East Cobb Alliance

Anti-East Cobb Cityhood group calls renewed effort ‘Jaws 2’

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East Cobb Alliance logo

A week after a new push for East Cobb Cityhood was launched, a group that organized against the first effort in 2019 is again expressing opposition.

In an e-mail sent out Thursday night, the East Cobb Alliance said the new cityhood effort, which includes state legislation filed on Monday, is a “process [that] appears to be putting the cart before the horse.”

That was a reference to the cityhood group not having a financial feasibility study prepared before the bill was filed, as was the case in 2019.

The Committee for East Cobb Cityhood, which includes some individuals from two years ago, said it will be commissioning a study, which is required by law.

“How can one decide a city is financially feasible enough to justify a legislative action to file a bill to form a proposed city…when no feasibility study has been completed to see if the numbers will work?,” said the East Cobb Alliance message.

“What if the feasibility study comes back and it’s not financially feasible? Wouldn’t that be embarrassing?”

In 2019, advocates for cityhood in Mableton had legislation filed before a feasibility study was conducted; like the East Cobb bill it was eventually abandoned and has not been resurrected.

The East Cobb Alliance formed during 2019, after cityhood leaders began holding town hall meetings, and participated in an issues forum on the matter in November of that year, before cityhood leaders abandoned their effort.

There are also proposed new cities of Lost Mountain and Vinings with bills filed this year in the legislature that also will have feasibility studies done.

The East Cobb Alliance has nearly 1,000 followers for its Facebook page, where it has been announcing updates, as well as a petition to oppose the new cityhood effort.

East Cobb Alliance members have been against cityhood for several reasons, claiming it will add an extra layer of government that will cost citizens more in taxes.

In the Thursday e-mail, the East Cobb Alliance labeled the new cityhood effort as “Jaws 2,” making a reference to the popular movie series: “Those land sharks who put forth the Proposed City of East Cobb two years ago are back at it again, infesting the waters of East Cobb with their ‘this layer of government we’re adding is so paper-thin, you will hardly notice it,’ yet again!”

The new cityhood bill calls for “city light” services—planning and zoning, code enforcement and parks and recreation, instead of police and fire, the main services proposed two years ago.

The East Cobb Alliance message claims that “once a city forms, though, a city council and a mayor can do whatever they want including adding police, fire, a development authority (yeah, like we need another one of those in Cobb County), and whatever else a small group of elected politicians decide they want to do in secret on behalf of their friends and family.”

The East Cobb Alliance is inviting citizens to fill out an online survey to express their thoughts about the new cityhood movement, and says it will actively fight against the latest initiative.

State Rep. Matt Dollar’s bill, if passed by the legislature next year, would call for a November 2022 referendum and would include a smaller area of East Cobb than his 2019 legislation.

The proposed City of East Cobb would have around 55,000 residents and includes much of the Walton High School attendance zone.

Dropped from the 2019 proposed map are areas around Wheeler High School, as well as some of the Pope and Lassiter clusters.

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East Cobb cityhood committee releases names of group members

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East Cobb Cityhood town hall
East Cobb Cityhood leaders David Birdwell, Karen Hallacy and Rob Eble at a Walton High School town hall meeting in April. (ECN file photo)

The list of names of those belonging to the Committee for Cityhood in East Cobb is a bit different than what the organization originally released earlier this year.

After cityhood leaders were asked at two different cityhood-related events earlier this week to identify all the indivdiuals involved, the following is the group of names included on the committee’s website:

  • David Birdwell, retired logistics real estate executive
  • Owen Brown, owner and president of retail real estate company
  • Rob Eble, technology consultant
  • Joe Gavalis, retired federal agent
  • Dee Gay, insurance consultant
  • Karan Hallacy, Georgia PTA president, Development Authority of Cobb County member
  • Lisa Hanson, former sales and marketing executive
  • Nick Johnson, healthcare technology
  • Chris Mayer, SR VP sales & marketing Flexible Packaging
  • Chip Patterson, partner, hospitality business
  • Jerry Quan, retired Cobb County Police Precinct 4 commander, current school resource officer
  • Carolyn Roddy, attorney
  • David Womack, technology outsourcing deployment
  • John Woods, financial consulting

With the exception of Johnson, Mayer and Womack, all of the above were included on the orginal cityhood committee list when it was released in March, or joined soon after.

