Cobb Commission Chaiirman Mike Boyce

Ott and Boyce give farewell remarks as Cobb commissioners

by

Ott Boyce farewell remarks

At the end of their final meetings last Tuesday on the Cobb Board of Commissioners, outgoing chairman Mike Boyce and retiring District 2 commissioner Bob Ott made some farewell remarks that you can watch in full below.

When we spoke with Ott a couple weeks back in his exit interview with East Cobb News, he said he was preparing some remarks, and they run about 20 minutes.

Although he didn’t always agree with Boyce on policy matters—especially a 2019 tax increase—Ott said of his fellow member of Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church that “I don’t know of anybody who pounded the pavement more than you did to get elected.”

“I want to thank you for all the time you’ve put into the county,” said Ott, a Republican who declined to seek a fourth term. 

To commissioner and chairwoman-elect Lisa Cupid, who defeated Boyce in last month’s elections, Ott said “you’re taking on a big role at a big time. I wish you all the best. . . . What I would say to you is, don’t forget your family. Family comes first.”

Cupid, who has represented District 4 in South Cobb the last eight years, is the mother of two sons who are being homeschooled. She will be sworn in Jan. 7. 

Ott also presented a special gift to District 3 commissioner JoAnn Birrell of Northeast Cobb, a copy of the original Mabry Park master plan.

Birrell was a driving force behind the creation of the park, which opened in 2019, and by then was located in Ott’s District 2. 

“I won’t miss all the phone calls and e-mails,” said Ott, who will be succeeded by Democrat Jerica Richardson, who will be sworn in Dec. 31. “It’s amazing how many you can all write.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIITA05gNnk&feature=youtu.be

Boyce, an East Cobb resident who first ran for chairman in 2012, defeated incumbent Tim Lee in a 2016 Republican runoff.

He opened his remarks by thanking the county government staff, saying the board “is not the face of this county.” He mentioned in particular Dr. Janet Memark, director of Cobb and Douglas Public Health, and her staff, for their efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We just really need to do the right thing here,” Boyce said. “Wear a mask, wash your hands and watch your distance. We must take responsibility for each other.”

A retired Marine Corps colonel, Boyce said of his first stint in public office that “this was the fastest four years of my life. That tells me that what we did together was fun. If it’s a bad time you can count every minute. 

“I focused every single day on what I thought was best for the people of this county. The message I want to leave is with this board. I hope that you’ll take some time to appreciate what you have done this year. You have been extraordinary.”

Referencing the board’s distribution of $132 million in federal CARES Act funding to help those affected by COVID-related closures, he told his fellow commissioners that “you have represented the best of what it is not just to be an elected official but what it is to be an American and a compassionate human.”

The board authorized spending to help small businesses retain employees, for mortgage and rental assistance, for food distribution and to aid county non-profits.

“This has been the challenge of a generation and probably a century and you have stepped up to the plate,” Boyce said. 

Related content

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

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!

 

Related coverage

 

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!

Commissioners pressed to ‘take action’ now to address Cobb public safety ‘crisis’

by

As the organizer of annual dinners to honor Cobb public safety personnel, Susan Hampton is now taking an active role to appreciate them far beyond giving them one special evening out of the year.

Susan Hampton, Cobb public safety crisis
Susan Hampton speaking at a town hall meeting at the Sewell Mill Library on March 4. (ECN file)

Over the last month or so, the East Cobb resident has shown up at all but one of Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce’s 14 budget town hall meetings to speak about what she and others have said is a “crisis” in staffing, pay, benefits and retention for county police, firefighters, EMS personnel and sheriff’s deputies.

She worked up a flyer to hand out to citizens at the town hall meetings, fraught with warnings about how Cobb is struggling to fill many openings, and is losing experienced personnel to other jurisdictions.

Related story

On Tuesday, she and more than a dozen citizens and Cobb public safety employees demanded that the Cobb Board of Commissioners act quickly not just to improve pay and benefits, but to get more aggressive in filling those vacancies, especially in a competitive market for experienced public safety workers in metro Atlanta.

“Each of you says public safety is number one and you are committed to solving the problem,” she told commissioners at their packed meeting in downtown Marietta.

“Then you say you’re only one vote . . . The problem is 10 years old, and it’s getting worse.”

