An ad hoc coalition of individuals and organizations has formed to try and delay Tuesday’s vote by the Cobb County Board of Commissioners on the proposed new Atlanta Braves baseball stadium.
The Cobb Citizens for Governmental Transparency wants at least a 60-day delay in the vote on the project, proposed for a site near I-75 and I-285.
The group is scheduled to hold two press conferences Monday, one at 10:30 a.m. on the steps of the Cobb County government building and another at 3:30 p.m. at the Mountain View Regional Library.
The Braves stadium would cost an estimated $672 million, and county taxpayers would have to pay $300 million.
The coalition includes groups such as the the Atlanta Tea Party Patriots and the Georgia Chapter of the Sierra Club’s Cobb group.
“In just two weeks time, all these groups from across the socio-political spectrum have come together,” said coalition member Rich Pellegrino, a South Cobb resident.
“Everybody’s pretty much similarly outraged that a proposal of this magnitude could be announced and pushed to a vote in just two weeks time, which even our own elected officials were unaware of it,” he said. “And this comes on the heels of an austerity budget in the county.”
He said that while the stadium project might ultimately be determined to be a sound, if risky investment for the public, more time is needed to make such a determination.
The coalition’s letter says, in part, that it believes “that citizens should be appropriately informed and engaged when significant tax dollars are obligated or expended by our elected officials.”
“There’s a lot of anger,” said Debbie Dooley of the Atlanta Tea Party. “This is bipartisan. They’re trying to rush a vote because they don’t want people to find out how bad a deal this is.”
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