Original committee members Sharon McGehee, an associate director of advancement at Mt. Bethel Christian Academy and Kevin Taitz, a technology consultant, are no longer listed.

The original list had been on the cityhood website until recently, when the some of the site content was changed.

Birdwell, who led a cityhood town hall meeting Monday and was in a debate with the anti-cityhood East Cobb Alliance on Tuesday, also was asked to identify who is funding the cityhood’s feasibility study and lobbyists.

He wouldn’t name names except to say that “a large group” of East Cobb residents have made donations.

Birdwell also was asked if a revised map of the proposed City of East Cobb boundaries, unveiled at the town hall meeting, would be posted soon.

He said it would be, but the cityhood group had just received it from the state apportionment office and a link wasn’t immediately available.

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Birrell on proposed East Cobb city: ‘I don’t support it’

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East Cobb city forum
Mindy Seger of the anti-city East Cobb Alliance debates David Birdwell of the Committee for Cityhood in East Cobb. (East Cobb News photo by Wendy Parker)

After learning that the proposed City of East Cobb map would include areas she represents, Cobb commissioner JoAnn Birrell gave an emphatic answer Tuesday about what she thinks about it.

“I don’t support it,” Birrell said after pro- and anti- cityhood representatives debated before the East Cobb Business Association.

‘I don’t see how you’re going to provide better services for the same taxes you’re paying now.”

That’s what anti-cityhood advocates have been saying after the group leading the cityhood push has claimed a new municipality can deliver better services at the same tax rate East Cobb residents are paying now to the county.

For the first time, opposing forces in the cityhood issue faced one another in a forum format that included opening and closing statements and questions from the audience.

Among the crowd of nearly 200 at the Olde Towne Athletic Club was Birrell, whose District 3 includes some of east and northeast Cobb. The original proposed city boundaries included only parts of District 2, represented by commissioner Bob Ott.

But at a town hall meeting Monday, the Committee for Cityhood in East Cobb announced that the map had expanded to include the Pope and Lassiter school attendance zones.

Birrell said she has not heard anything from the cityhood group about revising the map, and that the only information she learned came from visiting the cityhood committee’s website.

“They’re encroaching in my district,” she said. “So now I’m being outspoken.”

Ott, whose town hall meeting in March was the first public event for the cityhood committee, has not taken a position on the issue.

There’s been speculation he would be interested in running for mayor of East Cobb if a city is created, but he hasn’t responded to that, nor has he indicated if he will be running for re-election or another office in 2020.

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During the debate, David Birdwell of the cityhood group repeated many of the same points he had given at the Monday town hall meeting: That a new city, with around 115,000 residents, would give citizens more local control of their government, improve public safety, not raise taxes and develop a stronger civic identity in East Cobb.

Mindy Seger of the East Cobb Alliance, which opposes cityhood, mentioned the current staffing and retention issues facing Cobb public safety agencies and wondered “how a new city just getting its legs would be able to solve this problem better than any other city has.”

She also pressed Birdwell to reveal the identities behind those funding cityhood expenses that include a Georgia State University feasibility study ($36,000) and more recently, two high profile lobbyists for next year’s legislative session (both at more than $10,000 each).

He said three of the 14 members of the cityhood committee have real estate backgrounds (including himself). Those names are not currently listed on the group’s website, but he said he “would be glad to share it.”

“It raises suspicions about what people are doing” behind the scenes in the pro-cityhood group, Seger said.

She pressed him to name names, saying the cityhood committee has issues with a “lack of transparency.”

