East Cobb resident Larry Savage has refiled a lawsuit against Cobb County’s home rule legal challenge over redistricting maps for the Cobb Board of Commissioners.
His co-plaintiff in the action filed Thursday in Cobb Superior Court is Cobb Republican Commissioner Keli Gambrill.
Their suit (you can read it here) was filed against the county and the Cobb Board of Registration and Elections. The latter was the sole defendant in the initial suit filed by Savage but was withdrawn after an initial hearing before Judge Ann Harris in January.
The refiled suit seeks a writ of mandamus to order Cobb 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.
Instead, she and the board’s other two Democrats passed a resolution last October to recognize a redistricting map drawn by the former Cobb legislative delegation chairman that would keep Richardson in her seat.
That action included the filing of an amended map with the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, even after Gambrill and fellow GOP Commissioner JoAnn Birrell were re-elected in November according to the legislature-approved maps.
The new lawsuit continues to claim that the county is violating the Georgia Constitution, which permits only the legislature to conduct reapportionment.
The suit said that Gambrill, who represents District 1 in north and west Cobb, is a plaintiff as an individual citizen, not in her role as a commissioner.
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.”
The legislative map drew most of East Cobb into District 3, which Birrell has represented since 2010. Savage, a former candidate for Cobb Commission Chairman in 2012, 2016 and 2020, was drawn into the new District 3 for the 2022 election.
But the Cobb map, which the county said took effect on Jan. 1, puts him back in District 2, which includes some of East Cobb and the Cumberland-Vinings area.
“Mr. Savage has a legally protected interest in enduring his vote fairly and legally translates into representation on the BOC and that his district and the county at large is represented fairly and constitutionally,” said the lawsuit, filed by Atlanta attorney Ray S. Smith III.
The lawsuit said that the Cobb Board of Commissioners “created a conflict for the BOE [Board of Elections] in carrying out its duties” to conduct and certify elections.
Gambrill and Birrell were ordered from the board’s dais at the commission’s first meeting of the year when they attempted to abstain from voting as a protest against the county maps.
Chairwoman Lisa Cupid said that was a violation of board policy. Since then, the two Republican commissioners have voted, but have begun each meeting reading formal statements of objection.
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr has issued an opinion claiming the Cobb maps are not legally binding, but said his office could take no action until a lawsuit was filed.
The Cobb commission Democrats have claimed in their resolution that they’re justified in invoking home rule over redistricting due to the “unprecedented” redistricting maps passed by the legislature.
Richardson, whose term expires in 2024, has contended that while the county’s action may be unprecedented, so is the legislature’s action in drawing a sitting incumbent official out of her seat.
An East Cobb resident, Debbie Fisher, has filed an ethics complaint against Richardson, saying the commissioner is engaged in a conflict of interest due to a political action committee she formed to fight the legislative maps.
State Sen. Ed Setzler, a Republican from West Cobb, has filed a bill that would specifically prohibit counties from using home rule powers over redistricting. Two co-sponsors of the bill, SB 236 (you can read it here), are his GOP colleagues Kay Kirkpatrick and John Albers, who represent parts of East Cobb.
Related:
- East Cobb resident files ethics complaint against Richardson
- 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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