There’s no question that in last week’s Cobb Commission meeting to approve the contract with the Braves that the deal had been made and agreed upon long before the meeting was called to order. A deal of this magnitude had to be discussed and questioned for many weeks and the agreement triggers the meeting, not the other way around on something like this.
I know and respect most all of the current Cobb board and I believe the Braves deal will be good for Cobb in the long run. Cobb County is a leader in so many ways that I can’t believe the Braves and the county won’t get this right. What I can’t fathom is having a meeting and not letting everyone there have a say at the microphone!
As the news reports came in and they showed the packed meeting room I remembered my days on the Commission. I was there as the real estate market heated up and the last portion of rural Cobb was my district. Every zoning meeting went on for hours and the opposition to over-development was at a fever pitch. The board was called liars and thieves and angels…sometimes in the same breath it seemed! It’s a tough job but the people of Cobb are known nation-wide for their active political views and have sent some incredible leaders to Washington and the state capital. I was lucky enough to serve with current Attorney General Sam Olens and then Chairman Bill Byrne, Woody Thompson and Joe Thompson.
I will say this about that board, we never cut off or cut out the debate. I remember many times when Chairman Byrne saw the timer pass the allotted time for a speaker and he ignored it to be sure the speaker was heard. Sam Olens campaigned and won on moving the public content of the meeting to the beginning of the meeting so that constituents didn’t have to sit through potentially hours of boring business to be heard. In a nutshell it’s still the Cobb voters meeting. Government gets its power from the people, not the other way around. I’m not sure why the meeting was hi-jacked by those in favor of the stadium deal but I do know that not allowing the suspension of the rules so that all could be heard on an issue as important and impactful as this one was bad optics for the Cobb Commission and for politicians in general. Let’s face it, by simply holding office you are guilty of something in most voters eyes. It seems that no matter how hard the tongue lashing was going to be or how miserable it would have been to sit there and let those angry folks take their shot at the deal it may have still been better than seemingly to poke a thumb in their eye.
The only way for the people to trust their elected officials is for the elected officials to earn it. On this issue the Cobb Commission didn’t earn it. Getting it back is going to be a lot tougher now.
