Hello neighbors and thank you for checking in to read my newsletter
Rezone Case Z-7: Meeting with the developers.
As you might remember from our last newsletter, Monique Sheffield offered to arrange a virtual meeting with the community and the Z-7 lawyers, as well as the zoning manager to answer rezoning questions. A poll was sent out for the citizens to select a time for the meeting. In that email. Monique outlined that the meeting would be hosted on the platform WebEx.
The Google Calendar Invite for the meeting was sent out on May 27th listing the event as a Microsoft Teams meeting that would occur at 6:30pm on June 3rd.
To access this community meeting, you must contact Monique Sheffield’s office. This concerned me regarding accessibility so I contacted Monique Sheffield’s office and expressed my concerns. They have yet to respond.
On June 1st I reviewed the meeting time to ensure my newsletter had the correct time and found a notification that the previous invitation had been updated.
The time of the meeting is now scheduled for 10:30pm. I have not received any communication regarding this change. I have contacted the organizer about this issue but have not yet heard back.
The Cobb County Board of Commissioners are holding a Special Called Meeting on Monday
This meeting, scheduled for June 2, at 2:30pm, is to discuss consideration of the Service Delivery Strategy for the city of Mableton. Mableton recently formed a city and has been in a transition period while crafting agreements for police, water, and other infrastructure a city and county can share. They voted on Friday to accept a $9.5 million dollar bill for services despite their belief that it created unfair financial stress on the citizens of Mableton.
Every council member, regardless of their vote, agreed this Service Delivery Strategy would create double taxation on the citizens of Mableton.
While some news coverage seems to indicate the council accepted the agreement willingly, the statements of the council members on Friday, May 30th illuminated their frustration.
Their statements at the meeting outlined the that Cobb County would not provide the necessary financial information for them to ensure there was no double taxation. Some council members even indicated the deal approved by the Board of Commissioners on 5/27 was not the agreement laid out in mediation earlier that week, creating concern for what the future will hold for negotiations.
The city council members who voted in favor outlined they were not truly in favor of this agreement since it created double taxation and required the citizens of Mableton to pay for services twice. The reason for their favorable vote was public safety because Cobb County would no longer be required to offer police protection to Mableton residents after midnight if they didn’t accept.
As outlined on the Cobb County Government Q&A page, the city of Mableton has paid into the Cobb County general fund:
“Q: Mableton residents will continue to pay property taxes into the county’s general fund. So why would the city be asked to pay for police and transportation services?
A: Mableton residents will continue to pay property taxes that go to the county’s general fund. County property taxes fund the countywide services, including but not limited to, the Superior Court, State Court, Probate Court, Magistrate Court, District Attorney’s Office, Solicitor General’s Office, Circuit Public Defender, public health, transit, Senior Services, Parks and Recreation, Libraries, Jail (i.e., inmates charged with state law offenses), Extension Service, Elections (federal, state, and county).
However, services such as police, roads, water, sewer, stormwater management, and 911 are funded by other mechanisms. . .”
The bolded statements above have created controversy since this operating budget from 2024 includes police costs under the General Fund. This repeats in the 2025 budget where all matters of police are included under “General Fund.” If police is included under the General Fund that is collected from property taxes, then the citizens of Mableton would be paying for police coverage twice.
If the Special Called Meeting is streamed it will be available here but going in person is always advised!
Other News
Cobb County Government will transition to .GOV domain. This page outlines that the transition will occur on June 2nd. The .ORG domain and email addresses will forward to the new .GOV location temporarily but there is no timeline outlined for when that service will cease.
To ensure seamless communication and access to crucial information:
- Saved website bookmarks will need to be updated to cobbcounty.gov.
- If you communicate with members of the Cobb County local government via email, all email addresses will change to end in @cobbcounty.gov
That’s all for this week! Stay safe and keep communicating, neighbors!
