Bob Ott’s tenure on the Cobb Board of Commissioners began with a major crisis, and it’s ending with one.
The District 2 commissioner took office in 2009 not long before catastrophic flooding heavily damaged parts of Cobb County, especially along the Chattahoochee River.
As he prepares for his final meetings on Tuesday, he said he’s pleased with efforts by the board to assist Cobb citizens, business owners and non-profit groups reeling from COVID-19 and related shutdowns and closures.
“From the great floods to the pandemic,” Ott noted in an interview with East Cobb News this week.
He’s been making parting remarks to community groups and sharing memories and photos with readers of his weekly e-mail newsletter in recent weeks.
On Tuesday, there will be a final zoning hearing in the morning, and a regular meeting in the evening. Ott said he’ll be publishing an open letter and is planning a farewell address to deliver as the gavel comes down on a 12-year career as a commissioner.
The only regret he has, he said, is not being able to close out with town hall meetings that he says is among his proudest accomplishments.
“That’s probably the hardest part of all this,” said Ott, who pledged accessibility when he was first elected.
In addition to the town halls, he started a weekly newsletter, following what he had seen from former Congressman Tom Price, and for five years was the host of the “2Talk” program on the Cobb government’s public access channel in which he interviewed county department heads and other officials.
A Delta Air Lines pilot who had not been involved in politics until a zoning case near his home in the Powers Ferry corridor, Ott said opening up the process of government to citizens has been an important part of what he sought office to achieve.
But since he defeated former commissioner Joe Lee Thompson—who had appointed him to the Cobb Planning Commission—in 2008, the demands of the job have become considerable.
“I don’t think people know what the job entails,” Ott said. “It’s more of a full-time job than working at Delta.”
Each of the four district commissioners is paid a part-time salary, and has a full-time administrative assistant. When he announced in January he wouldn’t be seeking a fourth term, Ott made similar overtones.
It’s a job that Ott, a Republican, is handing off to his successor, Democrat Jerica Richardson, who is being sworn in on Dec. 31. He’s met and spoken with her several times since her election on Nov. 3, and has invited her to meetings with staff.
“I’m a firm believer that I needed to include her in on that,” said Ott, who endorsed her Republican opponent, Fitz Johnson.
Ott said while he advised Richardson to keep some of his appointments for the sake of continuity, “I told her I won’t be telling her how to do that job.”
From civic groups to a stadium
A native of Westfield, N.J., Ott came to metro Atlanta in 1991 as a Delta pilot. After he got married and settled into a home in Terrell Mill Estates, a major residential zoning proposal came that he and other nearby residents opposed.
He parlayed that activity into serving as the president of the East Cobb Civic Association before his appointment to the planning board.
Starting the town halls as a commissioner, he said, was important for citizens to feel as though they had a connection with the government.
“The felt like they had a voice,” he said.
Ott oversaw community-driven processes to create master plans in District 2, including areas along Powers Ferry and Johnson Ferry roads, in Vinings, and most recently, the Johnson Ferry-Shallowford area.
The biggest vote Ott cast was for the 2013 memorandum of understanding with the Atlanta Braves for a new baseball stadium in the Cumberland area.
The normally accessible Ott stayed out of the public eye for two weeks after the proposal was revealed, holding a town hall meeting the night before he joined the board majority in a 4-1 vote to approve the deal.
He said he understands why some citizens still remain chastened about the process, but maintains that the stadium—now called Truist Park—and subsequent development surrounding it “has been a huge revenue generator for the county.”
Ott said the area has seen an increase of more than 22,000 jobs, and has sparked redevelopment interest in ancillary areas, including the Powers Ferry corridor.
After the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in shutdowns that closed many businesses and threw many workers out of jobs, Cobb County received $132 million in federal CARES funding.
Ott proposed spending $50 million for small business owners to stay afloat, and a special panel formed by the Cobb Chamber or Commerce’s SelectCobb economic development arm selected 3,715 businesses to receive the grants.
Commissioners also approved CARES Act funding to provide mortgage and rental assistance and to help non-profits who provide food for those in need.
But if those affected by pandemic closures “don’t have a job,” Ott said, “they can’t take care of their families. We had to figure out a way to keep these businesses open.”
A low-tax Republican—Ott frequently told citizens he’d never vote to raise their property taxes—he says that government works best “when it helps people help themselves.”
Political and personal change
Ott’s transition to a private citizen comes as the county is undergoing a political, demographic and generational transition.
He’s been part of a 4-1 Republican majority; in January, Democrats will have a 3-2 majority following commissioner Lisa Cupid’s election as board chair over Republican incumbent Mike Boyce.
Ott—who feuded with Boyce and predecessor Tim Lee, another fellow Republican, on taxes and spending issues—said of the partisan dynamics on the board that “there’s a lot more to the job than what you see from the outside.”
He wouldn’t predict what issues might be prominent on a Democratic majority, other than continuing budget and COVID responses.
While he admitted there probably will be some 3-2 party-line votes, “there’s no guarantee” it will happen on all major votes.
“You’ve got to give Democrats a credit,” he said, noting how the Cobb precinct maps in countywide elections looked very similar. “They campaigned where they knew they needed to.”
Ott’s been coy about his involvement with a group pushing for East Cobb Cityhood. He held a packed-house town-hall at the Catholic Church of St. Ann in March 2019, explaining that “you have to be able to talk to the people.”
The day after that meeting, an incorporation bill requested by the Committee for Cityhood in East Cobb was introduced in the Georgia legislature by State Rep. Matt Dollar.
A good bit of vocal opposition brewed after that, and last December the pro-cityhood group said it wouldn’t pursue legislation after some commissioners and legislators said they didn’t support it.
Those include Republicans and conservatives who’ve said a city would add another layer of government.
Ott never publicly offered his thoughts at the time, but says now that if people in East Cobb “get concerned about the direction of the board, that conversation might start back up again.”
For the time being, Ott is stepping away from public activities. He noted he has only a few items on his January calendar, involving Boy Scouts and other groups at Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church, where he’s a longtime member.
He said he’s working on some projects around the house, including woodworking, and enjoys a wine-making hobby, and other “things I haven’t had time time to do.”
He and his wife Judy are also becoming empty nesters. Their daughter Katie is a recent graduate of Berry College and their son Chris attends Auburn University.
Since the pandemic, Ott has been tracking local and state COVID-19 data in a daily e-mail he sends to around 50 people, including elected officials and school superintendents.
Ott hasn’t flown for Delta since March but is on call as a pilot for international routes that include Amsterdam and San Juan, and has 16 months until his federally mandated retirement at age 65.
He said it’s unlikely he’ll seek elective office again, but eventually thinks he’ll be involved in public life in some fashion in the future.
“Twelve years in politics is a long time,” said Ott.
Related coverage
- Richardson to be sworn in as Cobb commissioner Dec. 31
- Cobb commissioner-elect: ‘We can overcome every challenge’
- Cobb Commission District 2 Candidate Profile: Jerica Richardson
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