Cobb commissioner Bob Ott Archives

Ott and Boyce give farewell remarks as Cobb commissioners

December 22, 2020 7:25 AM by Wendy Parker

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.”

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 coverage

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Ott critical of Cobb public safety step and grade proposal

October 22, 2019 1:22 PMOctober 22, 2019 12:20 PM by Wendy Parker

Cobb Police Recruiting Graphic — *A Cobb Police recruiting graphic drawn up after commissioners approved pay increases for public safety employees for FY 2020.*

After hearing a first draft of a proposed step and grade salary and promotion system for Cobb County public safety employees, commissioner Bob Ott Monday said the plan isn’t any better than what’s in place now.

The proposal calls for a salary increase for police officers, sheriff’s deputies, firefighters and other workers, and in increments with a three-percent raise as they move up in grade.

“I don’t see any difference,” said Ott, who represents District 2, which includes part of East Cobb, at a Monday commissioners’ work session. “There’s just a difference in the numbers.”

Cobb public safety officials worked up the new plan as the next step in a series of salary, retention and promotional incentives after commissioners approved the fiscal year 2020 budget with a seven-percent pay raise for many public safety employees.

They previously received a one-time bonus of $1,450 as a good faith gesture from commissioners during the budget process.

The additional funding came after months of public lobbying from public safety employees and citizens to pay public safety employees better, provide more recruiting incentives, and increase morale. Cobb public safety has significant staffing shortages, especially with police and the Sheriff’s Office.

Cobb Police, which has a shortage of around 80 officers, has been actively sending out recruiting messages on social media, posting signs around the county (including at the entrance to East Cobb Park) and conducting job fairs in north Georgia.

Step and grade is similar to what Cobb County School District employees receive—annual, incremental raises based on a combination of factors, including years of service, promotions and performance reviews.

The Cobb public safety step and grade draft would boost the starting salary for an entry-level police officer from around $41,000 a year to $45,776 annually.

Cobb interim public safety director Randy Crider said under the proposal, an officer making $54,000 at Grade 16 and Step 6 could earn $54,976 instead under a “blue” plan that would take effect in March 2020.

Under an alternate “yellow” plan, that same officer would make $56,818 a year, with the new pay scale starting with the fiscal 2021 budget next fall.

Cobb public safety step and grade

Crider said his numbers were figured with current budgeting numbers in mind, and he told Ott that “this is to give you a structure to approve.”

The problem, as Ott saw it, was that under the draft proposal, raises would come to commissioners each year for approval. “That’s not step and grade,” he said.

Most step and grade plans, including that for Cobb schools, have automatic increases factored into budgets.

Cobb commission chairman Mike Boyce said the current “pay and class” system was meant to be a one-time solution. With step and grade, “the anticipation is that we’ll do this annually.”

He said it was important for the county to “continue to provide incentives” to attract police officers and firefighters for years to come. “This won’t be a one and done.

“We don’t fix this overnight. We fix it over time.”

Ott countered by saying that in a “true step and grade, you get a raise every year. And you get another raise and you get promoted.”

The proposal brought before commissioners, he insisted, means that “each year, it requires the board to make the same decisions we’re making today.”

Public safety officials had scheduled individual meetings with commissioners after Monday’s work session.

Ott to hold town hall meeting on Sterigenics lab emissions

August 6, 2019 1:15 PM by Wendy Parker

Sterigenics town hall meeting

This isn’t specific to East Cobb, but there’s been a lot of interest since the news first broke: the toxic emissions coming from a medical device sterilization lab in Smyrna have prompted Cobb commissioner Bob Ott to hold a town hall meeting on the subject later this month.

It’s scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday, Aug. 19 at the Cobb Civic Center (548 S. Marietta Parkway), which ought to be big enough to accommodate many of those who couldn’t get into a previous public meeting last week held by legislators from the area.

Since then, Cobb public officials have called for the Sterigenics Atlanta lab to be shut down pending independent testing. Late Friday, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division approved a plan to reduce those emissions.

The substance is called ethylene oxide, an invisible, odorless toxin that’s used to sterilize around half of all medical products that require it. It’s also been linked to higher cancer rates in areas near facilities that emanate the gas.

But according to Georgia Health News and WebMD, which initially reported about the Sterigenics case, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency didn’t notify the state of three ethylene oxide hotspots it detected with higher cancer risks in Georgia for more than a year.

The Smyrna area near the Sterigenics lab is one of those hotspots (essentially they’re census tracts). Some nearby residents also have been protesting at the Sterigenics lab.

Ott said at what he’s calling his “community meeting” that federal EPA officials and others from the Georgia EPD and the Centers for Disease Control will be on hand.

He’s expected to introduce an agenda item at the commission’s Aug. 13 meeting but hasn’t specified what that might be.

More links about the Sterigenics case can be found here.

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Cobb commissioners adopt FY 2020 budget; Ott casts opposing vote

July 29, 2019 1:23 PMJuly 23, 2019 9:38 PM by Wendy Parker

For the second year in a row, Cobb commissioners are divided on the county budget. By a 3-2 vote, they adopted a $475 million fiscal year 2020 general fund spending plan on Tuesday that holds the line on the millage rate but takes in $21 million more in revenue.

The budget includes a pay raise for county employees (and a bigger one for many public safety employees), eliminates non-profit spending and reduces transfer revenues from the county water department.

(Here’s the budget proposal that was largely unchanged upon adoption.)

While East Cobb’s two commissioners voted against last year’s budget, they split their votes this time around. Bob Ott of District 2 once again voted against the new budget, referring to long-term problems over public safety staffing, pensions and transportation in prepared remarks.

