Yes, sir.

Good evening and welcome to today's Board of Commissioners meeting this July 28th, 2026.

I'm pleased today that we have Father Papa Giorgio with Holy Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church.

He will be providing our invocate, and that will be followed by the pledge, which will be brought by Officer Williams.

For those of you both willing and able, please stand for both our invocation and our pledge.

Thanks.

Come and dwell in us and classes from every stain and save ourselves a good one.

We offer thanksgiving to you, Lord, for all your gifts and blessings.

We humbly come to you and us that you may send upon us.

You have a spirit to enlighten our hearts and minds.

Give us of your wisdom and knowledge.

Help us to know your will for your people whom we serve.

Guide us in all our decisions to do what is best for them.

Help us to shine with your love and compassion.

Grant us your peace and your love.

Have a good meeting.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States.

And so we just see it.

Well, we wish you the very best in the next chapter.

Yes, and thank you for blessing us with your invocation over the years.

Good evening, Chairwoman Commissioners, County Manager.

Uh appreciate your time today.

Uh as you were stating, we do have two public hearings today.

The first will be with respect to the millage rate, and then the second public hearing will be with respect to the proposed 2027 budget, both of which will be followed by a vote in adoption of both of those items immediately following those public hearings.

And today is our third and final public hearing.

As you can see, we have the general fund remaining uh steady at 8.46 mills, the fire fund at 2.97 mills, and the Cumberland Special Service District 2 at 2.45 mills.

And again, this board is no longer responsible for the six flag special service district millage, so that is at uh zero mills.

On the bottom, you'll see a bar graph just so everyone here knows the net digest between 25 and 26 grew uh at 5.06 percent.

And to break down that growth uh a little more granularly, we have uh, as you can see at the bottom, the gross digest, which is that three billion dollar number, uh, that grew at 4.99%.

Exemptions directly below it grew at 4.8%, and again, the net digest grew at 5.06 percent.

One of the biggest boosts in this uh in this digest was the growth in commercial property.

It came in at about 7.6 percent growth in 2026.

Last year that was at.26 percent uh growth.

So again, it was a commercial revaluation year, and we saw uh excess growth in our commercial uh property digest.

Now, how all this makes sense on a taxpayer's bill.

I want to walk through one moment.

I want everyone to know that the gray bars are indicative of the fair market value of a home.

This is a real home in Cobb County.

In 2018, that home was valued at 200 uh and five thousand dollars.

It was reassessed in 2022 to 317,000 dollars.

It was once again reassessed in 2024 to 452,000.

Now, the one thing I want uh this board to pay attention to and those watching at home is the general fund is the bright or I'm sorry, the dark blue line that is remaining flat.

And if I had a laser pointer, I'd point, but it is the one that remains flat.

And the reason for that is your property tax bill will remain level from the date you file your floating homestead exemption or uh apply for it, uh, and that is usually at the time of purchase, it sets back one year.

So you're essentially locked in, and that means regardless of the growth of your property, even if it goes from 205,000 to 452,000.

Is if this board does not touch the millage rate, the general fund portion of your bill for this board of commissioners will not go up on your bill.

It will remain at that in this example at $609.

If there was no floating homestead on that property, it would go up in proportion to the growth.

And in that case, the resident would have paid 1,447 dollars.

But the benefit of filing the floating homestead exemption means that your bill does not increase.

That's a savings to that individual taxpayer in their homestead of property of $838.

Again, we have the fire fund, which is the red.

There is a slight bump there because there is no floating homestead exemption for the fire fund.

Okay.

Uh in this example, the resident was paying $234 in 2018, and in 2026, it's estimated to pay $137.

It's $300 jump when the house nearly doubled.

And that's because the millage rate for the fire fund is at 2.97 mils.

It's just a lower millage rate.

Um, and we no longer have a debt service, which is indicated by the green bar there.

Um, if you would like to see an estimate of your property, you can go to CobTax.gov and look up uh your specific property.

Uh you can also research any other uh exemptions with respect to property tax that you're eligible for.

There are many others besides the floating homestead.

We have the school tax exemption for those over 62.

There's a veterans and a disability, and I encourage everyone to uh go to the tax commissioner's website and take a look at those various exemptions.

Uh so with that, that concludes my presentation.

Uh I would recommend that you open the public hearing at this time unless you have any questions for me.

No questions at this time, and thank you for that presentation.

We will open up this public hearing for anyone desiring to address the millage rate that was just reviewed by our chief financial officer.

For our public hearings, we'll take an unlimited number of speakers who can speak for up to three minutes to the board regarding this matter of the millage rate and this matter only.

Please note that there will be a following hearing this evening with respect to the budget.

That this one is with respect to again the millage rate.

For those of you who are not for those of you who are not familiar with our setting, this is an opportunity for you to address the board, but we ask that you please provide your name before you begin your comments.

If anybody has any questions, you can feel free to approach the officer here to the side, but just ask that nobody speak out directly from the audience to the board of commissioners.

That would be out of order.

We'll go ahead and open up our public hearing and we'll take our first speaker.

Excuse me, ma'am, and before you begin your comments, I've had a number of town halls with respect to the budget, and I've shared during that, but it may seem odd.

This is your first time addressing the board.

This is not a conversation with the board.

We are here to listen.

And speaking to us, we may be perceived as being austere because we do not want to be seen as if we are leaning in one person's direction or another person's direction as they are speaking.

But we are here to receive that information and to take that into consideration as we weigh the millage.

So just want to keep that in mind.

We are here listening to you.

We are human, but we will probably not be perceived fully as such, as we are here primarily to listen and again not to be perceived as weighing towards one person's comments or another.

All right, with that, ma'am, you can feel free to be able to do that.

Before I skip and note that there's going to be a time clock up there for three minutes.

Before I speak, before it's gonna start as soon as you speak, ma'am, and you're gonna have to state your name.

Again, if we don't want to speak right now, and and you have a question, you're more than welcome.

I just want to make a clarification because you said there are two hearings.

You know, so can we say the both things in the same same comments?

This hearing is for the millage.

Okay.

All right.

Um I'm Sabrina Mao, and I've been a cop residence since 1983, so I'm a long-time cop residents.

So Madam Chairwoman and commissioners, and thank you for the opportunity to speak.

And uh today, um I want to urge you not to adopt the budget and not to maintain the current flat millage rate instead of rolling back the millage rate, because keeping the millage rate flat instead of rolling it back is a tax increase.

It generates millions of dollars in excess revenue at a time when family and small business in COP are already struggling.

The budget is not simply maintaining services, it is a funding uh avoidable these questionnaire uh line items that taxpayers should not be forced to absorb.

First, the budget includes the unnecessary two percent cost of living adjustment for all county employees.

We all understand about the inflation, but a blanket cola increase, it's not a responsible budgeting.

Many uh counties already roles you know are already uh competitive and racing should be based on uh the performance and uh a merit increase rather than a blanket uh increase for all employees.

Second, the budget adds 20 employees in general fund putting position.

Last time I went to the meeting, I had thought it was a 41 new employees, but now I saw 20 employees.

I'm not sure what's going on.

Even though this is a lower than the original request, it's still physically in irresponsible.

We are in a period where vacancies can be managed and roads can be consolidated and departments can be operated more efficiently.

And also um uh adding new position while refusing to roll back the millage rate is a wrong priority.

In addition, you know, some of the jobs are being taken over by AI, so we really shouldn't add more employees.

We should you know probably keep the same or decrease.

The third, the health uh care spending in this budget is skyrocketing, increasing between 5.9 percent to seven percent.

It is a dramatic jump.

If the access were reduced or restructured, that you would immediately your time has run.

Thank you.

We'll take our next speaker.

Hi, my name is Bob Kenney.

I'm a Cobb County resident and taxpayer for 15 plus years.

Um I'm here today to talk about the uh millage rate that is the backbone of the 2050 budget.

Uh the the rate needs to be dropped and not flattened.

Uh increase in property values that uh you were just shown.

Uh so there's obviously that same linear increase in the amount of revenues coming in, and more importantly, we should be pushing in that budget things that are going to have uh affordable housing.

And one of the first things is the is the millage rate.

So that's key to it.

Number two is if you only uh I think the the math works out you only drop it 0.25 percent, that it not only funds the two percent COLA they were just talking about, but it also uh allows the implementation of the AI, which obviously points toward meeting less people than more people once it's implemented.

So I'm recommending that you look at getting it implemented as opposed to hiring.

And number two is that uh any kind of health uh increase be uh reconciled uh with the idea that we got to implement those things that are already available.

I know in the group that I represent uh doing a polling of their members showed that they've already had between one and a half and two percent decrease in drugs and specialty services, such as uh CT scans and MRIs.

So the bottom line summary, we've got many point many arrows pointing to reduce the millage rate, and we still have things like the Sheriff's Department still out of control while they're still trying to to duplicate uh things that the police are doing.

So we're asking you to listen and take that into account in getting this uh millage rate reduced.

Thank you.

We'll take our next speaker.

Good evening, um, Denny Wilson.

Um, there needs to be some clarification that you guys need to provide under floating homestead exemption, because the meeting that you had last week, um there were some tax assessors, office people there, and what they stated was the floating homestead exemption.

Once you file for the homestead exemption, the floating homestead exemption is automatic.

But you made it seem like there were people in the room that had not applied for the floating homestead exemption.

So I think you guys need to do a better job at explaining that.

And one other thing, our millage have been flat since I think about 2018.

I don't think uh the millage rate has been raised or lowered.

Um, but what you're doing is you're coming in through the back door.

I mean, you're using the assessment value to raise it in order for you to take in more funds.

And what I'm gonna lobby with the state representatives next year is that they do something about that.

Because I have a friend who her house was valued.

I mean, her assessment value went up about 19,000.

Her home is valued right now at uh almost a million dollars.

Now she has a big beautiful home, but there's not a home in her neighborhood that sells for a million dollars.

So she called out an appraiser and had them to appraise her home, and they appraise it at about 800 and some thousand.

Nowhere near where the county appraised it.

So if you're raising the assessment value and you're taking in more money, then I think that the mill should be rolled back.

I mean, that's what the law states, but that's not what you guys are doing.

And um, even with Mableton, I mean uh City of Mapleton.

I mean, we're we're as a city, we're still paying in our 8.46 mil to the county, but nobody can tell us where the money from that we pay you guys, nobody can tell us where that money is going.

What is it paying for?

I mean, because they're getting ready to tax us to set up police, and we're still having to pay the 8.46 mil to the county and the 2.97 for fire.

Um, and if if somebody can just tell us, I mean, what are we paying for?

Because if you don't clear this up, you're gonna have a lot of problems down the road when you put your name on a ballot because people are gonna remember that nobody said anything to them about what this money is being, you know, with why are we still paying the 8.46 mil and where is this tax money going?

Thank you.

Um Virginia Chote.

I want to say thank you, Commissioners Burrell and Cambrell, for your no stance, and I urge the majority to vote for a rollback.

The board is choosing to maintain the current millage rate rather than rolling it back, generating millions in excess revenue.

Number one, unnecessary 2% COLA, a blanket cost of living adjustment for all employees despite high inflation and the fact that many roles are already competitive.

Number two, 20 new general fund hires.

Well, down from initial requests, adding 20 new positions now is physically irresponsible when vacancies can be managed.

Number three, skyrocketing health care costs, the budget absorbs a dramatic 5.9 to 7% increase in health care spending.

Stripping or reducing this excess would immediately free up enough revenue to roll back the millage rate.

Number four, small business destruction, commercial properties do not get the homestead exemption.

This tax hike forces landlords to raise rents, directly causing the closure of local staples like LA Fitness, Chicago's, Tin Lizzie's, and reunion kitchen and bar.

These businesses cited skyrocketing rents as the cause of their shutdown.

Do not let another business close or another family struggle due to government overspending.

The vote happens tonight, be there, speak up, and help reduce this voted budget.

Okay, we'll take our next speaker.

See someone coming forward from the back.

That for all the reasons to now is a fabulous time to reduce the budget of the county.

And I live in Mr.

Allen's uh Commissioner Allen's district and within the city limits of Marietta and the Marietta also did the same thing, kept the budget growing, but kept the millage rate the same.

And I the having the homestead exemption floating exemption is beautiful, but like uh Ms.

Choate said, the the commercial properties and the non-homested rentals don't receive that.

So those costs are going up.

And to be a voice for economic freedom, now is a great time for this commission to have the courage to lower the budget and or keep it stagnant and lower the millage rate and and see where that will take us because right now I believe Cobb and Cherokee have the lowest cost per living in the metro area.

And look at how affluent and abundant we are.

From the bottom of the ladder to the very top.

So I'm asking you to have the courage and the commitment to everyone to keep the budget constant and lower the millage rate.

Thanks.

Good evening, commissioners.

My name's Sally Grabs.

Uh I think you all have a hard job.

And so, first of all, thank you for your service to the county.

Um, but I don't know if y'all read the newspaper today, our beloved Marietta Daily Journal, and you heard that um Well Star has now laid off 700 people.

I don't know how many of those people live in Cobb County, but we now have 700 people that are unemployed that have been in service to our county.

And so when I look at property tax assessments and what's going on with our elevated assessment rates, I also think about my kids.

And fortunately, one child already owns a home, the other one would like to own a home, but keeps looking at everywhere else to live but Cobb County.

So in not looking at assessments and not seeing the what I would say in some cases is overvaluations, just as Ms.

Wilson said, you're separating families and not allowing generational ownership and stability that keeps Cobb County great and um keeps families together here.

So I would really urge you to take another look at that and understand that what you do here on this board in uh coming up with your tax plan and property tax assessment and how you use that money later in the budget for that public hearing, that it really does have a tangible effect on people and whether they can keep a home or not.

And we hear a lot about affordable housing and attainable housing and the different in the difference in the definitions.

You hold the keys to that in your hands, but when you vote to spend money recklessly and to um to put it on the backs of homeowners, uh you're doing a disservice to the community.

So I would urge you to please take another look at that.

Thank you.

Robbie Hawk spoke uh a couple minutes ago and she invoked the word courage.

She asked you to have courage.

And I listened to that and I wondered, why does it take courage to do what the people want?

I understand, at least I was taught in school, whether it's bogus or not, that uh you all work for the people, and you know the people want to keep the taxes the same or less.