Birdwell said a”large group” of East Cobb residents have made donations, but he didn’t identify anyone during the forum. He said in addition to town hall meetings in the spring and Monday’s at Wheeler High School, the cityhood committee has met with homeowners associations, business groups and others.

Seger also said she had heard nothing from State Rep. Matt Dollar, the East Cobb Republican who sponsored a cityhood bill in the 2019 legislative session, in regards to the revised city maps.

“We don’t need a new city for this area,” said Seger, an accountant who has lived in East Cobb since 2006.

Birdwell argued that if real estate interests wanted to pursue high-density development in East Cobb, “they would want to keep it like it is,” meaning having zoning cases decided by county commissioners.

“If you love East Cobb the way is is,” Birdwell said, borrowing the Alliance’s slogan and holding up the opponent’s business card, “the best way to keep doing that is with incorporation.”

Birdwell said after the forum the cityhood group would like to have some more town hall meetings, ideally in December, before the legislative session begins in January.

Dollar’s bill would have to pass both houses next session for a referendum on East Cobb cityhood to take place.

Although originally eyed for the primaries next May, Birdwell said it would be “virtually impossible” to put a cityhood referendum on the ballot then, and that it would more likely be on the November 2020 general election ballot.

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UPDATE: East Cobb cityhood opponents cancel secret meeting

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UPDATED, 8:37 P.M.:

Bill Simon of the East Cobb Alliance contacted East Cobb News to report that the meeting on Thursday has been cancelled.

ORIGINAL STORY:

The anti-cityhood group East Cobb Alliance, which has been critical of pro-cityhood efforts conducted in secret, is meeting on Thursday to prepare for cityhood-related events next week.

But the Alliance meeting at a public facility is not open to the public. The meeting is scheduled from 7:30-9:30 p.m. at the East Cobb Government Service Center (4400 Lower Roswell Road).East Cobb Alliance logo

The purpose of the meeting is to help formulate questions and responses before two cityhood-related events next week.

The Committee for Cityhood in East Cobb is holding a town hall on Monday at Wheeler High School, and next Tuesday, the cityhood group and the East Cobb Alliance will appear at a forum organized by the East Cobb Business Association.

The e-mail urged recipients not to post the meeting notice on Nextdoor or to forward the message, because “we do not want the press or the media or the pro-cityhood people to see what we’re up to. Nothing nefarious, mind you, but we’re trying to serve our members of ECA to help with planning and execution of our team strategy with as little interference as possible.”

When East Cobb News asked Bill Simon, a leader of the East Cobb Alliance, why the meeting isn’t open to the public, he said that it’s “because it’s a private meeting, paid for by private funds.”

(The cost to reserve the meeting room at the East Cobb Government Service Center is $25, the standard fee for any group wishing to meet there. The room has a capacity of 85 people.)

The East Cobb Alliance, which was formed this summer, has been critical of the Committee for Cityhood in East Cobb for what it calls a lack of transparency. The proposed City of East Cobb, according to the Alliance, “is a concept secretly planned by a small group of people for nearly a year before there was public notice of it. Since this group is being rather secretive about several things regarding the PCEC (including their professional backgrounds & why they might be involved), ECA has a page dedicated to exposing (via public records) who is who, and what does who do.”

(East Cobb News last year published stories along similar lines, including the resignation of a citizen from a cityhood ad hoc committee because he was told “it’s none of anyone’s business” who’s all behind the cityhood effort.

While some private, closed groups on Facebook do appear in search results, Residents Against East Cobb City Task Force is completely hidden.

In the e-mail, the message stated that “if you are on Facebook, there is a Closed FB Group that, upon you answering the two entry questions, you will be allowed to join: Residents Against East Cobb City Task Force Group. If the questions are ignored, you cannot gain entry.”

The East Cobb Alliance does have a public Facebook page that updates with links and financial analysis of proposed city services but does not include information about the group’s innerworkings.

