The group pressing for cityhood in East Cobb has hired two of the best-known lobbyists in state government, and both have deep connections in Georgia Republican politics.
According to filings with the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission, the Committee for Cityhood in East Cobb retained Don Bolia and Laura Norton on Oct. 29.
They are being paid more than $10,000 each to lobby on behalf of the East Cobb cityhood committee, according to the filings.
Bolia and Norton are the principal and senior associate, respectively, of Peachtree Government Relations, an Atlanta firm specializing in executive and legislative branch lobbying in Georgia.
Bolia, Norton and the firm have been named among the most influential in the state by JAMES, a magazine published by Phil Kent, CEO of the political consulting firm Insider Advantage and who previously served as a public relations representative for the cityhood group.
The East Cobb cityhood committee is holding a town hall meeting Monday at Wheeler High School and is taking part in a debate Tuesday sponsored by the East Cobb Business Association.
That forum also will include a representative of the East Cobb Alliance, a citizens group that opposes cityhood.
Legislation sponsored by State Rep. Matt Dollar (R-East Cobb) calling for an East Cobb cityhood referendum and proposed city charter is slated to be taken up next year in the Georgia General Assembly.
That bill, introduced on the next-to-last day of the 2019 session, calls for a city of nearly 100,000 people to be created out of unincorporated East Cobb in Cobb commission District 2.
Bolia was an aide to former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich and served as political director and executive director of the Georgia Republican Party. He also was chief of staff to the Fulton County Commission.
Norton was a fundraiser for former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue (now the U.S. Agriculture Secretary) and the Georgia Republican Party. Her husband is Smyrna City Council member Derek Norton, who is in a Dec. 3 runoff to succeed long-serving mayor Max Bacon.
The East Cobb cityhood group hired three lobbyists before the 2019 legislative session: John and Cynthia Garst, who have extensive experience with cityhood issues, and Jared Thomas, a partner in the Garst Thomas Public Affairs firm of Atlanta.
Thomas is another veteran Georgia GOP operative and was chief of staff and press secretary to current Gov. Brian Kemp when he was Georgia Secretary of State. Thomas also ran former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed’s unsuccessful bid for lieutenant governor in 2006.
Although any city of East Cobb government would have non-partisan elections, the cityhood issue has sparked some partisan fire. In February, Kent, a conservative pundit, wrote on his Facebook page that “it will be a sad day when tax-and-spend Democrats take over the Cobb County Commission. East Cobbers need to protect themselves and their neighborhoods.”
Those comments, reported in various media outlets, came as cityhood leaders were planning for their first town hall meeting, and right before Dollar filed the East Cobb bill.
Cityhood leaders distanced themselves from Kent’s remarks, and since then, the cityhood effort has been publicly led by David Birdwell and Rob Eble, who came on board earlier this year.
According to files with the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, Birdwell is listed as the CEO and Eble is the secretary of the East Cobb cityhood committee. The chief financial officer is Chip Patterson, who had been identified as a member of the committee earlier this year.
Patterson is a partner in an Atlanta real estate development firm who lives in the Atlanta Country Club area and is a former president of the Walton Touchdown Club.
The names of other members are no longer listed on the cityhood committee’s website, which has a different domain address than the original.
The East Cobb cityhood bill must pass both houses of the Georgia legislature in order for a referendum to be called.
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