“I am deeply concerned that nothing is being done to address these issues,” Ott said. “I cannot in good conscience vote for this budget.”

Last year, he was joined by District 3’s JoAnn Birrell, who said she couldn’t support the FY 2019 budget because the property tax hike of 1.7 mills didn’t come with any significant spending cuts.

This year, she said, there have been some cuts. “Overall, this is a good budget,” she said in her prepared comments before the vote. “It’s not a perfect budget.”

JoAnn BIrrell, Mabry Park — *JoAnn Birrell.*

Birrell said that public safety “is our number one priority and it’s high time we do something about it.”

She voted for budget adoption this year with commissioner Lisa Cupid of South Cobb and chairman Mike Boyce of East Cobb, who said he was happy with what he called a compromise budget.

The extra revenue is due to growth in the Cobb tax digest, projected to be a record $39 billion for 2019.

County employees who get favorable performance reviews will be getting a four-percent pay increase. Likewise, police officers, firefighters and sheriff’s deputies—who received a one-time bonus this summer to address what many have called a “crisis” in public safety staffing, morale and retention issues—will be getting a seven-percent raise.

Membership fees to use county senior centers—a hot topic in last year’s budget—have been eliminated. An additional $400,000 for the public library system will be used to meet what county spokesman Ross Cavitt said were “critical needs,” including its materials collections.

“This year was all about increased compensation for public safety, and this budget delivers it,” Boyce said moments before calling the question.

Also voting against the budget was Keli Gambrill, newly elected from North Cobb, who questioned the amount of contingency funds in the budget, among other concerns. In his comments, Ott urged county budget officials to indicate the original source of spending when bringing items up for contingency funding.

More emphatically, he said that 95 percent of Cobb DOT funding comes from SPLOST receipts, and worries about how “devastating” it would be for road maintenance and repair should a sales-tax referendum ever be defeated. The next likely SPLOST vote could take place in 2020.

“Opening the libraries an extra day does no good” if the roads patrons depend on to get there are in disrepair, Ott said.

He also noted that county pension obligations continue to mount. In 1997, 95 percent of those obligations were funded, but that figure is only 52 percent today.

While he supports better pay for public safety, Ott also is concerned this year’s seven-percent raise may make it difficult to implement a step-and-grade compensation system that could result next year.

“I want to see that this is going to be worked on starting tomorrow,” Ott said.

Although board members may appear to be on seemingly different tracks about the budget, Boyce praised his colleagues, including those who voted against the budget.

“This board is honest to a fault,” he said before the vote. “How much is that of value to you?”

The commissioners also set the millage rates for the various county budget funds:

General Fund, 8.46 mills;
Fire Fund, 2.86 mills;
Debt Service (Bond Fund), 0.13 mills;
Cumberland Special Services District II, 2.45 mills;
Six Flags Special Service District, 3.50 mills.

The FY 2020 budget takes effect Oct. 1.

East Cobb neighborhood ramps up annexation fight with Marietta

June 4, 2019 2:35 PM by Wendy Parker

East Cobb neighborhood, Sewell Manor — *Cobb commissioner Bob Ott and Sewell Manor resident Theresa Gernatt. (East Cobb News photos by Wendy Parker)*

Residents of an East Cobb neighborhood want their county representatives to send a strong message to the City of Marietta about a proposed annexation they’ve been fighting for months.

Cobb commissioner Bob Ott, who represents the Sewell Manor subdivision on Lower Roswell Road at the Loop, said he will offer such a proposal for his colleagues to consider next Tuesday.

It would replace an unratified objection the county made to a high-density residential development that’s being proposed on 7.48 acres right next to Sewell Manor in unincorporated Cobb.

But at a town hall meeting he called on Monday night, Ott reminded those residents that the city holds the power right now to annex six former lots in Sewell Manor and add them to three parcels on Lower Roswell that are already in the city.

“There is no obstacle to annex the land, based on the law,” Ott said to a room of around 100 people at the Sewell Mill Library. The crowd included residents in nearby neighborhoods in an older portion of East Cobb.

He made reference to a state law that allows counties to object to municipal annexations when related rezoning cases reach a certain density threshold.

Traton Homes is proposing to build 37 townhomes and 15 single-family homes on land owned by Ray Boyd, a commercial real estate broker.

That amounts to 6.9 units an acre, above the limit of of four units an acre for previously undeveloped land, and five units on land proposed for redevelopment. (The original site plan called for 64 townhomes, a density of nearly 12 units an acre.)

However, the county objection letter—signed by Ott, commissioner Keli Gambrill and chairman Mike Boyce—was never voted on by the commission. Ott said county staff neglected to include that item on a meeting agenda after Boyd filed a request to annex in January.

Last month, the Marietta City Council was prepared to vote on the annexation and rezoning, but for the second time delayed that action. A mediation session between Cobb and Marietta was scheduled for Wednesday, but Ott called it off because the city was asking for a different process.

“The city ought to show the county a little courtesy,” said James Rosich, who lives in the nearby Hamby Estates neighborhood. “Our county and community have been taken advantage of.”

An urban planner by training, Rosich outlined for the audience Sewell Manor’s objections to the Traton proposal, which includes 15 variances, and what Rosich termed “a hostile approach to annexation.”

For several years, the former commercial properties on Lower Roswell Road have sat vacant, an eyesore entrance to Sewell Manor that’s more than annoyed residents there.

“It looks like a third world country,” said Gernatt, who grew up in Sewell Manor. “The city of Marietta has allowed that to happen over the last decade.”