In a followup response to an East Cobb News request to attend the meeting, Simon said he would “politely decline your request. . . . There is a stated maximum room limit of the number of people who can attend, thus the reason why it is specifically NOT a public meeting accessible to the public, regardless of the subject matter we are discussing. . .

“Also, if you feel you have some First Amendment right on your side to crash this event, and you appear there on Thursday, just be aware of the potential consequences to your reputation if you are proven wrong.”

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East Cobb cityhood foes blast financial review as ‘baloney’

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East Cobb cityhood financial review
A City of East Cobb fire department “will not have the resources to operate” at a top certified level of protection, according to a group opposing cityhood. (ECN file)

A group opposed to East Cobb cityhood is criticizing an independent financial review that concluded that a proposed city would be fiscally viable.

The five-member Independent Financial Group, consisting of East Cobb residents who are finance and legal experts, volunteered to examine a Georgia State University feasibility study and issued its report in September.

The East Cobb Alliance, which formed over the summer to oppose cityhood, said in a posting on its Facebook page over the weekend that “in the beginning, there were 5 people on the IFG, but the 5th guy resigned when he couldn’t stomach the baloney the other 4 were proposing…and, ‘baloney’ is putting it nicely.”

(Shailesh Bettadapur, a member of the IFG group, resigned two days before the report was released, according to Bill Green, another member of the review group.)

The ECA post further stated that “several members of ECA who have choked their way through reading this document consider it nothing but a bunch of mumbo-jumbo malarkey.”

The East Cobb Alliance took issue with the report above all over fire services. The Committee for Cityhood in East Cobb had state legislation introduced in March that would create a city of East Cobb with police, fire and community development services.

The ECA noted in its posting that in the IFG report, members of the review group and the cityhood group “are concerned the [GSU feasibility] Study may not have included all necessary fire protection expenditures.”

The ECA post continued:

“This is a group of 4 people, NONE of whom have ANY experience in the fire protection services world. No one on the GSU research team had ANY experience in fire protection services. No one on the Pro-Cityhood Committee has ANY clue as to what it takes to operate an effective fire department.

“Our County Fire Department, and our personal lives and property, should NOT be subjected to the whims of fools who have NO IDEA of what it takes to assemble, hire, train, OR operate a world-class Fire Department like we have right now.

“Tell your friends and neighbors about this IDIOCY being pushed upon us.”

The GSU feasibility study estimated an annual fire budget of $5.9 million. According to the IFG report (read it here), a city finance director in a nearby municipality said a City of East Cobb may have relatively lower costs for fire because it “has a low proportion of multi-unit residential housing and fewer tall buildings.”

The IFG, in its report, added $4 million for fire expenses estimates “as a placeholder” pending further budgeting information becoming available.

The East Cobb cityhood bill includes a proposed municipality of around 96,000 people, and five fire stations currently part of the Cobb County Fire and Emergency Services Department.

The ECA in recent days has examined other aspects of the cityhood proposal, including the possible purchase and use of the East Cobb Government Services Center on Lower Roswell Road, and the proposed cost of buying those five fire stations for the new city from the county.

The ECA also claims that a new City of East Cobb fire department “will not have the resources” to provide the top certified level of protection, also known as ISO-1. Cobb is one of around 240 fire departments nationwide to have that status, which is given by the Insurance Services Office, a non-profit that provides insurance information, including for fire and building codes.

“Should we kill a great Fire Department to build a new police department? Seems like kind of a weird trade-off,” the ECA asks.

Another topic covers police and jail services that have been proposed by the cityhood group. The GSU feasibility study suggested a 140-officer East Cobb police force, nearly double the number of officers on patrol in Cobb Police Precinct 4, which covers an area well beyond the proposed city lines. Currently Precinct 4 has a staffing of around 50 response officers, a shortage of less than 20 for what it’s been allocated.

