Re-elect Cobb Commission Chairman Tim Lee
As a lifelong Cobb County resident, I want to briefly layout the case for re-electing Cobb County Commission Chairman Tim Lee. The incumbent Lee faces a serial candidate in Mike Boyce who almost sealed the deal during the primary but fell a few votes short of achieving the required majority. Runoff date is July 26th, early voting begins July 5th.
The major gripe against Lee is the way he worked the system to convince a major league baseball franchise to move from Atlanta / Fulton County to Cobb. A few decades back when Cobb County began its incredible growth from rural farm country to become a major part of Metro Atlanta, residents would have thrown a party at such news. It was a bold move by a confident leader, something in short supply these days. Yet many in our diverse county found it troublesome that an elected official could be so bold as to carry out his assigned job function without first checking with those who elected him. These naysayers wanted a public vote/referendum, in other words, mob rule.
Details of Chairman Lee’s go it alone methods to attract the Braves to Cobb have been discussed many times so no need to rehash old news. Suffice to say he got it done and after legal review, no laws were broken. The Atlanta Braves will be playing professional baseball in Cobb County at a public/private funded facility that will likely become a major attraction and tax benefit to all Cobb County residents.
Beyond the Braves deal, Lee has maintained Cobb’s AAA bond rating, enhanced public safety, kept taxes low and helped to generate much needed economic development for the county. His record can be compared favorably with any of his recent predecessors. As challenger Boyce put it in an AJC interview with Jim Galloway when asked how the county has been run, “Oh it’s superb, it’s got great people.” Can’t argue with that.
Tim Lee has earned another term as Cobb County Commission Chairman through hard work and a vision of Cobb’s future as a centerpiece to Metro Atlanta’s success. He is a dynamic leader with a track record of success that should be rewarded.
About Author
Three Jack
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I wouldn’t vote to re-elect a man who has helped pass a local ordinance to tell private property owners they couldn’t rent their personally owned parking places to patrons on game day for the Braves games. Overreach, arrogance, unconstitutional, pick your own term.
Yeah, so I was really angry about that too until I read the entire story. It’s a free permit from the county. They didn’t say you can’t do it. You just have to have a free permit. So, I’m not as upset about it as I was before.
But I still think Tim Lee loses by a pretty wide margin.
Permit, Schmermit. Lee has no right to tell a property owner he has to get a “permission” from the local Boss Hoggs to use their own GD property. That issue alone should see him run out on a rail.
You know, when you’re perpetually angry but show complete indifference to facts that should negate your anger, outside observers tend to assume you really just want to be mad, and not really anything else.
These are the people that are best ignored in politics, because no matter what is done, they can’t be pacified.
So, with that said, I don’t really care how or if you respond to me. What you need to do is ask yourself if you want to be, or be identified as, one of those people.
I don’t understand your response. Of course I’m upset that Tim Lee has graciously “allowed” property owners to rent out their own spaces. Everyone who saw that action is pissed. i didn’t answer Eiger with negative emotion to him. Eiger pointed out that Lee’s group allowed a free permit to be obtained. I think that “gracious” allowance by Lee and his cronies is BS. The question is, I guess, is does Lee’s ordinance upset YOU? And yes, with regard to this particular issue, I’m glad to be IDed as upset!
“Free permits? Still says Permit. And I’m still angry. Nevermind that it won’t keep a single property owner from making money off of parking (and the Braves get none of it, unlike the current arrangement in Atlanta). I’m angry, and I don’t want no facts getting in my way. After all, there’s an axe to grind, and the Braves are your sharpening tool of the moment. ”
If the the county didn’t control traffic of if/when someone gets robbed in a dimly lit gypsy lot you’ll be angry about that too. Just so long as there’s a vehicle, you’ll have a foil in this argument. So, congrats. You may continue your anger unabated without interruption.
Have at it, and don’t let me slow you down. Don’t want your anger to be bothered with any of those pesky facts.