They don't want them to go up.

This is a tax increase.

So why does it take courage to do the right thing?

Please look in the mirror.

Hi.

Uh good evening, everyone.

My name is Sanjay.

I'm uh Cobb County Siddharth.

Sanjay, what's your last name?

Sorry.

I'm sorry, your name is is that your full name?

Yes, Sanjay Rani.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah, I'm sorry.

Uh I'm living in Cobb County from last 25 years, and I would like to live 25 years more here in the county.

Um, so we have a small business in the county, and uh we tried to get some work from the county government and tried, and we submitted a couple of uh RP and proposals to the county, and since it is our IT business, it's a bit difficult to get the IT contract winning for a small business.

So my request is uh we should have some kind of a set aside some portion go to the small businesses that would help us to participate, and we can use our expertise to give our service to the county.

In fact, uh for local counties such as DeCab County and uh Clinton County, City of Batalana, the house and portion goes to small businesses, but those are local to the county.

I I hear your comments completely.

And this public hearing right now is specifically for the millage.

If you would like to see us address that in the budget, you can freely participate in the budget hearing, which is gonna follow the millage discussion.

I'm sorry, yeah.

Yeah, it's okay.

Yeah, it's because we have five hearings and then we have public comment on top of it.

Oh, okay.

So if you signed up over there, yes, I do.

That's public comment, and your name will be specifically called because I know it's not straightforward, particularly if this is one of your first times being here for a bunch of time.

Yes.

All right, thank you, sir.

We'll hear from you.

Sure, thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks.

We'll take our next speaker with respect to the millage rate.

Okay, we have someone approaching from the back of the room.

My name's Patricia Hay, and I hate public comment, so I will be brief.

I just want to put a face.

And my tax my bill is gonna be doubled because now Mapleton has to have a police force.

So I just wanted to put a face to what you're doing.

And you really are taxing unrealized value for our houses, and you keep doing it, when does it end?

So I just wanted to put a face to that, okay?

Thank you.

We'll take our next speaker for this hearing.

Hi, I'm Alicia Adams.

I'm so glad to be here before you because I want to encourage you to do the right thing.

As families across Cobb County are feeling tightening, ever tightening budgets.

I want to encourage you to not just tighten the budget.

We'll talk about that later.

Not only keep the millage rate as it is, but stop the unrealized capital gains.

Stop penalizing people who have been in their homes, many of them, on fixed incomes from the unrealized capital gains.

We don't buy a house knowing 10 years in the future how much or how little our home is going to increase.

The average taxpayer believes that their taxes are supposed to be based on what they bought it for.

And all the properties that they buy, but it's not.

Let's let's stop with a slide of hand.

We're not magicians.

You're stewards of our money.

You're stewards of business money.

You're in the unrealized capital gains, other people do it, but that doesn't mean that it's smart.

So I'm gonna encourage you to not only keep the millage rate down, but stop taxing on the unrealized capital gains.

Thanks for listening.

Okay, we'll take our next speaker.

Carteray, District 3.

First of all, I do want to say that I am in favor of keeping the millage rate as it is today.

I know that you've heard a lot of public comment from people who are in favor of having a tax cut for themselves.

Although I would say that unfortunately, as at many of these public hearings, young people are not represented very well.

And there is a large group of people who do live in this county who don't own homes, who also would benefit from having a strong public budget, from having you know a well-funded county commission.

And I think it is important to put into context that you know everyone deserves a voice here, but especially with public hearings, it can be a bit disheartening seeing that the you know age difference, and I mean uh no disrespect to my my fellow commenters, but simply that um when you only hear from one side of the story from those who are already homeowners, um we've heard that this is about affordable housing, that somehow if you cut property taxes, that this will make houses more affordable.

I don't think that is very true.

In fact, um it has been shown that uh you know keeping or lowering property taxes would lead to uh less affordable homes.

And I think that is something that has not been pointed out yet.

And so as a strong advocate for affordable housing myself, I don't think that you know lowering property taxes so that people pay, you know, less than a hundred dollars, maybe a few hundred dollars less per year is really going to be solving that solution versus investing in resources that make the county more affordable for everyone.

So thank you for all the work you do, and I would like to put a different perspective than ones we've heard so far tonight, and I urge you to vote yes on keeping the military as it is.

Thank you.

We'll take our next speaker.

Uh good evening.

My name's Craig Harfoot, and what he just said, it was like that old rock and roll song.

Tax the rich, feed the poor until there are no rich no more.

But the words are wrong.

It should just be senior citizens.

Tax them until you you make them disappear.

But it this is not class warfare, but it was designed by the bankers, you know.

It's like what they've done with inflating values, and the county and the state won't fix it nationally, and there's a lot of noise about this.

You need to roll back the millage rate, so there is no tax increase.

You actually have a budget problem.

You've spent money unwisely, and we'll talk about that in the budget.

But if you spend like so you do a spLOS because somebody wants a bike trail or a sidewalk.

The problem with that is that adds to your budget and compounds the budget.

If you really want to keep the taxes, I don't know why the young people don't get this, but if you do a loss tax instead of a spLOS tax, you you could cut the millage rate.

You could get the money from that, and it wouldn't make things inflate so fast.

But but the whole deal is you're doing that so you can destroy cheaper properties and build bigger ones that aren't affordable anyway.

These kids with the student loan debt, they'll never be out of debt.

That probably will never own a home because the only you know what I learned when I was a kid.

I wouldn't even take out a student loan in college after two years.

I just and it turned out to be the smartest move I ever made because I got a job for the food stamp program when it opened, and I was in there a year, and the next thing that happened is people with all kinds of degrees were flooding in there because they couldn't get a job anywhere.

That's coming.

That's next year.

And what you heard about Well Star, they're not cutting the Indians, they're cutting the chiefs, they're cutting all the department heads.

That's that's the people that could buy an expensive home.

The other ones that they're living in the next county out and paying four dollars a gallon for gasoline.

That's what's on your horizon.

And anyhow, I don't want to go off topic, but cut the millage rate and and live within your budget.

I told you to cut it 10% because you're gonna be cutting it more than that next year.

We'll take our next speaker.

Okay, not seeing it.

Okay, we do have another speaker.

He'll write.

Raising rising home values do not cause tax increases.

Tax increases, tax increases only because of the board, the vote this board is about to make.

The big lie is this board keeps the rate the same, so this board didn't raise our taxes.

By keeping the millage rate the same, you're voting for a tax increase.

Your decision not to reduce the millage rate is a decision to tax gains on real estate value.

This is what they on this board want to hide from us.

They're spending more, covering up by keeping the same millage rate to raise taxes.

We are losing small businesses because of your spending.

Rents are going up because your tax increases, seniors are being stretched in because they can't manage their budgets because your vote is taking more from their budget.

Stop planning your budget based on real estate growth.

Be the managers you were elected to be.

So that's why the sheriff's budgets overruns are so big.

Stop passing his tax increases along without review.

Make the sheriff apply for every single item to this board.

Make him show his transfer of funds from inmate care to spend on his follies.

No more blank check for the sheriff.

Stop the misleading presentations to hide your spending.

Stop implementing things voters said no on just by hiding it in your budgets and plans.

You cry affordable housing, yet you vote to raise housing prices.

Kids that have no responsibilities may not understand this concept, but those that pay the rent, they understand what kids don't.

It's a matter of courage.

Please have the integrity to do the right thing and don't raise taxes.

So as we talk about reassessments and all that, if you filed your homestead exemption, you know, your your assessment's frozen since that uh since that purchase.

Um there's the Cobb County school tax exemption for anyone above the age of 62, where if you file and receive that exemption, you do not pay any school taxes.

Um there's also disability, there's uh state senior age 65, where it's uh you know, for for more um for seniors with lower incomes, there's a state veterans disability, state surviving spouse, and state surviving spouse of a peace officer, fighter, fighter killed in line of duty.

Um, and so for each of those exemptions, um, I do think that uh if you don't currently have one of those exemptions, I would go to the website and make sure that you have qualified and that it's currently active.

But um, really, yeah, like what the county is growing, and the budget of the county with that also grows.

And you know, we'll we'll we'll talk about the budget here in the next public hearing.

But um, you know, the the millage rate staying flat enables the county to continue the great public services that it currently offers and the quality of life that we get from the county, whether it's the school system, the the roads that we drive on, the um all the different services that we get from the county, the libraries, everything.

And um, yeah, the the budget is a huge document that you look at.

And if we were to start, you know, rolling back the millage rate to match it, we're gonna have to start uh cutting police pay, you know, cutting pay for public services, and uh I just don't think that's a good precedent, and I do believe that as the county continues to grow, um you know, keeping the millage rate the same, it already is one of the lowest millage rates in the Atlanta Metro region, and um it enables us to continue living in a wonderful county with the great quality of life that we that we enjoy today.

So thank you, and um I appreciate your time.

We'll take our next speaker.

Okay, not seeing any.

We will close this public hearing before we go to the next hearing.

I will see if any commissioners have any comments or questions regarding this particular hearing.

Not hearing any, we can go on to our next hearing.

Thank you, ma'am.

As a matter of fact, we're going to our next agenda item.

That is correct.

So our next agenda item.

I'm gonna ask uh that this board adopt a resolution setting the 2026 millage rates for the Cobb County General Fund, Fire Fund, and the Cumberland Special Service District 2 fund, which is CSS D2 as presented in the item.

So moved as presented.

Second.

Is there any discussion?

This is an admin.

This includes the ones that he just read.

Okay.

Are there any questions?

You can look at the agenda.

We need to go to two.

Thank you for that catch.

That's why we're hearing something and we're seeing something else.

Thank you, Commissioner Gambrell.

Are there any comments or questions with respect to agenda item number two?

Okay, we'll call them.

Okay, we'll call the question.

The motion carries three, two with Commissioners Burrell and Garnell in opposition.

Thank you.

I'd like to ask this board to adopt a resolution establishing the establishing the 2026 county Cobb County tax levy for countywide school construction bond purposes and for maintenance and operation of schools as required by law.

So moved.

Second.

Is there any further discussion?

Call the question.

The motion carries five zero.

Thank you.

So before we uh open, or I ask that you open the third public hearing on the proposed budget.

I'd like to give a very brief presentation.

Let me go grab my notes.

Sorry about that.

All right.

So I'm going to give an abridged uh presentation.

We have had uh one full presentation on uh earlier in the year, uh early later in June.

Uh we'll get to the timeline here in a second.

Uh we've had two public hearings with respect to this budget.

We've also had four town halls, but again, I'm gonna hit some of the highlights, but just for sake of the meeting, uh I will uh kind of cruise through this.

But all the information, all the former presentations are recorded online.

Any other information if you have uh questions about individual funds or their purpose or what they do, you can find that on the finance website.

Again, you can see all the PowerPoints and the adopted or the proposed budget online on our uh finance website.

So very quickly, uh the summary.

Uh, we're gonna have our impact items following that and budget recommendations.

Again, I'll be brief.

I'll just explain what those are and show them uh to the uh audience at home and for the benefit of this board.

We will talk about the additional items that are being proposed in the FY27 budget, uh, and then quickly I will go through a breakdown by fund, but a majority of that will be covered as I hit uh the summary and the highlights.

And I will also try to highlight anything that has changed uh since the original presentation, it was given on June 23rd.

So the county has multiple funds.

Uh we group them into different categories.

We have our governmental type funds and our business type funds.

This is a summation of those types of funds.

The overall operating budget for the county is proposed to be 1.4 billion dollars, which is uh approximately 84 million dollars uh higher than the adopted budget in 26.

One thing to note if you uh talk about the claims funds, that's we'll get into that in the highlight and how that's counted twice within the budget.

Uh but the general fund went up about 4.5 percent.

Uh it's being proposed to go up 4.5 percent, trailing 12 month inflation was 4.2 percent.

So we're roughly in line with inflationary growth in the general fund.

The overall budget went up uh approximately 5.5 percent, again, one accounting for everything.

One of the things that changed from the original presentation uh was the number of full-time positions uh being proposed.

At the time, the board had originally presented 29 positions overall, and again, that's countywide.

We had some changes.

We had two ITS positions that were approved through an agenda item, and we also had others uh the fire fund, which we were deliberating at the time, and the choice has been made to include the fire fund uh proposed positions in this budget, which is why we had such a big increase.

So at the bottom you will see a breakout of which funds are those positions are being proposed in.

We have 23 positions being proposed in the general fund, 27 in the fire fund, six in the stormwater utility fund, and three within the water and sewer fund.

Again, those uh positions within the storm water utility fund were proposed as part of the creation of the fund, and throughout that process, we are just now implementing what was proposed uh in as part of that plan in the FY27 budget.

So with that, I'm gonna jump to the highlights.

What what breaks what makes up the 84 million dollar change one of the biggest changes was the 17.1 million dollar increase or proposed increase in water and sewer capital.

We had another increase of 5.8 million dollars for water and sewer operating.

Again, we buyer water if water prices go up.

If we're buying more water, uh we have to increase those operating uh expenditures.

We also have chemicals to treat the water and sludge handling.

One thing for the benefit of this board is last year we did not have a stormwater utility fund in effect.

Uh at the time, it was October 1st of 2025.

The stormwater utility fund didn't go into effect until this June on June 1st, 2026.

So it was a zero dollar adopted budget in FY26, and now it's being proposed at FY at 17 million in FY27.

That means next year you're not gonna have another jump of 17 million dollars.

It'll be more incremental change in that stormwater fee, but it is a very large increase because you're going from a fund that was not adopted to a fund that is now being adopted.

The employee roster within the general fund, that was 14.2 million dollars.

That is just rolling over the existing roster.

That means accommodating for the 2% pay scale adjustment that was awarded last March, in addition to a 3% merit and a step in grade for our sworn officers.

It includes any filled vacant positions that were uh filled during the course of the year.

It includes pension, health care, standby pay and specialty pay, and those are generally associated with our uh public safety officers, those standby pay and special pay.

And we also have associated statutory payroll costs, which is your FICA, your workers' comp and disability.

Uh, all in all, that's 14.2 million dollars just to roll the current roster over at the current service levels.

We're proposing another two percent pay scale adjustment and a continuation of our stepping grade.