“That just seems very bizarre to us when the land area will be half of their current coverage,” concluded the ECA. “Why should we vote to form a new city to correct a deficiency of 16 people . . . when the coverage territory of a new city will be 50% of the original precinct territory? For all we know, 71 people may be the ideal force for a PCEC.”

The East Cobb Alliance and the East Cobb cityhood group have been invited to a Nov. 12 forum hosted by the East Cobb Business Association.

The day before, on Nov. 11, the cityhood group will hold a town hall meeting at Wheeler High School.

The cityhood group’s public events, which follow town halls in the spring, also tentatively will include more meetings after the first of the year, when the Georgia legislature would take up the East Cobb cityhood bill.

That bill would have to pass the entire General Assembly for a cityhood referendum to take place in 2020.

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Business group to hold East Cobb cityhood forum in November

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East Cobb cityhood forum
Bill Simon, left, a leader of the East Cobb Alliance, which opposes cityhood, talks with David Birdwell of Committee for Cityhood in East Cobb at an April town. (ECN file)

The East Cobb Business Association announced Tuesday it’s holding a forum in mid-November on the East Cobb cityhood issue.

The forum will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 12, during the ECBA’s monthly luncheon from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Olde Towne Athletic Club (4950 Olde Towne Parkway).

According to Rosann Hall, who heads the ECBA’s speakers and program committee, the forum will include representatives of the Committee for Cityhood in East Cobb, which supports incorporation, and the East Cobb Alliance, which opposes cityhood.

“Whether we become a city or whether we don’t, this is going to impact us a lot as business owners and as citizens,” ECBA president Jim Harris said at Tuesday’s luncheon.

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The pro-cityhood group held two town hall meetings and spoke at another civic meeting in the spring, after State Rep. Matt Dollar (R-East Cobb) sponsored legislation (read HB 718 here) that, if passed next year, would call for a cityhood referendum, also in 2020.

The cityhood group wants to carve out a portion of unincorporated Cobb, mostly below Sandy Plains Road, and create a city of around 100,000, citing public safety and development reasons.

The proposal has been controversial from the beginning and has generated plenty of skepticism in the community. East Cobb cityhood forum

The East Cobb Alliance was formed recently to launch organized opposition, questioning a financial feasibility study conducted for the pro-cityhood forces and what it calls a lack of transparency by those pushing for a city.

In September, an independent group of finance and legal experts reviewed the feasibility study and concluded it was fiscally sound, but recommended any City of East Cobb not start with police services.

(The review group’s summary and full report).

David Birdwell, a leader of the cityhood committee, said the review confirmed that cityhood is financially viable, and that a new city can provide better services without raising property taxes.

The East Cobb Alliance hasn’t formally responded to the independent review report, but it has examined various portions of the feasibility study, including public safety, franchise fees and inter-governmental agreements.

Most recently, the group posted a graphic on its Facebook page of a hungry-looking raptor with the message that “while the Raptor is fictional….the ‘City of East Cobb’ is a government horror that will slowly eat you alive for years.”

The cityhood group has redirected its original website to one with the domain of communityofeastcobb.com that includes much of the same information it has been discussing in recent months:

  • East Cobb’s Precinct 4 police staffing of 53 patrol officers that is 24 fewer than has been allocated;
  • Claiming property tax rates wouldn’t be higher than they are now in unincorporated Cobb;
  • Promising more prompt road repairs;
  • And “passing zonings without interference of votes from outside the city.”

Rob Eble, another leader of the cityhood group, said it’s looking to have a town hall tentatively on Nov. 11, but a venue has not been confirmed.

East Cobb cityhood forum

 

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East Cobb cityhood leader: Finance review ‘confirms’ viability

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One of the leaders of a committee exploring cityhood in East Cobb said an independent review of a financial feasibility study released this week “confirms” that the resources exist to deliver what the group has long maintained a proposed city can do:

Lower taxes and expand services.

