Cobb Commission Chairman Tim Lee said during his State of the County address Monday morning that residents are well-served by the five commissioners who at various times in 2015 devolved into personal attacks, nasty tweets and complaints over lack of input.
Speaking to about 500 people at the Cobb Galleria Centre, Lee said during his half-hour speech that 2015 was a year of “growth, investment and opportunity.”
“In spite of what you may hear, the Board of Commissioners agree on a lot more than we disagree,” Lee said. “The truth is, Cobb is served well to have five independent voices on the Board of Commissioners. In fact, it’s our individual strengths that make us a strong board collectively and therefore, even in our disagreements, Cobb is better.”
Lee’s speech hit several highlights of the past year: the county maintaining its AAA bond rating; new investment in office buildings spurred by the Braves development; new investment in the county police department; and a budget that reduced the property tax rate to a pre-recession level.
And it broke some news: the county police department will work in partnership with the sheriff and District Attorney’s Office to implement what Lee called “one of the strongest anti-gang initiatives in Georgia.”
Lee gave little detail on the new program, except to say it includes restructuring and reinvestment in law enforcement and prosecution.
John Loud, owner of Loud security and co-chairman of the Good For Cobb advocacy group, said the gang initiative and new office buildings were his biggest take-aways from the speech.
“Four or five Class A (office) spaces and that hasn’t happened in 10 years,” Loud said. “That means a lot of jobs, and jobs leads to housing and, certainly, growth.”
Lee also dealt with some of the controversy.
Lee also said he does not regret his handling of SunTrust Park negotiations, which included going around the County Attorney's Office and unilaterally hiring an outside attorney to negotiate a preliminary agreement with the team. As The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in 2014, Lee improperly promised attorney Dan McRae future legal work on the deal in exchange for months of work negotiating the Memorandum of Understanding, that set out all the parameters of the deal.
McRae did not bill the county for those negotiations.
“Many have questioned and criticized how I handled the Atlanta Braves project,” Lee said. “I can tell you today that I sleep well at night knowing that I did the right thing for Cobb County. I want to make it clear today I am proud of the actions I took to bring the Braves to Cobb County.”
About the Author
