Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Incumbent Tim Lee received 40 percent of the vote; Bill Byrne was edging Mike Boyce for second place.
The bruising battle for Cobb Commission Chairman is far from over. Incumbent Tim Lee garnered nearly 40 percent of the vote in a four-candidate race for the Republican nomination in Tuesday's primary. But it wasn't enough to prevent an Aug. 21 runoff. Complete results had not been tabulated by early Wednesday. But partial returns had Lee with 27,619 votes, or 39.9 percent. Former chairman Bill Byrne received 18,205 votes, or 26 percent, while first-time candidate Mike Boyce had 16,178 votes, or 23 percent. Larry Savage, who ran against Lee in 2010, collected 7,212 votes, or 10 percent. (For updated totals, visit the Georgia Secretary of State's elections website.) The winner of the runoff will be the next chairman, since no Democratic …
Thursday, July 26, 2012
The final Cobb Commission Chairman candidates forum before the July 31 primary featured some heated sparring between the likely frontrunners.
The usual topics of taxes, transportation and immigration didn't dominate the final debate on Wednesday featuring the four candidates for Cobb Commission Chairman. With just six days remaining before Tuesday's Republican primary, the most explosive rhetoric centered on allegations by incumbent chairman Tim Lee that his chief opponent, former chairman Bill Byrne, made disparaging remarks about Cobb County when attempting to qualify to run for the Polk County Commission in 2008. Lee's campaign mailed out a flyer to Republican voters over the weekend quoting Byrne's testimony before the Polk County Board of Elections, which was examining his residency claims: "The last thing I wanted to do is live in Cobb County. I want to make damn sure …
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Tim Lee is seeking re-election as Cobb County's Commission Chairman.
Tim Lee, Cobb County's Commission Chairman since July 2010, is seeking re-election against three opponents in the July 31 Republican primary: Mike Boyce, Bill Byrne and Larry Savage. Lee is an East Cobb resident elected two years ago to fill the unexpired term of current Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens: What is something that you’ve accomplished as Cobb County Commission Chairman that you’re most proud of? The most significant thing that I’m proud of is that I was able to develop a budget that reduced spending, reduced the number of employees, was balanced, was fiscally responsible, was fiscally sustainable and as a result earned the affirmation of the three ratings agents as they reaffirmed our triple-triple-A rating. As you know the …
Monday, July 9, 2012
The Cobb Taxpayers Association says the Cobb commission chairman candidate "would represent a refreshing and much needed change in direction."
- ELECTIONS
-
Monday, July 9, 2012
Former Cobb commission chairman Bill Byrne, who's seeking to get back his old job, received a significant endorsement today from a leading taxpayer advocacy group. The Cobb Taxpayers Association announced this morning it was backing Byrne, who served as chairman from 1992-2002, because "his leadership would represent a refreshing and much needed change in direction from the County's current Chairman.” The CTA has been critical of incumbent and East Cobb resident Tim Lee, one of four Republicans vying in the July 31 primary. During his campaign, Lee has defended his votes in 2011 to extend the Cobb SPLOST and raise property taxes and his support for the Atlanta regional transportation referendum (TSPLOST), which is also on this month's …
Thursday, May 10, 2012
East Cobb Commissioner JoAnn Birrell's meeting turned into a heated discussion about the proposed 1-cent sales tax featuring Chairman Tim Lee.
East Cobb Commissioner JoAnn Birrell’s town hall meeting turned into an impromptu anti-TSPLOST rally during the question-and-answer session Wednesday evening. The July 31 referendum on the 10-year, 1 percent regional sales tax wasn’t the only thing on the minds of the more than 100 people who crowded into the community room at at the Mountain View Regional Library. But it was the issue Northeast and East Cobb residents returned to repeatedly, peppering Birrell and Cobb Board of Commissioners Chairman Tim Lee with questions about costs, sustainability, what happens after 10 years and the wisdom of pouring billions of dollars into mass transit. Lee noted that Cobb County is expected to receive 98 percent of the money it pays into the …
Thursday, April 5, 2012
But the news isn't as good for East Cobb schools because the reduction is double what the school system used in its budget forecasts.
