​We are pleased to hear some amount of the voter-approved Park Bond 2008 Referendum funds will be issued at the January 26 Board of Commissioner meeting, and we fully support the plan to purchase available properties selected as potential parks in 2009.

However, the Cobb County Board of Commissioners Plans to Fund Only $19 million, Less Than ½ of the $40 million Park Bond Referendum voters approved in 2008. Help Us Encourage the Board to Honor the Vote & Fully Fund $40 million Park Bond 2008 before the January 26 at 7pm Board of Commissioners meeting.  
 
Where is the tax money for Park Bond 2008?  Earmarked Park Bond 2008 funds are being moved to the Braves stadium finance bonds before funding Park Bond 2008. Moving earmarked voter-approved referendum ​funds for the Park Bond into any other project before funding the Park Bond is not how it works in a democracy.

• Funding ½ the Park Bond would mean: Votes don't count.  The Board of Commissioners is deciding the outcome of a Referendum rather then allowing the Voters vote to count: In 2008, over 67% of Cobb voters voted to approve the full $40 million, and the money was already earmarked in the Debt Service Fund.  Yet in 2009, the Board postponed voter-approved Park Bond 2008 funding.  Now 3x more Debt Service Fund funds are available to quickly pay for Park Bond 2008 without raising taxes. The Board only needs to update the repayment dates. The legal basis to keep the same repayment plan no longer exists because the Park Bond wasn't funding in 2008 as voters intended.

(Urge Commissioners to fully fund $40 million Park Bond 2008, as voters intended and already available in the earmarked Debt Service Fund)

• Funding ½ the Park Bond would mean: Debt Service Funds are reallocated to another project without funding Park Bond 2008 as earmarked first.  The Cobb Braves FAQ page directly states funds are transferred from Park Bonds into Braves funding, yet Park Bond 2008 was never funded.  (The issue is using Earmarked Park Bond funds for any other purpose before using those funds for parkland purchase as voters intended.)

• Funding ½ the Park Bond would mean: Cobb will lag behind even more in achieving its own greenspace goals. According to Cobb's own 2030 Comprehensive Plan, more than 8,000 acres should be protected as parkland or greenspace, yet Park Bond 2008 could protect at most 400 acres if fully funded. 

• Funding ½ the Park Bond would mean:  Democracy is not working here, if a Voter-Approved Referendum is not honored despite available tax funds. Park Bond 2008 Referendum overwhelmingly passed with 67% of the vote, and it has not been funded.  Earmarked Park Bond funds are planned for another project, in this case the Braves Stadium, before funding parkland as voters intended in the 2008 Referendum.

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Citizens voted for parks bonds, tax hike or not

DEAR EDITOR:

Here’s my current assessment about the Parks Bond issue ... 

We have some good news at last. Cobb’s Board of Commission Chairman Tim Lee was quoted in the MDJ (12-31-15) that he plans to take the first step towards issuing the 2008 park bonds to purchase open land for public parks. He also said that he was going to propose forming a new green space committee to locate new properties that may be obtainable with the parks bond money. Nevertheless, since the $40 million referendum was overwhelmingly approved in 2008, the binding rules of the bond resolution and the nearly seven year delay is not good news. As a result, when the remaining parks bonds are issued they will generate a significantly smaller amount of money to acquire available park land. In addition, there is far less land remaining these days to pick from than in 2008 and the prices are considerably higher per acre. And that’s bad news.

Tim Lee also said that he has adopted his predecessor’s, Sam Olens, position not to issue the parks bonds if it would amount to a tax hike. After doing some searching, I couldn’t find any written information to substantiate Sam Olens position. Mr. Olens’ position certainly wasn’t pointed out to the public prior to the parks bond referendum vote. 