David Birdwell, East Cobb Cityhood leader
David Birdwell

David Birdwell of the Committee for Cityhood in East Cobb told East Cobb News that “there’s a lot more” he needs to absorb about the independent review, but “it confirms to me that a city is financially viable.”

What’s being called the Independent Finance Group issued its findings on Wednesday (summary, full report).

The IFG, made up of five members with finance and legal expertise, said while a Georgia State University study commissioned by the cityhood group (read it here) had some flaws, a tax base exists in East Cobb for most of what the cityhood forces have in mind.

“The advocates for cityhood have always encouraged the residents of East Cobb to dig into the facts and draw their own conclusions,” Birdwell said. “That’s what the Independent Finance Group did.”

“Cityhood would certainly give East Cobb more local control over issues such as zoning, but this study is one more strong argument that cityhood will also bring lower taxes and more police protection.”

The IFG did recommend, however, that a City of East Cobb not start with a police department—every city must provide at least three services—until it would work out a revenue-shifting agreement with Cobb County.

Instead, the financial review group suggested the city provide waste disposal services, a low-cost, revenue-neutral option. The other services proposed by the cityhood group are fire and community development, which includes planning and zoning.

Ultimately, the services a City of East Cobb would provide would be determined by an elected mayor and city council.

Legislation filed by State Rep. Matt Dollar of East Cobb that calls for a referendum and includes a proposed city charter (read it here) must pass next year, or it would go have to go through another two-year legislative period.

Cityhood leaders are eyeing a possible May 2020 referendum, and if that passes, elections in November of next year. A two-year transition period for a new city would also take place.

About not starting with police, Birdwell says while he doesn’t agree or disagree about the IFG’s conclusion, “I get that.” But “as I talk to a lot of people in East Cobb, public safety is very important.”

Birdwell said the IFG’s position is “an intriguing angle,” and appreciates the group’s highly detailed approach to its work.

“We’re inviting anyone in East Cobb to study [the finance review group’s report] and look at the facts,” Birdwell said. “There has been so much emotion over this.”

East Cobb News Cityhood page

Birdwell said the cityhood group is tentatively looking at an early October date for a town hall meeting, and another in mid-November.

A newly formed group opposing cityhood is the East Cobb Alliance. Bill Simon, one of the group’s organizers, told East Cobb News he’s just beginning to read through the IFG’s report, and has a few questions.

The report refers to the provision of solid waste services instead of police. “Do they mean for the Proposed City of East Cobb to contract with one provider of household garbage and waste services for all property owners? What if the citizens are happy with the competitive availability of multiple garbage companies now?”

As for a new fire department for a city, Simon asked what can the IFG “guarantee in terms of the ISO classification for a new PCEC Fire Department?”

The report refers new franchise-fee revenue of $6.1 million a year, but the GSU study’s figure is $7.3 million. “Please explain this discrepancy,” Simon said.

(Bill Green of the financial review group told East Cobb News previously that the $6.1 million figure represents new franchise fees only, and that the group does not recommend adding new franchise fees. Currently cable franchise fees totaling $1.2 million a year are collected in East Cobb.)

Simon said that “isn’t it true that nearly every other large city in Georgia is assessing and collecting franchise fees from their tax base? And, if cityhood is granted, then wouldn’t that mean East Cobb residents would be implicitly granting power to a city council and mayor that they become the sole deciders of whether to assess franchise fees any time they wanted in the future?”

 

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East Cobb cityhood opponents emerge with new citizens group

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East Cobb Alliance
David Birdwell (right) of the Committee for Cityhood in East Cobb talks at an April town hall meeting with Bill Simon, leader of a new group in opposition. (ECN file)

The East Cobb cityhood effort is gaining more visible opponents with a new citizens group called the East Cobb Alliance, which launched a website and a public Facebook group last week.