The stepping grade is for our sworn officers, and we have a merit of 3% for our non-sworn employees being proposed in this budget.

We have a 4% increase stipend for our Medicare eligible uh retirees.

That's roughly about a quarter of a million dollars.

So, even though it's 4%, it's a very small number in real terms.

Uh, but that is to supplement uh stipend that our retirees uh receive uh for their insurance that has not been adjusted in 15 years.

We have our claims fund.

This is what I was referring to earlier.

It's gone up 11 million dollars, but again, the funds that pay that cost that fund the increase in the claims, it's already being captured in the fire fund in the general fund in the in the water fund.

Uh they pay in to the claims fund.

We're self-insured, we have excess property insurance, and we have uh other insurance policies such as cyber and we pay for our own small claims.

So, again, it's kind of counted twice because it's an expense in one fund and it's recognized as a revenue and expense in another.

So I know it's clear as mud, but I just want to make sure that we understand.

We have the fire fund, which is an increase of $6.2 million.

Again, that's for personnel operating and capital.

That includes the proposed positions, the proposed 27 uh full-time positions and the four part-time positions within the fire fund.

The next slide, we will show the impact items.

Those are things that we have to pay for, and I'll explain why uh on the next slide.

But that is a total of 8.1 million dollars.

We have budget recommendations, which are recommendations from the finance office when they go through and evaluate the budgets of other things we have to pay for that might not necessarily be uh a board agenda item that we just recognize that need to be adjusted, and it can go up or down.

We do have some reductions uh that we uh are including in this budget uh that come from just an analyzing uh current budgets.

This budget does uh propose an additional one percent reduction in the water transfer.

The 26 budget was at 4%.

The 27 budget will move that water transfer down to 3% with the goal of going well, eliminating the water transfer uh in the next two or three budget cycles.

And again, this budget does uh propose uh keeping the millage rate flat in FY27.

We will vote on that millage rate next July, but it does uh estimate uh digest growth, which is just a natural part of our budgeting process.

So even though it keeps the proposed rate there, we do anticipate additional property taxes due to natural growth in that digest.

Again, very quickly here.

I'm not going to go through each item, but I'm going to explain uh what we're looking at.

This is a list of BOC impact items.

These are agenda items that either have been or are going to be approved by this board during the course of this current fiscal year that have an impact on the FY27 budget.

So if this board takes action on an item and it has a cost associated with it in FY27, I have to prepare for it.

And so we prepare through that by uh logging the impact items, and that's roughly 8.1 million dollars.

Uh the italicized items are uh items that we expect to be brought to this board prior to the end of this fiscal year.

These are the general fund budget recommendations.

These are the things that the finance office and the budget team look at.

We have uh these recommendations that total to about 3.5, 3.6 million.

Uh as you can see, we have a reduction in transfers out to other funds of approximately $854,000.

Uh but also we have things like the police department so training center operating cost uh project that has put the sheriff's office and PD within the same building for training purposes.

It was funded by the 20 uh one of our SWAST uh programs, but the maintenance and operation, the janitorial, the HVAC, the lead mitigation that has to go on for a firing range needs to be incorporated in this, and this is something that uh we propose to include in this budget because if we keep a flat budget, those costs are not going to be captured.

And again, that's just a general summary of budget recommendations.

All of that being said, all the things taken into consideration, all the things we have to pay for, all the budget recommendations that left approximately 3.2 million dollars of funds uh available for discussion, and that is the additional items that are in front of you here today.

We originally presented on June 23rd, and at the time, those italicized items were not on the original presentation.

Uh they were then added to the uh proposed to be added to the budget and then included in subsequent presentations, and has not changed since this first public hearing uh or the town halls.

Again, we we have our original presentation, our two public hearings, the four town halls.

This information is online.

Uh I will walk through some of the major changes within these, but we've touched on most of them by talking about the highlights again.

The general fund we talked about that 4.5% proposed increase, 29 million, 14.3 of which was just rolling the roster, 8.1 was impact items, 3.6 was budget recommendations, leaving about 3.2 million dollars of funds.

We have the claims funds, which again we discussed in the highlights, totaling about 11 million dollars.

We have the fire district fund again, 6.2, which is personnel operating capital includes their positions.

There's minimal to no change in the other funds.

Uh and again, if you're interested in learning more about those funds, we have our uh I would reference as of right now the 2526 biennial book where you can learn more about it.

We will produce a 2728 biennial, but it won't be until 60 days after the adoption of this budget, so it'll be available early in the fall, but you can learn more about each of our funds there.

Again, these are our governmental funds, but they're small changes.

The one large change on this slide is our street light district fund.

The board proposed a street light rate increase in November.

It went into effect.

This is to cover utility costs.

There was about a 1.5 million dollar loss in that fund last year.

Again, that is to fund the utilities.

So the board's uh approval of that streetlight fund has led to increased revenues.

So the fund is now structurally balanced.

It's not losing money, but it's not gaining money, it's essentially covering the utility cost within the street light district fund.

We touched on the water fund majority that is capital and operating, the 17.1 million mentioned earlier for water capital and the roughly six million for operating.

The stormwater utility fund again we touched on that $0.26 because it wasn't around.

It was activated on June 1st of this year, and therefore we're adopting it formally in this budget at $17.1 million, and very minimal changes throughout the rest of our business type funds.

These are our multi-year capital funds.

We have a few of them, most of them revolve around water capital.

Uh, those are where the funds are transferred from the water operating fund into those capital funds for multi-year projects.

So that's 17 point or the 17 million I mentioned earlier, is going from the water.

Um, and again, it's not the stormwater.

I want to make sure we're not confused there.

It's the water and sewer capital, not stormwater, that is going into the water system uh and water renewal and extension capital funds.

Stormwater has its own capital fund funded by stormwater revenue.

They are separated now at this point.

Um we also have the stadium capital maintenance fund.

That is a 30-year agreement that we entered into with the Atlanta Braves during the uh during the construction process.

It funds a trust for large capital repair, such as HVAC and elevator.

It is split evenly uh in contributions between the uh Braves and the County.

So the county's contributions 1.5 uh million uh in FY27 and the Braves will be an additional 1.5.

That agreement uh terms out in 2046, and it peaks in 2031 at roughly three million, and it drops from there down to a couple hundred thousand dollars a year by the time we get to 2046.

There is a cap on our portion.

Yes, ma'am.

That is absolutely correct.

So again, uh, as I repeated earlier, and I'll say it again.

We originally presented this on June 23rd.

We had our first public hearing on July 14th.

We had a special call for our second public hearing on July 21st, 2026.

This is our third public hearing.

Uh, and after this, we will ask that the board uh adopt the budget, but that concludes my presentation.

So with that, I will take any questions or ask that you open the public hearing.

Thank you, buddy.

What we'll do is we'll open it up for the hearing, and then if commissioners have any comments or questions, we'll do it after.

Yes, ma'am.

All right, thank you.

We will go ahead and open up the hearing for the proposed budget, similar to the format of the last hearing.

We'll take an unlimited number of speakers to address the budget and the budget only.

And I mentioned to you how Governor Kemp has been able to cut the budgets for the state.

And he was able to cut his budget by close to a billion dollars.

And I remember when he first took office, I was still working for the State Department of Economic Development, and he made a call to all the department heads and told them that you know we needed to lessen the spending.

If we need if we did not need to buy it, then don't buy it.

Um right now people are tax burdened.

I mean, we're tax burdened all the way around.

Our income is not increasing, but our cost of living is and cost of living being the amount of taxes that we pay on our property that we own, uh, the amount of taxes and gas at the gas pump, food in the grocery store.

Um, but you guys are not taking that into consideration.

I mean, I'm on a fixed income, so I've had to cut my budget drastically.

There are things that I want, but can't afford.

So I have to rely on the income that I have coming in, and I have to make out a budget, and I have to follow that strict budget.

Now I want to give a shout out to uh Drew Wrestler with DOT because Drew has totally taken care of us in Mapleton with this Phenaga, whatever's going on.

I I can't even tell you because the county says this is private, I can't tell you.

The city says this is private, I can't tell you, but our taxpayo dollars in private.

I mean, when you come to us and say you owe us this, we have to pay you privacy or not.

Um, and I'm not going to speak against the budget because I really haven't looked at it.

But um I take issues with people saying that county employees shouldn't get their raises because they're the ones that keep this county going.

And without them, you know, I don't know really know where we where we would be.

So I'm not for cutting out uh wages for county employees.

I mean, and anybody who's ever been an employee, I don't even know how that could come out of their mouths, but people say what they want to say and they think what they want to think.

But all I'm telling you guys is take into consideration that people are hurting right now.

I mean, people are just getting by.

And if you keep increasing this budget year after year, excuse me, your time has run.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We'll take our next speaker.

Thank you, board, for allowing us to comment.

Um I want to say again, thank you for your service, but I also want to say as I serve on a board as well.

I know thank you for their.

I'm sorry to interrupt you.

Please state your name and Sally Grubbs.

Thank you.

Sorry.

Um, I know that by the time y'all come sit on the dais, you've already made up your minds.

There's not a thing that a citizen can do or say at this podium that is going to change your mind.

It's very clear that y'all have already done that.

Now, if I was sitting on the dais, I would be asking this nice young man about the budget.

The only thing I think we're missing is Oprah going, you get a fund and you get a fund and you get a fund, and everybody gets a fund.

Because what we are seeing is such an expansion of money that's being spent, over 70 services.

Now I understand that we have an eviction court.

We're funding that too to help prevent people from paying their rent, but yet by the same token, you want to raise it's craziness.

You want to raise uh, you know, the property values, so people can't afford to stay in their homes, but then you want to fund a court.

Am I understanding that correctly?

You want to fund a court to help people not be evicted?

I'm pretty sure I have that correct.

Um, and then expanding money for things that were meant to be temporary funding through ARPA funds, and you know, once these things start, they never stop, and then funding transit that the citizens clearly voted down in the splost.

It's all very confusing.

I don't pretend to understand your budget.

Um, you know, people a lot smarter than me do that, but what you're hearing is people are hurting, people can't afford things, but there is a staggering expansion of spending funds, and what what everybody in the room needs to know is you have already made up your mind how you're gonna vote.

You have a public hearing, but there is not one thing that any one of us citizens can do or say that is going to change the way you vote, and that is extremely sad.

Thank you.

I oppose the budget.

I didn't say much because I didn't want to waste my breath speaking to the nod squad, who I know will just ignore us.

We'll take our next speaker.

Virginia Choate.

I'm speaking for Jan Barton, who's very sick tonight.

And that was also who I was speaking for before.

As the Cub County Board of Commissioners prepare to vote on the fiscal year 2027 budget this Tuesday, July 28, 2026, the human cost of continued spending growth demands attention.

The proposed 1.409 billion budget maintains a millage rate of 8.46 mills, resulting in a 4.07% revenue increase over the rollback rate.

For commercial property owners, this higher budget is passed directly to small business tenants through lease agreements that require the tenant to pay the property taxes, building insurance and maintenance costs in addition to their base rate.

When families are priced out, our community loses its diversity and stability.

Sincerely, Jan Barton, Marietta.

Are the added staff members?

If you could at least not add any new staff.

And I'm not saying that you know they wouldn't add value.

I'm saying that not only every employee, the citizens have to pay them, and then when they retire, we have to pay them to do nothing.

And then we have to pay the person to do the work that they were doing.

And then as the cost of entry level comes in, everybody gets more raise, whether the private sector does or not.

And it's just going back to the economic freedom of allowing the government to shrink and the personal responsibility of each of the members in the county, the taxpayers, to be strong, we would have the most freedom to earn money, is like what's been said about the cost of doing business, the higher the property costs, the more that we have to pay for everything that we buy in the county.

And so it seems that because right now, not only, you know, our I think part of the reason why there's a lot of um tension in finances is because of the humongous amount of uncertainty.

Huge amount.

You know, next year, a whole year from now.

So please um, if the only cut you can make is to not add new employees to the county.

Please um do that for all of us.

Thanks.

Good evening, my name's Donna Court.

I live in Zipco 3006 eight.

Good evening, Chair Cupid, Commissioners and Dr.

McMorris.

Thank you so much for all the wonderful town halls.

I saw my commissioner there, chair, of course, all the wonderful staff.

And I have to give my hats off to the CFO.

That is not my background, but I have several friends who are retired accountants and active accountants.

And I thought he did a fantabulous job of explaining the whole balance sheet.

And I loved your explanation of how the uh particularly the health care costs, that is my forte, and how it shows up on both sides of the PL or balance sheet.

I I always get that mixed mixed up.

But I have to say that I was very impressed.

I'm how brave and how wonderful because that is a huge risk that you're carrying, and but also to use the actuarial and to do that shows incredible strength.

Um I don't know if a lot of people understand what self-funding means, but it means you're carrying all the risk, which means that if a person develops cancer, you're paying the whole cost for the pre-patient, inpatient skilled nursing facility versus uh an insurance company carrying the the risk and and co-signing for it.

So, yay, very brave, very talented that you have the folks to do that.

I also did want to point out it's come out not tonight, but in some of the town hall meetings.

Um I forget the exact tenor, but anyways, we do have many county employees that can't afford to live in our county, and yet they love us so much that they they aspire to live here.

So that's as one young person said, we looking at all options for the budget and getting entry-level people in is wonderful.

And I am in favor of the budget.

Uh I thank all the hardworking people, whether they live in our county or not, and please continue to keep up the good work.

Thank you all.

Hello, Chairwoman Commissioners.

I'm Matt Sigal.

I live in District One.

Um, one thing that I don't think it's been mentioned yet today, and I want to give credit to the county and the finance department is I think we're one of only four counties in the state that have a triple A bond rating.

And so I think that that just shows just how um yeah, how successful we've been at, you know, maintaining a budget and and and being able to provide those great services while keeping our taxes low.

And so I just want to appreciate everybody involved in that.

Um the other thing I want to do is just as I look at the budget, I'm very excited um about some of the things that we're including that budget.

Most of all being the um the pay scale adjustment, the the cost of living adjustment for all the staff and also merit increases.

I mean, I think as all employers, which county the county is a significant one, you know.

I mean, it's a competitive market out there, and I think uh, you know, being able to continue letting paying people as as inflation impacts their their um bottom line.

