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With a week remaining before the East Cobb Cityhood referendum is decided, those against the vote are ramping up questions about a financial feasibility study they has been manipulated.

In response, Cityhood proponents are accusing their detractors of last-minute desperation and spinning conspiracy theories.

The anti-Cityhood group East Cobb Alliance last week released a copy of an October 2021 draft financial study and e-mails between the Cityhood leaders and Georgia State University researchers that showed the proposed city of 60,000 would be operating at a $3.5 million annual deficit.

That was with a “city light” set of proposed services of planning and zoning, code enforcement and parks and recreation.

When the final study was released in November, after public safety services were added—and by transferring a 2.86 Cobb Fire Fund millage rate that would provide the majority of revenues for the new city—the bottom line showed a surplus of more than $3 million.

Bob Lax of the East Cobb Alliance concluded that the final study is “completely contrived, underfunding public safety to use those dollars for the city’s general fund.” (He compiled an analysis of the feasibility study that you can read here. It contains links to some of those e-mail threads.)

The Committee for East Cobb Cityhood accused the Alliance of trying to “distract voters” by going to media outlets and “peddling this non-story.

“Public Safety was included in the 2018 and 2021 cityhood efforts because supporters overwhelmingly provided feedback to our committee and Rep. Dollar that Public Safety, specifically police coverage, was mandatory for the city to provide,” the Cityhood group said in response to a request for comment from East Cobb News, and repeating comments they’ve made during the referendum campaign.

East Cobb is one of four cityhood referendums in Cobb this year, but is the only proposed city that would offer police and fire.

When former State Rep. Matt Dollar re-introduced cityhood legislation in March 2021, the focus was on preserving East Cobb’s suburban character from the high-density development that’s taking place elsewhere in Cobb County.

Cityhood bills must include a financial feasibility study. Dollar said at the time that such a study was to assume no new property taxes beyond what citizens in the proposed city were paying for county services.

While new cities can levy up to one mill without seeking voter approval, starting up revenue-neutral has been a major selling point by the East Cobb cityhood group.

The proposed police, fire and E-911 services in East Cobb have been a major topic at town hall meetings held by Cobb County government officials in response to the cityhood referendums.

While the final feasibility study estimated fire expenses of $5.7 million a year, the county’s numbers conclude the costs to be $12.4 million.

Cityhood leaders have said those figures are misleading, and accused the county of campaigning against cityhood. They sent Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid two separate letters demanding they stop.

Most recently, the Cobb Fire and Emergency Services Department launched a website portal and promotional campaign to celebrate its 50th anniversary. Signs were posted in front of Station 21, which the cityhood group decried.

“The County’s flagrant disregard of Georgia law in its attempt to influence these elections is outrageous,” the cityhood letter sates, saying the county is violating state law with the fire department campaign “launched to coincide with the start of early voting on the Cityhood referendums.” The letter continued:

“The County’s audacious decision to put up a sign promoting Cobb County’s ‘World Class Fire Department’ sign in the same building as the Early Voting location in East Cobb, is in direct violation of O.C.G.A. §21-2-414. Because the Cityhood referendum is on the ballot in that very building, the sign is an illegal piece of campaign material that must be removed at once.”

That letter was dated May 4. The following day the county responded by saying similar signs were included in front of stations elsewhere, including Station 20, located just outside the proposed City of East Cobb on Sewell Mill Road.

The sign in front of Station 21 remained as the last week of early voting got underway Monday.

On Wednesday, the Alliance is holding a public meeting via Zoom to discuss public safety, with Cobb police, fire and E-911 officials as guests. It starts at 7 p.m. and can be accessed at this link.

The East Cobb Cityhood Committee noted Georgia law requiring new cities to provide at least three services. “We could have taken three low-cost services that would have been feasible with no tax increase,” the group told East Cobb News.

“The East Cobb Alliance cannot accept the simple truth that East Cobb pays more than two times their share in taxes for services we do not receive. It is the hard truth. Supporters of the City of East Cobb are tired of paying the most and comparatively receiving the least in services from Cobb County.”

The issue of crime—which drove an ultimately unsuccessful Buckhead cityhood effort in the Georgia legislature this year—also has been raised more recently by East Cobb cityhood leaders.

“The Buckhead crime problem is coming to East Cobb,” the cityhood group’s response continued. “There is an explosion of crime in Buckhead. Further, the Atlanta Regional Commission study shows crime was Georgia citizens’ number one concern and that amount of concern doubled from 16 percent to 32 percent in one year.”

East Cobb Cityhood debate — *Bob Lax of the anti-Cityhood group East Cobb Alliance at an April debate.*

From draft to feasibility

In its response to East Cobb News, however, the Cityhood group did not explain what happened between its receipt of the draft financial study and the release of the final study.

Parks and recreation services were dropped in the end, and other significant spending categories were either eliminated or reduced.

The draft study showed revenues of $10.9 million and expenses of $13.9 million annually.

The final study came to a budget of $27 million with expenses of around $24 million.

A total of $14.3 million in annual revenues would come from the fire fund, which would be used to cover other services in the proposed city, including police, planning and zoning and code enforcement.

Lax said he had to fight to get Georgia State to provide the draft study after filing an open records request in late March.

He got the draft and e-mails between Georgia State and the cityhood committee last week, after threatening legal action.

On Oct. 4, the e-mails show, the lead GSU researcher notified the cityhood leaders that “due to the smaller number of services, some revenue available in the previous iteration of the study [the 2018 East Cobb financial feasibility study that included police and fire] will not be available in this iteration.”

That e-mail came from Peter Bluestone, a senior research associate, and he added that “I think it would be useful to discuss the implications of this prior to your review of the draft.”

Cityhood president Craig Chapin replied on Oct. 8 that the group “wanted to walk through the addition of services we want to consider.”

A reply from Bluestone later that day noted that “revising the report to include police and fire and the property tax revenue [$14 million] would push the date out for the completion of the final report closer to the end of November.”

He said substituting library services, which had been suggested by the GSU research team, would keep the report timeline on schedule.

Oct. 8 also is the date the of the draft study, which states in red lettering on the cover: “Not for distribution or attribution.”

The bulk of the revenues in the draft study would come from franchise fees, insurance premiums, licenses and permits and a tax on alcoholic beverages. Only $785,000 annually would come from property taxes.

The estimated annual expenses in the draft study include $6.9 million for administration and $2.5 million for parks and recreation, which would include East Cobb Park, Fullers Park, Fullers Recreation Center, Mt. Bethel Park, Hyde Farm and the Wright Environmental Education Center.

In the final study, the parks and recreation costs were detailed in an appendix; another $588,981 in costs for planning and zoning per year was taken out.

Facility leasing expenses of $600,000 also were eliminated entirely, and nearly $1 million in administrative costs were cut.

In his analysis of the two studies, Lax said that “the feasibility study was manipulated to make the city feasible . . .Your public safety services WILL suffer, and your taxes WILL go up. One might even ask if this level of public manipulation could constitute fraud.”

The East Cobb Cityhood group, in its response to East Cobb News, maintained that the study is valid, and that the issue before voters is simple.

“To be clear and not confuse voters, the referendum question in front of voters is to incorporate the City of East Cobb supported by a credible and impartial feasibility study performed by Georgia State. This is the question on the ballot for voters on May 24.”

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