She noted that already in 2019, 25 police officers have resigned or will be leaving soon, and “at this rate, we will lose over 100 officers this year. . . . There is a public safety crisis in Cobb County.”

Hampton, a vice president at the Fidelity Bank branch on Johnson Ferry Road, is co-chair of the East Cobb Business Association’s annual dinner for officers in East Cobb’s Precinct 4, as well as for the entire Cobb Fire and Emergency Services Department.

Cobb public safety crisis
Hampton’s flyer spelling out public safety staffing, salary and retention concerns. Click here for larger view.

Most of her community activism is with ECBA, as well as the East Cobb Lions Club, and other organizations. She’s also a former East Cobb Citizen of the Year for her long-time civic leadership.

“I’m just a concerned citizen that loves Cobb County,” she said.

On Tuesday, she urged commissioners to use some of the $10 million she estimated in pay and benefits that’s available from 211 current openings “immediately” for pay increases, retirement and retention bonuses, and other initiatives to address staffing issues.

She also advocated the creation of a special taxing district for police that’s similar to how Cobb Fire is funded.

“If the city of Atlanta” can address some its public safety staffing concerns, Hampton said, to a rousing chorus of laughter in the room from many of those in uniform, “then why can’t Cobb County?”

Af the end of the meeting, Commissioner Bob Ott of District 2 in East Cobb acknowledged Hampton, telling the public safety employees on hand that “she has been out there advocating for you.”

In recent weeks, those concerned about public safety staffing have spoken out to the commissioners, but Tuesday’s turnout was the strongest yet, as a formal budget proposal for fiscal year 2020 is pending.

Some expressed frustration that the while the budget reflected public cries to enhance library hours and expand greenspace, public safety issues have been overshadowed.

Steven Gaynor, head of the Cobb chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police, said every area of the police department is understaffed, but Precinct 4 in East Cobb “is the least-staffed,” with eight officers for 10 beats.

He said Cobb Police can’t wait for the upcoming fiscal year 2020 budget process to address the shortages, and called for “emergency action now.”

Matt Babcock, who lives in District 3 in Northeast Cobb, had been a Cobb firefighter for 10 years until he resigned last month, because he needs “a better paycheck and retirement.” He said “chronic short staffing,” including 80 current open positions, “is a danger to the county.”

He said many engines are staffed with three and not the recommended four firefighters. Many of his former colleagues, Babcock said, “are not sticking around because they don’t see there’s a future in Cobb.”

Cobb budget town hall, Mike Boyce
Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce’s fiscal year 2019 budget calls for the hiring of additional police officers, but more are leaving than can be replaced. (ECN file)

East Cobb attorney Lance LoRusso, who represents many law enforcement officers, told commissioners that in spite of numerous calls in recent years to address public safety staffing issues, “your responses have been weak and demonstrate a lack of leadership.”

Ott and other commissioners addressed the dozen or so speakers and said they’re working to address the staffing concerns but don’t have a specific solution for the moment.

“We hear you, we hear your concerns,” said commissioner JoAnn Birrell of District 3 in Northeast Cobb. “We have made improvements over the years, but it’s not enough. We’re working on options to come forward in the near future.”

Boyce took exception to LoRusso’s comments, and said voting to improve parks and library services doesn’t mean commissioners don’t care about public safety.

“To say that this board doesn’t care is offensive,” Boyce said. “We do care. . . You are a voice. You are here tonight because deep down you know we are going to fix the problem.”

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

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!

Cobb Forward transportation town halls include two locations in East Cobb

by

Eric Meyer, Cobb Forward transportation town halls
Eric Meyer, Cobb DOT’s planning division manager, recently outlined the Comprehensive Transportation Plan process at the Sewell Mill Library. (ECN photos)

In April and May several town halls will take place for what’s known as Cobb Forward—the county’s comprehensive transportation plan (CTP) for 2050.

It’s a joint effort involving Cobb County government and its counterparts in the county’s six municipalities. A CTP was last done in 2015, but a number of developments since then have led to calls to create a new transportation vision for the county.

They include a referendum for expanding transit and the county government’s next SPLOST referendum in 2022.

Two of those CTP meetings will take place in East Cobb:

  • Thursday, April 18, 6:30-8:30 p.m., East Cobb Library, 4880 Lower Roswell Road;
  • Tuesday, May 7, 7-9 p.m., East Cobb Senior Center, 3332 Sandy Plains Road.

