The Cobb County Attorney’s Office has filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit over Cobb Board of Commissioners redistricting filed by a commissioner and an East Cobb resident.
In a brief submitted March 16 in Cobb Superior Court, Cobb Senior Associate County Attorney Elizabeth Monyak said that the lawsuit was improperly filed against the county government and the Cobb Board of Elections and Registration.
Monyak argued in her brief that’s a violation of the waiver of sovereign immunity in the Georgia Constitution, and cited a Georgia Supreme Court decision earlier this month.
The waiver bars lawsuits against the state and its employees in their official capacities unless a statute or the constitution waives that immunity. Specifically, it bans suits against multiple government agencies.
Gambrill and Larry Savage of East Cobb, who ran for Cobb Commission Chairman from 2012-2020, are challenging the commission’s vote in October invoking home rule over commission redistricting.
They are seeking a writ of mandamus for the courts to recognize redistricting maps approved last year by the Georgia General Assembly.
Those maps drew current District 2 commissioner Jerica Richardson out of her East Cobb home in the middle of her term.
Richardson and the board’s two other Democrats favor maps drawn last year by former Cobb State Rep. Erick Allen, but that were never voted on in the legislature.
Opponents of Cobb’s home rule challenge say it’s unconstitutional because only the legislature can conduct reapportionment.
But Monyak cited a state Supreme Court ruling this year that upheld the principle of sovereign immunity in a lawsuit filed against the Gwinnett County District Attorney and the State of Georgia that was dismissed.
“Plaintiffs have brought an independent claim against a party not identified in the waiver provision: the mandamus claim against Cobb BOE in Count 1,” the county’s brief states, referring to the elections board.
The county is asking that a May 3 hearing before Cobb Superior Court Judge Ann Harris be cancelled and the full lawsuit be thrown out.
“Dismissal is the only course of action available when a plaintiff brings a lawsuit that violates the exclusivity clause of the waiver of sovereign immunity” of the Georgia Constitution, Monyak wrote.
Savage, who lived in the former Cobb Commission District 2 before his residence was drawn into District 3 for the 2022 election, initially filed his lawsuit against the Cobb elections board.
He withdrew it, then refiled it, adding the county as a defendant, and was joined as a plaintiff by Gambrill, a Republican just re-elected in District 1 in North Cobb.
The resolution passed by the commission Democrats, the lawsuit alleges, “was an overt misuse and abuse of the home rule authority” and described their amended map as “illegal, unconstitutional and not binding.”
Gambrill and her fellow Republican commissioner, JoAnn Birrell of District 3, have read statements of protests before every meeting since January, stating their objections to the adoption of Allen’s maps.
They were removed from the dais by Chairwoman Lisa Cupid at the first meeting for trying to abstain from voting.
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr has issued an opinion saying the Allen maps are not legally binding.
But Cobb County Attorney William Rowling has claimed the county has the right to invoke home rule over redistricting, and said the county will continue to use the Allen maps unless or until they are invalidated by the courts.
An attempt by State Sen. Ed Setzler of West Cobb to restore the legislative-approved maps fell through in the current session when his bill wasn’t voted on in the upper chamber on crossover day.
East Cobb resident Debbie Fisher filed an ethics complaint against Richardson, saying she should recuse herself from voting due to a conflict of interest over a political action committee she founded to fight the legislative maps.
The Cobb Ethics Board found no evidence to fully investigate that charge and dismissed the complaint unanimously.
Related:
- Cobb ethics board dismisses complaint against Richardson
- Cobb commission redistricting bill dies in Ga. Senate
- East Cobb resident, commissioner file redistricting lawsuit
- Cobb Republican commissioners vote, contest meeting minutes
- Ga. Attorney General: Cobb electoral maps are ‘not legally binding’
- Cobb Republican commissioners leave meeting over abstentions
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