Hours after a stinging referendum defeat Tuesday, the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood took down its chief online vehicles for communicating with the public.
The cityhood’s Facebook page no longer exists, and its website includes only a link to Tuesday’s results and an MDJ story about Cobb commissioners favoring a 30-year transportation tax.
A YouTube page that the cityhood group managed featuring video interviews, including some we noted in a previous post, also is gone.
The referendum was defeated in landslide fashion Tuesday, with 73 percent of voters rejecting the creation of a City of East Cobb.
UPDATE: The website homepage has been restored, but information tabs that included Cityhood analysis of proposed services and biographies of group leaders is gone.
“Thank you for your support, we continued to be committed to East Cobb and protecting our neighborhoods,” said the homepage message, which links to the cityhood legislation and feasibility study as well as the proposed city map.
Here’s what’s been cached on the Wayback Machine.
All three Cobb referendums on the ballot failed, with voters in Lost Mountain spurning cityhood with 58 percent of the vote and Vinings voters turning it down with 55 percent of the vote.
A cityhood referendum in November will take place in Mableton.
In commenting on the referendum results, East Cobb Cityhood group spokeswoman Cindy Cooperman told East Cobb News on Wednesday that the group “has worked hard for the citizens’ right to vote for a city and as advocates for the proposed city. Although the county and opposition didn’t want citizens to vote, the community had their voices heard.
“Make no mistake; the facts have not changed. East Cobb will be under increasing growth and tax pressure from Cobb County to urbanize our community. Our polling told a different story from the results last night. Cobb’s policy direction explains why the county worked so hard to stop the cityhood effort(s).”
Cobb government officials held several town hall meetings over the last two months about the cityhood referendums and the county launched a cityhood web portal with what it said was objective information in response to requests from the public.
The Cityhood group heatedly objected, and tried to keep the focus on development and density issues.
Ppponents and Cobb leaders tried to cast doubt on a city’s ability to provide proposed police, fire and emergency 911 services.
Last week, as the campaign reached its final days, some Cobb public safety department heads took part in a Zoom call conducted by the East Cobb Alliance, the main opposition group to cityhood.
Those opposed to cityhood took note of the Cityhood group’s web disappearance.
In the East Cobbers Against High Density Development group on Facebook, commenters chimed in with glee.
“If I knew how fast they’d scrub everything I would have set up my own website to preserve this train wreck of a campaign,” wrote one.
“Hopefully they got the message that East Cobb does not need to be a city,” said another.
Readers on the East Cobb Alliance Facebook page expressed similar sentiments, and thanked the group’s organizers.
The only precinct in which YES votes prevailed—Sope Creek 3—includes the Atlanta Country Club where some Cityhood group leaders live.
“I predict they drill it down to just Atlanta Country Club and Paper Mill Rd—THAT will be their East Cobb,” quipped one commenter.
“They can have it,” responded another.
Related:
- East Cobb Cityhood referendum defeated in landslide
- As East Cobb Cityhood vote nears, recent votes have sputtered
- East Cobb News Cityhood information page
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