According to the group’s About page, the East Cobb Alliance is:

“A non-partisan coalition of East Cobb residents, businesses, and stakeholders who share the common vision that there is no need to incorporate any part of Unincorporated East Cobb into an additional layer of city-government, and want to work together to educate and inform the voters who will be responsible for casting a “Yes” or “No” vote to incorporate.”

Bill Simon is one of three people listed among the group’s organizers. He’s got a consulting and finance background and runs a small business marketing agency in East Cobb.

The others are Emmanuel Kipreos, an accountant with children attending Timber Ridge Elementary School and Mindy Seger, also an accountant raising her family in East Cobb.

When asked by East Cobb News how many people are involved in or who have expressed interest in the East Cobb Alliance, Simon referred to an invitation-only Facebook group of cityhood opponents he said has 300-plus members.

As for next steps, Simon said “what we are now working on is building the coalition up to be able to get the word out that 1) there is an effort to incorporate parts of East Cobb into a new city, and 2) why it is a bad idea that will cost more money.”East Cobb Alliance logo

The East Cobb Alliance has posted financial breakdowns of the costs and services proposed by the cityhood group, especially those pertaining to police and fire services, as well as franchise fees, intergovernmental revenues and the East Cobb city financial feasibility study.

That study by Georgia State University declared the proposed city—with around 96,000 residents—is not only financially feasible but would start with a surplus of more than $3 million. The cityhood group claims a City of East Cobb could operate without levying a higher property tax rate than what citizens currently pay in unincorporated Cobb.

The cityhood committee this spring appointed an independent financial group to examine the study and develop a working budget proposal.

Contacted late last week by East Cobb News, cityhood leader Rob Eble said he understands that the finance group’s work is done, and that it is “validating findings.”

The cityhood group had tentatively eyed August for another town hall meeting on the subject, but one has not been scheduled.

The cityhood bill introduced by State Rep. Matt Dollar of East Cobb near the end of the 2019 legislative session is slated to be taken up in the Georgia General Assembly next year.

If passed, the legislation would set up a cityhood referendum, which also would be held next year.

The East Cobb Alliance site also has a section entitled “cityhood charades,” examining those behind the cityhood group, especially those with real estate backgrounds and connections.

Simon said the East Cobb Alliance is asking for contributions from interested citizens, “as we have come out of personal pocket for Open Records, web domain, web hosting, and we will be wanting to print material to distribute as well.”

Stop East Cobb Cityhood
Click the image for a larger view.

‘They’re stealing our stuff!’

An anonymously written blog has surfaced called Stop East Cobb Cityhood, calling the effort “a solution in search of a problem.” It expresses similar concerns as the East Cobb Alliance over taxes and real estate interests, but drips with sarcasm and colorful language more than financial analysis.

The eight blog posts that have been published aren’t dated, and some refer to committee president Joe Gavalis as “grifter-in-chief” or “charlatan-in-chief.” The pro-cityhood forces also are described alternately as “fraudsters,” “hucksters” and “tricksters.”

Some of the posts include photos of Barney Fife, Austin Powers and the McDonald’s Hamburglar to make acid points about what the blogger argues is a lack of specifics about a proposed City of East Cobb, and what’s driving it:

“The cityhood hustle is a naked land grab by a secretive bunch of connivers licking their chops at the prospect of turning our community into their personal ATM.”

The only identifying information about the Stop East Cobb Cityhood blog says that:

“We are homeowners in East Cobb who value our property rights and low taxes. We invite each and every one of you to compare the facts presented here with the shifting narrative and hide-the-ball tactics of the promoters. East Cobb is a special place with just the right balance of homes, businesses and open spaces. Let’s not hand over control of our homes and businesses to a group of insiders who want to cash in at our expense.”

Simon said he wasn’t aware of the Stop East Cobb Cityhood blog or who may be behind it and that the East Cobb Alliance is not associated with it.

A link to the Stop East Cobb Cityhood site is being promoted in Google search engine rankings as a paid advertisement with the headline: “Say No To Higher Taxes | Stop East Cobb Cityhood Today.”

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