Cobb commissioners

Sterigenics CEO to brief Cobb commissioners after town hall

by
Bob Ott, Sterigenics
Cobb commissioner Bob Ott

After a heated town hall meeting last week at the Cobb Civic Center over toxic emissions coming from a Smyrna medical sterilization plant, the CEO of that company will address Cobb commissioners at a work session Monday.

It’s the first item on the work session agenda, which includes a presentation of the 2018 Cobb government pension report, an update on the Cobb 2050 Comprehensive Transportation Plan and updates of the 2005, 2011 and 2016 SPLOST (Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax) programs from PARKS, Transportation, Facilities, Public Safety, Public Services and Information Technology.

(You can read through the agenda items here.)

The work session begins at 1:30 p.m. Monday in the second floor board room of the Cobb government building, 100 Cherokee St., in downtown Marietta.

According to the agenda summary, the commissioners “will receive presentations from Mr. Philip McNabb, CEO Sterigenics, Lauren Curry, [Georgia] EPD Deputy Director and Karen Hays, Chief, Air Protection Branch regarding the Smyrna Sterigenic Plant, their operational processes and their plan moving forward.”

More than 1,000 people turned out for the town hall in the wake of a report by Georgia Health News and WebMD that 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.

One of those hotspots is the Smyrna plant off Atlanta Road. Ethylene oxide is 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.

In 2016 the EPA upgraded the designation of ethylene oxide to a carcinogen.

In his weekly newsletter released Friday, District 2 Cobb commissioner Bob Ott wrote the following:

I want to emphasize here that there is much that we all now know, but there is also much that we don’t know yet. For example, until the air quality testing being done by Cobb, Smyrna and the City of Atlanta is complete, we do not know what levels of ethylene oxide from the plant are in our air. The testing is also going to give us the ambient amount of ethylene oxide in our air. Studies have shown that in most areas of the country there is some amount of ethylene oxide in the air. The testing sanctioned by the county and the cities will give us that information. The results should be known in about a month.
    
In talking with many of you I know that you are concerned about the health and safety of you and your families. I share your concerns and want you to know that the county is doing all it can to get factual data to determine the path forward.

Until we gather more information, I ask you to not make any rash decisions about moving or closing your business. The commissioners will have in short order factual data about the amount of ethylene oxide in our air and the health ramifications.

Ott mentioned the Monday work session, and included the following links for more information:

 

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Cobb commissioners go on retreat to tackle budget issues, facing $20M gap

by
Mike Boyce, Cobb commissioners
Chairman Mike Boyce’s proposed millage rate increase was shot down by his fellow commissioners in August. (East Cobb News file photo)

After a contentious year of haggling over the property tax millage rate and the fiscal year 2018 budget, Cobb commissioners are spending Monday and Tuesday on a retreat to figure out future plans for handling spending concerns.

Chairman Mike Boyce and the four district commissioners will be meeting at the Threadmill Complex in Austell for a day-and-a-half of meetings and discussions. Last month the board adopted a $403.4 million FY 2018 spending plan that included the use of $20 million in contingency spending.

The county is facing another $20 million deficit for fiscal year 2019.

“If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll get there,” Boyce said in a statement issued Friday. “What I’m trying to do is bring in a process where we as a Board collectively knows what the issues are then the Board gives me some guidance on how to build this budget.”

The budget battles also sparked conflicts between East Cobb’s two commissioners. JoAnn Birrell suggested closing the East Cobb Library. Bob Ott, whose district includes the library, proposed closing another library in his district and making organizational changes to the East Cobb Government Service Center.

Ultimately, the commissioners voted to close no libraries but delayed funding additional staff for the new Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center until after the budget was adopted.

East Cobb commissioner Bob Ott voted against a millage rate increase, and vowed not to do so to balance the FY 2018 budget. (East Cobb News file photo)

For similar reasons this week, commissioners also delayed a vote to approve a construction contract for Mabry Park.

The Sewell Mill Library and Mabry Park cases center around one of the main items on the retreat agenda: Funding recurring operational and maintenance costs for facilities approved through the SPLOST (Special Local Option Sales Tax).

Northeast Cobb residents have waited for a decade for a passive park in their community, and Boyce and Ott in particular pledged that Mabry Park would be built. They also were adamant that new policies for funding continuing expenses have to be ironed out.

It’s a seemingly perplexing position for Cobb commissioners to be in, given that Cobb reported a record tax digest this year of $33 billion.

In the first big test of his administration, Boyce didn’t get enough support from commissioners to raise the property tax millage rate. His proposal to boost the rate 0.13 to fully fund the 2008 Cobb Parks Bond Referendum was voted down 3-2, with only South Cobb commissioner Lisa Cupid in support.

Boyce, who defeated incumbent chairman Tim Lee last year, pledged to support parks funding. But the Cobb Parks Coalition issued a statement before the millage rate vote saying fulfilling the referendum didn’t require a tax increase.

At a heated town hall meeting in July at the East Cobb Senior Center, many residents spoke out against a tax hike, which Ott and Birrell also opposed.

Boyce, who is a first-time elected official, issued a comment at that meeting that has been a common refrain at times during his first year in office.

“I have to pay for what your commissioners passed last year,” Boyce said. “It’s a bill that’s come due.”