On quiet first day of retreat, commissioners outline '23 priorities

Feb. 2—MARIETTA — Little more than a week removed from another fiery Cobb Board of Commissioners meeting, the first day of the board's retreat Wednesday saw a more staid atmosphere.

Perhaps lulled by the procession of data-heavy slideshows, four of the five board members (Commissioner Jerica Richardson was not present due to a work conflict) met with few fireworks.

But in a presentation from consultant Accenture (the firm has been hired for $300,000 to lead the drafting of the county's strategic plan), the firm's Lakeisha Sesay said conversations with community members revealed a concern over the board's cooperation.

"There's a lot of opportunity to think creatively about ways to foster better collaboration (and) cohesion among the board, between the Board of Commissioners and the county manager's office ... and how that trickles down and impacts the operations of the county," Sesay said.

That later prompted Chairwoman Lisa Cupid to seemingly reference the recent infighting on the board since the top of the year.

"Our cohesion as a board has impact throughout the county, and that's primarily within our control," Cupid said. "We may sit in meetings when it's just us, but even when it's just us, that relationship — or the perceived relationship — reverberates.

"... We've got to look at ourselves and ask, do we want to continue to see that appear in how our stakeholders are perceiving our ability to move forward? There's certainly some threats and things that have happened externally to us as a county that are not in our control, that I think have contributed to that, but I can't help find that is something we need to be much more mindful of," she added. "... I see that as just a very humbling, but needed, observation."

Cupid's comments didn't elicit any response from her colleagues on the board.

Elsewhere in the meeting, commissioners laid out their accomplishments and priorities for the year ahead, which were as follows:

Chairwoman Lisa Cupid

Cupid ticked off a laundry list of accomplishments over the last year, including increasing the county's minimum wage to $17 an hour, dealing with four cityhood efforts, and ratifying a new revenue sharing agreement with the Cobb-Marietta Coliseum and Exhibit Hall Authority, which manages the Cobb Galleria and Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre.

Looking ahead, Cupid wants to bring on a diversity, equity, and inclusion director for the county, a position that's been funded since 2021 but has yet to be filled. The county is also expecting to receive significant payouts from lawsuit settlements with opioid manufacturers, and Cupid indicated she wants to direct those funds toward remediating addiction issues.

"I think that's really going to go a long way for us to be able to address a really latent issue for us in the county with vulnerable citizens," she said.

Other goals will include moving ahead with a planned 2024 sales tax referendum to fund transit expansion and continue with the county's code reform project, known as the unified development code.

And Cupid added one of her top budgetary priorities will be beefing up the county's communications department to raise awareness of county services and garner more applicants for open positions.

Referring to her counterparts in Gwinnett County — which has a much larger communications department than Cobb's — she said, "They have taken a lot of pride in making sure that they get ahead of issues. So we don't always have to wait to respond when media contacts us. When we know something has a potential of becoming a challenging news story, we can help to control and create that narrative ... We are as good a county as people know us to be."

Commissioner Keli Gambrill

Gambrill meanwhile kicked off on a familiar note.

"Goals going forward haven't changed over the past four years — supporting staff, upholding staff policies, and ensuring that staff has the resources that they need to sufficiently do their jobs," she said.

As for accomplishments, she pointed to the county's work on cityhood last year, spending months on public education efforts. For the year ahead, she highlighted several parks and roadway projects moving along in her district.

A challenge remains sidewalks, which are a perennial feature of sales tax-funded infrastructure packages but seem to be among residents' biggest grievances when they aren't built in a timely fashion.

"Again, the county does this big promotion ... and then you only give a couple million dollars to do sidewalks over a six-year period. Constituents are getting very mad that their sidewalk projects aren't getting in," she said. "...Projects still aren't done that were allocated back in 2019. That's nothing to staff, but it's just because of the process, and people don't understand that just because we've allocated the funds ... I guess, what's a reasonable time?"

Commissioner JoAnn Birrell

Birrell said her goals will be pushing along several of her districts SPLOST projects, like northeast Cobb's police precinct 6, which is scheduled to open in late March or early April.

Other projects remain in limbo, such as the renovation of Gritters Library, which is still suffering from a $2.5 million hole in its budget. Birrell said the library is "hopefully going to get funded soon. We've got some ideas in the works we're running by legal and property management."

As for 2022 SPLOST projects, there's planned improvements at Ebenezer Downs Park, Shaw Park, and a longtime passion project for Birrell, the Cobb Veterans Memorial on Fairground Street.

She added her "normal goals of keeping taxes low, serving our citizens and constituents, and passing a balanced budget.

"One other accomplishment — I won reelection, so you're stuck with me," she joked. "Good or bad, it happened."

Commissioner Monique Sheffield

In south Cobb, Sheffield has a number of green space efforts underway. One of the largest is the ambitious Chattahoochee Riverlands project, a planned greenway along 100 miles of the river, with the first segment planned for the Mableton area. A trailhead and boat ramp is envisioned near the intersection of Discovery Boulevard and Mableton Parkway.

There's also the Osborne Recreation Center, a project decades in the making, which moved forward last year with the purchase of 20 acres along Smyrna-Powder Springs Road.

"The community is very excited about that. (Parks Director) Michael Brantley already has a very rough sketch of the park," she said.

Near Wellstar Cobb Hospital, the county is hoping to construct a new bus transfer center. That project will dovetail with Sheffield's broader goal to provide greater connections to healthcare resources, including a new Cobb Douglas Public Health medical center at the intersection of Factory Shoals Road and Riverside Parkway.