Judge rules Cobb County can't draw its own commission maps

(The Center Square) — A Cobb County Superior Court judge has ruled the map of commission districts county leaders generated is unconstitutional, ending a prolonged dispute between county officials and state lawmakers — at least for now.

In March 2022, state lawmakers in the Republican-controlled Legislature created new Cobb County Commission maps with the passage of House Bill 1154, a measure codified as Act 562 with Republican Gov. Brian Kemp's signature. However, state lawmakers did not vote on House Bill 1256, an alternate version of commission districts.

The move prompted the Democratic-controlled Commission to draw separate maps in October 2022. The county used the state legislative map for the November 2022 election, and the county's map took effect in January 2023.

Alicia Adams sued the Cobb County Board of Elections and Registration after being ruled ineligible to run for the District 2 seat based on the commission's map. Adams would have qualified had county officials used maps state lawmakers adopted.

Cobb County Superior Court Judge Kellie Hill ruled that the redistricting resolution and map commissioners adopted were outside the Georgia Constitution's home rule powers.

"These orders bring to a close the long-running dispute regarding the competing redistricting maps adopted by the State Legislature and the Cobb County Commission," the county said in a statement.

Because of the order, county officials said they would remove elections for two county commission seats from November's general election — the District 2 seat held by Jerica Richardson and the District 4 seat held by Monique Sheffield. They plan to schedule a special primary and special election for the seats "to be held as soon as practicable" after the November election.

In May, the state's Supreme Court dismissed a separate attempt to invalidate the County Commission's map, ruling that while those challenging the Cobb-drawn districts had constitutional standing to challenge the map, they "did not show any uncertainty as to their future conduct that warranted declaratory relief." However, the state's highest court did not "reach the merits of the constitutional arguments."

A Cobb spokesman told The Center Square via email that the county's legal department performed work on the cases as part of their regular duties and did not hire any outside counsel to help.

While the county law department's budget has increased by roughly 35.2% between the actual fiscal 2022 budget and the proposed fiscal 2025 budget, the spokesman attributed the rise to personnel costs as additional positions were requested before the case. The increase represents salary and HR costs, the spokesman said.