The purpose of the Cobb Forward meetings, per the county, is to develop a series of project lists, some of which would be funded with SPLOST sales tax revenues.

Transit recommendations also will come out of the countywide meetings this spring, some to be included in the new Atlanta Transit Link Authority (The ATL), which includes a 13-county area.

The Cobb meetings also will get underway in the aftermath of a referendum Tuesday in Gwinnett, where voters will decide on whether to join MARTA.

Cobb and Gwinnett were notable holdouts when the the MARTA system was created in the early 1970s and which serves Atlanta, Fulton and DeKalb counties.

At a recent Cobb budget town hall meeting at the Sewell Mill Library, Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce answered questions about some of transit and transportation issues.

He’s seeking legislation this year to allow Cobb to push back a transit referendum to 2022. That vote would decide whether a special transit district would be created out of a portion of the county (South Cobb) or all of it.

That referendum, if approved, would add a penny sales tax in Cobb earmarked for transit funding.

Mike Boyce
Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce

Cobb voters also will be deciding on SPLOST extension in 2020 for a new collection period beginning in 2022. The current SPLOST, which includes funding for transportation and other capital improvements, ends Dec. 31, 2021.

That’s a six-cent sales tax. Four cents go to the state, another is earmarked for Cobb and Marietta schools and the other for county government.

Boyce said an extension would be shorter.

“It won’t be six years,” he said. “I support four years, [Cobb] mayors like five years. This county is doing so well that in six years, we’re going to have a lot of money laying around. You don’t want to do that with politicians around.”

While the SPLOST process is relatively straightforward, hammering out potential transit options figures is more involved.

“It’s going to be long and complicated,” Boyce said.

A county transit survey that was released late last year indicated that a majority of Cobb voters would approve of an additional penny tax for transit expansion. That includes East Cobb, where the only CobbLinc bus line runs down Powers Ferry Road.

Like the SPLOST referendum, the transit referendum also will include a detailed project list and public hearings on what may constitute a future transit plan, said Eric Meyer, the Cobb DOT’s planning division manager.

“Tell us what you will support,” he said. “That’s why this is going to take three years.”

Among the transportation options for Cobb are bus rapid transit, rapid bus, heavy rail and light rail. The financing options could be joining MARTA, connecting with MARTA, expanding service with the sales tax mentioned above, or maintaining the status quo.

The other Cobb Forward town hall schedule this spring is as follows:

  • Wednesday, April 10, 7-9 p.m., West Cobb Senior Center, 4915 Dallas Highway;
  • Wednesday, April 17, 7-9 p.m., Smyrna Community Center, 200 Village Green Circle;
  • Monday, April 29, 7-9 p.m., Cobb Senior Wellness Center, 1150 Powder Springs St.;
  • Tuesday, April 30, 7-9 p.m., Threadmill Complex, 5000 Austell Powder Springs Road;
  • Thursday, May 2, 7-9 p.m.,  Acworth Community Center, 4361 Cherokee St.;
  • Wednesday, May 8, 7-9 p.m., Ben Robertson Community Center, 2753 Watts Drive;
  • Thursday, May 9, 7-9 p.m., South Cobb Community Center, 620 Lions Club Drive.

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

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!

Boyce repeats no tax increase pledge for Cobb 2020 budget

by

Boyce offered a “State of the County” address to the East Cobb Business Association members at their January luncheon Tuesday. (ECN photo: Wendy Parker)

In sharpening his fiscal year 2020 budget proposal he’ll take around the county starting this spring, Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce said Tuesday that he’s adamant he won’t be asking for a tax increase.

He also wants to give all county employees a pay raise, open all library branches on Sunday, begin drawing down the amount of money transferred from Cobb water system revenues and eliminate senior fees that were imposed during a contentious budget process in 2018.

And how to pay for all this without raising taxes?

“The county is on fire,” Boyce told East Cobb News Tuesday afternoon after addressing the East Cobb Business Association monthly luncheon at the Olde Towne Athletic Club.

That was a reference to a growing tax digest—2018 was a record year for that, at $36.7 billion—and what he said was the beginning of restoring some county services that had been cut back since the recession.

In order to do that, however, Boyce got an increase of 1.7 mills for the general fund, which pays for most county government expenses.