Boyd previously tried to get Marietta to annex the vacant Sewell Manor lots four years ago, but was denied.

Gernatt said she’s met with laywers who’ve told her the Sewell Manor neighbors should “sue the bejeezus out of everyone. But that’s not what we’re about.”

*The main entrance to Sewell Manor on Indian Trail, and a view south along Lower Roswell Road. The empty lot once housed gas station and automotive repair businesses.*

Ott said while he agrees with community concerns over traffic and density, the immediate focus should be on the annexation matter.

“You can’t sue until some action is taken,” Ott said.

He said in his 10 years as a commissioner, no other Cobb city has voted to annex land if the entire five-member county commission objected.

That kind of support, he added, “sends a huge message to the city.

“Why would they care about you? You don’t live in the city. Why have they not annexed? Think about that.”

Ott declined to detail what he’s presenting at the commission meeting Tuesday, with news media present at the town hall. Afterward, he told East Cobb News that “I do have some ideas,” but he still would not elaborate.

“They’re not going to be ready for what I’m proposing.”

Ott says he doesn’t support replacing Cobb public safety director

April 4, 2019 12:02 PMApril 2, 2019 9:57 AM by Wendy Parker

In response to concerns about staffing, salary and retention issues for Cobb public safety personnel, Commissioner Bob Ott said last week he has a few plans to save money. One of them calls for not having a public safety director. Cobb commissioner Bob Ott

At his town hall meeting at the Catholic Church of St. Ann, Ott drew applause from constituents when he said that “I won’t be voting for the position of a new public safety director.”

Sam Heaton retired as the Cobb Public Safety Director last week, and a replacement hasn’t yet been nominated to succeed him.

But Ott said he thinks the county should go back to having each of the public safety department heads—police, fire/EMS, 911, emergency management and animal services—report to the Cobb County Manager, as has been done in the past.

Heaton is a former Cobb fire chief who was named public safety director in 2014, and was making $156,000 at the end of a 33-year career with the county.

He replaced Jack Forsythe, who resigned in protest, citing a lack of resources and staffing shortages that have come up again as commissioners prepare for the fiscal year 2020 budget.

At their last meeting in March, commissioners were pressed by current and past public safety employees and citizens to address what they called a “crisis.”

Among the pleas were to be more proactive in filling 82 open police officer positions, out of a total county sworn-officer force of 700.

Ott said the county receives around 100 applications a week for police officers, but a typical batch that size is whittled down to around 25 who meet Cobb’s qualifications.

The cost of filling all 82 positions is estimated at around $10 million. All five Cobb Police precincts have open slots in what are called patrol “beats,” including Precinct 4 in East Cobb. Cobb Fraternal Order of Police head Steven Gaynor said Precinct 4 is the least-staffed of all, with eight officers for 10 beats.

(Public safety staffing also has been cited by those pressing for East Cobb cityhood, with police and fire proposed as municipal services.)

Ott’s priority would be to fill the open beat positions. “How many of these 82 slots are needed to have all the beats [in the county] being covered?” he said.

Police officers have said having take-home cars is important for them. In the 2016 Cobb SPLOST, Ott said there was a $9 million line item sum for new police cars, and that last year he offered another $9 million, but his request was taken out of that wish list.

The biggest difference Ott said he has had with how public safety spending has been used is over compensation, benefits, raises and retention incentives.

(He’s expressed his concerns over these matters before, especially after last year’s budget adoption.)

Although he has voted for salary increases for police officers and sheriff’s deputies as part of recommendations from a consultant’s “pay and class” study in 2017, Ott said the practice is not sustainable.

He regrets the “pay and class” vote and prefers implementing a “step and grade” process for public safety employee raises that’s similar to what’s done at the Cobb County School District.

He said he and fellow East Cobb commissioner JoAnn Birrell have been discussing such an option.

Ott also would like to move all county government employees to a defined-contribution retirement system “because defined benefits don’t work.”

Ott and Birrell voted against the fiscal year 2019 Cobb budget that included a property tax hike, and Ott insisted last week the resources to address public safety shortages existed before that.

“There’s money all around, which is why I didn’t vote for the budget and millage rate increase,” he said.

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Georgia residential design bill opposed by East Cobb commissioner

February 24, 2019 9:10 PMFebruary 24, 2019 6:08 PM by Wendy Parker

Commissioner Bob Ott of East Cobb is proposing a resolution at the board’s meeting on Tuesday opposing a residential design bill in the Georgia legislature that would bar local governments from imposing certain standards in zoning cases.

His resolution, which is being co-sponsored by new commissioner Keli Gambrill of North Cobb, is the latest proposal by a local government body in metro Atlanta in response to HB 302.

( Read the Cobb resolution here.)

That bill, co-sponsored by some of the most powerful members of the House Republican majority, would restrict the ability of local governments to determine building design elements for one- and two-family homes.

Among other things, the provisions of the bill would cover exterior building color, style and materials for roofs and porches, exterior architectural ornamentation, location and styling of windows and doors, types of flooring and the interior layout of rooms.

(Read HB 302 here.)

Ott said the bill would subvert local control of zoning and design standards at the city and county level, where quality-of-life decisions relating to housing need to be made.

“People move to different communities because they like the look and feel of the area,” he said in a statement issued by the county Friday afternoon. “They want to protect their neighborhoods and often work with their local elected officials to do so.”

Most of the bill’s sponsors, which also include two Democrats, are from rural and small-town areas of Georgia; none are from metro Atlanta.

HB 302 narrowly passed the House Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Committee last week and is listed on the House floor calendar for Monday.

