When he qualified as a candidate for Cobb County Commission Chairman for the first time in 2010, Larry Savage did so because he saw an incumbent who was unopposed in the Republican primary.
A decade later, Savage, a retired businessman and executive who lives in East Cobb, is running for a fourth time for the same reasons.
Before he jumped in again this year, only incumbent chairman Mike Boyce had qualified.
“The idea that Mike Boyce was heading to a second term without opposition was disappointing,” said Savage, who is one of three GOP candidates in the June 9 primary.
“There are a lot of things he’s done that people don’t like.”
Savage is one of two challengers to Boyce (profile here) in the June 9 primary, along with retired Cobb police officer Ricci Mason.
(Here’s Savage’s campaign website.)
In a 2010 special election, Savage pulled 38 percent of the vote against Lee, who was elected to fill the last two years of former chairman Sam Olens’ term. In a four-man GOP field in 2012, Savage was last with 10 percent, trailing Lee, Boyce and another former chairman Bill Byrne.
In 2016, Savage also got 10 percent, enough to force a runoff between Lee and Boyce.
Savage was especially critical of how Lee handled the Atlanta Braves deal, filing a lawsuit, later dismissed, over the bond financing for what is now Truist Park.
But he thinks Boyce has not been fiscally responsible.
“Paramount is the money part—spending has gone up $100 million since he took office,” Savage said. “Those are big numbers.”
He’s dubbing his campaign “The Savage Truth,” and claims to be the true conservative in the Republican primary.
“He is probably the most politically liberal person on the board,” Savage said, referring to Boyce, and including Lisa Cupid, who will face the Republican nominee for chairman in November.
“If you look at their records, it’s almost indistinguishable,” Savage said. “Both emerged with the idea that government can do things that I don’t think government should do.”
(On his campaign website, Savage has highlighted comments he made to a Cobb Republican caucus meeting in February: “Let’s not run our liberal Republican against their liberal Democrat.”)
More than anything, Savage said Boyce hasn’t handled the financial management of county government very well.
He disputes Boyce’s contention that he came into office with a $30 million deficit, thanks to a millage rate reduction by the board on the day Boyce defeated Lee in the 2016 runoff. “He overspent the budget he had and that created the hole.”
As for the 2018 millage rate increase that Boyce pushed through on a 3-2 vote, Savage said “that wasn’t just a little nudge. I think that that increase could have been smaller or not at all.”
On an initiative that Savage supports, better pay and retention for police officers and firefighters, he said Boyce ended up promising raises to many more employees than he first announced.
“He’s got a problem telling people we’ve got a lot in reserve,” Savage said, adding that situation is more acute now with economic losses due to COVID-19 closures.
“One of the glories of government is that nobody is losing their jobs,” he said. “At the very least, just stop hiring” until a more clarified budget and economic picture emerges.
Savage said if he’s elected he’d also defer purchasing some equipment and halt some non-essential maintenance projects until conducting a thorough budget review.
“You’ve got to look at every department,” he said.
Savage also has been critical of tax abatements issued by the Development Authority of Cobb County. In 2018, he filed suit to stop the issuance of bonds sought by Kroger for a superstore at the MarketPlace Terrell Mill project that’s in progress.
A judge agreed with Savage that the tax breaks for Kroger didn’t meet the authority’s definition of an essential project. But last summer, the Georgia Supreme Court upheld the bonds.
On broader development and zoning issues, Savage thinks the county land use plan isn’t followed like it should be, and he would work to limit high-density projects, including apartments in areas where single-family neighborhoods dominate.
The mixed-use trend that is being seeing in commercial areas like Powers Ferry Road is spreading to areas where he thinks it’s not compatible.
“Some parts of it I like, some I don’t like,” he said. “And when you have to address things like schools and traffic that add complexities to a development, it’s just turned zoning upside down.
“So many things about it contradict the zoning code, and it’s jumped in there all at once, without much of a debate or discussion.”
Savage acknowledged that Cobb is going to continue to attract development, “but what’s it going to be?”
He’s received endorsements from former Georgia GOP chairwoman Sue Everhart, a Cobb resident, and the Cobb County Republican Assembly, a group made up of fiscal and cultural conservatives.
Savage said he’s still running from a grassroots perspective, trying to appeal to those who favor low taxes and small government and are disenchanted with the incumbent.
“I have no natural constituencies, no big church or veterans groups behind me,” Savage said, referring to Boyce, a retired Marine colonel who attends Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church.
“People who got burned by Mike Boyce are backing me.”
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