I think that's very important.

Um I also want to kind of go through some of the things that excites me the most about the budget.

Um top of the list is the uh all the court positions.

I know that uh anyone who's kind of followed the the court system, they are they've been overwhelmed here the last couple of years, just um, you know, overflowing with with uh responsibilities and there's been backlogs and and things like that.

So I think uh you know that that definitely seems to solve a very important need that helps the county run better.

Um we've got medical examiner.

I don't think we want to be backlogged and any uh medical examiner uh services.

I think that could be a problem if uh we start falling behind on that.

Um one thing that I'm very excited about is the DOT pedestrian coordinator planner.

Um as we've discussed often, they're you know, pedestrian planning is a significant opportunity for the county to improve upon and uh make the road safer for all users of the roads.

Uh that that that seems to be a very important thing that I think uh I'm excited to see the county prioritize.

Um there's also the uh eviction mitigation program.

Um so I think that that's uh my understanding of it is that it helps people at least um it's not just completely up to you know, like a people aren't kicked out immediately, they're able to negotiate um, you know, at least what what their living situation is in the near future as uh hardships might arise.

Um I I see that there's a uh expand on demand transit.

There's a grant, so we're receiving millions of dollars in state and federal funding for uh microtransit, and it appears that uh yeah, I think uh increasing the budget a little bit in order to match those grants and enable that expansion with microtransit.

That seems to be a very uh exciting um thing to see in the future of the county.

Uh there's also the communications call center with multiple positions, and my understanding of that is we're almost staffing to the point of having it be a 24-hour call center that can really serve the needs of the county, and I think that'd be a huge improvement for our residents.

Um yeah, and with that, those are some of the highlights, and I look forward to uh continuing to live in a great county.

Thank you.

Good evening, Commissioners is John Gargas.

What what does it cost the county to make all the hourly staff sit in here in silence for two minutes and 45 seconds?

Wow.

Anyway, I'm a board member with a better cob.

I work in this county, have for nearly 15 years, and a benefit from the investments this county puts into its roads and other infrastructure, its parks, it's police and public safety, and more.

Speaking of police, I live in Dallas in Pauline County, and just in my neighborhood, there are two Cobb County police vehicles that I see parked in driveways on every day, which means at least two different cob officers live near me and not in the county they serve.

Which tells me that sometimes we have to look outside the county to find our best and our brightest and our bravest and our boldest.

If they desire to commute to Cobb, they see something in this county and are hopefully getting comfortably compensated for their often thankless work.

I can't imagine many people proposing to cut their ranks or their pay.

I mean, do we seriously want to stand here and argue that they have all county employees who don't deserve a cost of living increase?

I also can't imagine anyone proposing to cut our precious parks or prepare to slow the progress on infrastructure that is only going to continue to serve more cobb countyans, more appalling commuters coming here, and everyone passing through cob to other counties.

Do anyone decrying their tax bills tonight?

Please tell us specifically what you want to cut.

Articulately argue.

I also want to commend this board for its commitment to allowing the public to be heard or or stand in silence in some cases.

Last week on my YouTube feed, there was a video of every minute of public comment from the second public hearings on the millage and budget.

That's just one example, and of course, we're also more or less live tonight.

Meanwhile, another major elected body in this county refuses to broadcast a mere 30 minutes at most of public comment at its meetings.

That's not public comment.

That's private comment.

Or maybe public comment and name only.

But Chino.

Hoo ah.

That was my best paccino.

I apologize for that.

And let's not forget the school tax is the lion's share of the property tax bill.

And if the assessment on your property goes up, your payment to the school district goes up.

No homestead exemption.

Did the same folks here tonight go to the school board meetings and make the same arguments here?

Maybe.

But not a minute of their remarks was broadcast to their fellow community members.

Here tonight, there may be folks who get up to nine minutes of airtime before the meeting adjourns for the evening.

Something to think about.

Hooah.

Thank you.

Susan Clark, uh, amen to that.

Um, yes, school board does not air their public comments, which is ridiculous.

Um, I just want to say to all these people complaining about the budget that yes, the taxes, the dollar amount of taxes are being raised, but everything's going up in price thanks to our fearless leader in the White House.

Um we need to keep we need to raise the prices of things as things get more expensive.

They will be the first to complain when they've got potholes when that aren't being taken care of when they've got issues and they can't get a hold of somebody in the office because they are not um adding to the staff is needed.

We are growing as a county, and like our Marietta uh mayor says, move out.

I'm sorry, I don't agree with that at all.

We want to stay here, and I believe that our commissioners are all very care about us, each one of us.

Thank you.

Hugh Norris, Cobb County.

I've heard two of the speakers tonight talk about the fact that Cobb is growing, and I understand that is true.

But here's a question I can't get an answer to.

How much of this growth relates to illegal aliens?

Does anybody realize what the definition?

I think some people here don't.

There are people that are not supposed to be here.

How much of our scarce resources, including bud budgetary dollars, go for foreign nationals illegally in our midst?

I don't think you've answered that question.

Hello, my name's Cara Ray, District 3.

Uh thank you, Chairwoman and Commissioners for allowing us to speak on the proposed 2027 budget.

I attended the town hall meeting last week, which I found very informative, but I was a little dismayed at what seemed like belittling of people that questioned the budget by leadership and audience members.

This shouldn't be the attitude of serving all constituents in Cobb County.

All in all, I left the town hall wondering why the main road in my East Cobb neighborhood has never been repaved since it was built in 1974, and it is a thoroughfare for kids on the way to Walton High School.

We just had our 50th anniversary.

Why has it been moved down the priority list for 50 years?

Yet other areas of the county are getting microtransit to avoid paying for Uber and Lyft.

For the 300,000 price tag, not including other funding sources.

Where is the ridership data to support this expansion there and to other areas of the county as being planned?

Um from what I have read, the current services are not limited to those who prove they can't afford Uber or Lyft.

So it's a nice free ride, which we would all appreciate.

I've also read that it works out to a subsidy of $37 per ride as it's not heavily utilized.

If that's true, that's a steep cost for a free ride.

Isn't the service duplicated with a voucher program that already serves the disabled elderly and low income that is not limited to the county area?

It seems that this is an intent to push forward on transit, even though the referendum was handily defeated in 2024.

If not, why is there a 10 million dollar line item for capital improvements to the Cumberland Transit Center and the 2028 SPLOSS?

Cobb taxpayers are asking for this same type of scrutiny on every extra expense so that our precious tax dollars are spent wisely.

On a personal note, I've lived in Cobb County for 26 years.

My husband and I made the decision early on to live on one income and save up enough money to send our kids to college without debt.

It wasn't easy.

We had to scrimp and save, and I learned to stack coupons on top of sales, and we live like no one else if you're familiar with Dave Ramsey.

It takes sacrifice and hard work.

We're asking for the same thing from Cobb County on every extra item.

To close, I'm concerned about using the generic we're growing to generically drive increased budgets.

I'm concerned about the budget outpacing population growth, and I request that you keep that in line.

We love the suburban Calm County we have lived in, and we don't want to be priced out of it.

Thank you for your time.

Carter A, District 3.

It does seem to me that some people here tonight want to absolve themselves of as much social responsibility as they possibly can in favor of a returning to a society in which we had no parks, no paved roads, no court system, no libraries, and how about no government at all?

Because the truth of the matter is we do need a strong budget.

We do need taxes in order to fund the society that we live in.

And I think as many of the people here would agree, we do have a great quality of life in Cobb, and we have we do so because we have a good government, because we have services that actually provide for people, and because we don't have you know this massive amount of wasteful spending or corruption that exists in some other counties that are not Cobb County.

Um I would like to agree with my neighbor who actually previously spoke.

I would like to see the uh the road near my neighborhood to be repaved.

Um it is a bit disappointing that has not been done so in in such a long time, and potentially also making um pedestrian improvements or uh making it easier for kids to walk to school.

As I know that was a struggle that I faced, um, living where I did not have a bus, and yet some people and so you know being forced to get to school every day.

There are some things that we can improve on for sure.

And as someone who does live in East Cobb, outside of the proposed uh zones for increased microtransit, I think it is still really important that people around the county are able to get around in a important uh in a productive fashion.

Um, as is in regards to like the Cumberland Transfer Center.

Um, I go through there almost every single day on my way to work, and I can tell you it would be really nice to have those improvements made so that you know I'm not sitting in that area for multiple minutes each day, potentially up to five minutes, um, which is you know not too much for one specific ride, but every single day for the thousands of people that go through there, it would be nice to have an improved Cumberland transfer center, and I think that's an important part of the SPLOSS to have.

So overall, I think that's the budget that we have is very reasonable as a county.

Um, as previous speakers have mentioned, we have one of the lowest tax rates in the entire Atlanta metro area.

Uh we have very low sales taxes, we have relatively low property taxes, and I think overall, this is an extremely reasonable proposal that is being opposed by you know, some people who are genuinely concerned, and I do respect that, you know.

I'm no fan of wasteful spending myself, um, but from people who would like to absolve themselves of as much responsibility as possible.

Um, of course, you know, there are affordability concerns for everyone, but such is living in a society at all.

So thank you so much.

Have a great one.

Good evening, commissioners.

My name is Cheryl Goulds.

I'm not here to find blame and faults, but rather to find solutions and build partnerships.

Last week, our coalition described shelter overpopulation problems, and tonight you vote, so I won't repeat everything we spoke of.

But everyone in this room is running, every everyone in this room is running past capacity.

Your shelter, our homes, the rescue's foster rooms, capacity comes back when leadership changes direction.

Since 2021, shelter intake has grown roughly eight times faster than this county's population.

A budget is a direction.

Here's a roadmap, three decisions.

First, tonight, adopt this budget with the three veterinary positions intact, and commit the 150,000 prevention line beside them.

SNP the bill 2.0, amendment or direction to staff, however you but however your budget office structures it, the design work is already done.

Vouchers at true cost rates, growth capital to appro to approve an in-county provider, mobile surgery days, blended tracked, and not one position of new head count needed.

Second, while it's still on paper, the new animal services building.

This board committed 64 million dollars to it.

Your own architect's letter says the design phase quote will continue to test the ultimate square footage.

What goes inside is still being decided.

So direct your design team to include community cat spay neuter capacity, less than 3% of the building sharing the surgical suites already planned.

It cannot wait.

The 2028 SPLOSS finalized in April has no animal projects at all.

Whatever isn't built into this building won't exist in Cobb until the 2030s.

Next month, the county already has a board whose charter is to recommend ordinance updates, and it meets August 18th.

We'll be there respectfully with model language from Georgia counties that already wrote it.

It costs this budget nothing.

None of this is spending for spending sake.

A prevention dollar is the one dollar in this budget that works to make next year's bill smaller.

It pays for itself.

Adopt the budget, commit the line, direct the design, welcome the ordinance, fund the direction you want to take this county, and this becomes the board that solved it.

Thank you.

Good evening, commissioners.

My name is Heather Getty Kunst.

I live in Churchill Manor here in Cobb County.

Last week my neighbor Cheryl stood at this podium and told you how seven abandoned cats became 35 on our street over three years.

On the other half of the story, I'm the one who fed them first.

When those first cats appeared, I did what any decent person does.

I fed them.

I had no idea how fast a community cat problem can grow.

I didn't know where to get a trap or how to get a surgery appointment, and there was no county guidelines to find.

So I spent a year looking for help.

A year of calls, the same closed doors.

Cheryl described to you last week.

Everyone wanted it fixed.

Nobody anywhere had a solution for us.

I became the person they blamed the stress, the guilt, the loneliness of a problem you didn't create.

That is what the county silence does to people trying to derive.

Then finally came our stroke of luck.

Experienced volunteers found us.

They taught us trap neuter vaccine vaccinate return the traps.

The safety, the appointments, fear turned into a plan, and the cycle ended.

This spring for the first time, no kittens, none, zero.

Unfixed cats, zero unfixed cats remain in Churchill Manor today.

Every cat is fixed, vaccinated, ear tipped.

A few are now welcome on our neighbors' porches.

The colony is shrinking, not growing.

The neighbors who once blamed me now thank me.

And everyone on our street can spot an untipped newcomer and knows exactly what to do.

That is what prevention looks like when it works.

Informed residents, early intervention, healthier cats, fewer complaints.

A neighborhood working together instead of against each other.

But here the other half.

It took three years, it took luck of volunteers finding us, then spending their own savings.

It should never have gotten that far.

With a real county program at seven cats, it never became 35.

It never will become 35.

One neighborhood has our neighborhood has training now.

Luck is not a system.

So build the system, commit the 150,000 prevention line tonight, but community surgery space, put community surgery space in the new building while it's on paper, and welcome the ordinance this fall.

So the next Church Hill Manor doesn't wait three years for this miracle.

Thank you so much.

Good evening, commissioners.

My name is Dr.

Pavitra Maoli, a legal Cobb County resident.

I hold a PhD in molecular biology from Georgia Tech.

I'm a scientist by training and temperament, and every biologist learns the same first lesson about populations.

How they grow, what stops them, and what happens when nothing does.

But I'm not sure as a scientist today.

I'm here because I'm currently working a single cat colony at a campground in this county.

When I started counting the number of cats, I stopped at 60.

60 cats, one campground.

Nobody read them on purpose.

It started the way it always starts.

A few cats left behind, nobody fixed, and biology did the rest.

In biology, population growth is not an opinion.

It is a curve and unmanaged, it bends only one way.

So I'm trapping and fixing those cats at my own expense because sterilization is the only thing that bends the curve.

Not wishing, not removing these cats because cleared ground refills.

Sterilization is the only solution.

And there are people behind these animals at that campground, working families watch these cats breed to death outside their doors.

They didn't cost this.

They can't stop it.

This is not an animal control file.

It is public health and a quiet kind of human suffering everywhere it is happening.

I found 60 cats in one pocket of cob by accident because I happened to be there.

Nobody measures how many pockets there are.

So let me ask the question that matters.

What number is the trigger?

However, many calls for help came in last month.

If that wasn't the moment to change course, what number is?

Because the system past capacity does not stabilize on its own, it breaks.

And biology will pass whatever threshold you have in mind while it waits for an agenda slot.

Every euro of delay price is the same fixed higher.

So my ask is the same as my neighbors, in my own words.