On Friday, a companion bill, SB 172, was introduced in the Georgia Senate and on Monday will likely receive a committee assignment.

Like the House version, SB 172 is sponsored by small-town and rural lawmakers, including President Pro Tem Sen. Butch Miller of Gainesville.

HB 302 has been drawing support from the home-building industry, those in favor of expanding affordable-housing options as well as some realtors. The Georgia Association of Realtors is claiming that the “American Dream of Home Ownership is under attack.”

HB 302, the realtors’ group claims, “brings the American dream of homeownership within reach of more citizens, not just the ones local officials think deserve to be homeowners.”

The Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association also supports HB 302, saying it’s important for the preservation of private property rights.

Local governments, the group said in statement, are unnecessarily adding thousands of dollars to the cost of new homes: “What used to be the purview of a Home Owners Association are now decisions made by city or county administrators with jurisdiction-wide application.”

Ott’s resolution says that “local governments can provide more affordable housing options without sacrificing unique character or threatening economic development.”

Opposition to the bill is coming from the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia and the Georgia Municipal Association.

Some local governments have already sprung into action against HB 302, including Forsyth County, which passed a resolution last week. Sandy Springs officials have expressed concern, and on Monday the Dunwoody City Council will consider a similar measure.

Ott said another concern he has over the legislation is how it might impact the ongoing development of a new master plan for the Johnson Ferry-Shallowford area.

“Commissioners consistently work with different citizens groups to ensure the quality of development in Cobb County,” he said.

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Mapping the future of the Johnson Ferry-Shallowford community

January 21, 2019 4:34 PM by Wendy Parker

Johnson Ferry-Shallowford community

With all kinds of maps abounding all around them—for land use, stormwater management, traffic and more—a few dozen citizens from the Johnson Ferry-Shallowford community turned out last week to continue efforts at developing a master plan.

After some input meetings last spring, Cobb County officials decided to come back this winter to solicit more feedback. At the first of those meetings, at the Chestnut Ridge Christian Church, commissioner Bob Ott explained how the “JOSH” master plan process—short for Johnson Ferry-Shallowford—is similar to those that have taken place previously and that have involved his constituents.

“Instead of consultants, we have community meetings and you help design the plan that you want,” he said.

That’s what has happened in the Powers Ferry Corridor, and with “urban design” guidelines on Johnson Ferry Road between Roswell and Lower Roswell elsewhere in East Cobb.

The high-density and mixed-use development that’s accelerating along Powers Ferry, or in the case of the Johnson Ferry Urban Design plan, the use of language, have concerned some in the JOSH area about what may be in store for where they live.

Bob Ott, JOSH — *Commissioner Bob Ott said a master plan “isn’t perfect but it’s better than not having a master plan.” (ECN photos by Wendy Parker)*

It’s a community with overwhelmingly single family residential homes, a population that’s older and a higher median income average than the rest of Cobb County.

It’s also new territory for Ott, whose District 2 was redrawn in 2016 to include JOSH. He referenced another master plan in his district that is similar to what he’s seeing for JOSH.

The Vinings Vision MasterPlan was developed out of an interest in preserving the feel of an older community surrounded by high-scale commercial growth in the Cumberland area.

The Vinings plan, Ott said, was deemed a “protection plan” when it was finished.

“This also appears to be a protection plan instead of a redevelopment plan,” he said of JOSH.

In Vinings, citizens took an additional six months to finalize that plan. Two more meetings are scheduled over the next two months for the JOSH master plan. Cobb Community Development Agency staff will present a preliminary plan on Feb. 12, and a draft plan on March 12, and public comments also will be sought.

Both of those meetings also will be at Chestnut Ridge Christian Church (2663 Johnson Ferry Road), starting at 7 p.m.

Jason Gaines, Cobb Community Development The master plan will include future land use, infrastructure, stormwater, parks and recreation, building design and more (JOSH outline here).

Last spring, some citizens objected to an image preference survey that included photos of high-density development. Ott asked community development staff to rework the survey.

Jason Gaines, the community development agency’s planning division chief (above), broke down some of the JOSH demographics (boundary map here):

Population: 26,600
Employment: 4,400
Median Age: 44.9 years (Cobb median: 36.5)
Median household income: $119K (Cobb: $72K)
Median per capita income: $51K (Cobb: 36K)
Housing: 9.4K units; 98.2% owner-occupied; 99.5% single-family residential detached (Cobb: 66.2%)
Median home value: $347K (Cobb: $219.7K)

Phillip Westbrook of the planning division said 86 percent of the land in the JOSH map that’s included in the proposed master plan is residential (mostly low-density) and has only two major commercial areas: at the Johnson Ferry-Shallowford intersection, and on Shallowford near Lassiter Road.

Much of the current future land use map for the JOSH area hasn’t changed much over the last 25 years. Perhaps the most closely-watched case is at the southwestern intersection of Johnson Ferry-Shallowford, where a proposed residential zoning application was withdrawn in 2017. In addition to high-density issues there also have been concerns over stormwater, since the 30-acre property includes a lake.

“What’s going on that property we don’t know,” Ott said. “But this map is going to change.”

JOSH map

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Cobb DOT District 2 work crew busy mowing, cleaning up roads

October 16, 2018 2:05 PM by Wendy Parker

Cobb DOT District 2 road crew — *Bill Shelton, Cobb DOT road maintenance director, and members of the newly hired District 2 work crew. (East Cobb News photo by Wendy Parker)*

One of the additions to the county budget with this year’s tax increase was the hiring of dedicated road employees in each of the four commissioners districts. The Cobb DOT District 2 work crew has been fully staffed and already at work performing mowing and clean-up duties.

