A lawsuit was filed in Cobb Superior Court Thursday trying to stop or delay a May 24 Cityhood referendum in East Cobb by the same attorney who’s making similar challenges in Lost Mountain and Vinings.
Atlanta attorney Allen Lightcap said he filed the suit on behalf of Colin Brady, a longtime East Cobb resident and retired businessman opposed to a new city being formed in the community.
(You can read the East Cobb lawsuit by clicking here.)
Like suits filed earlier this month regarding the Lost Mountain and Vinings referendums—also scheduled for May 24—the defendants are members of the Cobb Board of Registration and Elections and Director Janine Eveler.
And like the other two complaints, Lightcap said he would be seeking an emergency hearing given the timeliness of the referendums. The East Cobb case has been assigned to Chief Judge Robert Leonard, who also has been given the Lost Mountain and Vinings suits.
The East Cobb suit claims that the bill passed this session by the Georgia legislature is unconstitutional, violating state home rule provisions on four grounds.
Lightcap said that the General Assembly “may not limit or regulate a city’s home rule supplementary powers except by general law.”
The East Cobb bill, like the Lost Mountain and Vinings bills, he said, is a local law.
The East Cobb suit claims that the bill’s “unconstitutional defects go to the heart of the bill, and they cannot be severed without completely defeating the purpose of the law. . . .The voters should not be forced to vote for or against a proposed city whose charter is clearly unconstitutional.”
Specifically, the suit claims that the East Cobb bill, HB 841—which you can read here—unconstitutionally regulates how the proposed city can use its supplementary powers, including services to be provided.
Secondly, the lawsuit states, the legislation “takes away the proposed City of East Cobb’s discretion to use or not use some of its supplementary powers. Supplementary powers are purely discretionary for counties and municipalities; this discretion is constitutionally protected and cannot be abrogated by local law.”
The charter in the East Cobb legislation specifies five services to be provided—planning and zoning, code enforcement, police, fire and emergency services and parks and recreation.
New cities in Georgia are required to provide at least three services from a list of 14 services, but home rule provisions allow for a choice by the municipalities.
The East Cobb complaint said that city charter in the legislation also violates home rule law by capping the millage rate, something that cannot be done via a local law.
The suit also alleges that Cobb County’s home rule provisions would be unconstitutionally regulated during a two-year transition process if a city of East Cobb is created.
“This provision forces Cobb County—without regard to its own agency or discretion—to use its supplementary powers and provide services in the transition for the benefit of the City of East Cobb,” the lawsuit states.
The Committee for East Cobb Cityhood is denouncing the lawsuit, calling it a “last-second, copycat and desperate legal maneuver [that] is nothing more than a shameless attempt to stop the vote.”
Committee chairman Craig Chapin said in a statement that “opponents of Cityhood are hoping to legislate from the bench and block the citizens of East Cobb from having their voices heard in the May 24 Cityhood referendum. It has nothing to do with the actual merits of forming the City of East Cobb.”
Lightcap said last week he was not intending to be a part of a lawsuit to stop the East Cobb vote, but plans fell through for retaining another attorney.
He said there are no other plaintiffs. In Lost Mountain, the leader of a group opposing the referendum there, West Cobb Advocate, is the plaintiff.
But Lightcap said the East Cobb Alliance, the main group opposing cityhood here, is not involved in the suit he filed Thursday.
This story will be updated.
Related:
- At Cityhood debate, citizens asked to keep an open mind
- Lawsuit to stop East Cobb referendum is ‘inevitable’
- East Cobb Cityhood group accuses county of campaigning against referendums
- East Cobb Cityhood group slams Vinings referendum lawsuit
- Anti-Cityhood sign to be removed from shopping center
- County officials take Cityhood town halls to East Cobb
- ECBA, Rotary Club to hold cityhood debates
- GOP special election candidate opposes cityhood
- East Cobb News Cityhood information page
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