Commit the prevention line tonight.

The veterin positions and 150,000 dollars.

Put community surgery capacity in the building that you're about to construct.

It is your only one chance to size it for the biology instead of the backlog.

And welcome the community cat ordinance this fall.

So the people doing this work can do it lawfully and well.

The curve is not going to wait for a better budget here.

Thank you so much for your time.

Good evening, commissioners.

My name is Rebecca Sussman, Cobb County resident, Marine Mum.

Let me tell you what you just heard.

A homeowner, a scientist, a trapper.

Different stories into one sentence.

This county is beyond capacity.

People who have quietly kept an understaffed shelter from collapsing for decades are in this room tonight.

We will keep doing our best, but we are not keeping up.

And we are not your solution.

In June, this shelter recorded its biggest month in the six years the state has kept count.

831 animals driven by the biggest cat month ever, 463.

Cat intake is running 20% ahead of last year.

And the euthanasia wave that follows the surge arrives in August.

Last year, 1,237 animals died in the shelter.

This year's wave lands about two weeks after tonight's vote.

You've watched the wrong version of this story.

One county over.

Cobb isn't being asked to lead the way tonight.

Just not be the only Metro Atlanta County sitting this out.

Talking here doesn't fix anything, but your budget does.

Commit the 150,000 to prevention.

Keep the veterinary positions, and direct the designers to build for prevention.

Because that building is coming either way.

And it will either be a solution or a monument to a problem we chose not to solve.

And we're not going away.

And I mean that warmly.

We're your neighbors, and we'll be at the Animal Services Board August the 18th, and every meeting after with facts and help.

Prevention turns down the temperature for your shelter, its staff, the families, and the animals themselves.

Choose the direction, fund it tonight.

Thank you.

I'm here to share that everybody is hurting.

Um, just last week, Cobb County School District just released their report that 36 schools will be able to receive all students that attend those schools will be able to receive free breakfast and lunch.

That means that they no longer have to fill out meal applications to determine whether or not they receive free meals.

The determination that was used was how many households receive full stamp benefits.

So that means that 30 cent schools, 36 neighborhoods, 36 communities have households that if they have a family of four, they make less than 30,000 a year to get food stamps.

So basically, they didn't have to use the meal applications to determine whether or not those children are suffering.

At least all of the districts have at least one school in there on that on that list, but District 4 has majority of those schools.

The city of Mapleton, every school that's in the city of Mapleton is on that list.

Excuse me, Monica, please hope connect to the budget.

It's connected all the way to budgeting, all the way people are hurting.

So we're going to connect it.

We're going to talk about this the eviction mitigation.

Thank you.

Eviction mediation.

We will hope it can see that that position will help people understand the process of evictions.

The judge, the judge, hear these sad stores.

The people that get into the courtroom start talking about how they have roaches everywhere in some of these apartments, even some rental homes, how there's mold, how there's mildew, how they're not fixing anything.

And basically, some of those things can be discussed in mediation.

Because once they get in front of that judge, the judge is gonna say, you do need to move, okay?

So basically, having that mediation in place does help.

But also, we need to look at maybe having a housing task force coordinator, maybe looking at that as well.

Because it's sad that people that are making less than $30,000 a year having to suffer, pay $1,500 of rent, living in Phil, okay, not able to move any place else, because we're not really addressing this housing crisis.

If we're gonna we need to address because when you have 36 schools, 36 communities that their children have to um eat lunch at school because they might not even have the meals at home because food stamps don't go a long way.

Um a family that uh makes 30,000 a year, they still don't get 100 food stamp.

So if you have family, you have two people in your household that you're using the food banks.

The food banks lines are growing.

Thank you to Sweetwater Mission, Family Life Restoration Center.

Okay?

So, yes, it's all connected, and I just want to share because um at the end of the day, the state of our schools is the state of our community, and the state of our community is the state of our schools.

Thank you.

When times are down, I've managed businesses.

When when the business isn't coming in, our budget gets chopped.

We reduced down to meet the change in our budget and the change in our environment.

Here we are in a situation where I'm taking students from KSU home, helping them by to not have to pay for Uber and anything else because I like I like hearing how our students are doing.

And I'm finding out that they're hurting, and it's not just them hurting, it's my neighbors that are hurting.

My neighbors are saying I don't have enough money.

And if I don't have enough money, how can I how can I sit here and justify a budget that's going up by 8%?

How can I how can I justify a budget that's going to 1.041 billion dollars when our people are hurting?

Why are we expanding by 41 positions when our people are hurting?

This is a time for us to be fiscally frugal.

It's not that we don't care.

Those may be positions that would be great to fill, but not when the people are hurting.

And we keep saying we want to increase the incomes uh for staff that are current, right?

Because cost of living.

But you need to look at all the community out there that's not even keeping up with the cost of living.

They're not getting those cost of living increases.

I'm seeing the working poor.

How can we justify going up by 8%?

These are not just my neighbors, these are your constituents that you signed on to take responsibility.

You have a fiduciary responsibility to ensure that our people are not harmed, and we're being harmed by good thoughts.

When when our budget goes to the point that the people are wondering whether they can even ride the bus, you know we've got problems.

They're my friends, and I have friends that work for the Braves that are working poor.

I know them.

They're my friends.

They don't send their children to private school.

They can't afford that.

But they can't afford a new car either.

Most of them are driving 10-year-old cars now.

And they're waiting because they have to be fiscally viable.

They can't go to the government and say, come on, pay for me.

If we have to be fiscally viable and responsible, say your time has run.

Thank you.

My name's Craig Hartfoot.

The um everybody's talking about that budget.

But last week I just saw two things observed.

Went to the town hall, three brand new or fairly new, all black police cruisers, SUVs, big cars, idling in the parking lot all during the meeting.

And they do this, you know, what's the gas bill on that?

I mean, and it was all to keep the computer in the car from overheating.

Now, I want to know if you want to save money, who in the world picked the black cars?

I mean, they should be reflective, they should be white on the tops, you know, and the computers, if they're gonna overheat in a black car and you're driving them out of the county, you know, think about that.

You're you're wasting this gas for that, and then plus the computer should be made to take out and carry when he goes in the building.

You don't need to keep all the cars running that are black.

I mean, this is like really bad judgment by whoever did this, you know.

And then I'm going down the road, and they're paving Lower Roswell right there by the library.

It's raining, they're laying asphalt on wet surface, it will fail.

I I sent you all text about that.

Only one responded, thank you.

But that means the road will fail sooner.

Now, who's look who's watching them?

Well, they they're running the splost.

Ever since DOT got embedded in the Cobb County program, and then you got these talking heads here that are on advisory boards saying, Oh, we need more sidewalks, we need this, we need that.

There is no accountability on your part.

You you all throw it back to the department head.

But when you use embedded contractors that are building these roads that they know better, like right now, they're getting ready to pave again tonight, and it says there may rain severely between 10 and 11.

If they don't get that down before that happens, that road's gonna crack and fail prematurely.

Now, that's bad budget.

That's what's wrong.

That's not up here, that's not showing, it's just bad decisions.

And you know, unless you're aware of them, what are you gonna do?

But you can't just blindly trust people, and and you know, I'm sure you don't you need some people that are aware and looking and can tell you what's for real.

And anyhow, just cut the budget and and where it matters.

My name's Patricia Hay, reluctant speaker.

Um, I just wanted to ask.

You say the county's growing, it seems like with all the annexing of the cities and the annexing of property, it seems like it's not growing, it's shrinking, and we're being double taxed because I'm not a proud resident of Mapleton, trust me, so we are being double taxed for everything, and we're gonna get more services we didn't want.

And you know, I just don't understand why you why the budget's growing.

I don't understand why it's always more and more and more.

And we can we can't give more and more.

That's all I've got to say.

Thanks.

We'll take our next speaker.

Are there any additional speakers before we close this hearing?

Okay, our public hearing is closed.

Check and see if any commissioners have any comments or questions for our CFO.

Okay.

Not hearing anybody.

Were you about to say something?

Did I hear your mic?

Okay.

Then that would take us to the fifth item that's part of this finance public hearings.

I move that we adopt the fiscal year 2027 budget as presented.

Second.

Is there any disc?

Sorry.

Oh, okay.

Is there any discussion?

Is there any discussion?

Uh before we um vote, I just want to offer a couple of remarks on the passage of our fiscal year 27 budget.

Uh, first, I want to express my deep appreciation of county staff.

Uh, balancing the sheer volume of priorities in a county like ours is no small feat, and there are a lot of wins in this budget.

Our staff works incredibly hard to serve this community efficiently, effectively, and responsibly.

So I want to thank all of you for the work that you have done.

But however, I have to be candid because our process does need to change.

Because of the way we currently handle the budget process, we're missing the mark on how we message.

We're not communicating those wins in a way that truly shows the public the hard work and responsibility our staff puts into this county.

Moving forward, I hope to see a fundamental shift where we have more open discussion and rigorous debate on the budget directly among the board.

We should be fully utilizing our work sessions and retreats to debate our priorities and should stop putting staff in awkward position to have to whip votes and whip support for individual commissioner priorities.

Having these debates openly would give our staff the proper platform.

They deserve to showcase the operational efficiencies they have gained, and I want to be clear.

It's not just about AI.

Our staff works hard to be an efficient and effective government every day, and I appreciate the work that they put into that.

We shouldn't be forced to just present this budget as spending legislation.

We should be able to present it as the responsible, efficient management tool that it is.

I also want to take a moment to thank the Cobb residents.

To everyone who sent an email, made a phone call, or took valuable time to show up here in support or opposition of the budget, I want to say thank you.

But I do want to remind you that your voice is incredibly important.

And if you don't see your exact sentiments reflected in the decisions that are made tonight, please do not think your feedback isn't valuable.

Privilege is just believing something is not important to you, meaning that it's not important to others.

And so I hope that everyone understands that we cannot take feedback by the actions that are taken, but by the spirit in which it was received.

And as someone mentioned earlier, the school board does not even receive that information.

We sit for hours and we hear exactly what you're saying.

And I can tell you from my seat, it does not fall on deaf ear.

However, um this budget, I believe, has done a good job of balancing and reflecting the diverse needs of Cobb County.

Now am I a hundred percent satisfied with everything that's in the budget?

No, not every single line item.

But I will continue to push for a better process because a better process improves our messaging, it supports our staff, and it will ultimately produce the best possible outcome for all of us.

The budget is a reflection of priorities, it is not just numbers and spreadsheets.

It is not just numbers in spreadsheets.

So with support of this budget tonight, hopefully we can continue to improve our process and continue continue to deliver on the services that we provide to every single Cobb County resident, whether it's appreciated by you individually or if it's appreciated by your neighbor, but it is appreciated.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Are there any other comments with respect to the budget?

Yes.

Yes, go ahead, Commissioner Burrell.

No, excuse me.

Okay, I didn't I look forward excuse me.

I I was at a commissioner conference where there's some gravitation to using electronic systems that can let you know when commissioners raise their hand.

So I don't have to look and see who wants to speak.

Typically a commissioner, at least in some board meetings will defer to the chair is acknowledgement before they go forward.

That's not a process that has been necessarily followed, but that's a that could help us with this.

So with that, there's a lot of deferral deferrence to you, Commissioner Gamble.

So we'll let you have your comments, then I'll just come down the dias to you.

Commissioner Burrell, then to you, Commissioner Sheffield.

Thank you.

And um to Buddy, again, yes, you did good do a good great job, and to all of staff, I do sympathize with them with the process.

And I agree with you, Commissioner Allen, that it needs to change.

Because like you, there are many things in the budget that I do support, but what I don't agree with is we have yet to address the overspending by some departments.

Because if we are truly having a balanced budget, when one department overspends, that means the money gets taken from another one.

So what what does that one department have to compromise?

What are they not able to achieve?

Because again, we know public safety is priority because again, they keep us off safe, they do things, they're there in our worst moment.

But our park staff also provides a service that gives us our greatest moments.

However, because of staffing, we don't have enough people, our park rangers to help keep the users safe.

So that is where I disagree with how we've prioritized our budget and agree with you that we need to be having more robust conversations.

We got into an interesting um legislative session where the legislators were talking about you know restricting the amount of taxes that a local government can collect.

It's a very interesting it's a very interesting concept, but it goes back to the question of the state also mandates us to deliver 15 services.

Of course, Cobb is delivering more than 15 services.

I think we're pretty much close to 70 now, buddy.

I know we were at 65, and I know this budget is once again expanding services, and interestingly enough, listening to the ARPA conversation this morning or this afternoon, part of the ARPA funding was to create programs that were not to be rolled forward into the general fund.

Yet here we are tonight rolling those into the general fund, once again expanding government.

So I would kind of challenge in these conversations that we're going to have is we know the state law requires us to do 15 services, but I would like to have a survey done by the citizens as far as what services you expect us to fund with your taxpayer dollars.

I'm also having a hard time with the some of the funding of the positions in here, specifically the sidewalk, and I know there's advocates out here that want more sidewalks, and I understand that, but we're putting a position.

But we're not funding it.

So why again, why put out that image that we're going to address your concerns?

We're going to fund the position, but there's no funding to make the changes.

Again, this is part of growing government that I cannot support.

And while I do support our step and raise, I do support our funding for our staff and their increases.

Outside of the meeting date where we approve a budget.

Thank you, Commissioner Gamble.

We'll hear from Commissioner Burrell.

Thank you.

Um and be more open and transparent and with the public.

When we first started the budget process, and buddy, thank you and your staff for all the many calls and emails and meetings that we had individually and collectively on this on the budget and our priorities.

But when it first started, we were asked to submit our priorities.

So that those are the only three on the original sheet that we all were unanimous on.

So you know, then there's we did have an increase in the digest, which is where this 8% increase comes from, but you have to look at the things that were that had to be sustained year after year from the last budget or the budget five years ago, which are um health care costs, pension, things like that.

So once you take all those out, we're left with very little.

So I do remember in 2016 when we rolled back the millage to match the increase in the digest.

Um I think Chairwoman Cupid was District 4 commissioner and I was here.

The rest of y'all weren't.

Um but we rolled back the millage to match the increase in the digest.

We didn't have to advertise as an increase because we were doing you know what state law requires.

And the following year we had a 32 million dollar shortfall in the budget, and that's what it left us with.