Take a breath, Charles. “Public safety” is it? Lol! Sounds like a weepy Hillary Clinton in one of her sad songs of “it’s for the childrennnnnn”. Tell you what, when Lee and his buddies start paying the property taxes on the property he wants to regulate, they can voice an opinion as to its use during a baseball game. Until then…
Can I take you to some of the zoning hearings I go to and just sit back so I watch your reaction to some of the on goings? In 16 years of either petitioning or watching a zoning hearing in over 3 dozen venues in this state I have never witness a person win the “when you start paying my property taxes” argument. I’ll have popcorn with me if anyone else wants to join us.
Bart wastes approximately zero time to shill for his old pals in Cobb.
Davo65, I’ve never met Tim Lee. In fact I voted against him in 2012 after attending a candidate forum with Bill Byrne, Mike Boyce, Larry Savage and Lee. So this is not shilling for Lee, it is actually based on a review of his record where I found him to be a successful leader who deserves another term.
Tim Lee did the impossible by bringing together the Far-Left & Far-Right in opposition to this corrupt stadium deal. Hopefully mob rule (aka Democracy) will replace him with somebody that wont give public money to a corporate conglomerate. And hopefully those express lanes will help the impending traffic disaster at Cumberland.
I guess Tim Lee is thinking the “Roy Barnes” strategy will work this time. Barnes had a group working in secret on a new state flag design, and then without any advance notice, opted to have a House committee and floor vote on the new flag the very same day. No public hearings, no time for comment. I believe Boyce’s campaign manager stated that with Barnes, it was not so much what he did as the way he did it, and if Lee as expected goes down it will be the same—voters may like the ultimate outcome, but still feel like they should have a say in it. Contrast that with the new football stadium in downtown Atlanta—there was no public referendum, but you knew in advance of the Council vote what was being proposed. I suspect voters in Fulton are glad to have Cobb bear some corporate welfare expenses.
Pretty sure Charlie wrote this and slapped on Bart’s name. Tim Lee is Charlie’s boy after all.
Well, you got here a few minutes before I did so it negates the comment I was about to make. But I’ll do it anyway.
This one is a surprise to me. Go back and look at most of the exchanges between myself and Three Jack. We disagree more often than we agree. We never discussed the Chairman’s race but I would have assumed Bart would have been for Boyce.
I voted for Tim (after voting against him in the 2012 general primary) because Boyce wouldn’t answer questions not about the Braves or how bad Tim was at a forum where I was on the panel. Figuring there would probably be a runoff, I was still giving Boyce a chance to earn my vote. “Was”. I’ll likely go into more detail on that later, but this guy championing openness and transparency only seems to be selling “the other guy is bad” with little hint about what he would actually do. He’s not trying to earn my vote, he’s only trying to “not be Tim Lee”. That may well get him elected, but it won’t earn him my support.
And if you want to make your name worthy of “honor”, don’t make specious accusations against my contributors. I’m more than willing to write my own opinions in my own name. You’ve been around here long enough to know that. If you have a problem with me, take it up with me. Don’t use one of my contributors on their first day here to make shots at other people. There’s no honor in that.
You have a say in major county expenditures, it’s called an election. Show up 7/26 to exercise your privilege of voting.
If you don’t believe that is enough of a ‘say’, then start a movement to revamp the country toward a full fledged democracy, something the founders did everything they could to avoid.
“Dreck?” What purpose did that word serve? TJ just expressed his opinion.
I am more than a little disappointed that this is your first post TJ. Public votes are now mob rule?
Lee needs to go. Asaptually.
Want to add that Boyce aint much better than Lee in my book. This one mirrors the choices we have on the presidential ballot. But Lee has shown me what he is capable of and I dont like it one bit. So out he must go for me.
Youse are all lucky you have choices on who to vote for. My county commissioner race had the existing commis and… that’s it. He’s been on the board for 12 years and will get to stay another 4 years. And has never had an opponent. EVER.
