How Do You Know if Youre Hiring a Good Cook
The hits just kept coming in Monday's first committee hearing on the GOP-proposed canton commission and school board maps.
First, there was the poor soul who took it upon himself to accuse former state Rep. Earl Ehrhart of being involved in the drafting of the maps. This accusation has come up upward before — Ehrhart works for Taylor English Decisions, the consulting and lobbying arm of the company. Taylor English Duma, the legal division, is in fact the party the Cobb school lath hired in December to draw its new map and the ane Rep. Ginny Ehrhart, R-westward Cobb, filed for adoption in the General Assembly.
It'due south safe to sayGinny Ehrhart, Earl Ehrhart'southward married woman, didn't intendance for that particular accusation.
Ginny Ehrhart
"I just wanted to clarify for you, simply and so that you lot're working with the facts … the company that drew the map that we're debating hither today, was Taylor English Duma. They are tasked — we're tasked — with the drawing of the maps in coordination with the school board. In my instance, I believe y'all were referring to my husband, he works for Taylor English Decisions, a completely dissimilar partition, a different legal entity, and one that had no feedback, input, or interest in the drawing of the maps. So I just want to make sure that you were articulate on that," she said.
Earl Ehrhart also told us he wasn't involved in drawing the proposed Cobb schoolhouse board map.
Earl Ehrhart
"Non at all. I'1000 not a office of the law firm. I'thousand not a lawyer. I'm backside a huge firewall of legal correct to know, basically. If I were even involved in the e-mail exchange, that would exist derogation of attorney client privilege," he said.
And so, in our continuing coverage on the political fate of Commissioner Jerica Richardson, country Rep. David Wilkerson, D-Powder Springs, asked the committee's in-house attorney if it was even legal for a commissioner to be drawn from their district mid-term. If Carson'due south commission map is approved, Richardson would be outside of her District 2 come Jan. ane, 2023, and potentially ineligible to serve.
Jerica Richardson
"I did not work on this map," was how chaser Stuart Morelli began, "So I don't necessarily know, you know, the exact details, but shortening the term of an elected official would require a referendum pursuant to OCGA ane-three-11."
The code department in question reads, "No office to which a person has been elected shall be abolished nor the term of the function shortened or lengthened by local or special act during the term for which such person was elected unless the same shall be canonical by the people of the jurisdiction afflicted in a plebiscite on the question."
Wilkerson told Around Town that clearly means Carson'due south map is unlawful; Carson reiterated that then long as Richardson moves into the new district by 2023, she'due south got zippo to worry about. Information technology appears quite possible the affair could end upwardly in court before all'southward said and done.
Wilkerson then said that Richardson would have been fatigued out of her district even without moving cross-county, rendering the GOP's argument that Richardson had forced their hand moot.
"We're getting off subject field here," said the commission's chair, Rep. Darlene Taylor, R-Thomasville, cut off that line of questioning.
Finally, almost the coming together's end, state Rep. Erick Allen, D-Smyrna, asked for a few more minutes and then that Cobb Lath of Didactics Chair David Chastain might accost the committee.
Taylor acceded.
But the man who removed his mask and took the microphone was decidedly not Chastain, just instead a human identifying himself equally Mark Harding. The entire room seemed to look effectually in confusion. Allen gestured toward his confront, mouthing that he couldn't tell who the gentleman was with a mask on, before ducking out to the hallway.
OLENS AND CITYHOOD:Later on all the candidates jockeying for voters' support had given their spiels, the actual, elected lawmakers had a moment at the mic during Saturday's Cobb GOP breakfast.
Ed Setzler
Land Rep. Ed Setzler, R-Acworth, slammed Cobb County government for having retained sometime Cobb County Chairman Sam Olens as a lobbyist. Olens and a few colleagues at Dentons, per a copy of the contract we obtained via open records request, are receiving a $23,000 apartment fee for "legislative services" this session, and have been spotted in several cityhood hearings.
Lisa Cupid
The county itself, meanwhile, has plans to unveil a "robust public awareness campaign" to better brainwash the voters on the consequences of cityhood.