So we know we have to we have to sustain the things that reoccur year after year.

But what I don't what we don't have to do, or what we shouldn't do, is the departments that are over budget every year, year after year.

Why are we rewarding them by increasing their budgets the next year?

I know there's some that are elected officials as we are, but if we have to approve their budget, why can't we approve a number and let them figure out how they're going to disperse it or distribute it within their budget?

So that that's a problem I have with continually going over budget and rewarding them by increasing their budget year after year.

I mean, you've heard from a lot of these folks that are here tonight, but even ones that aren't here tonight, but that come meeting after meeting and town halls and are active in the community and give us their feedback of everybody's hurting with increases, inflation, cost of living, everything going up, um, prices going up, and we all have to live within our means and have a tight budget at home, and we need to do the same with taxpayers' money.

They're investing in this, and they want us to be um thrifty and frugal with their money, and I get that.

So there are things on here that I support that we all support, but there's too much that is not essential and not critical that we need to cut back on.

So I don't, I can't support this budget.

Thank you, Commissioner.

We'll hear from Commissioner Sheffield.

Thank you, Chair.

Um we go through this process, and it's not an easy process.

And you know, I I want to share that your comments are taken into consideration.

We hear you.

Um, but it we're in a very difficult position.

Cobb County, and it's been shared earlier, has one of the lowest uh tax rates within the Metro County, and as inflation increases, we still operate within a very tight budget.

We are committed to salaries, which obviously increases the budget and so on.

But our budget is more than a financial document, it is a statement of our priorities and our values, and it also reflects our commitment to serving the people of Cobb County responsibly and thoughtfully.

It demonstrates also how we intend to invest taxpayer dollars to maintain essential services, a lot of which you guys shared with us tonight, parks, public safety, the courts, etc., senior services.

Um those services also strengthen our communities and it prepares us for our future needs.

I want to thank county staff, buddy.

You've done a fantastic job.

I thank the staff for their investment for attending the town halls hosted by the chair and making yourselves available to answer the tough questions from our residents.

I also want to thank my fellow commissioners for the open lines of communication.

I do agree that the process should be revised, and I look forward to us working together to revise that process, but also within our collaboration and being frank and honest with one another with what we can support and what we don't support, but more importantly, respecting each other's decision and position as we go through the process, which isn't always easy, but we do that with grace.

Um I do believe that uh while no budget is perfect, there are always competing needs.

We meet with staff, we meet with staff, we meet with constitutional officers beginning in March.

People are wanting to meet with us because they want to get before us to talk about their needs, and there are a lot of them.

And obviously, uh, and unfortunately, there are more needs than there is money.

But I do believe that this budget represents a responsible balance between fiscal stewardship and investing in the services that our residents rely on every day.

And as we move forward, we all remain committed to ensuring that every dollar is spent wisely, transparently, and in ways that improve our quality of life for our residents.

Passing the budget is not the end of the process.

It marks the beginning of our responsibility to deliver on those commitments that we have made.

I appreciate everyone again who participated in the budget process and shared their perspectives.

Every commenting concern expressed by our residents was heard and thoughtfully considered, as I mentioned earlier.

As someone wisely said during our discussion, it takes courage to vote for what people want.

But I'm willing to submit that it takes even greater courage for us to vote on for what they need.

As commissioners, we have a responsibility to make difficult decisions that ensure the long-term operation, fiscal stability, and viability of Cobb County.

Those decisions are not always easy, but they are necessary to continue providing the services our residents depend on.

Looking ahead, I look forward to working with my colleagues to further strengthen the budget process and expanding opportunities for public outreach and engagement, including approaches similar to the chairwoman's town hall.

There are a lot of meaningful opportunities to share input before the budgets are adopted.

Again, I appreciate everyone's commitment to their communities, the advocates for our communities, and I appreciate your support as we get through this process.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Commissioner.

As I stand here, I also want to thank everyone who's been a part of this process.

I want to thank our commissioners for this deliberation.

It's clear that we are not all on the same side of every element of this budget, but we are certainly on the same side when it comes to treating each other with grace and fitting decorum for the seriousness of the work that we do.

And each one of us is here because we care about the good of this county, and I appreciate the conversation up here that reflects that.

I want to thank our county manager, our CFO, all of our staff for the many hours that have been put into this process, and not just in this process, but in serving the county.

Just as we are committed to serving that county as elected officials, our staff takes their service to heart and how they're able to serve our citizens, our visitors, our businesses.

And every year they come and put numbers and dollars on a page, not to exacerbate the problems of our citizens, but in trying to help solve the issues that come before them every day.

This board has moderated those requests down to the matters where we had most discretion to three and a half million for 70 million dollars of requests.

And then again, there are not frivolous requests.

Some of the things that we are addressing this evening in this budget were shared in the presentation and some of the comments by commissioners.

Yes, expanding the medical examiner's office was something that was considered with respect to the pandemic, but we also found that certain epidemiology testing was very important to see what was the root cause of death for many persons passing through that office so that there can be closure on cases.

To many people, this may seem to be frivolity and unnecessary expansion of the budget, but when it comes to someone's loved one who's sitting there on the table, this is the world to their loved ones.

And it reduces the stress for anyone who's had to go through probate and dealing with someone passing.

And no one ever wants any more time to have to get resolved and close out financial affairs when it comes to those who've passed away.

For those who ever have to be in our courtroom or before a judge or deal with calendar or issues of calendaring and the impact of cost, money, and sanity, that means the world to them.

This also expands our public our circuit defender office for those that cannot afford legal assistance so that we can make sure that they are properly given the help that they qualify for.

Our animal services position is not a panacea, and we recognize that.

Sometimes we're very intentional about doing things to at least take steps forward to know where we can go as we try to moderate the request of the public.

I shared in one town hall that this is not for lack of advocacy from our animal services director, who in just one line item to get more people to work in animal services, a request of over 20 positions that we did not fill.

I can go on and on about similar requests, public safety, police asking for double digit positions.

The list goes on and on again.

I said they're 35 million dollars of request.

You say you live in a great county with great services.

These employees and these leaders that provide their budget requests are committed to providing that for you.

Many of them have lived or worked here longer than many of us have lived here.

Some of them have lived here, but they all are committed to doing the unique things that create Cobb County a very special place to call home.

And I apologize because I'm passionate and as passionate as I am.

I'm hearing the woman that speaks as if we are lecturing them about concerns in their wallet.

I want to share with you candidly, none of our families, none of us up here are immune to the financial challenges going on.

As I lead, I can attest to the challenges and sacrifices my family and other families have to make with respect to this.

And one thing I found after serving in this county for 14 going on 15 years, not taking care of your needs today, make them more expensive needs to take care of tomorrow.

Also, shirking the things that you know you should be responsible for today only creates bigger problems for tomorrow.

So when we, as Commissioner Burrell said, when we rolled back the millage, as many asked for us to do that one year, we came back the next year and had to increase the mills to almost two mills.

So we can take care of a problem today, but a pro the solution today might become a greater problem tomorrow.

I'm not saying that anything that we're doing or anything I'm saying should make the best of sense to you.

All I know is our staff is trying, we're trying to do, we are succeeding in doing the best that we can with the information provided for us, as we have done year after year.

But I'm committed to ensuring we have more public dialogue with respect to the crafting of our budget next year, and any commissioner is invited to be a part of that, and I've asked for staff to ensure that our public can continue to be a part of that.

County budgeting is not easy, but we do want to make it easier for people to comprehend how we're spending your dollars, our dollars to make this county the best place that it could be so you can have the quality of life that you expect for this county, and our staff can continue to provide the level of service that you also expect and in some cases demand of them as well.

So, with that, commissioners, with that CFO, it is my desire again that we move forward the budget that has been presented here today for fiscal year 27.

We have had a motion and a second.

If there's not any more discussion or questions, I'll call the question.

The budget carries three, two with Commissioners Burl and Gambrill and Opposition.

Thank you.

Thank you all.

And if I may, just real briefly, thank you all for your deliberation, uh, your time throughout the last couple of months, your conversations that we've had.

Uh, County Manager, thank you for your guidance and your time through this process as well.

Uh County Staff, I appreciate all their input and all their efforts in this budget process, but uh certainly I want to thank the finance staff, the budget division who put in a lot of work in this process, but also all finance staff and leadership who kind of keep things going while I'm getting pulled away to everything, so I appreciate them very much.

Uh so thank you all again.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

For all of you who've joined us here today for a part of this process again, thank you.

Thank you for sharing your um comments and questions and concerns.

We will take a recess for ten minutes as there are some documents that need to be signed following this hearing.

That'll also give some people probably a very necessary bio break before we continue the rest of this meeting.

Please note there was a gentleman that spoke up.

I think if you did not sign up for public comment, because I'm not sure I don't recall them coming up and speaking during the budget hearing.

But if there are slots available for public comment, please feel free to sign up then, and you will be given three minutes to address the board with respect to that matter.

Again, we'll go ahead and we'll take a recess for ten minutes.

Thank you.

All righty.

Welcome back to our Cobb County Board of Commissioners meeting this July twenty-eighth, two thousand and twenty-six.

And we are now at our first public comment.

I will turn things over to our county attorney, Debbie Bleer, who will help walk us through this next portion of our meeting.

As the board provides the podium for public comment, it's appropriate to review the related meeting rules.

Please state your name and if you are speaking on behalf of an organization.

All comments should be made to the commission as a body and addressed through the chair.

Public comment is not a dialogue with the board, but an opportunity for speakers to provide their comments to the board.

Comments should not be slanderous.

The board encourages, regardless of the topic, for the audience to be respectful and courteous to all speakers.

Everyone attending this meeting should give others the right to both listen and be heard by treating each other with civility.

Statements made during the public comments portion do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the board or the administration of Cobb government.

And a timer is on the podium for you to track your three minutes.

The first speaker is Lisa Taylor.

My name is Lisa Taylor.

I'm here again.

I was here last month, and I'm actually thinking about the same house that I spoke about.

I'm here to talk about the lack of tools that the code enforcement department has to enforce single family zoning in our neighborhood.

Two years ago, um the head of the household came before the commission and asked for a love to be approved, and with the stipulation that they had too many people living in the house and one of them had to go.

That person is it's 22 months now, and the person is still in the house.

A year ago, it was called in a code enforcement, and the person, the homeowner living in the house, called and said, Yeah, that person is still here.

So after I spoke last month, um co-checked again, and uh the homeowner called or the grandson of the homeowner called back and said, Oh, yeah, he's still here, hadn't changed, nothing has changed.

And for some reason I don't understand.

Even though I said they did not have too many cars there, code enforcement decided to send an officer out there for two weeks in a row every morning to count the number of cars, and of course they didn't have too many cars.

And so at the end of that, they said, Well, there's no violation here, even though the homeowner said this person is still in this house.

And so code enforcement closed the case, and nothing has been done.

So I don't know if it's because he didn't fill out an occupancy statement, even though it's stated right there on your report on the very last page.

He's still in the house.

That's what the homeowner said.

Nothing is done, nothing has been done.

And if it gets called in again, there's no need to go count cars again because they don't have too many cars.

Code enforcement needs more tools in their toolbox to handle stuff like this.

And talk about wasting budget money.

That code enforcement officer going out there for 10 days in a row was not cheap, and for no reason whatsoever.

And it's one of seven or eight houses we have that we have problems with.

Um I'm I know that you're working on it, Commissioner Burrell.

I know that you're working on it, but I've I made a promise to come back here every time that I'm physically able to do so and bring up another case because maybe other people out here will see that maybe they're struggling too, and they don't know they're the only one.

Your time has run, Ms.

Taylor.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Gary Henderson.

Good evening.

My name is Gary Henderson, and I live in District 3.

Uh, I know that you're going to be looking at microtransit a month from now.

And I'd like to say four things about the proposed expansion of microtransit.

First, I'll say that less than two years ago, the voters soundly rejected the extension and expansion of transit, ignoring the will of the voters in this regard should not be within your purview.

So please don't do it.

Second, the cost per ride averaging $55 each is not sustainable.

I know the county only pays part of this bill now, but many of us also pay state and federal taxes, which is the money that funds the grants.

So we're subsidizing it one way or another, or all three ways, actually.

And it's the money is being used to subsidize the benefit of a few people and not the entire citizenship of Cobb County.

Third, uh we say microtransit is a success success based on increased ridership, but again, it's not benefiting everybody.

One of my neighbors recently passed out while driving on Roswell Road, across the median and was involved in a head-on collision with a box truck.

Everybody survived that collision, including him, and the doctors seem to think he probably had a heart attack.

So he's not able to drive for at least six months until he gets cleared of making sure that he may not have another one of these events.

He attempted twice to use the county ride service for those in medical need, each time they left him standing at the curb without a ride to his doctor.

When he called to inquire what happened, he was told that there was a shortage of drivers that morning and he would not be getting a ride that day.

So in his purview, that service is an abject failure.

And I guess I have to agree with him.

He got nothing out of it.

Fourth, I know the temptation to go after and use grant money is too great for many in local government to ignore.

Therefore, I expect you'll probably go ahead and vote for this anyway.

If you do, I ask you that you consider increasing the ride cost to five dollars to determine elasticity of demand.

If you do that, um you have to consider no one's going to walk to a bus if they can get picked up in front of their house for the same price.

So five dollars is not too much to ask, but determining whether the demand is really price driven or not, the elasticity is elasticity is important.

If you raise the price and demand stays the same, then chances are you may have a you may have a real need that needs to be addressed.

However, if you raise the price and demand goes down, that tells you that a lot of your people were just taking advantage of cheap rides.

But if you don't raise the price, the only data you get by increasing microtransit is you get more riders.

That doesn't tell you anything about the utility of the service.

Sir, your time has run.

Next speaker is Monica DeLancey.

Good evening, Monica DeLancey, um, District 4.

We thrive on Riverside Rental Association.

First, I would like to commend all of the organizations that hosted multiple back to school events last weekend.

Um, thank you for Commissioner Sheffield for coming out to Power Springs um community task force event.

I want to commend um Australia Community Task Force, Hope Outreach Center, as well as the Impact Group, Cobb County Sheriff Department.

Um that was last weekend.

Also, um, I think that was it.

If I miss any, but it's gonna be more this weekend.