They were introduced by commissioner Bob Ott Monday at his town hall meeting at the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center. They are: Skip Vaccaro, equipment operator; John Allen, crew worker; Andrew Eison, crew leader; Shamond Williams, crew worker; and Todriquez Huey, equipment operator.

They’ve already completed some big tasks, including collecting 32 bags of litter on Atlanta Road last week (Cobb DOT photo below).

When Ott showed that photo to the audience, there was a burst of applause. He and other commissioners commented during the summer budget hearings that citizens were complaining frequently about unmowed medians and rights-of-way.

Since the recession, the county has hired a contractor to do that work. But that was done only for six months, from the spring to the fall. The $1.4 million the county is spending for work crews in the FY 2019 budget is a bit more than the $1.1 million annually it paid the contractor, but now the work will be performed year-round.

Bill Shelton, the Cobb DOT road maintenance director, told the audience that Ott “has been a champion” of making a change to hire in-house crews, who started working two weeks ago with the new budget year kicking in.

“We can do it a lot better, and these guys are already proving it to you,” Shelton said, referring to the District 2 crew.

Said Ott: “I am very confident the decision to hire crews will result in saving tax dollars and most of all improve the aesthetics of all county right of ways.”

Cobb DOT District 2 work crew

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Commissioners approve funding for new Cobb parks master plans

October 15, 2018 2:55 PM by Wendy Parker

Cobb parks master plans, Ebenezer Road

After a delay, Cobb commissioners last week voted to approve spending more than $89,000 for Cobb parks master plans for newly acquired green space.

That includes more than 18 acres of land on Ebenezer Road near Canton Road that’s slated to become a passive park (above), and that was open to the public this summer at a special preview event.

BIOME Projects, a Decatur landscape architecture firm, will receive around $14,300 to develop a master plan for the Ebenezer Road park, with funding for the construction of the park to come at a later time.

The land, formerly owned by the Strother family, features a lake that may allow for recreational fishing activities.

Commissioners have spent more than $27 million over the last year to purchase nearly 500 acres across the county with funds allocated in the 2008 parks bond referendum.

The only other land bought in East Cobb was part of the Tritt property next to East Cobb Park, which is being left as green space for now and so there is no master plan in the works.

The commissioners vote was 4-1, with Bob Ott opposed. He represents part of East Cobb and Smyrna-Vinings and said there are two parks in his District 2 now that aren’t open because there’s not funding for their maintenance.

“How are we going to pay for the parks we have as we build new parks?” he asked.

Commissioner JoAnn Birrell of Northeast Cobb pointed to Mabry Park, that’s being built on Wesley Chapel Road in what used to be her district (and is now in Ott’s).

It’s a decade since the county bought the land, part of the former Mabry family farm, and it sat undeveloped during the recession. A master plan was developed in 2011, and construction was finally approved last fall.

“We have to have a plan and guidance,” she said. “I support this.”

Also last week, commissioners approved a measure to spend $19,590 to replace a metal roof on the historic Hyde Farm house on East Cobb.

Cobb parks director Jimmy Gisi said the roof has been leaking and the replacement look to match other structures on the property, located off Lower Roswell Road.

The funding comes from the 2011 Cobb parks SPLOST account.

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Ott town hall meeting meeting is Monday at Sewell Mill Library

October 14, 2018 11:20 AM by Wendy Parker

Cobb commissioner Bob Ott will hold a town hall meeting Monday from 7-9 p.m. at the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center (2051 Lower Roswell Road). Bob Ott, East Cobb Restaurant Row, Ott town hall meeting

He represents District 2, which includes much of East Cobb and some of the Smyrna-Vinings-Cumberland area.

It’s the first town hall for Ott since commissioners voted in July to raise property taxes to fund the fiscal year 2019 budget of $454 million.

Ott voted against that budget, saying not enough budget cuts were proposed.

A couple of weeks later, he sent out extended comments to constituents about the budget, saying District 2 would benefit only by getting a new crew to maintain roads.

First elected in 2008, Ott is a Republican in his third term, and is the longest-serving member of the five-person board of commissioners.

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Cobb commissioners approve Braves settlement that could net county $1.36M

September 11, 2018 2:38 PM by Wendy Parker

Cobb commissioners on Tuesday approved a financial settlement with the Atlanta Braves that could result in the county receiving $1.366 million in infrastructure fees for SunTrust Park.

Joann Birrell, Cobb commissioners approve Braves settlement — *Commissioner JoAnn Birrell said the 2013 stadium deal between Cobb and the Braves “keeps coming back to haunt us.” (ECN file photo)*

The 4-1 vote came after a lengthy discussion that included a brief recess to iron out concerns from two commissioners who tried to table the agreement.

The settlement was reached following a dispute that arose in May, when Cobb sent the Braves organization a notice of default on a $1.486 million bill for overdue stadium development (water and sewer) fees. The Braves fired back with a $4.683 million request, setting off heated legal correspondence and mediation.

Read the Proposed Settlement Terms Here

Technically, the matter is still in mediation, since the Braves have not taken final action on the settlement.

In the settlement, which was discussed by commissioners during an executive session on Monday, the Braves also agreed to pay $380,000 for a signage and maintenance contract for a pedestrian bridge over I-285.

Cobb would reimburse $500,000 in project management fees to the Braves, who agreed to drop any other claims, according to county attorney Deborah Dance.

She also said the $380,000 Braves sum is a credit against the $500,000 amount, reducing the county’s obligation to $120,000.