Even before the Atlanta Braves and the Cobb Board of Commissioners created, approved and signed their Memorandum of Understanding in November 2013, Cobb County’s economy had already rebounded and recovered. So here’s the approved parks bond in line way ahead of the Atlanta Braves waiting for the county BOC to issue the bonds. Tim Lee now says that when the budget cycle came around each year they looked at the Parks bond and said no. So why did they say NO each year? 

Meanwhile, the BOC and the Braves literally shoved the parks bond referendum aside and quickly moved to the front of the line for issuing bonds causing a major disturbance with 190,271 voters that approved the parks bond referendum. And on top of it all, neither the BOC or the Braves asked any citizen if it was OK with them.

Based on Mr. Lee’s intentions to go forward, wouldn’t it be a great idea to immediately begin the process of issuing the parks bonds and then select a new land search committee in due time? 

This is my final question. Is there a law that decrees an elected official can’t raise taxes without being kicked out of office? Our elected county officials act like there’s one.

Joe O’Connor
Marietta

Published on January 10, 2016 in the Marietta Daily Journal 

The Marietta Daily Journal - If we can fund stadium we can find money for greenspace ​
January 3, 2016

DEAR EDITOR:

As a member of both the committees appointed by the commissioners to identify potential park land, I encourage our current board to consider respecting the vote of the citizens and proceed to explore funding the acquisition of park/green space that may still be available. We spent hours of our personal time (unpaid) and traveled many miles only to find at the last minute that our efforts were in vain, due to commitment of the Commission Chair not to raise taxes. Retrospectively, not sure that the decision was in the best long-term interest of the county.

If we can find funding for a Braves Stadium, surely we can find funding for the benefit of present and future generations that need “green” space, space quickly disappearing. 

Jimmy Durham
Acworth

Published in the Marietta Daily Journal on January 3, 2016.  View the original link here.

The Marietta Daily Journal - Advocates demand action from Cobb County on parks bond 
December 30, 2015
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MARIETTA — Cobb greenspace advocates say the county should honor a 2008 referendum in which a majority of voters authorized the county to issue $40 million in bonds to purchase land for preservation and parks. 

The parks bonds were never issued because the recession set in and the county could not support them without a tax increase, county Chairman Tim Lee has said. 

As property values creep back up and developers begin pursuing new projects on vacant land, residents are once again galvanized by their concern over the pace of development and rapidly disappearing greenspace.

“In Cobb County, it defines the county. It’s a green place,” said Paul Paulson, who moved to Cobb from New Jersey about 50 years ago. “When I came here, that’s what struck me first.”

Paulson is the founder and former head of the Cobb Parks Coalition, a group of residents who were actively involved in pushing for the 2006 parks bond issuance, which was used to buy 10 properties, including the historic Hyde Farm, Mabry Park and Green Meadows Preserve, formerly known as Bullard Farm. 

The coalition’s website cites Cobb’s own Comprehensive Plan, which references the county’s adoption of the statewide Georgia Greenspace Program calling on counties to permanently protect 20 percent of their land as greenspace. 

The coalition has calculated that the county has only 6.2 percent of its land preserved as greenspace, necessitating the addition of 8,000 acres to maintain the national standard of 10 percent greenspace, and 30,000 acres to meet its stated goal of 20 percent. 

Paulson objects to the county’s decision to ignore a popular referendum for another set of parks bonds while moving forward on far more expensive projects like the new ballpark for the Atlanta Braves, which was not subjected to a popular vote.

“When the people have voted on something and you ignore it, it doesn’t say we’re a country that listens to its people,” said Paulson, who called the move “un-American.”

Paulson commended Chairman Tim Lee for his announcement earlier this month that he would take the issue up again. 

“I have directed the county manager to request that the staff revisit the parks bond circumstance, including available funding, the current availability and cost of parcels that were put on a list in 2009, and whether or not the issuance of a bond is feasible today without raising taxes,” Lee said during the Board of Commissioners’ meeting on Dec. 17. 

Of the about 25 properties recommended for purchase in 2009 with the $40 million bond funds, 10 are already in the process of being developed, according to Tom Bills of Cobb County Parks and Recreation.