But thankfully, um, no student had all students have a chance to go get a book bag.

So um if you have not seen the list, share the list.

Um make sure nobody starts school next Monday.

I'm the Cobb County School District, August the 3rd, without paper PM councils.

I'm also want to um congratulate um Cobb Works.

I just saw that Lucy McBath Commission Congresswoman Lucy MacBath, um awarded um was able to facilitate another grant for Carl Worth that would focus on trades.

But I do want to address another program that Kyle Works has, which is the Baltz program.

Apparently, the Baltz program is the program that's um supposed to help um youth ages 16 to 24 years of age to be a part of the internship program for six weeks.

And the issue that's going on is there are multiple agents that received a contract to serve students to be a part of the program, but for some reason these agents that already been told that they can you know offer their service, they can't place anyone.

So the question is why is these organizations being afforded the opportunity to be a part of the boss program, but they can't place anyone.

So you have youth between the ages of 16 and 24 that have completed the applications, completed the training, and then the only feedback that's given back is well, we just can't place them.

So I think that what needs to happen is you gotta just maybe shift that organization and say, Well, you shouldn't be a part of the program, you can't place youth, all right.

And also I want to just let people let everyone know that this week, um the Cobb County police department will um recognize National Night Out against Crime on July 30th.

Um National Against Crime Event at Jill Miller Park, um that will they give out um book baths as well.

On Sunday, Riverside Community Observed National Night Out will be in the Marathon Plaza right by the um Premier Lane Riverside Parkway as we're encouraged pedestrian safety.

Uh um we'll be there giving out ice cream, cold treats, and then next Tuesday, the City of Austell will observe National Night Against Crime.

The line of defense for crime is for to the to fight crime, it's for neighbors to know each other, neighbors to share and connect with each other.

That is the first line of defense to fight crime.

Thank you very much.

Monica DeLancey.

The next speaker is Perry Barnett Barrett, excuse me.

Uh hi, my name is Perry Barrett.

Um, I wanted to speak on the autonomous shuttle vehicle private program.

Um I find it very disappointing that through the Cumberland CID and an apparent federal grant that we're replacing a bus line to test an autonomous vehicle shuttle.

Um pushing these shuttles is concerning to me for one, uh for the sake of job security for our bus drivers.

Um they are the connective lifelines for our working class in Cobb County.

And uh they recently held a week-long rally at the Marietta Transfer Center a few months ago to draw attention to safety issues and their need for better working conditions.

Um to follow that sentiment with the erasing of a route and possibly potential loss of uh uh a few driver jobs.

Uh that bothers me greatly.

Uh, these are union jobs.

Um, and unless these buses and these drivers are diverted to add new lines and increase line frequency, uh, this is a waste of transit funding, in my opinion.

Um, furthermore, in comparison to uh current bus and rail capacities, uh, these shuttles are a joke.

Um, depending on the shuttle max capacity can only carry about 20 people while buses can carry up to 60 people and articulated buses carry up to 120 um for speed, they max out at uh 25 miles per hour while our buses can match highway speeds.

Um and it pains me to see uh funding be drawn away, drawn away from actual meaningful uh transit options.

Uh these shuttles are nothing more than uh shiny toy and a gimmick that do nothing to take cars off the road.

Um we should be directing funding towards proven traffic relieving methods.

Uh we should be increasing bus routes, stop frequency, uh adding dedicated bike lanes to rail, whatever form that takes.

Um and you know, we heard a lot tonight about uh budget and tax burden concerns.

Um, but we're if we're getting something tangible that actually helps with reducing costs, you know.

If I could replace reliance on my car uh with reliable and affordable public transit, that would be um such a help to the working class uh in this county.

Um that is all I have for my time.

Thank you very much.

The next speaker is Lance Lamberton.

Good evening.

My name is Lance Lamberton, and I've lived in Austell for 26 years, 25 years, I'm sorry.

Um the concern that has brought me before you tonight is the issue of expanding microtransit and Cobb.

For those of you on the board in favor of such an expansion, you seem to be tone-deaf when it comes to the voters in this county, who you may recall voted down by a nearly two to one margin only a year and a half ago, a referendum that would have expanded public transit with a sales tax increase of more than 11 billion dollars over 30 years.

Contained within that referendum was an expansion of microtransit countywide.

Now, given its defeat, and that microtransit expansion was part of that referendum, I think it is fair to say that the voters rejected expansion and even the very existence of microtransit.

So now you are attempting an end run around the voters, and quite frankly, you should be ashamed of yourselves.

Which brings me to the issues of affordability and taxation.

Affordability is the current buzzword in politics today, and people from all ends of all ends of the political spectrum are calling for implementation of policies that they think will make life more affordable.

I am no exception to that.

In Cobb County, the mill rate has not gone down since Tim Lee was the chairman, and in fact has gone up a great deal since then.

And even by keeping the military constant, we all know that means a tax increase year after year.

And why has it gone up?

Well, inflation is a factor, but also spending money on really dumb programs also plays a role.

And microtransit is a really has really dumb written all over it.

You know, when I think of programs like microtransit, I ask myself, what is the modus operandi behind them?

And is ubrus, plain and simple.

You all think you know better how to spend our money than we do.

The problem is that to do is that to do so you need to raise taxes on the many to benefit the few.

What I would call special interest constituencies is forced wealth distribution, and when you all impose a $37 charge on the rest of us for one trip on a microtransit minivan, not only is that an obscenely wasteful expenditure of tax dollars, but amounts to larceny, which the dictionary defines as taking personal property with intent to deprive the rightful owner of it permanently.

And I'm here to say today, tonight, cut it out.

Instead of spending money on microtransit and DEI programs, use that money to at least give us a smidgen of tax related.

Your time has run.

When it comes to our next speaker is Matt Stagal, hello, chairwoman, commissioners.

Um I'm here to speak today.

Oh, I'm Matt Seagal, live in District One.

Um, I also want to disclose I do serve on the transit advisory board.

And um I'm here to really talk about two things.

Uh, really just in general, the how the county moves forward when it comes to public transit.

And I know that um a lot of people want to use the MSWAST uh results as a signal that voters don't want public transit or anything like that, but I do want to appreciate the county for instead of going for the grand slam that the IMS PLOS was, we are now going for singles and doubles and um and really testing things out.

And when it comes to things like the autonomous shuttle or microtransit, um, even though they're not my favorite modes of transit, I do appreciate that the county is trying to find new innovative ways to um help people move around the county.

Um with regards to the autonomous shuttle in Cumberland, I do have concerns in um which interests are being served here.

Um I do think that these are kind of um like the current solution is kind of corporate focused and not really focused on the people who either live within Cumberland or are looking to get around for Braves games.

And um, I'm just speaking, I used to live in Cumberland for about six years, um, golly, about a decade ago now, but I never knew that the circulators existed, the free circulators, until I really got into being a public transit nerd or geek or whatever you want to call it.

I didn't know that they existed.

And so I feel like if we're going to try new innovative transit solutions and transportation solutions, we need to set them up for success.

And as I look at some of the other transit options in the county and how we do some of the services, I don't think that they're truly set up for success or growth.

And um, and if we really do want to achieve goals such as taking cars off the roads, giving people the mobility that they need and deserve, um, I really do think that we need to from day one set these programs up with a strategy of success.

Um, so that's that's related to the autonomous shuttles, taking a step back to the microtransit.

I've written the microtransit personally myself multiple times.

It's been very successful.

Uh, it provides door-to-door transportation within the zone.

I look at the expansion in North Cobb as a huge opportunity for KSU students, uh, people who both live and work in the zone, as well as uh people who want to connect to the more regional transit network to uh to help solve that last mile problem from the bus stop to their uh to their house.

So when I look at both the South Cobb expansion and the new North Cobb zone, I see it as giving people more uh more people more access to whether it be their jobs, their health care, their groceries, their errands, and if anything, I would just suggest right now that the proposed hours of Monday through Friday, 7 a.m.

to 7 p.m.

Um that's really only catered to the the weekday work class, and I really think they need to be expanded to uh to at least the weekend and later uh later hours at night.

Thank you and have a great night.

The next speaker is Denny Wilson.

Um I've come to the conclusion that government just have too much power.

And government is supposed to be for the people by the people.

I mean, when people elect you to sit in those seats, they elect you to have the best interests of the constituents at heart.

And it's not only Cobb, it's not only Cobb County, it's all over Georgia, it's all over the country.

I mean, it's where government just have gotten to the point to where they don't listen to the people anymore.

And we have to find a way to get your attention to make you listen because it's our lifestyle and our quality of life that you govern.

I mean, it's in the palm of your hand.

Um let's take the city of Mapleton, for instance.

I sat here last year, and we went through the stormwater fee hearings, and I said here when you voted this year, uh, yeah, to implement the stormwater fee.

Um, we were told as citizens of Mapleton that they were adopting the code enforcement codes from Cobb County, and that nothing would change.

Well, that's not true because I sat here and listened to you tell me that my driveway was an impervious surface.

Now Mapleton is saying that nobody can put down gravel anymore.

The people everybody with a gravel driveway has to put in a concrete driveway, 11 to 15,000 per home, and some of them even more.

They're saying that you said we could use gravel.

Mapleton is saying you can.

And for every day that that gravel is there past the uh violation that they give you, it's a thousand dollars a day.

And if you don't get it fixed within the time span that they think you have, and the violation is still there, and you go to court and you pay a fine and they gotta come back, then it's two days in jail.

I mean, this is what their code enforcement is telling the citizens of Mapleton.

And um, I think we need to sit with Cobb County's code enforcement, and because they're saying that it's in your codes as well, that you have to put in a concrete driveway.

Um, there are so many homes in Mapleton, uh occupied by seniors who don't have 11 to 15,000 dollars to put down a concrete driveway.

Um I've got the county, the city manager Bill Tanks.

Uh I talked to him yesterday, and he's looking at it.

Ms.

Wilson, your time has run.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Jonathan Jewell.

Jonathan Jewell, uh, I'm a Cobb County homeowner and a proud U.S.

Navy veteran.

Thank you all tonight.

Uh I'm here because I need your help.

Um, since 2023, the same Cobb County Waterman has failed three separate times in front of my home.

Three times hundreds of thousands of gallons of water have been discharged directly onto my property at my home and beneath my home's foundation, and it's devastating.

That water has washed away the supporting soil underneath my home.

Today I have three major structural beams beneath my home that have split.

My foundation supports have lost all the soil that they were designed to stand on.

My floors are cracking, my walls are cracking, and the county's put a band-aid on the water main uh as a fix three times, but no one has repaired my home.

And because it wasn't an act of God, rather an act of the uh the county's failure in the line, my homeowner's insurance won't pay for the damage.

I've documented everything with photos, videos, engineering reports, been on channel two.

I've I've sent this all to the county, yet I'm still living with the damage, and it most recently happened just another couple of weeks ago.

This isn't an isolated incident.

I've reviewed court records from other uh homeowners' property that uh one case in particular that took years to resolve.

I don't want that to be my story, and I don't want Cobb County taxpayers in this room spending years paying attorneys when this could be resolved through leadership today.

The county has responded to me citing sovereign immunity, which is an awful excuse to avoid responsibility.

I'm not here tonight to argue legal doctrines.

I'm here asking for leadership and to do the right thing.

I'm asking for this board to bring together the attorneys, the risk management, the infrastructure um contractors to come to a resolution so that another family doesn't have to deal with what I have.

Before I leave, I want each of you to picture your own home.

Imagine hundreds of thousands of gallons of water washing the ground out from beneath you and your foundation becoming a failure, and it's because of the county's water system three times, not just once.

That's not sovereign immunity, three times it's known, it's documented.

Imagine your floors thinking your walls cracking in your home every day and not knowing if it'll fall down, the biggest investment that you own and that you work hard for.

Then imagine being told that no one can help you because of sovereign immunity as an excuse, even after the same county water main has failed again three times in separate times in the same location.

If this happened to me three times, it can happen to anyone else here, and I'm asking you to do what's right.

Please help me save my home and repair my home.

If I was ever elected to one of these seats here that you are privileged enough to sit in, it's stories like mine and the passion I've heard from everyone here tonight that I would actually listen to them and I would run on those stories and I would fight for the people on those stories and I'd win.

That's what I want from you.

Please show us that we made the right choice by putting you in office.

Thank you.

The next speaker is John Gargas.

Good evening again, Commissioners John Gargas.

Uh I'm here to talk about microtransit, and I've given Coblink Go a spin, or a go, as it were.

And on my return trip, spoke to our van driver who shared in no uncertain terms that many of our riders rely on the service to get to work, get to doctor's appointments, and many other duties that we who own cars take for granted.

Now, narratives aren't data, but here's a data point.

This morning I priced an Uber ride from a cob apartment complex to our restaurant a 10-minute drive away to simulate what someone who might have such a job would have to pay to get to and from work.

For that one-way trip, the cheapest rate was $15.

Double that to pay to go to and from work would be $30.

That's more than four hours of work, even before taxes to someone at minimum wage, more than half a day's wages.

Hopefully, they're making more than minimum wage, but just an example.

And that's before utilities, food, rent.

And as we heard tonight, renters and homeowners are cost burdened.

I don't disagree with that.

I'm a renter.

My rent is high as well.

Now I was fortunate that my parents provided me my own vehicle so I could drive to my first job before I even became an adult.

I won't publicly admit when that was.

Most sporting events do not end at 7 p.m.

Given that this is a weekday service, 7 a.m.

to 7 p.m.

I don't know how many sports fans of, let's say baseball, go braves.

How to get that in.

Are going that early to the sports bar for that 7.15 or later first pitch?

Has anyone even looked at the prices on the sports bar beer menu lately?

Meanwhile, there's a need for people to get from point A to point B and from B back to A.

Is this microtransit program perfect?

Probably not.

But it's a start and a lifesaver, perhaps literally, to some residents in our county.

And we need to look at not only maintaining but expanding this crucial program to others in the county.

Thank you.

The last speaker for this section is Hugh Norris.

Okay.

I know he spoke during the hearing.

I don't think he is still here.

Did you want to call one from the next section?

Yes, please.

The next speaker would be Michelle Helgith.

Excuse me.

Helga.

Sanjay Rain.

Wow.

