The Committee for Cityhood in East Cobb, Inc. has retained a lobbyist who has worked on behalf of other groups in metro Atlanta in recent years that have sought incorporation, as well for as a contractor that has provided services to some of those cities.
John Garst registered on Monday as lobbyist for the East Cobb group, according to the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission.
He runs Rosetta Stone Communications, an Atlanta-based political consulting and polling firm, and it is the official polling organization for WSB-TV.
His previous lobbying for cityhood efforts include the City of Brookhaven, the City of Stonecrest, the Eagles Landing Educational Research Committee and CH2M.
The latter, formerly known as CH2M Hill, was a Colorado-based engineering and operations firm with an office in Atlanta that has provided municipal services on contract for the cities of Sandy Springs, Milton and Johns Creek.
CH2M also has contracted with other newer municipalities, including Tucker and Chattahoochee Hills in South Fulton. In 2017, CH2M was sold to another Colorado engineering firm.
Phil Kent, a spokesman for the cityhood group, told East Cobb News that Garst, who specializes in a Republican clientele, will be paid “slightly in excess of $10,000 for this year. He will now begin educating and pitching various state lawmakers and the legislative leadership on the benefits of East Cobb cityhood, monitor future legislation, attend meetings, and perform other duties associated with the legislative process.”
Joe Gavalis, an Atlanta Country Club resident who is the chairman of the cityhood committee, wrote a column that was published Tuesday in The Marietta Daily Journal, making his case for “local control over local affairs.”
His column repeats arguments he has made previously, and including obtaining feedback from a group of citizens about a feasibility study for a proposed City of East Cobb:
“Conversations with numerous east Cobb citizens also include concerns over actions taken by a majority of Cobb County commissioners who don’t reside in our community. The recent vote on a property tax increase, for example, passed by a 3-2 vote. Our sole east Cobb commissioner was out-voted. Indeed, there is a perception that county funds are not being spent prudently, and that public safety services and road improvements are not top priorities. If this concerns you in east Cobb, there is a solution. The answer is self-determination through cityhood!”
The proposed map of the City of East Cobb (with a population of 96,000) does not include all of what is generally regarded as East Cobb. The northern boundaries match, nearly identically, the boundaries of Cobb Commissioner Bob Ott’s District 2.
East Cobb’s other commissioner, JoAnn Birrell, also voted against the tax increase.
In the column, Gavalis continued to decline to name other individuals in the cityhood organization, saying only that they are “a group of concerned east Cobb citizens.”
On the East Cobb Cityhood website, he said that besides commercial real estate business owner G. Owen Brown, other donors who paid for the feasibility study “for now, wish to be unidentified due to possible personal harassment or media attacks/smears from opponents.”
Gavalis also has declined to identify those in the citizens group (East Cobb News has contacted a few, including one who quit over what he called a lack of transparency), saying only that “many chose to remain anonymous since this Committee was merely exploring the concept of cityhood.”
He said the group has made the following recommendations:
- Conduct community meetings to educate the public on the process;
- Recruit volunteers for study panels;
- Develop a communication plan;
- Develop “frequently asked questions and answers” as well as “facts vs. myths” materials;
- Develop a comparison of the GSU study data versus our study panel estimates and also comparing research with comparable cities;
- Educate citizens living in adjacent properties about requesting annexation into the city after it is created. (Changing the proposed city boundaries now would require a new feasibility study).
Gavalis did not indicate in his column when cityhood backers would inform the broader public or seek to introduce legislation to establish a local referendum. The earliest citizens could vote on whether to create a City of East Cobb would be in 2020, but only if a bill is passed this year.
Kent reiterated “that the cityhood movement is still in its very early stage.”
He also said that “dates are currently being discussed for community meetings” and that they will be announced to the public when they are scheduled.
The feasibility study, for which the cityhood group paid $36,000, concluded that the City of East Cobb was financially viable without levying taxes higher than the current Cobb County general fund millage rate, and would even start with a budget surplus.
After a recent speaking engagement in East Cobb, Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce told East Cobb News that none of the six existing cities in Cobb have lower overall millage rates than the county.
“Unless you can show me there’s a big difference in the quality of services, you’re going to be paying extra to get those services” in a City of East Cobb, Boyce said.
Gavalis said the study committees would be involved in creating a charter, and he is seeking volunteers with expertise in taxes and finance, planning and zoning, public works and engineering, governance and administration and police and courts. Said Kent:
“A lot of feedback is already coming in via our website from east Cobbers and others with various areas of expertise who want to volunteer to be on study panels that are being established by the East Cobb cityhood committee.”
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