It was a grueling process, as he conducted a number of town hall meetings and got his $454 million general fund budget, but only by a 3-2 margin. His fellow East Cobb residents, commissioners Bob Ott and JoAnn Birrelll, voted against him.

But the additional funding closed what he said was a $30 million deficit and enabled the hiring of more police officers and road work crews, and the opening of regional libraries on Sunday.

His remarks were similar to those he made last week to the Cobb Chamber of Commerce. Boyce doesn’t have a formal budget proposal yet, and some details—such as how big an employee pay raise may be—also haven’t been included.

But he said he’s confident growth in the tax digest in 2019 would enable the county to continue adding services without a millage hike.

“I made a promise last year that I wouldn’t do it [in 2020],” he said, adding that the county is still finding other budget savings.

He received applause for that sentiment, as well as expanding library hours, additional nature trail acquisitions and the purchase of greenspace (including part of the Tritt property next to East Cobb Park).

Boyce also outlined for the ECBA audience of around 100 members and guests a number of business developments, including development around SunTrust Park, which will open its third season as the Atlanta Braves home venue in April.

The stadium, partly financed by the county—and with an annual general fund cost of $8.6 million—has been the magnet for so much more than that. The Battery Atlanta mixed-use project developed by the Braves has become a year-round hub of commercial, retail, restaurant and entertainment activity that’s attracting more business growth.

“Forget the stadium, it’s The Battery that’s driving development,” Boyce said. “It’s sparked a halo effect in the Cumberland CID area and beyond.”

He also predicted that the county would begin recouping that $8.6 million budget investment “sooner than I thought,” but didn’t offer a prediction of when that might be.

Looking ahead to 2019, Boyce said transit and transportation issues will loom larger. The county conducted a transit survey that was released in December that indicated that nearly 60 percent of respondents would support a sales tax for new projects.

(Read the Cobb DOT Transit Survey Summary here).

Before any transit options are decided, there will be town hall meetings and a likely referendum in 2021.

As for the next Cobb budget, Boyce said a total of 16 town halls coming in March and April—including two a day in some cases—will seek taxpayer feedback as was done last year.

“I just want you to enjoy your life,” Boyce said. “Cobb is in as good a place as it’s ever been.”

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

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!

Cobb 2020 budget outline: No tax hike; employee pay raise; end senior fees

by

Cobb 2020 budget outline
Cobb seniors gave Mike Boyce an earful last year for his proposals to impose fees at county senior centers. (ECN file)

As we posted yesterday, Cobb Commission chairman Mike Boyce is outlining his priorities for the county’s fiscal year 2020 budget.

At his State of the County remarks Monday morning at the Cobb Chamber of Commerce breakfast, Boyce offered his general priorities, but didn’t offer many specifics.

Among them is no tax increase, following last year’s hike of 1.7 mills in the current $454 million FY 2019 budget that runs through October.

He also wants to offer all county employees a pay raise and to reduce the amount of Cobb Water Department revenues transferred to the county general fund budget from 10 percent to nine percent.

Also on his wish list is expanding Sunday public library hours to all branches and eliminating membership and user fees for senior services that were imposed in 2018.

Last month, the leader of the county senior citizens council asked that those fees be reconsidered.

Another proposal will call for additional public health spending to address opioid addiction and neo-natal deaths.

In his remarks to the Chamber, which he previewed in this video presentation, Boyce explained what additional services county government provided in what he called a “restoration budget.” (His remarks about the budget come around the 15:20 mark).

Boyce didn’t indicate how much his priorities would cost, or how they would be paid for without another tax increase.

Town hall meetings about the budget will take place in June and July, with final adoption expected in late July.

“I’m very optimistic about the future of Cobb,” he said in the video. “Yes, we have challenges, but they’re ones that can be confidently addressed by our county staff and board of commissioners.”

Boyce will be speaking to the East Cobb Business Association on Jan. 15 and to the East Cobb Civic Association on Jan. 30.

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

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!

 

 

Cobb State of the County address highlights Chamber breakfast

by

Cobb State of the County Address, Mike Boyce

Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce will give the annual “State of the County” address Monday at the Cobb Chamber of Commerce’s Monday breakfast meeting.

The breakfast starts at 7:30 a.m. at the Cobb Galleria Centre (info and tickets here), and Boyce’s comments can be seen in their entirety at this link later Monday.