Commissioners could, at any time, issue the bonds, but they would only be able to collect about $29 million because so much time has gone by since the referendum passed. The resolution that 67 percent of voters approved included language stipulating the amount that could be collected each year until 2023, when the bond expires, so the revenue from 2010 through 2015 can never be collected. 

Moreover, the county appears to have other plans for the debt service fund that would repay the bond. 

When the 2006 parks bonds expire in 2017, the county originally planned to reduce the millage rate for its debt service fund from 0.33 mills to zero while simultaneously increasing the millage in the general fund by the same amount, which would be used to pay the debt service on bonds for SunTrust Park.

However, revenue from other sources, as well as lower debt service payments, means the county only needs 0.234 mills in property taxes to make the payments, Finance Director Jim Pehrson has said. Greenspace advocates are hoping the remaining money could be put toward the park bonds. 

The county’s debt service fund generated $10.1 million in tax revenue in fiscal year 2015, according to Assistant Comptroller Bill Volckmann. The millage rate for the debt service fund is not specifically and exclusively to repay the parks bond, he clarified. Rather, the millage rate is set by the commissioners to generate enough money to make the annual debt service payments on the “general obligation” debt, which includes the park bonds. 

Critics say decreasing the millage for the debt service fund — which pays for park bonds — while increasing the millage for the general fund to pay for the stadium allows Chairman Lee to avoid an overall tax hike, thus casting the Braves deal in a more favorable light than it might otherwise appear.

Jennifer Burke, a resident of east Cobb and active member of the Cobb Parks Coalition, said the issue is not how the stadium is being funded, but that the will of voters is being ignored. 

“I’m not against the Braves,” Burke said. “Why would you do anything before you issue the park bond? … We would like the government to follow through on its own long-range plan (for greenspace).”

Cobb County’s Debt Service Millage

2011-15: 0.33

2002-10: 0.22

2002: 0.27

2000-01: 0.50


2006 Parks Bond Land Purchases

-Henderson Road Property 15 acres $2.4 million (no funding assigned for development)

-Leone Hall Price Park 18 acres $1.4 million (2016 SPLOST funds for limited development)

-Violet F. Stout Park (Stana property) 137.45 acres $5.3 million (2016 SPLOST funds for limited development)

-Mabry Park 26.5 acres $4.3 million (2016 SPLOST funds for limited development)

-Walker Property 4.52 acres $900,000 (historic property, part of Hyde Farm)

-Hyde Farm Welcome Center (Dolvin property) 13 acres $1.4 million (Developed as historic site with 2011 SPLOST funds; 2016 SPLOST funds for working barn)

-Hyde Farm 43 acres $5 million (Developed as historic site with 2011 SPLOST funds; 2016 SPLOST funds for working barn)

-Camp McDonald Park (Watts Drive property) 7.6 acres $825,000 (no funding assigned for development)

-Green Meadows Preserve (Old Hamilton Road) 13.5 acres $1.3 million (2016 SPLOST funds for limited development)

-Green Meadows Preserve (Bullard/Stockton) 112 acres $18.6 million (2016 SPLOST funds for limited development)

Published in the Marietta Daily Journal on December 30, 2015.  View the original link here.

​An open letter to Chairman Tim Lee on parks bond
December 29, 2015
MR. LEE:

I would like to personally thank you for mentioning at the Dec. 17 Board of Commissioners meeting the “revisiting” of the 2008 Cobb Parks Bond issuance. You noted that Commissioner Sam Olens promised that the Park Bond referendum voted on by Cobb voters would be passed and the bond issued, as long as there was no tax increase. Shortly after the vote, the national economy underwent its worst recession since the Great Depression and it wasn’t possible to issue the bond and purchase the properties sited for purchase. As you pointed out, since then the nation and Cobb County have undergone a significant recovery, and you have directed the county manager to have his staff revisit the Park Bond, checking to see which properties are still available and whether the bond is feasible without raising taxes.

