Cobb County is proposing changes to the county code involving commission vacancies and county manager responsibilities, issues brought to the forefront last year with an election and a newspaper investigation.
In April, then-Commission Chairman Sam Olens resigned to run for Georgia attorney general. District commissioner Tim Lee then stepped down from his seat to run for commission chairman in a special election in July. Both went on to win those elections.
Proposed code changes call for the remaining commissioners to appoint a replacement for a vacant district commissioner seat if fewer than 180 days remain in the term. For a chairman's vacancy of the same time frame, a special election would be held.
The proposed amendment changes would remove from the county code a provision requiring the minutes of the county manager’s activities. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported on the requirement last year, when an investigation found that the county had not kept minutes of County Manager David Hankerson’s actions as outlined in the legislation.
After the AJC report, Lee began requiring Hankerson to file daily and weekly calendars and sole source business requests with the county clerk, to comply as closely as possible with the existing law, Lee said.
“Given the fact that time has passed from when the legislation was initiated, we’ve got new procedures in place for when the county manager can make decisions,” he said. “Our records are pretty tight and we felt it wasn’t necessary to have minutes kept of [his] actions since we have policies in place to handle that.”
Also proposed is an amendment requiring commercial car washes to install recycled water systems to recycle at least 50 percent of the water they use.
Autobuffs Express Car Wash, which operates five locations in the metro area —including two in Cobb County— has been recycling water for about five years, said John Daprato, manager of the Marietta location, who supports the legislation.
“Without recycling our water usage would be astronomical,” he said.
Autobuffs uses up to 3,000 gallons of water a day and recycles about 60 percent of it, Daprato estimated.
The amendments also include new zoning codes for the Mableton area, designed to turn the area into a mixed-use, walkable community. Last year Cobb hired a design firm from Miami to create the code for the 500-acre redesign.
Most of the public comment on the amendments will likely involve Mableton, said Rob Hosack, the county's community development director.
Public hearings on the code changes are scheduled for 7 p.m. Jan. 25 and Feb. 22 during Board of Commission meetings at the Cobb government building, 100 Cherokee St., Marietta.
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