The State of the County is an annual tradition for the chairman. Boyce, an East Cobb resident, begins his third year in office after commissioners voted narrowly last year to approve a property tax increase.

Boyce has defended this as a “restoration budget” to add services that had been reduced since the recession. Those include hiring more police officers and equipping them with body camera, Sunday library hours and hiring road work crews.

His East Cobb colleagues, Bob Ott and JoAnn Birrell, voted against that tax hike, and starting this month they will be joined by a new commissioner, Keli Gambrill of North Cobb, who also campaigned against the increase.

She defeated Bob Weatherford, who cast the deciding vote for the tax increase and defended his vote after his election loss.

At a budget retreat last month, Boyce indicated he will not be seeking a millage increase for the fiscal year 2020 budget.

Boyce also will be speaking at the East Cobb Business Association breakfast on Jan. 15. Tickets and info can be found here.

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

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!

Cobb tax increase, $454 million budget approved for FY 2019 in close vote

by

Mike Boyce, Cobb tax increase
Cobb commission chairman Mike Boyce took his call for a property increase to citizens for several months, including town hall meetings this summer. (East Cobb News file photo)

After more than three hours of public speakers and comments from commissioners, a Cobb tax increase was approved Wednesday night.

The Cobb Board of Commissioners voted 3-2 to approve a property tax hike of 1.7 mills and a fiscal year budget of $454 million for the general fund.

Chairman Mike Boyce, who said he was staking his political future on the outcome, got everything he wanted.

In addition to getting the vote of South Cobb commissioner Lisa Cupid, the only Democrat on the five-member board, he also got the vote of Republican Bob Weatherford, who as it turned out may have sacrificed his political future in the process.

Bob Ott and JoAnn Birrell, who represent East Cobb in Districts 2 and 3, respectively, voted against the budget and the millage rate increase.

While Ott said he wouldn’t support an increase without spending cuts that weren’t presented, Birrell said she would have been in favor of a hike of 1.2 or 1.3 mills but nothing more.

Weatherford, defeated in his re-election bid Tuesday night in a Republican runoff in North Cobb’s District 1 by an anti-tax increase opponent, proved to be the swing vote.

He said after reflecting on his big loss (59-41 percent to Keli Gambrill) that he naturally wondered what had gone wrong.

“It’s what I did right that people didn’t like,” said Weatherford, who will have served only one term. “I made the hard choices and did what I said I would do.”

He said that he’s been threatened and even challenged to a fistfight for his calls for a lesser tax increase than what passed.

“The only thing I’m running for now is the hills, but I do not want to leave the county worse than than when I got here,” he said.

“So I completely support this.”

With that, loud applause broke out in the commissioners’ meeting chambers.

Related stories

But plenty of citizens spoke against a tax increase, saying the county had a spending problem and wasn’t looking for efficiencies.

The 1.7 mills would push the general fund rate to 8.46 mills, generate around $47 million in additional revenue, and go beyond solving what Boyce has said is a projected $30 million deficit for FY 2019. The extra funds include $15 million more for public safety and the restoration of some Sunday library hours.

East Cobb residents Debbie Fisher and Jan Barton, vigorously opposed to a tax hike, continued to dispute the severity of the deficit.

Pamela Reardon, an East Cobb realtor and 1st vice chair of the Cobb Republican Party, which passed a resolution Tuesday against a tax increase, said the county must “learn to live within its means,” especially with a record county tax digest in 2018.

Another East Cobb resident, retiree Frank Maleski, recited a long list of taxes he pays and said “I can’t afford to pay for any more government.”

Other East Cobb residents were adamant in support of a tax hike.

One of them is attorney Lance LoRusso, who represents Cobb public safety personnel. The budget will fund 23 more police officer positions as well as vehicles and body cameras.

Commissioner Bob Ott of East Cobb and District 2.

He worried that failing to provide resources to police officers and sheriff’s deputies would prompt existing personnel to look elsewhere for better opportunities.

Another is JoEllen Smith, who ran as Republican for a legislative seat in East Cobb in 2013. She said she estimated her tax bill would go up by around $200 a year, or $16 a month. The weekly boost of around $4, she told commissioners, amounted to a cup of coffee.

“I’d give up a Starbucks so police can have whatever the hell they want,” said Smith, who apologized for her language.

In lengthy prepared remarks, Ott outlined many reasons for voting for any tax increase at all, including the fact that many of the services that were listed as possible cost savings—including parks, libraries and the Cobb animal services program—were not included in Boyce’s budget.

