Politics & Government
Ott: Ready for Braves Stadium Vote
The Cobb commissioner whose district includes the proposed ballpark isn't saying how he'll vote on Tuesday.
He's read through more than 2,000 e-mails and heard residents sound off at a town hall meeting Monday night.
But Cobb commissioner Bob Ott still isn't revealing his hand about a vote Tuesday night on a memorandum of understanding with the Atlanta Braves that would bring Major League Baseball to his district.
"I probably will decide when I push the button," he said.
After 90 minutes of occasionally contentious dialogue Monday in the meeting at commission chambers in Marietta, Ott said he's ready to vote, and a 60-day delay urged by some groups was too long to wait.
"The material has been out there, all the details have been out there," he said. "So we ought to have a vote."
Cobb Commission Chairman Tim Lee appears to have enough votes to approve the agreement regardless of what Ott decides, with commissioners JoAnn Birrell and Helen Goreham likely to vote in favor. South Cobb commissioner Lisa Cupid, who also had a town hall Monday, has protested the short time span for the vote and may vote against the project.
But Ott has had the least to say of his colleagues.
At the end of a frantic two weeks since the Braves-to-Cobb deal was announced, Ott said that he is "comfortable that I understand the documents" that would include a $300 million Cobb commitment for construction and upkeep of a $672 million stadium near Cumberland Mall.
Around 25 residents got to ask questions of -- and sometimes badger -- Ott in a room that couldn't accommodate everyone. A similar standing room only crowd was on hand earlier Monday at the Mountain View Regional Library in East Cobb for Birrell's town hall.
Ott said he found that reading the e-mails was most helpful, estimating that more than 1,500 of them were in favor of the stadium proposal, and another 400 or so were against.
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"I'm not going to tell you how I'm going to vote," Ott said at the outset, before methodically outlining many of the dollar figures and terms between the county and the Braves.
That included financing details with 30-year revenue bonds to be partly repaid with .33 mills in debt service from existing park bonds (about $8.7 million a year), and outlining transportation improvements in the congested 285/75 cloverleaf area where the stadium and a mixed-use development would be built.
He also explained that the negotiations between Lee and the Braves were kept secret for several months because, like it or not, "that's how the game is played" when it comes to economic development and private business interests.
"It is not the intent of the board to deceive the people of the county," Ott said.
Not every speaker was buying that, and several residents asked him why he thought Cobb's agreement with the Braves would be different than public financing deals for sports facilities in other cities that have become boondoggles.
Ott pointed to the $400 million mixed-used development the Braves will be building, a first-of-its-kind proposition that he said will yield tangible economic benefits to the county.
Ott also referenced a commitment by the Braves -- who've been at Turner Field only since 1997 -- to play in the Cobb stadium through the 2046 season.
Other residents asked for a referendum, and Ott responded that not every major decision the county faces can be sent out to the voters. When he explained that sewer trunks along the Chattahoochee River were approved only by the commission, a woman interjected:
"That's something we needed. We don't need this."
Another constituent doubted Ott was still on the fence about his vote, asking if his pose with Lee on the cover of The Marietta Daily Journal the day after the deal was made public -- and while wearing a Braves jersey -- indicates how he'll vote.
"No, it doesn't," he said. "If my vote was pre-ordained, why would I have a town hall meeting?"
The woman said she thought it was "a dog and pony show to make it look like to your constituents that you're reaching out to us."
Ott replied that having this meeting "is no different than town halls I've had over the last five years."
East Cobb resident Joe O'Connor, who was Ott's campaign manager when he first ran for the commission in 2008, said he doesn't like the tight timeframe for the vote and feels the public has been cut out of the process.
But he appreciates that Ott has had to carefully guard his comments while studying the proposed agreement and hearing from the public.
When asked if he thought this was the most difficult vote of Ott's career, O'Connor said, "Yes, because it's the most important vote."
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