Hello, everyone.

Sorry for the confusion earlier.

Okay.

Um, my name is Sanjay Rane.

Uh I am Cobb County resident and taxpayer living in the county from last 25 years.

And I wish to live more 25 years in the county.

We have small small business established in the county.

Our company provides IT services.

We have been trying to do business with the Cobb County government, mainly by finding small project some task order or subcontracting opportunities.

But it is getting difficult for us to be in the contract because mainly IT contracts are big and big big as well as they're high in cost and small businesses like us.

It's difficult to compete with the bigger businesses.

So I feel that there should be some sort of a set aside goal for small local businesses to get some portion of the bigger contract so we can have kind of a way to get the business from the county.

In fact, our neighboring counties such as DeCab, Clayton County, Citroan Lana, they have a set aside goal for small businesses, but we don't have in the COB.

Uh and I request uh county to consider this particular uh uh set aside portion for a small small businesses so we can stay in the business in the county.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And I believe our procurement director is in the back of the room, and he can talk to you more about our goals in procurement that include such a provision.

Okay, that conclude our public comment for the first part.

Thank you.

Appreciate those for your patience who waited for our first public comment following our finance public hearings.

That now takes us to the consent agenda portion of this meeting.

The matters on the consent agenda scrolled on the screen prior to the meeting, and we'll scroll on the screen following the meeting.

Commissioners bear with me.

I'm just reviewing what I have here for consent.

With our clerk, I'm not seeing any modifications to the consent agenda.

All right.

So with that, commissioners, I move that we approve the consent agenda and authorize execution of the necessary documents by the appropriate county personnel.

Second.

Is there any further discussion?

Call the question.

The motion carries five zero.

We are now at the regular tab for this meeting, and the first department that we will hear from is transportation.

Good evening, chairwoman commissioners, county manager.

The department has four items for your consideration this evening on the regular tab.

Our first item is to recommend the board of commissioners approve a memorandum of understanding with the Georgia Transportation Efficiency Authority for Implation of the Next Gen Next Generation Automated Fair Collection System for the Coblank Transit Bus Fleet effective through June 30th, 2031 and authorize the chairman to execute the necessary documents.

So moved.

Second.

Is there any further discussion?

Call the question.

The motion carries five zero.

Thank you.

Our next item is recommend the board of commissioners approve project number B 2310, Task Order number one to the 2025 master task order contract with barge design solutions incorporated in amount not to exceed 30,000 dollars for construction design services of South Gordon Road at Pisca Road, authorizing a corresponding budget transaction and further authorize the chairman to execute the necessary documents.

Commissioner Sheffield so moved second.

Is there any discussion?

We'll call the question.

The motion carries five zero.

Thank you.

Our next items to recommend the Board of Commissioners approve a Cobb Framework Agreement with the Cumberland Community Improvement District for the Cumberland Autonomous Vehicle Circulator Pilot Project.

Authorize a corresponding budget transactions and further authorize the chairman to execute the necessary documents.

Commissioner Allen.

So moved.

Second.

Is there any further discussion?

I just want to address one comment that was shared.

How is this impacting funding for fixed routes?

Is providing this service removing funding from a fixed route?

Yeah, it it does not.

So that this funding is entirely from the Cumberland CID and the Luna grant that was awarded by FCA.

And it is a pilot project that will provide capacity in the same areas as the circulator.

So long term we've looked at what that might need to look like and how those services can complement one another rather than compete against each other.

But uh this program itself is is just a pilot program uh that would provide a proof of concept for the autonomous shuttle in the Cumberland area.

Thank you for clarifying.

Are there any other questions?

Call the question.

The motion carries 4-1 with Commissioner Gambrill and opposition.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And our final item this evening is to recommend the Board of Commissioners approve for indemnification and hold harmless agreements with the Georgia Department of Transportation required to obtain encroachment permits for damaged traffic signal pole replacement project number B 2593 and authorize the chairman to execute the necessary documents.

Commissioner Gambrell.

So moved.

Second.

Is there any further discussion?

Call the question.

The motion carries.

That's my vote.

It's getting like carries by a zero.

Thank you.

That now takes us to our second public comment because Drew, you had the only regular agenda on our regular agenda tab.

So we'll go to our speakers.

The the next speaker is Joel Beaker.

Okay.

Good evening.

Hello, board.

Uh, my name is Joel Becker.

And today I wanted to talk about something a little different.

I wanted to talk about Flock cameras.

Now, at your um town hall, Ms.

Chairwoman, you spoke about how they magically reduced crime by 50%.

I couldn't find a single statistic to back that up.

Even Flock puts the number at 10%.

Um, and I couldn't find anything to back that number up either.

Um, so I'm gonna assume that number is zero.

If you have any uh contradicting studies, I will be very interested to see them.

You also spoke about how there hadn't been any abuse in Cobb County, though there has been nationwide.

However, if we know that there's a risk, we should patch it up before abuse happens, not after.

It's the same reason we take vaccines.

We know that there's a risk, so we should take the vaccine before something happens.

Um you also spoke about how we could have audits on Flock.

But I'm gonna tell you some stuff about the business practices of Flock.

Flock claims that their employees can't access public cameras.

However, it's happened over a thousand times, and they claim that they have their audits for this, and they claim that they hold their employees accountable, yet they don't because this happened over a thousand times, including, I believe, 24 times the stock romantic partners, and even one time with the vice president of the company who wasn't fired.

And you know where he was looking into a children's gymnasium.

Why do we even have cameras there?

Let alone why are people looking through them?

Um, another risk about these flock cameras, which for the record you supported, all of you, around a month ago, um, is they are very hackable.

As stated by the National Vulnerability Database, they are a critical risk, which is run by the DHS.

So that means not only can corporate creeps spy on us, not only can officers spy on us, but the average kid with a computer down the road can too.

Um, and you also spoke about how we could get them to agree to terms.

However, their statistics that they provide are inaccurate.

They claim they've never been hacked, they have lied time and time again.

So I see no reason why they wouldn't lie in whatever terms you make them agree to this time.

At the end of the day, we don't want this spyware in our community.

We want our Fourth Amendment right to be respected, and we do not want this thing and these cameras here.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Um I believe we have representation from our public safety at the back of the room that can talk to you about some of the points that you made as I think you questioned some of the data points.

I'm sorry, the the next speaker is Craig Harfoot, okay.

Good evening, my name's Craig Harfoot.

Um the gentleman in the yellow that spoke about microtransit made great points.

What and um the people that always tout transportation like Matt and um his friend if they I don't know what he does, but he should start his own private small bus company like they have on Buford Highway, if and and prove to us that is viable.

You know, I mean he's always talking about spending our money, but if he thinks it's a great idea and there's a need, it'd be a good business for him.

But the fact is these things should be private.

If they make money, it means there's people that need and use it, and if they don't make money, we don't need them.

And the um the Greta, you know, when I was running against Sam in 2005, he was like, oh, gret of this, credit of that.

And you know, and they did it.

It was a chamber of commerce in Gwinnett and here.

They actually gave the tickets away to get people on the bus.

It was so bad.

And you know, I saw they they go to right there by the varsity, and uh, you know, it was just a business thing.

Then COVID came, then they didn't need them at all because everyone worked from home.

The world changes so fast, and government is really slow, and when you build infrastructure, you're gonna lose us money.

And I mean, it's like small businesses can adapt and change, and and they do.

It's their job, not government.

And umerland.

Oh, jeez.

When is everybody gonna get realize that the Brave Stadium, the Chamber of Commerce, the Boy Scouts all sits on Rockefeller Trust land, and they're pretty much running the Cumberland CID, and you know, they also piece of their part of Southern Company.

I mean really big money drives all of this stuff, and you know, the houses used for comps, the ones that sell for millions and millions.

It's the baseball players from the Braves that have all that money, and they create this comp.

Oh, they just paid blah blah for this house.

I mean, Chipper Jones lived in the most expensive subdivision right across the street from me, St.

Leone at the time, and they were like 800,000.

Now they're valued over two million.

So I mean, it's like you gotta watch what we're actually doing.

There's consequences for everything.

We we subsidize the Braves, but there's no stormwater tax on them.

You you put the stormwater tax on all residences, and you get about $57 a year.

You took that out of all the residential uses pocket that they don't have to spend anymore.

The 475 times 12.

So Mr.

Harfoot, your time has run.

Thank you.

And the last speaker this evening is uh Susie Clark.

Yes, I'm Susie or Susan Clark.

Um, I just wanted to next uh month, you're gonna be voting on something to do with these flat cameras.

I might not be in the same ballpark as the man who spoke to you earlier today, but I do see that I do understand there's possibly a good use for them and cutting some crime down and for just different issues.

Um to my attention there's one right down the street from me where I walk my dog every day, and I um drive past it every day.

And um, I'm like, what is it recording and um come to find out that I believe the flock uh manufacturer or whatever who owns those cameras, or I guess you own it or we own it as taxpayers, but um sorry running out of time.

But anyways, evidently they own the permanent right to all the data that they is collected, and um maybe it needs to be in the contract that they don't own it, that you own it, uh, that it can't be used for nefarious purposes throughout only within Cobb County.

And I do know that it has been used for nefarious purposes, that police have been able to get into it and find out information on somebody they like or don't like.

So if we could get that contract nailed down so that there is no purposes other than what you want it for, um, I would really appreciate it.

Um, I want to thank you for uh voting on your moratorium for the daily centers.

So we don't know everything that's gonna be affected by the data centers, just like cancerous stuff in Roundup.

We didn't know for years and years.

And so until we find out more what the data center, the higher meant can do to us and the environment.

It's wonderful that you put that moratorium on.

But again, if you could you know, search out the these flat flock and other cameras that are in use just to make sure they're locked down that people are the police and all uh are being audited that they're not just getting on uh the service or however it's accessed and being used it being used for willy-nilly.

Thank you so much and have a good night.

I believe that concludes our second public comment, and that takes us to appointments, and bear with me if I look for that page on the agenda.

Okay, all righty.

We have two appointments, and the first one is to um uh I move that we reappoint Avril Morgus to the Family and Children's Services Board.

Second.

Is there any discussion?

Call the question.

The motion carries 5-0, and Commissioner Gamble has the next appointment.

I'd like to announce the appointment of Jim Poole to the Historic Preservation Commission, and would like to also thank Abby Parks for her service during these past years.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That now takes us to the commissioner's public address, and we will begin with Gambrill once her slides are on the screen.

Join the discussion on a proposed daycare center, a public meeting for zoning case OB 13 of 2026 has been scheduled for Tuesday, August 4th at 6 p.m.

at the West Cobb Regional Library.

The meeting will provide an opportunity for the developer and community members to discuss the proposed daycare center, traffic concerns, and other issues related to the zoning application.

West Cobb Regional Library is located at 1750 Dennis Camp Lane, Northwest in Kennesaw.

Lastly, white out a community basics drive.

You can donate new underwear, socks, and under shirts to benefit must ministries from now through Saturday, August 8th, in recognition of National Underwear Day.

Donation boxes will be available throughout Cobb County.

Help us wide out the need for for providing the basics, restoring dignity, and strengthening our community.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That now takes us to Commissioner Allen.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Uh, just to remind everyone that we'll be having a town hall August 6th at the Schweitzer Library in Marietta.

This will be from 6:30 to 7:30.

Uh, so please come out.

Make sure that you do register.

There's limited um capacity, so we'll make sure that we are able to uh to accommodate those that want to attend.

Uh so you can scan the QR code or go to uh our newsletter and register for the town hall.

Also, tomorrow there's a screen on the green, we'll be um at the Fair Oaks Recreation Center.

The movie hoppers uh will be on.

So as we end the summer, make sure you bring uh your little ones out, the scholars out to enjoy a last night of summer, and hopefully the weather will cooperate.

And lastly, um, to all of those that are going back to school, want to wish you a very happy school year uh for our educators and administrators.

I pray you much success this year as well and look forward to a successful year.

Thank you.

That now takes us to Commissioner Burrow.

Come out Thursday night from 6 to 9 p.m.

This is always a great event.

You get to see all the different divisions and departments of public safety.

The canine unit will be there.

And it'll be hot.

Um, also on August 7th, we recognize Purple Heart Day, a time to honor the brave men and women of our armed forces who were wounded or made the ultimate sacrifice while serving our nation.

The purple Purple Heart is one of our country's oldest and most revered military decorations, symbolizing extraordinary courage, sacrifice, and dedication to protecting our freedoms.

As we reflect on the service of these heroes, we also remember the families whose strength and support have been an essential part of their journey.

Please join me in expressing our deepest gratitude to all Purple Heart recipients and their families.

Their service, sacrifice, and unwavering commitment to our nation will never be forgotten.

And our entrepreneurship grant uncovered.

Coffee and conversations is August eighteenth from 730 a.m.

to nine at the Cobb Civic Center.

Come out.

Um learn how to start up a business and see how you can apply for one of the economic development grants.

Again, seven thirty to nine, August eighteenth at the Cobb Civic Center.

That's all.

Okay.

Thank you.

That's all three minutes.

That's my three minutes.

I don't know, a little more dramatically.

But we will go to Commissioner Sheffield.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

District 4 news and updates.

Your voice matters.

Join the virtual public meeting tomorrow, July 29th from 530 to 630 to learn more about the proposed expansion of the Cobb Link Go Microtransit Program in South Cobb.

Community members are encouraged to participate, ask questions, and share feedback.

To access the virtual meeting link, visit Cobb County.gov.

Seniors who want to stay strong, active, and independent are encouraged to join Well Star's free osteoporosis strength training class.

Learn safe, effective exercises designed to improve bone strength, enhance balance and posture, and reduce the risk of falls while supporting your overall health and mobility.

The event is scheduled for August twelfth from twelve to one at C.

Freeman Pool Senior Center, located at four zero two five South Hurt Road in Smyrna.

Registration is required and space is limited.

Visit CobbCounty.gov and click on the Senior Services tab to reserve your spot.

Thank you.

That's it for us.

With that, thank you everyone for tuning in and being a part of today's meeting where we discussed and approved our annual budget and adopted our millage.

We appreciate everyone who was a part of that process and who was helping to move our county forward.

With that, I hope everyone has a great night and a safe drive home.

We'll see you at our next meeting.

We're adjourned.