When we get done with the personal stuff – no one I know caught the free permit – what I read was the AJC that indicated no licenses within 0.5 mile.
Klepal has Cobb County’s response:
County officials say the law is necessary for public safety, and note that property owners ineligible for a license because of their proximity to the stadium can file an appeal to the county commission. But critics see it as a heavy-handed attempt to protect Braves parking revenue, and help the team as it negotiates leases with nearby lot owners for supplemental parking.
Yeah, the AJC article reads to me that no one within 1/2 mile will be granted a permit … but they can “appeal” to the county commission who will most likely deny the permit.
A few points:
1. After the time of the stadium deal conception but before the bonds were validated, there were several legal challenges including two that went all the way up to the GA supreme court. Those challenges rightly pointed out that, among other legal points, according to the GA constitution, any general obligation debt taken on by a County is subject to a referendum. The lawyers behind the deal used a clever loophole of having the Cobb Exhibit Hall Authority issue the debt and lease the stadium back to the MLB club that was similar to other schemes upheld by previous courts. In the end the schemers won. But if they hadn’t that wouldn’t have been mob rule – that would have been a victory for the plain reading of the GA Constitution and established some limits on the ability of local governments to take on debt without voter approval. To the extent that Tim Lee participated in the expansion of government debt to new realms of idiocy, he deserves blame.
2. Simply put, Tim Lee has shown no ability to acknowledge mistakes, let alone learn from them, and doesn’t deserve another term. A more capable politician like Roy Barnes would have figured out how to sell and manage public perception of the deal much better (sit-ins at public meetings by Braves boosters looked like amateur hour; the lack of a parking plan and the way that Liberty media openly pushed elected officials around like pawns was unseemly.) Mike Boyce simply outworked him and now he deserves a chance to see if he can restore some shred of dignity to this place.
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local-govt-politics/cobb-reconsiders-private-parking-ban-near-braves-s/nrsrP/
And now we have this. Not looking good for Tim that this is looking to being reversed. Throws that public safety argument right out.
Well, I’m confused. Why was Timmy for this a few months ago and now he’s apparently having second thoughts? Shazaammmm!!!
No opinion on the election or info on free anything but here is a list of the fines:
http://investigations.blog.myajc.com/2016/07/06/suntrust-parking-violations-criminal/?ecmp=newspaper_email##
Related:
The Atlanta Braves Borrowed Their Parking Scam From Dan Snyder | Deadspin
http://deadspin.com/the-atlanta-braves-borrowed-their-parking-scam-from-dan-1783149400
“Shortly after Snyder became owner, the Skins lobbied the Prince George’s County authorities to authorize a ban on all pedestrians from entering the grounds of Jack Kent Cooke Stadium (renamed FedExField after the delivery firm offered Snyder $205 million), even on public sidewalks.”
The Atlanta Braves Borrowed Their Parking Scam From Dan Snyder
http://deadspin.com/the-atlanta-braves-borrowed-their-parking-scam-from-dan-1783149400
“This appears to be another case, like the Washington Redskins pedestrian ban, where public safety is used as a cover to force fans to park in stadium lots,” he tells me. “I hope that the adjacent property owners find an advocate to fight for their rights.”
ACP remarked on stadium-related costs foisted on taxpayers outside of the official deals, citing the pedestrian bridge.
Anyone else note mention of a new interchange on I-285 to serve Suntrust Stadium arose to smooth the kerfuffle with Sandy Springs? Cost? $40,000,000 is an order of magnitude.
A new interchange will send another 10% in addition to the stadium’s list price from state taxpayers to the Braves bottom line, in addition to the benefit of a significant amount of the new Cobb County highway capacity about to come on-line that Tim Lee bestowed on them.
Don’t forget the $3,300,000 worth of circulator buses the State is buying for
the BravesCobb County.Why pay for what you can get for free?
Did the Braves management say that, or did Tim Lee?