Challenger Decries Home Rule, Transit Tax at Cobb Forum

AUSTELL — Despite being from the same party, the two Democrats running for the District 4 seat on the Cobb County Board of Commissioners disagree on plenty.

Incumbent Monique Sheffield backs the commission’s home resolution and proposed 30-year transit tax while her challenger, attorney Yashica Marshall, stood firmly against both at a forum held at the Grace City Church this week.

The forum, which Sheffield participated in via Zoom, was moderated by former state Rep. Alisha Thomas Searcy, D-Austell.

Home rule

Marshall didn’t miss a beat in blasting the home rule map.

“I don’t agree with the direction the commission took,” Marshall said, adding it’s the Georgia legislature’s job to draw new district lines every 10 years.

At the end of 2022, the county commission’s Democratic majority invoked home rule powers to replace a map passed by the Republican-led Georgia General Assembly and signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp with an alternative map. The commission’s map was an attempt to keep Commissioner Jerica Richardson in District 2. The Republican map drew her out of District 2.

Marshall said the move created confusion and chaos, disenfranchised voters and continues to cost Cobb taxpayers money as the matter is litigated.

“I think that that’s an issue that we’ve been having, with taxpayer money being used frivolously when it was tenuous at best for them to get a ruling in their favor,” Marshall said.

Sheffield responded that the home rule maneuver she, Richardson and Cobb Chairwoman Lisa Cupid chose came after discussion with county attorneys and other attorneys familiar with home rule cases.

Sheffield countered Marshall’s claim that the move disenfranchised voters, stating that citizens who elected Richardson in 2020 were disenfranchised when the General Assembly approved the map that bumped Richardson from District 2.

“For the maps to have been redrawn the way they were, it basically underserves or undermines democracy by nullifying their vote or nullifying the voice of the voters,” Sheffield said.

It is unclear if Richardson, who is running for Congress in the May primary, will have to leave office if Cobb Superior Court Judge Ann Harris’ ruling that the home rule map is unconstitutional stands. The matter is pending before the state Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments last month.

However, Richardson told the MDJ earlier this year she believes she would have to leave office early if the home rule gambit ultimately fails. She is not running for reelection and would already be leaving office come January.

Transit tax

Moderator Searcy also asked the pair for their thoughts on the Mobility Special-Purpose Local-Option Sales Tax, also known as the transit tax.

The 30-year, 1% sales tax would fund public transit projects. If approved by voters in November, Cobb’s sales tax would increase from 6% to 7%.

The M-SPLOST would collect $11 billion to construct 108 miles of rapid bus routes, three new transit centers and a countywide system of on-demand “microtransit” service.

Marshall said she does not question the need for a comprehensive transit plan in Cobb, but is skeptical of the way the county plans to pay for it.

“I don’t think M-SPLOST is the way that it should be paid for,” Marshall said.

Instead, she said, the county should use SPLOST dollars it already has — the SPLOST and an associated list of projects is voted on by residents every five years — to pay for transit improvements.

Sheffield reminded the audience that those SPLOST funds must be used for specific projects. The transit tax would pay specifically for projects that would look different throughout the county in improving mobility.

Sheffield told the audience that just because the tax is proposed for 30 years, it does not mean all projects will take 30 years to implement.

“There will be transportation improvements throughout the three-decade period the tax is in effect,” Sheffield said.

She added that the county has to adapt to its growing population, and, with one million residents projected in 2050, improved mobility options are one way to address that change.

Veterans Memorial Highway

While most of the forum focused on the M-SPLOST and the home rule controversy, Searcy also asked the candidates how they would “improve the façade” of Veterans Memorial Highway and attract businesses other than car service companies to the thoroughfare.

Marshall said there have been plans to improve it, and the money is there to give the highway much-needed love, but action has not followed.

“Now that Mableton is a city, hopefully the county can work very closely together with the city in ensuring that there are beautification efforts in the city moving forward,” Marshall said.

Regarding bringing more diverse businesses to not just Veterans Memorial, but all of south Cobb, Marshall said she would work with residents to develop a plan “to help change the face of south Cobb in a way that the community is asking for.”

Marshall said she spoke with local leaders in Powder Springs who told her they need a Boys and Girls Club, while Austell leaders informed her they are looking to revitalize the city’s downtown.

“There are lots of things that different communities are asking for, and they just need to ensure that the county is working with the different communities to institute those things,” Marshall said.

Sheffield reminded attendees that Veterans Memorial is a state route, and the widening of the road years ago posed another challenge for businesses there.

“The challenges that we have are that the lots are very narrow and shallow” due to that widening, Sheffield said.

She did, however, tout some of the successes she’s had on Veterans Memorial as a commissioner, including working to approve a Chick-fil-A on a lot a car service company had previously tried, and failed, to develop.

“I am confident that because of that approval of that zoning application, that will be the impetus to bring about more change on Veterans Memorial,” Sheffield said.

Final pitches

Closing out the forum, Sheffield said she hoped residents had a better idea of what a county commissioner does, and that what she has done over three years has been rewarding for both her and the residents of south Cobb.

“Vote steadfast leadership, vote experience, vote for me, Monique Sheffield, your current Cobb County District 4 commissioner,” Sheffield said.

Marshall was defiant in her closing, saying she has heard commissioners use the term “not in my backyard,” or NIMBY, to demonstrate south Cobb’s seeming outside status in the county.

“Ironically, south Cobb has been treated like the backyard of Cobb County for a very long time,” Marshall said. “I personally love backyards, that’s why I live here, because they can be a respite when they are tended to and cared for properly.”

She said it is time that the leaders of Cobb take equal care of all parts of the county, “because even though we reside in south Cobb, we live in Cobb County.

“South Cobb deserves better,” she continued, “Cobb County deserves better, and when you know better, you do better. So now you know me, so vote for better.”