Cobb chief casts an eye on run for governor

Sam Olens, with omnipresent BlackBerry pressed to ear, hustles off the elevator and into his third-floor corner office overlooking the Marietta Square. He’s doing a radio interview on the fly — a common practice for the peripatetic chairman of the Cobb County Commission.

Atypical, though, is the topic: Help for rural South Georgia. Olens steers the conversation with Gainesville talk show host Martha Zoller toward manufacturing jobs, peanut farmers and railroads. “We have to reach out to the rest of Georgia,” he said.

To which Zoller concluded: “It sounds like he’s running for governor.”

He might very well be. Olens, a Republican, says he’ll decide within 10 days of the General Assembly’s scheduled close next month whether to mount a bid for governor.

Few doubt Olens’ intellect or drive. He also gets high marks for fiscal stewardship of Cobb County government. And Olens, as chairman of the Atlanta Regional Commission, garners praise for furthering metrowide collaboration.

If Olens runs, though, he’s likely to be branded with the Scarlet Letter A — as in Atlanta — political hemlock across much of rural Georgia. And no county chairman is believed to have jumped directly to the Governor’s Mansion. Bill Byrne, Olens’ predecessor as Cobb chairman, badly lost the GOP primary when he ran for governor in 2002.

Supporters say Olens might be just the man for the job. He says his decision depends on the legislature’s action on critical transportation, drought and development issues.

“I don’t see the governor, lieutenant governor or the speaker coming up with a policy or a vision to move our state forward,” Olens told Zoller. He plans a statewide “listening tour” next month.

Zoller said Olens would “be a breath of fresh air.”

“And he’s got this vision for the entire state and we have to have that,” she added.

Thoughts on a campaign

Ideas, though, only go so far. At some point, the nuts, bolts and financing of a statewide campaign for the November 2010 election take precedence.

Olens anticipates a run costing $5 million, but he hasn’t raised a dime. No “Olens for Governor” committee has been formed. No campaign manager has been hired (although he has interviewed two candidates).

He visited Ellijay, Augusta and Columbus earlier this year. He plans April trips to Macon, Augusta, Savannah and Albany. Olens brushes up on issues important to non-Atlanta voters, like the long-proposed Fall Line Freeway from Columbus to Augusta (he supports it).

But Olens would have to compete against Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine and Secretary of State Karen Handel — statewide officeholders and announced GOP candidates. Cagle has a $1.2 million war chest.

In the Republican primary, Olens, considered a moderate, might have to hew to the right.

Olens is credited by admirers with lowering the heat that defined Cobb during the 1990s, a combative atmosphere epitomized by an anti-gay rights resolution.

“He has provided a more inclusive style of leadership, less hard-edged, more welcoming,” said Kerwin Swint, a political scientist at Kennesaw State University. “He’s a level-headed guy who gets things done.”

Olens’ statewide strategy banks heavily on Cobb’s fiscal and quality-of-life successes.

“My message here is years of executive leadership,” said Olens, who ran unopposed last year. “In a bad economy, show me a county that’s weathered it better than Cobb.”

The Olens-controlled commission slashed $25 million from this year’s

$756 million operating budget. Budgetary reserves remain untouched.

Cobb expects a 13th straight year of AAA bond rating. Employee bonuses will not be given this year, but no county employee has been laid off or furloughed.

Olens “took over a county that’s historically been run well and he perfected the efficiency of the county,” said former Gov. Roy Barnes, a Marietta attorney who also is weighing a run for his old job. “Sam’s greatness as a public official is that he’s dull. He doesn’t surprise you. You don’t have crises with him. We need more dull politicians.”

Barnes, a Democrat, calls Olens “visionary” for shepherding two $40 million bond referendums for parks. The chairman is also credited with helping persuade tightfisted voters in 2005 to approve a sales tax to pay for roads. And Olens helped choreograph a $57 million chunk of the financing for the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre by tapping hotel/motel taxes.

“Sam has worked very hard to have good relationships with all [of Cobb’s] cities,” Marietta Mayor Bill Dunaway said.

Tad Leithead, a developer and ARC board member, says Olens was instrumental in getting approval for the planned widening of Johnson Ferry Road connecting Cobb and Fulton counties.

“Sam’s leadership has a lot to do with bringing about cooperation among elected officials,” said Leithead, who doesn’t expect Olens to run for governor. “He has taken a lot of political risks in doing that, risks that his local constituents might believe he’s favoring the region over [Cobb] county.”

Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, another ARC board member, prizes Olens’ leadership on thorny transportation matters, particularly as metro Atlanta wrestles with the General Assembly.

“I have as close a professional relationship with him as anybody in the region. We’re brutally honest and frank with each other,” she said. “And he’s got a dry sense of humor and wit. But he doesn’t back away from tough problems.”

Strained relations

Olens visited Milford Elementary School recently to tell parents, teachers and community leaders why he won’t support a pedestrian footbridge over busy Austell Road. The county is building a four-lane thoroughfare alongside the school. Locals fear the added traffic will endanger low-income students, many of whom walk to school with parents.

“I’d like to think a mother would look after her children,” he said. “I can’t legislate bad behavior.”

“No one is asking you to legislate anyone’s behavior,” responded Christine Able, taken aback.

Able, who runs a nonprofit, later questioned Olens’ empathy for the county’s poor, black and Hispanic residents.

“We don’t have a voice, and we are ignored,” she said. “We are in the invisible part of Cobb County.”

Between 2000 and 2007, Cobb saw a 37 percent rise in Hispanic residents and a 12 percent increase in African-Americans. During that time, the Olens-led commission approved stringent laws that many Hispanics feel target them.

Police help enforce housing code violations and run criminal background checks on violators, mostly Hispanic men in crowded homes. And county jailers check the residency status of all foreign-born inmates regardless of crime.

“Cobb County is the most anti-Latino, anti-immigrant county in Georgia,” said Jerry Gonzalez, executive director of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials. “I view Sam Olens as being responsible for that environment.”

Olens, who says the county is just enforcing the law, disagrees that an anti-immigrant atmosphere pervades Cobb. Olens says he increasingly appoints minorities to Cobb boards and commissions. “Scaring Hispanics serves [Gonzalez’s] political interests,” Olens said.

Dunaway says Olens sometimes ignores Marietta’s wishes. The mayor rattled off a slew of conflicts — location of parks and a senior center, the purchase of radios, tax-abatement districts — which have strained city-county relations.

“Sam can be very headstrong and jump to conclusions way too fast,” Dunaway said.

But others say a sense of humor, and need to accommodate, smooth the rough edges and lead more times than not to comity and compromise. At Milford Elementary, for example, Olens offered to double the size of the school’s playground to appease the opposition.

“I’ve got an obligation to tell people if I agree or disagree with something,” he said. “They have the right to know where I stand.”