All four commission districts must have close to the same number of people in them, and Cobb’s total population is 688,078, according to the 2010 Census. That means each district should have about 172,019 people in it. But the county’s most recent growth has been in the western half, so the districts represented by Helen Goreham and Woody Thompson need to shrink to maintain equal population size.
During a delegation meeting presented at the Coverdell Building in Atlanta on Friday, the argument over the redistricting process split along party lines.
Democrats, such as state Sens. Doug Stoner (D-Smyrna), Steve Thompson (D-Marietta) and David Wilkerson (D-Austell) said lawmakers should not adopt a county map until the commissioners approved a resolution endorsing one they preferred first.
“I’m not going to vote for any map that has not been before the Board of Commissioners that has a resolution from them, at least with a majority, three out of five, having said that this is the map that they want because that’s what we have historically done,” Sen. Thompson said. “I think it would be unconscionable for us to tell our Board of Commissioners how we think they ought to run their operation. We certainly don’t always agree with them how we should run ours.”
Setzler, who chairs the 19-member delegation, said commissioners already had an opportunity to review the proposed map during a joint meeting between the commission and delegation at the Safety Village Training Center in December. The proposed map is referred to as the Golick map since it was largely designed by state Rep. Rich Golick (R-Smyrna).
State Rep. Sharon Cooper (R-east Cobb) said the delegation may have obtained a resolution from the commission in previous years, but “there seems to be a lot of dissension or problems among the board members, and so I think since it is our responsibility to pass maps, it ultimately falls to us. Normally I would have been doing what you are saying doing, but apparently since they can’t come to a consensus I think it behooves us to pass a map that we think is in our best judgment.”
Yet Steve Thompson, who disclosed he was the brother of Commissioner Woody Thompson, would not be moved.
“If Cobb County Commissioners want to tell the public and the newspaper that they can’t vote on a map and get three votes to bring to us then that’s their responsibility to admit to the public,” Steve Thompson said. “But I don’t think we need to dictate to them what they’re going to do because for years, I’m going to be honest with you, they used us as a buffering point to the public where if they didn’t want to vote on something they’d bring it to us and blame it on us and that’s not going to happen.”
In November, Commission Chairman Tim Lee and state Rep. Judy Manning (R-Marietta) took a trip to the Capitol where they designed a map that carved such Republican-rich neighborhoods as Indian Hills out of east Cobb Commissioner Bob Ott’s district and placed them in the northeast Cobb district.
Both Manning and Lee have denied any attempt to create a map that would harm Ott’s chances at the ballot box, although it’s no secret that Lee and Ott have been at odds on the commission. Ott supporters claim the Manning map is an attempt by Lee and his supporters at the Cobb Chamber and Cumberland Community Improvement District to increase the number of Democrats in Ott’s district, thereby causing him to lose in next year’s election.
Manning, who was not present during Friday’s meeting, has said the reason for drawing her map was to limit the number of commissioners representing Marietta from four to two, although Mayor Steve Tumlin said the more commissioners who represent Marietta the better it is for the citizens.
Cooper told Sen. Thompson she was worried that if the decision was left up to the commissioners, some might retaliate against Ott.
“I have a problem with if three of them did it together it could possibly affect my district because there seems to be some evidence to the fact that there is some real resentment among the commissioners because my commissioner (Ott) has spoken out so strongly against tax increases and some of the things and positions that they have taken, and that would be Sen. Hill’s commissioner also, so I feel like that they might be able to talk to the other commissioners and the chair and it wouldn’t be what is best for necessarily all of the citizens, especially my area because it might be retaliation for somebody really speaking out, I just have that concern,” Cooper said.
Last year, Commissioners Goreham, Lee and Thompson voted to hike taxes in the county while Ott and JoAnn Birrell opposed the move.
Although Setzler said he has commitments from eight representatives, he also said he hoped others in the House would support the Golick map as well.
The rules of the Cobb Delegation require that the delegation conduct a meeting about the maps before circulating a bill to adopt one. Now since the delegation has met, Setzler said he will obtain the eight needed signatures from Cobb representatives in the coming week before the bill is voted on by the entire House.
“It typically goes to a consent calendar,” Setzler said. “You’ll have 10 or 12 bills that are voted on all at once because it’s passed the local delegation rules. Rarely are things pulled off.”
The bill then goes to the Senate for a similar process. Three of Cobb’s five senators need to sign on. While Stoner and Thompson may object to the map, Cobb’s other three senators are Republicans and allies of Setzler: Sens. Lindsey Tippins (R-West Cobb), Judson Hill (R-east Cobb) and Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock).
“Case law generally has it that plus or minus five percent is acceptable,” Setzler said. “I think our procedure of under one percent as a body is a great practice. This is under a half percent. It’s very similar communities of interest that cleans up some messy jagged lines and gives folks more clarity on who their representatives are.”
Absent from Friday’s meeting were state Reps. Don Parsons (R-east Cobb), Alisha Morgan (D-Austell), Sheila Jones (D-South Cobb), Earl Ehrhart (R-Powder Springs), Manning and Sen. Chip Rogers.
Follow us on Twitter!
It's pretty obvious the lengths to which Tim Lee is willing to go in order to carry out the wishes of his handlers at the Chamber and the Cumberland CID.
Disgusting!!!!
Revenge politics at its' worst.
Thanks Commissioner Ott for your leadership on the commission.
Thank you!