He likened this budget to the 2016 Cobb government SPLOST, which he said had a lot of “wants” but not much in the way of “needs.”

He also advocated that the county consider a regional library concept to consolidate branches that are little-used.

While “nothing on my list is absolute,” Ott said the county has to grapple with growing concerns like employee pensions and pay increases, especially when “the tax digest is the highest it’s ever been.”

Boyce, a Republican from East Cobb who’s been vilified in the Marietta paper in the days leading up to the vote, said “I didn’t have to do the town halls. But I believe in the people in this county. This is how I govern. I talk to you. I want you to tell us what’s on your mind.”

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

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!

Commissioners to citizens on proposed Cobb property tax increase: ‘We hear you’

by

A proposed Cobb property tax increase prompted some feisty comments from citizens Tuesday night at a public hearing before county commissioners.

Cobb tax increase
Commissioner JoAnn Birrell said she and her colleagues “are still looking at everything” while deciding on the FY 2019 Cobb budget. (East Cobb News file photo)

A good number of those speaking were East Cobb citizens, both in favor of a millage rate increase and against it.

Commissioners also offered extended comments the week before they have to approve a fiscal year 2019 general fund budget and millage rate.

“It’s very close right now,” said JoAnn Birrell, who represents District 3 in Northeast Cobb and who said she is reading everything she gets from citizens on the budget. “I’m hearing you.”

Cobb commission chairman Mike Boyce is proposing a $453 million budget, a hike of nearly 13 percent from the current $405 million FY 2018 budget.

Some citizens suggested a smaller tax increase than his proposed hike of 1.7 mills, which would yield close to $50 million in new revenues.

Boyce’s budget (click for PDF version here) would restore some services to pre-recession levels, including partial Sunday library hours and for Cobb DOT maintenance. It also would fund new police officer positions and purchase body cameras for public safety personnel.

The FY 2019 budget deficit was projected to be $30 million at the current 6.76 mills. Last week, Boyce concluded a series of town hall meetings around the county at the Sewell Mill Library, and his budget proposal got mixed reviews there.

On Tuesday, citizens brought up Braves stadium financing, the county employee pension plan, transit, non-profit funding and other spending and budget issues.

East Cobb residents Jan Barton and Debbie Fisher, vocal opponents of a tax increase, pointed out that the 1.7-mills increase is to pay for the current FY 2018 budget, not the new budget that takes effect in September.

Related stories

“Would you prepay your credit card with $47 million for what you’re going to get next year?” Fisher asked, showing a graphic claiming that the increase would pay for “slush funds and uncontrolled spending.”

She said that no more than an additional 0.23 mills in property tax revenues is needed.

“Animal control, parks and libraries, we all love those,” Fisher said, in reference to categories of possible spending cuts that have been made public. “But I’m not a one-issue voter.”

Northeast Cobb resident Larry Long, who lives in the Mountain View area and is member of Cobb Master Gardeners, supports a tax increase, saying it’s an investment in the county’s future.

“We’ve invested our tax money wisely,” he said. “I don’t want us to go backwards.”

Sarah Mitchell, president of the Mountain View Arts Alliance, said The Art Place is heavily used, including its theater facilities for CenterStage North productions, but still doesn’t have Friday hours due to pre-recession cutbacks.

“It’s hard to sell tickets if you’re closed on Friday,” she said.

Cobb tax increase
Cobb commission chairman Mike Boyce said getting months of budget input from the public “makes us do our job better.” (East Cobb News file photo)

Thea Powell of Northeast Cobb, a former county commissioner, referred to some of the information presented at the town hall meetings as a “dog’s breakfast.”

Powell is Boyce’s appointee to the Cobb Planning Commission and served with him on a Cobb Citizen’s Oversight commission that made some budget recommendations in 2012.

However, she was piqued by a part of the “Cobb’s Budget Journey: How We Got Here” presentation related to “unexpected expenses” in county spending outlined in 2014.

The funding of SunTrust Park, approved the year before that, was “not unexpected,” she said. For that and other reasons, she said, the presentation should be renamed “How You Brought Us Here!”

Fran Mitchell, a longtime East Cobb resident, was adamantly against a tax increase, saying “I would like to see some cuts before you decide to raise the millage rate.” She asked commissioners to “make us fiscally responsible again.”

