we’ve seen it in black and white,” said Rachel Slomovitz, who calls the East Cobb Library her “second home” and who has been a vocal library proponent.

The East Cobb Library got a reprieve for fiscal year 2018, but that came just as the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center was set to open on Lower Roswell Road. Commissioners temporarily delayed full funding of that expanded branch—formerly the East Marietta Library—until after the start of the fiscal year 2018 in October.

In December, Slomovitz started an online petition, seeking the support of 1,000 people for raising the millage rate to avoid library budget cuts. Thus far, that petition has more than 750 signatures.

In her petition, Slomovitz estimated that what she called a “minor” millage increase would result in a $25 a year increase in property taxes to fund libraries. Last week, she started a closed Facebook group called “Save Cobb Libraries” to provide information and urge other citizens to contact their elected officials.

The East Cobb Library costs around $770,000 in staffing and for other operations every year, but that doesn’t include an additional $263,000 in annual rental expenses.

The branch opened at the Parkaire Landing Shopping Center in 2010, after operating as the Merchants Walk Library. The cost of moving and relocating the branch was borne by the developers of Merchants Walk when that retail center was redeveloped.

“I always feared that East Cobb would be on the list” because the branch is leased, Slomovitz said, but she added that the situation is an opportunity for citizens to reinforce to commissioners what’s important to them.

She said she noticed that during recent town hall meetings on senior center fees that funding for the Atlanta Braves’ SunTrust Park was included on a “required” list, while libraries are on a “desired” list, along with senior services and parks and recreation.

“Why can’t the libraries be regarded as just as worthy?” Slomovitz said.

In early 2011, then-chairman Tim Lee proposed closing 13 of the 17 branches as the county faced deep budget cuts due to the recession.

It was a ploy to get commissioners to come to the cutting table and it worked, but also generated heated opposition from library patrons who packed the commissioners meeting chambers.

No branches were closed, but library hours were cut from 1,089.5 hours a week to the current 780 hours, and some programs and services were also reduced.

The new proposed closures come less than a month after county officials, including all five commissioners, participated in ribbon-cutting ceremonies at the new Sewell Mill branch, which has been declared “the library of the future.”

Current Cobb commission chairman Mike Boyce has wanted to get an early start on the FY 19 budget, which doesn’t go into effect until October. Budget adoption is in July.

But just as he heard from Cobb seniors about rising costs and a membership fee to use county senior centers, Boyce and commissioners are bracing for an earful from library supporters.

In addition to the Sewell Mill Library, the East Cobb area is served by the Mountain View Regional Library on Sandy Plains Road and Gritters Library, located near Canton Road and Piedmont Road.

The “I Love My Library” page reminds readers that the proposals are not final, and that there will be public comment periods at commission meetings to offer citizens a chance to have their say about the libraries, and the budget. The page also includes scheduled meeting dates over the next few months.

“We’ve saved the libraries before,” said Slomovitz, who admits she’s “scared” by the prospect of the East Cobb Library closing its doors for good. “If we did it once, we can do it again.”

 

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