With one cityhood bill—in East Cobb—nearing passage in the Georgia legislature and three others likely to follow, Cobb County government has accelerated efforts to counter what’s been a rapid effort to put referendums before voters in those four localities in May.
The county government has published a special page it calls its Cityhood Resource Center to provide information to citizens about the potential impacts of cityhood.
Like the East Cobb legislation, bills are being considered to allow voters in proposed cities of Lost Mountain (West Cobb), Vinings and Mableton to vote in referendums on May 24, the date of the 2022 primary election.
The East Cobb bill passed the Senate Thursday but must go back to the House since a slightly different version was adopted.
But that bill could be finalized and signed by Gov. Brian Kemp into law by early next week.
County officials have protested that moving up the referendums from November to May won’t give them enough time to assess the financial and service impact, should any or all those proposed cities be formed.
A “summary impact” page prepared by the county claims an annual figure of $45.4 million would be lost in revenues if all four cities are created, with the lion’s share of that sum—$23.5 million—coming out of the area of the proposed city of East Cobb.
That’s nearly 25 square miles centered along the Johnson Ferry Road corridor, with nearly 60,000 people.
The populations of the proposed cities of Lost Mountain and Mableton would be larger than East Cobb.
But East Cobb is the only one of the four cityhood bills that would include police and fire services.
Of revenue loss to the county, $14 million would come from the Cobb Fire Fund and another $8 million would come from the county’s general fund.
The East Cobb legislation calls for transferring the 2.86 mills in the current fire fund as the main source of city revenues.
On its cityhood page, the county said that while there will be some reduction in expenses if new cities are created, “any savings are not expected to be more than the loss of revenue to the county. This will in all likelihood not reduce the county’s general fund millage.”
In a message sent out Thursday in her official e-mail newsletter, Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid said that “I am not here to thwart efforts towards determining the future of one’s community. As chairwoman of the county, I am here to ensure some sense of transparency and to better educate Cobb Citizens, more broadly, about how cityhood can impact all here.”
The county also is spending money for lobbyists, including former Cobb Commission Chairman Sam Olens. He’s a partner with Dentons, a large law firm, and he and another lawyer there, Daniel Baskerville, are being paid in excess of $10,000 each, according to the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission.
Other Cobb lobbyists are deputy county manager Jimmy Gisi and former State Rep. Ed Lindsey, who also is being paid more than $10,000 to oppose the cityhood bills.
But those efforts may be too late.
The Lost Mountain and Vinings bills passed the House and are being considered in the Senate. The Mableton bill is being heard by a House committee.
On Wednesday, the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood blasted the county’s lobbying efforts, saying that “we condemn the use of county taxpayer funds to mobilize paid lobbyists at the Georgia Capitol to work against passage of the cityhood bills.”
The group claimed that the lobbying decisions were made “without the consent of the Commission as a whole, and can only be interpreted as an attempt to deny citizens the right to vote for or against cityhood through a referendum.”
During a virtual information session Thursday night (you can watch a replay here), the East Cobb cityhood group reiterated its main thrust during the last year, that the citizens of the proposed city should have the right to self-determination.
They also issued a new informational handout and revealed the first maps of the three proposed city council districts (map above; link here).
During the call, cityhood leaders took issue with the county’s financial conclusions, and pointed out that the wrong map of the proposed East Cobb city was being used.
They emphasized the main reason for a revival of East Cobb cityhood—first introduced in 2019—was to preserve its suburban nature and stave off high-density development.
In addition to public safety, the other proposed services in the bill are planning and zoning, code enforcement and parks and recreation.
“Redevelopment is coming to East Cobb, one way or another,” committee member Sarah Haas said, adding that “we believe that local government is the best course to chart the future of the community.”
While Cupid said that “there is marginal voter turnout in May primaries,” Craig Chapin, the East Cobb group chairman, said this year’s primaries should be high given interest in the gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races, among others.
The county also included a memo from Cobb Elections director Janine Eveler to Gisi saying that including as many as four cityhood referendums on an already-crowded primary ballot reflecting newly reapportioned seats would create “additional complications to our workload” and increases “the risk level for error and failure to meet deadlines. If you have any influence with legislators, I would respectfully ask that the cityhood referendums be held until the November election, rather than conducting them in May.”
The East Cobb bill has been sponsored by Matt Dollar, who resigned his seat in the legislature on Feb. 1. On Thursday’s virtual meeting, he said that he was told by the Cobb Elections office that Feb. 15—this coming Tuesday—would be the deadline that would be needed to run a required local notice in order for the referendum to be on the May ballot.
He didn’t address Eveler’s concerns about staffing and time compression. Her office also has to oversee a special election to fill Dollar’s term for the rest of the year and that has been called for April 5.
The desire to have a referendum in May, Dollar said, would be that if it passes, mayoral and city council elections could be held in November, and a city could be better prepared to be operational at the start of 2023.
“We get to have the city leadership onboarded when the city takes effect,” he said, adding that the transition to full cityhood is expected to take two years.
The East Cobb Cityhood group said it would be holding another virtual session and an in-person town hall, but didn’t give any dates.
Related:
- East Cobb Cityhood bill passes Senate; returns to House
- Editor’s Note: Why the rush with Cobb Cityhood bills?
- Democrat announces campaign for Ga. House special election
- East Cobb Cityhood bill passes Senate committee
- Cupid speaks out on cityhood, redistricting issues
- Cobb Republicans file bill to redistrict county commission seats
- East Cobb Cityhood bill sponsor resigns from legislature
- Cobb Republicans file school board redistricting bill
- East Cobb Cityhood bill passes Georgia House
- East Cobb News Cityhood page
- East Cobb News Politics & Elections guide
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