When it comes to Cobb County’s tarnished governance machine, the plot continues to thicken. Unnecessarily so, in our opinion.
For about all it would take to begin dialing back the destructiveness, evasiveness, chicanery, squabbling and sleuthing about in Cobb would be for County Commission Chairman Tim Lee to begin acting like he actually respects the concept of elected, representative government. Act like he works for the people and their best interest, in other words.
That’s not what we’ve seen in recent months. And Cobb, once viewed as a model of competent, lean government is the worse for it. The corrosive spillover has likely damaged the rest of the Atlanta metro too. Shaking weary citizens’ confidence in government has far-flung, long-lasting risks after all.
Cobb’s rocky road away from healthy government transparency hit the public radar with last November’s news of the deal to move The Atlanta Braves to a new stadium in Cobb.
That announcement was quickly followed by Lee’s ham-handed ramming through of an $400 million agreement cinching the project. Cloaked in four months’ worth of secrecy that would have made the NSA proud, Lee’s package deal was sprung on commissioners and shoveled from initial “Ta-Dah” disclosure to final vote in barely two weeks – weekends and a holiday included.
That, sadly, was just the beginning. Tenacious sifting-through of records obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution uncovered that Lee could be characterized as, at best, disingenuous in his after-the-fact explanations of just how legal counseling around a bond deal for the stadium project came to be provided. His assertions even shifted as AJC reporters uncovered new details.
We’ll recap briefly here. In summer 2013, Lee recruited bond attorney Dan McRae to begin negotiations with the Braves. Lee didn’t loop in the county attorney’s office. Or fellow commissioners.
In October 2013, Lee had the Cobb Chamber send a message to McRae’s law firm saying it was the county’s project and bond counsel for the stadium work. Sending that email through a non-government account, in effect, kept it outside the reach of the Georgia Open Records Act. Or so some may have thought at the time.
Even casual observers of government can see the significant ethical problems here.
For his part, Lee in August at first denied that McRae negotiated with the Braves. Faced with email records, he later acknowledged that McRae did just that work.
Earlier this month, after the AJC obtained the latest email, Lee and a Cobb Chamber executive denied hiring McRae. “He was not promised any payment for the advice he provided, or the role he played. In fact, he was not hired or paid for the work,” Lee wrote in an email to the AJC.
If it all sounds sketchy, well, that inkling may be justified.
All of this brings us to the latest antics detailed on the front page of today’s AJC.
In another move that unnecessarily ratchets up the level of intrigue around what should have been an ordinary public-private partnership deal, a private investigative firm has requested thousands of emails related to the Braves project.
The emails being sought cast a curiously narrow dragnet. The Open Records Act request by an Acworth firm seeks all emails from personal or county accounts of a county spokesman and two commissioners, Lisa Cupid and Bob Ott. Cupid cast the lone “No” vote against a preliminary agreement with the Braves. Ott has tangled with Lee on multiple matters. Interesting? We think so.
Among others, the request seeks emails sent from, or to, two citizen activists and this newspaper. What’s up with that?
Good question. The private eye firm hasn’t identified its client, so as of now it’s anyone’s guess as to the reasons and motivations driving the inquiry. Which brings to mind the New Testament book of Matthew’s promise that, “there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.”
Cobb citizens, and other supporters of public transparency should be aware of this fluid situation and govern themselves accordingly. And they should ask themselves if the escapades around the Braves deal have been conducted in a manner befitting any reasonable standard of government appropriateness or openness.
We believe the clear answer is a thunderous “No.”
For his part, Lee contends that the AJC’s work is driven by an institutional opposition to the Braves’ move. Not true, to put it charitably.
We’ll say again here that the Braves, as a private entity, are to be expected to seek the best deal they can, wherever they can. That’s what businesses do: negotiate terms in their best interest.
We have no objection to the team’s move up I-75 to Cobb County. For the record, we’re happy they’re remaining in the Atlanta metro.
That said, we believe Cobb’s mishandling of the deal up to this point has done a disservice to the Braves and what should have been a straightforward civic-private arrangement. Had this agreement been reached in a more-forthright manner, we believe most of the blowback thus far seen wouldn’t have happened.
Things can still change for the better if Lee and others in Cobb decide to open the blinds and admit more sunlight into the stadium process going forward. That’s what citizens should demand and what this newspaper will continue working toward.
About the Author