Judi Wilcher, president of of the Cobb Association of Realtors, said a tax increase is necessary  “to maintain our quality of life.” She proposed an increase that’s “closer to 1.1 mills” and that would include some library consolidations and reducing five percent of the county work force over three years through attrition.

An increase between those two figures appears to be likely when commissioners finalize the budget. Boyce, of East Cobb, can count on South Cobb commissioner Lisa Cupid, who emphatically argued that a 1.7-mills hike didn’t go far enough.

Bob Ott, of District 2 in East Cobb, has wanted to see more spending cuts proposed. At the end of Tuesday’s hearing, he said “I have a concern about going all the way to 1.7.”

Birrell, who said the budget can’t be balanced on spending cuts alone, expressed a similar sentiment. “A compromise is going to be the best solution,” she said.

North Cobb commissioner Bob Weatherford, who is in a Republican runoff next Tuesday against Keli Gambrill, a tax-increase opponent, said that a figure between 1.1 mills and 1.7 mills “is where we ought to be.”

The final millage rate and budget hearings are next Wednesday at 7 p.m., followed by adoption.

“We’re not done yet,” Boyce said. “We hear you.”

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

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!

At tense Cobb budget retreat commissioners haggle over millage rate, spending cuts

by

Cobb budget retreat
East Cobb commissioners Bob Ott (left) and JoAnn Birrell (right) wouldn’t support Chairman Mike Boyce’s call for a property tax increase of 1.1 mills at Tuesday’s budget retreat at the Cobb Civic Center. (East Cobb News photos by Wendy Parker)

One of the objectives laid out before a Cobb budget retreat on Tuesday was for county commission chairman Mike Boyce to “leave . . . with clear direction from the board.”

That board, the four district members of the Cobb Board of Commissioners, provided him with nearly everything but that in a three-hour meeting at the Cobb Civic Center. Instead, Boyce left openly frustrated as he begins a series of budget town hall meetings next week, starting Monday at the East Cobb Senior Center.

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

He’s proposed a millage rate increase he says will close a $30 million budget deficit that’s projected for fiscal year 2019. During the retreat, told the commissioners “if we want to keep what we have, the bill is 1.1 mills,” a reference to his recommendation to raise the general fund millage rate.

Revealed earlier are draft lists of possible closures of libraries, parks and other “desired” services that have galvanized public pleas to preserve them, and in some cases, by raising taxes.

Here’s a Cobb Budget Journey interactive the county has released to provide background on the budget and millage history in recent years.

Related stories

Commissioners picked away at a number of budget expenses, such as the cost of new police vehicles, transferring operating costs for the Cobb Safety Village to the Cobb Fire Department and proposed Sunday library hours, unwilling to give Boyce an unqualified yes vote.

Bob Weatherford of West Cobb, who is in a runoff election the day before the budget is to be adopted in July, told Boyce that “you’re asking us to commit to something before we’ve had the town halls.”

Even South Cobb commissioner Lisa Cupid, his most reliable ally on the budget, wondered aloud about having town hall meetings to solicit more public feedback, since “every single e-mail references [full funding of libraries]. They’re telling us it’s a matter of priority.”

Boyce kept making the case that “I’d rather have something to take to the people.

Cobb budget retreat
“I have to pass a budget, but I also have to count votes,” Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce told commissioners at the retreat.

“What I’m asking the commissioners is to join me in this program,” he said. “I get it. You don’t want to stick your neck out. But this isn’t hard.

“It’s $30 million in an economy of billions,” Boyce said, his voice rising. “You would think we’re living in Albania! I just don’t understand.”

Near the end, Boyce said even if the tax rate went up two mills, it’s still lower than most other local governments in metro Atlanta.

“We owe it to the people of this county to continue this level of service,” he said, suggesting that if they couldn’t, headlines would read that they’re closing things like parks and libraries.

Some county government department heads and staffers in attendance loudly applauded when he said that. Boyce received even louder applause when he said:

“I will pay a huge political price. But I’m willing to pay it. I don’t want to live in a county that’s worse than when I came here.”

After the retreat, East Cobb commissioner Bob Ott told East Cobb News that he “heard some frustration” and credited Boyce with providing more budget details than what commissioners have received in past years. Ott has said for several months that he wants to see more proposed spending cuts before he’s willing to consider a tax increase.