"Equally chairwoman of the county, I am hither to ensure some sense of transparency and to meliorate educate Cobb Citizens, more broadly, about how cityhood can impact all here," Cobb Chair Lisa Cupid said in addressing the topic last week.
In that location are four cityhood movements in the county: Lost Mountain (i.e. west Cobb), Eastward Cobb, Vinings and Mableton. With approval from the state legislature and the governor, residents within the boundaries of those proposed cities would be allowed to decide whether vote this spring to incorporate (or not). Bills advancing the cities of Lost Mount, Eastward Cobb and Vinings to a referendum accept, so far, sailed through the legislature, with Mableton up next.
Sam Olens
Should voters corroborate the cities, unincorporated Cobb will lose some 200,000 people, more than a quarter of its population. What it might hateful for county finances and services is unclear. It seems this has canton leaders concerned. That'south where Olens comes in.
"Cobb Canton has engaged one of the most expensive lobbying firms in Atlanta," Setzler said. "(It is) using your public taxation dollars to campaign against your ability to vote … to have a city (where) elected officials who are your neighbors in your customs correspond yous.
"Your Cobb County revenue enhancement dollars," Setzler continued, "are existence spent right at present to appoint the most expensive lobbying house in Atlanta to convince people not to have representative authorities, not to have these cities, but to but maintain the status quo."
SETZLER'S COMMENTS follow a articulation argument issued Friday by Reps. Carson and Ehrhart, the Preserve West Cobb Citizens Alliance, the Vinings Exploratory Committee, Inc. and the Due east Cobb Cityhood Commission, objecting to the county hiring lobbyists in the cityhood initiatives.
Their statement reads: "On behalf of the citizens of Cobb County, we condemn the use of canton taxpayer funds to mobilize paid lobbyists at the Georgia Capitol to work against passage of the cityhood bills that are currently moving through both chambers of the General Associates.
"Such actions have been taken autonomously, without the consent of the Committee every bit a whole, and can only be interpreted as an attempt to deny citizens the right to vote for or confronting cityhood through a plebiscite.
"We phone call on Chairman Cupid to immediately finish whatever such activeness and to direct her lobbyists to end all efforts at the Capitol related to cityhood legislation."
SPECIAL ELECTION: A special ballot to fill up out the residual of former Republican state Rep. Matt Dollar's term will be held in the next month or ii, with the winner serving until the terminate of the year. Meanwhile next calendar month, candidates will qualify for the Nov election for Dollar'southward new District 45, as redrawn by the General Assembly, with the winner taking part in Jan 2023.
Dustin McCormick
Democrat Dustin McCormick has appear he will run in both races; state Rep. Sharon Cooper, R-east Cobb, plans to run in the November race also, as she was fatigued into the new District 45.
McCormick said in a printing release he's served in leadership positions at Merrill Lynch, E-Trade, Samsung, and several healthcare startups earlier joining McKesson Corporation, a healthcare distribution visitor, in 2020. McCormick lives in the Bishop'due south Green neighborhood with his partner, Misty, and their 2 children, Audrey and Finley. A HOPE Scholarship recipient, he holds a B.A. in finance from Georgia Southern University and an Executive M.B.A. from the University of Georgia's Terry College of Business.
Luisa Wakeman
STATE SENATE RACE: With country Sen.Jen Hashemite kingdom of jordan, D-Atlanta, taking a stab at becoming Georgia'southward next attorney general, a few familiar names will vie for her soon-to-be-vacant District 6 seat.
The latest isLuisa Wakeman, who's run two unsuccessful campaigns trying to unseat Rep. Cooper in 2018 and 2020.
In a press release announcing her candidacy, Wakeman flagged liberal standbys like gun command and voting rights as themes of her entrada, and touted her work as a nurse in helping to distribute COVID vaccines.
Wakeman's main competition — so far — will be Atlanta Public Schools schoolhouse board chairJason Esteves, who kicked off his legislative entrada in December.
Source: https://www.mdjonline.com/opinion/around-town-just-so-youre-working-with-the-facts/article_c26197fe-88f1-11ec-8e6c-3fc7c28b0451.html
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