The county also would pay $326,816 under terms of a 2017 transportation agreement with the Braves. Those funds would be paid out in two installments, of $163,408 each, in October of this year as well as October 2019.

Last year, commissioners paid $11.4 million out of the county water fund as part of a $14 million agreement for transportation matters.

According to information presented by Dance, the county discovered in a review that the $500,000 in project management costs for Heery International Inc. had been paid by the Braves through a project bond fund. The terms were spelled out in a 2014 consulting contract between Heery, the county and the Braves in 2014 (document here).

Joann Birrell, commissioner of District 3 in Northeast Cobb, and District 1 commissioner Lisa Cupid of South Cobb wanted to table approving the settlement for two weeks. They wanted to view the actual settlement document, and Birrell wanted to see proof that other payments had been made.

At one point, Birrell said the county’s 30-year memorandum of understanding with the Braves, adopted in 2013, “keeps coming back to haunt us.” Cupid’s motion to table was defeated 3-2, after which commissioners took a 10-minute recess.

After the break, Birrell, who voted for the Braves deal in 2013, was satisfied with what she was presented from county finance and legal officers.

Cupid, however, said she couldn’t support settlement, calling it a “déjà vu” regarding the original stadium deal. She was the only vote against the the 2013 agreement, and on Tuesday she said the current settlement reflected “the same level of haste, the same lack of organization.”

Commissioner Bob Ott of East Cobb, whose District 2 includes the SunTrust Park area, said of the settlement documents that “this is not something that was hard to go find” and that the staff was well-prepared.

Cupid agreed with the latter point, but said “this has everything to do with us as a board.”

She was the only vote against the settlement, which chairman Mike Boyce said was “a compromise.”

Boyce, who made the process of the Braves deal a key component of his campaign to oust then-chairman Tim Lee in 2016, said the nearly $1.4 million the county is getting is “because this board held its ground. We did the right thing as a board.”

Before the discussion Tuesday, Ben Williams, a spokesman for Cobb Citizens for Governmental Transparency, said the county shouldn’t have to pay any more money for stadium expenses.

That group was founded in 2014 after citizen concerns about the hastiness of the original Braves deal, which was approved only two weeks after it was made public.

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Settlement in Cobb-Braves dispute on Tuesday commissioners’ agenda

September 10, 2018 7:13 PMSeptember 10, 2018 6:42 PM by Wendy Parker

A resolution in a recent dispute between the Atlanta Braves and Cobb County government over SunTrust Park infrastructure fees is expected to be announced at Tuesday’s Cobb Board of Commissioners meeting.

Bob Ott, Cobb-Braves dispute — *Cobb commissioner Bob Ott*

Cobb government spokesman Ross Cavitt sent word late Monday afternoon that the two sides were working through mediation to settle a flap that began over the spring and was made public last week.

In May, the county sent the Braves a bill for what it said were $1.5 million in overdue stadium development fees for water and sewer services.

The Braves balked, and in response sent a heated letter to the county demanding $4.6 million for transportation costs, building permit fee refunds and legal expenses.

The story was first reported by 11 Alive, which obtained documents of legal correspondence that includes contentious language between lawyers representing both sides.

Cavitt said Monday that the Braves were tentatively agreeing to pay the $1.5 million initially sought by the county, plus another $380,000 for a signage and maintenance contract for a pedestrian bridge over I-285 that services the stadium.

In return, Cobb has agreed to refund a negotiated amount of money in project management costs, but those terms were not disclosed. The Braves, Cavitt added in a release, “will withdraw all other demands.”

Commissioners were meeting in an executive session on Monday.

Commissioner Bob Ott of East Cobb, who represents the SunTrust area, told East Cobb News before the settlement was announced that reports of the dispute were overblown and that in negotiation letters between attorneys, they’re “asking for the moon.”

The county is represented by Thompson Hine, an Ohio-based law firm with offices in Atlanta, while the Braves have retained the Marietta firm of Sams, Larkin, Huff and Balli, best known for handling high-profile zoning cases in Cobb.

Ott said the “relationship is strong” between the county and the Braves, who nearly five years ago struck up a 30-year deal to finance and service SunTrust Park as the new home of the Major League baseball team.

The details of the Cobb-Braves memorandum of understanding have been haggled out ever since. Last year, as the stadium was set to open for its first season of baseball, the Braves asked, and received, an additional $14 million from the county for transportation and improvement costs.

Cobb is paying off around $300 million in bonds for its share of stadium costs, at a cost of around $5.5 million a year through the budget process.

Ott said he has “conversations all the time” with the Braves that also covers police costs and hospitality issues in the area.

“We’re constantly working to minimize the exposure to the taxpayer,” he said, pointing to an initial annual bond cost projection of $8.6 million.

That $5.5 million annual sum, Ott said, is the only taxpayer component in the stadium revenue stream.

The Braves also have turned real estate developer, nearly having filled out The Battery, a mixed-use complex of shops, restaurants and a hotel adjacent to the stadium.

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Cobb parks master plan delayed again; NE Cobb sidewalk projects approved

August 29, 2018 2:14 PM by Wendy Parker

Ebenezer Road park, Cobb parks master plan

For the second time this summer, action on adopting a Cobb parks master plan through 2028 has been put on hold by county commissioners.

The proposal was for master planning services for land purchased recently with 2008 parks bond money. The master plan, according to Cobb Parks director Jimmy Gisi, is a “road map that will take us through the next 10 years.”

After a discussion at Tuesday’s commissioners meeting, they weren’t ready to take the first step down that path. The proposal first came up in July at a work session but wasn’t discussed.