Of note now is that many of the properties on the 2008 Park Bond list have already been developed, so each District may need to re-evaluate current land possibilities in relation to the existing streams, rivers, and new connected trail possibilities.

Thank you for proposing a reconsideration of the important issue of parks and green space purchase, as voted on by 65 percent of Cobb citizens in 2006. As land becomes more and more scarce and expensive in our county, voters want to see as much of it preserved for public use as possible.

Lynn Walston
Marietta

Published in the Marietta Daily Journal on December 29, 2015.  View the original link here.

An open letter to County Attorney Deborah Dance
December 28, 2015
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DEAR EDITOR:

With reference to subject, as a resident and taxpayer in Cobb County, and after reviewing the specific language of the entire Resolution document, dated 7/22/08, I had several questions which would be more transparent to the resident taxpayers of Cobb, if you would provide your legal opinion, as County Attorney for Cobb County. The Resolution, Section 3, seems to be very clear in resolving to authorize a voter referendum election for the purpose of issuing $40 million in Park Bonds intended for the acquisition of land within the County for use as parks. That voter referendum was overwhelmingly approved by the voters on 11/4/08. 

Section 8 of the Resolution also seems clear indicating that the Chairman, and all others mentioned, including the County Attorney, “each is hereby authorized and directed to execute, for and on behalf of the County, all other documents and take all other actions as may be necessary or appropriate in connection with the holding of the Election, the issuance of the Proposed Park Bonds and carrying out the intentions of this Resolution.”

Therefore, my questions involve the county’s noncompliance in issuing voter approved bonds, while during the same past several years has issued other indebtedness bonds, in substantially greater amounts, that were not voter approved and were intended to benefit private enterprise. Specifically, did the Chairman then, or does the current Chairman now, have the option or authority to, arbitrarily, set aside the Resolution and voter Referendum results? If so, would you direct me to that language in the Resolution, or to appropriate other precedent County legal language that would allow the County to ignore the will of the voters?

Since next year is an election year, it is important that these questions be answered, in order that residents/taxpayers support and elect public officials that are committed to carrying out the intentions of county-approved resolutions and voter approved referendums.

Thank you for your anticipated response regarding the above.

Jim Dugan
Powder Springs

Published in the Marietta Daily Journal on December 28, 2015.  View the original link here.

Parks taking back seat to Braves seems ‘disrespectful’
December 28, 2015
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DEAR EDITOR:

Jennifer Burke of LoveCobbParks.com is hopeful we can be responsible citizens in this busy holiday season — and responsible commissioners, too. Actually issuing the park bonds citizens voted for would seem to be in the Christmas spirit and good for the kids, too.

Remember how we also used to get a present for our rich uncle, in hopes of getting a present in return. Now think of the commission moving the Braves bonds, not voted for, cutting in line ahead of the previous citizens bonds for a revenue stream finagled at great effort by the commission. This seems disrespectful. Hopefully it is just an oversight busy commissioners will rectify if we ask. We may soon see them work just as hard to find the revenue for our $40 million park bonds.

Of course, I’m not such an optimist as to believe that the commission will do the honorable thing without any encouragement. Fancy plans painting a picture of a pleasant future county with ample greenspace, are read and respected no more by our commissioners than by the average man on the street. Without Kennesaw Mountain and the Chattahoochee, Cobb County would be in desperate shape indeed. Some of our citizens are so selfish they would “have the future take care of itself.” Such whiners tend to make much noise (and some might even vote in the primary).

The job of responsible voters, and parents, does not have an arbitrary end point such as after an election. As the present case shows, we need to enlighten our public servants, remind them of their obligations, our desires and the future’s needs. Their job is unfinished, and so is yours. Hope you’re not too busy to think of the kids.

Roger Buerki
Marietta

Published in the Marietta Daily Journal on December 28, 2015.  View the original link here.