He couldn’t support a millage rate increase on the spot “because I haven’t seen the cuts.

“A lot of what he asked for today we heard in October” at the commissioners’ previous retreat, Ott said.

Ott doesn’t support closing any parks or recreation facilities that were disclosed last week and contained on a draft list of possible options for budget reduction. They include Fullers Park and Fullers Recreation Center in East Cobb.

“I’m not going to support closing something that is heavily used,” Ott said.

District 3 commissioner JoAnn Birrell said that “I have no interest in closing parks.” Birrell, who is up for re-election in November, told East Cobb News she’s eager for the town hall meetings to get more citizens’ input before budget deliberations begin in July. She said she’s received many messages both in support of and against a tax increase.

The Mountain View Arts Alliance is asking members to fight to keep The Art Place open.

“We’re still looking at everything,” she said, adding that “shutting down” items on draft lists “won’t add up to $30 million.”

On the draft parks and recreation list in her Northeast Cobb district are the Mountain View Aquatic Center, the Mountain View Community Center and The Art Place.

The Mountain View Arts Alliance, a non-profit citizens’ group that provides support for The Art Place, has distributed a letter urging its members speak out at town hall meetings and contact their commissioners:

“Increasing the millage rate would provide the funds necessary to close the 30 million dollar budget gap. This money goes toward programs ranging from road maintenance to emergency services to libraries to the PARKS department, which encompasses The Art Place as well as dozens of recreation facilities and public parks.”

The MVAA is also asking its supporters to “please wear your brightest blue to show support at town hall meetings.”

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

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!

Projected Cobb budget deficit for FY 2019 grows to $30 million

by

A startling new figure was tossed out at the Cobb Board of Commissioners retreat earlier this week: a projected Cobb budget deficit of around $30 million.

The commissioners met in Austell Monday and Tuesday to get an early start on the fiscal year 2019 budget, a month into fiscal 2018, which they had to balance with $20.8 million in contingency funding.

Mike Boyce, tax millage increase
Cobb Commission chairman Mike Boyce. (East Cobb News file photo)

They discussed a wide variety of budget priorities and options, but made no decisions. The rise in the budget deficit projection is attributed to an increase in health care costs, among other expenses.

“We’re basically nine or ten months ahead of where we usually are when it comes to developing a budget for this county,” Cobb Commission chairman Mike Boyce said in a statement Tuesday. “Today we’ve done something that hasn’t been done in the past as far as having something in October for a fiscal year that starts ten months from now.”

Boyce said the information and perspectives offered at the retreat will assist in formulating a budget proposal by early next year.

He said he will schedule town hall meetings around the county next spring, similar to what he did this summer with a proposed property tax millage rate that was ultimately rejected by the commissioners.

The Cobb government fiscal year budget runs from Oct. 1-Sept. 30, and commissioners set the millage late late in the budget process, in August.

Commissioners voted not to raise the millage rate this year, including East Cobb commissioner Bob Ott and JoAnn Birrell.

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

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!

Cobb commissioners set public hearing dates for fiscal year 2018 budget

by

A contentious process over setting the county property tax millage rate has just ended for the Cobb Board of Commissioners, and a new budget process is about to begin.

The commissioners will hold public hearings as they begin work on the fiscal year 2018 budget, which takes effect Oct. 1.

Mike Boyce, tax millage increase
Cobb Commission chairman Mike Boyce will soon deliver his first budget proposal. (East Cobb News photo by Wendy Parker)

The budget will be formally presented during a special called work session at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 15, and public hearings will take place during regular commission meetings at 7 p.m. on Aug. 22 and at 9 a.m. on Sept. 12, the date the budget is expected to be adopted.

All hearings and meetings will take place in the 2nd floor board meeting room in the Cobb BOC building, 100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta.

The budget proposal will be made available online, in the Cobb finance office, also located at 100 Cherokee St., and at the Cobb Superior Courthouse, 70 Haynes St., also in downtown Marietta.

Last month, the commission voted not to raise the 2017 millage rate, as Chairman Mike Boyce had proposed, after plenty of opposition from residents (see previous East Cobb News coverage here and here.)

The last-minute decision to keep the millage rate the same was engineered by East Cobb commissioner Bob Ott, who is holding his next town hall meeting on Aug. 17 at East Cobb Library.