- GOVERNMENT
-
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Cobb County’s property tax digest is going to decline for the fourth consecutive year, Chief Tax Appraiser Phi Hogsed Sr. says, but don’t expect a second consecutive increase in county property taxes. After Hogsed estimated the digest will decline 3.9 percent this year, Board of Commissioners Chairman Tim Lee told The Marietta Daily Journal: “There absolutely will not be a tax increase this summer.” He also said there will be no layoffs or furloughs. Finance Director Jim Pehrson said Cobb can absorb the likely $8.3 million decline in revenue because the county budgeted for a 2.5 percent drop, built in a surplus and an emergency reserve, and can find ways to cover the remaining $2.2 million or so, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. …
Thursday, March 29, 2012
The July 31 transportation referendum took a lot of criticism during a forum Wednesday night.
- GOVERNMENT
-
Thursday, March 29, 2012
The proposed TSPLOST faced a lot of flak in East Cobb last year as the project list—with its on-again, off-again light-rail line—headed toward completion. It looks as if feelings haven't softened with the vote now four months away. The July 31 referendum to create a regional transportation special-purpose, local-option sales tax came under attack during an Atlanta Regional Commission forum Wednesday night at the East Cobb Library, The Marietta Daily Journal reported. Among those who attended and declared their intentions to vote no July 31 were two men who plan to be on the Republican ballot for county commission chairman the same day, Larry Savage and Mike Boyce, the MDJ said. Both Savage and Boyce attended the February unveiling of the …
Friday, March 16, 2012
A Marietta lawyer is seeking a revote to include residents of the county's six municipalities.
- ELECTIONS
-
Friday, March 16, 2012
The Sunday alcohol referendom that passed earlier this month in Cobb County is being taken to court. In the March 6 primary only those in unincorporated Cobb County voted on a the referendum. Some are questioning whether or not residents in Cobb's six cities should have been able to vote on it as well. In Cherokee County, all residents, cities included, voted in November to allow Sunday sales. Marietta lawyer Justin O'Dell of Cauthron, Nohr & O’Dell filed a petition in Cobb County Superior Court Friday to ask for a revote that includes the residents of the county's six cities as well as those who live in unincorporated areas, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Asked about the county's response, Cobb government spokesman Robert …
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
While Cobb has a “great police department . . .we do have some problems,” retired deputy chief Bill Mull said at the commission chairman's town hall meeting Monday.
With almost five years since a pay increase for county employees, Cobb is losing members of its police force to other agencies, retired Deputy Police Chief Bill Mull told Cobb Commission Chairman Tim Lee during Monday night's town hall meeting in West Cobb. There is a “great police department here (in Cobb), but we do have some problems,” said Mull, who spent 42 years on the force, retiring in 2008, and is the president of Cobb’s Fraternal Order of Police chapter. He added: “We spend lots of money recruiting employees, we spend lots of money a year training them … and then we lose them to go to other agencies.” Mull said new municipalities, like those in northern Fulton County, are “stealing our employees.” For Cobb, recent furloughs were…
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
East Cobb's commissioners will be meeting with constituents in February.
- GOVERNMENT
-
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
East Cobb District 2 commissioner Bob Ott has scheduled two town hall meetings in February. Ott, whose district is south of Roswell Road and extends into the South Cobb area, will hold a town hall on Feb. 9 in Smyrna, and on Feb. 15 at the East Cobb Library starting at 7 p.m. On Feb. 16, East Cobb District 3 commissioner JoAnn Birrell will hold a town hall meeting at 7 p.m. at the Mountain View Community Center. The guest is Cobb County Planning Division Manager Dana Johnson. He will discuss Comprehensive Plan and Future Land Use Map amendments and the Canton Road redevelopment plan. Commission chairman Tim Lee, an East Cobb resident, will hold four town hall meetings throughout the county from February through April. His first town …
John Himot
12:42 am on Thursday, August 2, 2012
We did we did and in large numbers. Yes time to eet Mor chicken. more ›