On Tuesday, commissioner Bob Ott of District 2 in East Cobb said the proposal was “putting the cart before the horse” since no money has been earmarked to build and operate new parks.

The land purchased with the $27.4 million in parks bond funding this year include 18.3 acres on Ebenezer Road (above), slated to become a passive park, and nearly 30 acres of Tritt property on Roswell Road next to East Cobb Park, which will remain greenspace.

While appreciative of the details that went into the recommendations, Ott said that “while we’re getting all this land,” spending around $90,000 for the planning design work “gets too far ahead of where we are.”

The master plan proposal includes projected spending on parks of around $300 million over the next decade. Lose & Associates, a consulting firm that prepared the master plan proposal, also made the the following recommendations:

increased staffing and funding;
the creation of an administrative services division;
the creation of a park maintenance plan;
the adoption of a comprehensive revenue policy;
enhanced branding and marketing to help generate revenues;
establishing a rental system for pavilion use;
increasing user fees;
expanded programming for fee generation;
assessing a per-participant maintenance fee;
increase staffing of Cobb Police Park Ranger staff.

Ott said he wanted to see more specifics about funding, pointing out that the report didn’t indicate how much money would be generated by more user fees.

“It’s a little bit shallow on how you’re going to pay for it,” he said. “I’m uncomfortable with the financing part.”

Cobb commission chairman Mike Boyce asked for the proposal to be delayed at least until the first commissioners meeting in September.

Also on Tuesday, the commissioners approved using SPLOST money to build a playground at the Mabry Park under construction and for baseball-related maintenance at Sewell Park (previewed here).

Also approved was spending SPLOST funds on sidewalk projects, including $655,865 for a sidewalk on the west side of McPherson Road between Post Oak Tritt Rad and Shallowford Road, and the east side of McPherson near Mountain Creek Drive. The project covers a stretch of 0.50 miles and includes replacing existing curbs and gutters.

Another SPLOST-approved project on Shallowford Road, costing $35,800, will add sidewalks near Nicholson Elementary School and McCleskey Middle School, covering 0.25 miles.

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Commissioners approve East Cobb Restaurant Row rezoning request

August 21, 2018 6:49 PM by Wendy Parker

Powers Ferry Restaurant Row project

By a unanimous vote Tuesday county commissioners approved an East Cobb Restaurant Row rezoning request to transform a long-existing eyesore in the Powers Ferry Road corridor.

After a lengthy discussion, which included a history of the area’s changing demographics, commissioners made few changes to the request by Powers Ferry Road Investors LLC to convert 8.8 acres to a regional retail commercial category that’s used for large mixed-use projects.

In moving to approve the request (agenda item packet here), District 2 commissioner Bob Ott included conditions that reduce the maximum number of apartment units from 290 to 280 and senior living units from 181 to 171.

The development will contain 578,885 square feet, all but 10,000 of it for residential buildings, with the rest for restaurant and retail space. The multi-family building will be six stories, and the senior building will have five stories. A 3-story parking deck and other parking on the property will provide 711 spaces.

Ott on District 2 benefits of Cobb tax increase: ‘1 DOT work crew’

August 11, 2018 12:43 PMAugust 11, 2018 12:02 PM by Wendy Parker

Cobb property tax increase, Cobb DOT maintenance crews — *Additional Cobb DOT crews will be hired to mow and maintain overgrown medians like this one at East Piedmont Road and Sewell Mill Road. (East Cobb News photos by Wendy Parker)*

Before and after a Cobb tax increase was approved by county commissioners last month, those in favor of the millage hike have touted expanded additional police officer positions and law enforcement body cameras, restored library hours and more funding to maintain county medians and rights of way.

Cobb commissioner Bob Ott, who voted against the budget in a 3-2 vote (along with JoAnn Birrell of Northeast Cobb) hasn’t said much publicly about the 1.7-mills increase, other than extended remarks he gave right before the vote.

On Friday, he published those comments (excerpted below) “because many people have asked me why I voted no.”

In his weekly newsletter, he also said he’s been asked how his District 2, which includes East Cobb, will benefit from the increase. South Cobb commissioner Lisa Cupid, who supported the tax increase, talked about the police, library and DOT funding in her newsletter to constituents, and said the 1.7-mills increase was “indeed a compromise.”

Cobb property tax increase, commissioner Bob Ott — *Commissioner Bob Ott has said the county’s FY 2018 budget reminds him of SPLOST 2016, “full of wants and not identifying the true needs.”*

Ott, who maintained during months of grueling budget deliberations that he wanted to see more proposed spending cuts before he would support any increase, mentioned only one benefit for District 2:

“1 DOT work crew”

Included in the $454 million general fund budget for fiscal year 2019 is $1.4 million for Cobb DOT mowing crews, which had been reduced to one countywide during the recession. Each of the four commission districts will have a dedicated crew, and the operations will be moved in-house for year-round work.

The county has been outsourcing mowing crews for $1.1 million a year, but they worked only for six months, from spring to fall.

Commissioners have said that constituents have complained about overgrown medians and rights-of-way as much as almost anything.

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A few highlights from Ott’s budget adoption-night comments include his opposition to how the need tax hike was presented and his frustration that previous proposals to fund new police cars and find budget savings were ignored, as well as his concerns over looming pension obligations. Ott supports moving from a defined benefit system to a defined contribution plan:

I am disappointed in how the need for a tax increase has been presented. Putting forward to the residents the closure of the busiest parks, the busiest libraries, extension services, 4-H and Master Gardeners. This tugged on the heartstring of all residents, young and old, and the mission became ‘save us’ and the focus was off what the budget is actually made up of.

I too have had many emails and calls; not a day goes by where I get into work and there are another batch of emails. I am not here to tell you the ratio of those for and those against but here is my take away – when I write back to them or call them back I explain my position, I tell them that the services that are being threatened to be taken away were never proposals that came before the board. If they took the time to think about this – why would the board continue to buy more park space if the intent was to close parks, why are new libraries being built only to close them?

I proposed in the 2016 SPLOST that 9 million additional dollars be added to buy the police even more new vehicles than originally proposed. This was removed to pay for other’s wants of things not the NEEDS of the county. I even agreed to less money for District 2 sidewalks to pay for these cars and I was turned down.

When we had the [budget] retreat in October Commissioner Weatherford and I came up, on our own, [with] a way to save 50 million out of the budget. Some of my proposals were to consolidate the libraries that are under-used, outsource some departments in the County and to work on transportation to run fewer buses, maximize their capacity and look at the utilization of UBER and LYFT vouchers to take people to the main lines of the fixed routes.

None of our proposals or plans are included in this budget.

To all county staff, I value you and I do think that you work hard at your jobs. I am not the bad person when I talk about your pension. I will never agree to take what you have earned and put into your pension, but this pension plan has to change, it is simply not sustainable in its current form. I proposed a change 4 years ago. The pension is at its worst funding level it has ever been. Many companies have changed – large multi-billion companies that were hit hard in the recession changed – but not Cobb.

I proposed in this budget discussion to stop funding this type of pension – this does not mean that the employees lose what they put into their plan. It will be there when you retire. But the county needs to move into a 401K plan where the county can put in a percentage and the employees can put in money that they feel is appropriate to reach their goal in retirement. The money will then be yours and in your name.

You can read his full statment at this link, which includes further thoughts on employee salary increases, county vehicle replacement costs, additional police positions, libraries, parks and recreation, animal services and more.

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

July 25, 2018 11:57 PMJuly 25, 2018 11:05 PM by Wendy Parker

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.

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

July 17, 2018 10:23 PMJuly 17, 2018 9:39 PM by Wendy Parker

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.

Friends for the East Cobb Park starts new fundraising campaign

June 29, 2018 10:27 AM by Wendy Parker

Friends for the East Cobb Park

After donating more than $100,000 this week to help Cobb County acquire some of the Tritt property (previous East Cobb News post here), the Friends for the East Cobb Park is replenishing its endowment with a new fundraising campaign.

The contribution made by the non-profit citizens group helped Cobb take in nearly 30 acres of the adjacent Tritt land, and complete green space purchase around the county with $27 million of a 10-year-old parks bond referendum finally funded last year.

At Tuesday’s Cobb commission meeting, District 2 commissioner Bob Ott said he would be chipping in to help Friends begin its fund drive, and here’s what he sent us and is sharing with his constituents and the community today:

I, along with the rest of the Board of Commissioners, am especially grateful to Friends for the East Cobb Park. You may have read in the newspaper that this nonprofit group contributed to make up for a shortfall in County funds needed to close this purchase. The final figure isn’t available just yet but is expected to be over $100,000. You’ll recall that this is the group of community volunteers who raised over $1 million to purchase the original 13-acres of the East Cobb Park almost 20 years ago. This is a very unique public/private partnership that we are all very proud of. The Friends group once again stepped up to assist so that the east Cobb community’s much-loved park can literally double in size.

What wasn’t in the paper is that these funds came from an endowment fund established over 15 years ago from a generous grant matched by funds that the group raised. Interest from this endowment has been used over the years to make various improvements to the park. The Friends group, with the assistance of the Cobb Community Foundation where the fund is held, received permission to utilize some of the principal from the account to cover this shortfall, with a promise to launch a new fundraising campaign to raise money to replenish the fund.

The board of Friends for the East Cobb Park is planning to launch a new fundraising campaign, and you can soon learn more about it on their website www.eastcobbpark.org. It’s my hope that the east Cobb community will rise to the occasion and consider participating in the campaign. Remember that the community will one day have the opportunity to purchase the remaining acreage, and any funds raised over and above the amount needed to restore the endowment fund will be earmarked to assist with this potential purchase down the road. I have heard from many, many of you over the years regarding the Tritt property, and now the east Cobb community will have the opportunity to be a part of this exciting project. I have personally pledged $1,000 to the campaign, and challenge each of you to consider how you and your family can help. To make a tax-deductible contribution please make your check payable to “Friends for the East Cobb Park” and mail it to P.O. Box 6313 Marietta, Georgia 30065.

I’ll continue to provide updates in my newsletter and look forward to seeing a long list of supporters!

The Friends for the East Cobb Park has set up an online payment system via PayPal, and you can contribute directly at this link, in any amount that you like. You can make a one-time contribution or set up a monthly payment.

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Cobb commissioners approve purchase of Tritt property in East Cobb

June 26, 2018 9:26 PM by Wendy Parker

The Cobb Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday to spend $8.3 million to buy some of the Tritt property next to East Cobb Park.

It was a 3-0 vote (with commissioners JoAnn Birrell and Lisa Cupid absent) to purchase 22 acres from Wylene Tritt with proceeds from the 2008 Cobb Parks Bond referendum. She’s donating 7.7 acres and the Friends for the East Cobb Park is donating around $102,000 as part of the acquisition.

The vote was greeted with applause and cheers from the audience, including members of the Cobb Parks Coalition, who pressed for the funding of the bond that commissioners finally approved last year.

However, commissioners funded only $27 million of the original $40 million amount that voters approved 10 years ago, due to legal reasons in the referendum’s payment schedule.

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