Commissioner Invokes 'Bloods and Crips' as Map Feud Rages

MARIETTA — In an explosive county commission meeting Monday, where one commissioner referred to Cobb Countians as “political Bloods and Crips” and another said they didn’t trust the county attorney, commissioners debated the best way to move forward with redistricting.

At issue is whether the commission should approve an agenda item drafted by the county attorney’s office, which would accept the recent ruling of Cobb Superior Court Judge Kellie Hill.

Judge Hill’s July ruling struck down the commission’s “home rule” map as unconstitutional and ordered special elections be held for Districts 2 and 4 under the map passed by the Georgia Legislature in 2022.

After the Republican-controlled Georgia General Assembly adopted a map in 2022 that drew District 2 Commissioner Jerica Richardson out of that district, the commission’s three Democrats, Lisa Cupid, Monique Sheffield and Richardson, adopted a home rule map that kept her in District 2, a map Judge Hill said was unconstitutional.

If the agenda item is approved Tuesday, the commission would “acknowledge a finding in Cobb County Superior Court ... that the Home Rule map was outside the authority granted by the Board; adopt the map (passed by the state Legislature) for all county purposes; and approve notice to the sitting District 2 Commissioner that the office is deemed vacant.”

That action comes despite Judge Hill explicitly stating that her ruling did not vacate any commission seats.

“Nothing in my order says that two individuals will no longer be on the board,” Hill said at a hearing earlier this month.

‘De facto’ status and the vacancy process

County attorney Bill Rowling said approving the agenda item on Tuesday is the quickest way for Cobb to switch from the home rule to the state map.

If the item is approved, Richardson told the MDJ, she would retain “de facto” commissioner status during the “due process period,” which would last for a minimum of 10 days.

“I do have 10 days, minimum, for my due process. During that time period, I’d be known as a de facto commissioner, which allows me to continue to operate in the duties of the commission seat,” she said in a Monday afternoon phone call with the MDJ.

In that time, Richardson would be able to “litigate any matters that need to be litigated,” and could appeal the vacancy notice to Cobb Superior Court. Richardson said as she understands it, she would retain de facto commissioner status throughout any potential appeals process.

She said she has not decided if she plans to appeal a vacancy notice, if she receives one.

“There are a lot of things to consider. Especially the next five months of representation for the district ... I have a lot of decisions to make,” Richardson said.

She added that the home rule controversy began when the Legislature disregarded the map drawn by the majority Democratic Cobb County Legislative Delegation, bucking a longstanding practice that allows local legislators to draw their local government maps.

“It opens up the door for all kinds of other imbalances in power between those that live and know an area and those that do not. This could, in the future, affect any elected official at any time ... And it can come from anyone. They don’t have to be here, in Cobb, they can be someone in another county. And it can be for any reason. ... That’s the canary in the coal mine,” she said.

But she noted that should she appeal the vacancy notice, the county would not be financially supporting her.

“The appeal would not be the county coffers, that would be as Jerica ... It would be a legal matter that I would have to take on separately. It would not be done in conjunction with the county,” she said.

Republican push for repeal

But Republican Commissioners Keli Gambrill and JoAnn Birrell said in order to follow the Georgia Constitution, the commission should not approve the proposed agenda item, and instead must vote to repeal the home rule resolution it passed in 2022.

“We have to follow the law and the Constitution,” Birrell said. “In order to settle this once and for all, we have to repeal the resolution that was done in 2022. ... The home rule map does not go away … until it is repealed.”

Rowling told Birrell that is an option the commission could choose. But, he said, it would require the commission to go through a lengthier process that includes two public hearings and would delay the map switch for months.

Richardson argued that by passing another resolution related to a map, the commission would once again be engaging in the home rule practices that have been deemed unconstitutional.

“You can’t have it both ways,” she said.

Distrust in county attorney

Gambrill and Birrell both said they want outside counsel to weigh in on the best way to move forward with respect to home rule.

“I do believe we need outside counsel, because it is hard to determine if our (county) legal counsel is truly going by the law or if they are following (the) political will of a board. I think in order to be fair to all, we remove our county attorney’s office from this process going forward, because they are obviously showing they cannot be unbiased and truly want to follow the law to resolve this,” Gambrill said.

Cupid did not hold back when expressing her concern about Gambrill’s allegations.

“Everything here really falls apart without trusting our staff ... And it doesn’t fall on deaf ears to hear the schism that’s being shared publicly about that distrust,” Cupid said.

Still, she asked the county attorney’s office to sit down with Birrell and Gambrill before the commission’s Tuesday meeting to try and address their legal concerns.

“I feel uncomfortable asking you to sit with people who shared, expressly, they don’t trust our legal team,” Cupid said, looking to Rowling. “I’ll also say that I don’t believe there is anything that precludes any commissioner from seeking outside legal advisement. Nobody is holding anybody’s arm to prevent them from doing that.”

‘Political Bloods and Crips’

Though commission agenda review sessions don’t usually draw an audience, they are open to the public, and roughly a dozen conservative Cobb citizens came to hear the commission’s discussion. More than once, audience members were disruptive enough that Cupid felt inclined to intervene.

“For those who are here, who are typically not part of this meeting, this is not a comedy session,” Cupid said. “We are discussing the business of this county.”

Fellow Democratic Commissioner Monique Sheffield questioned if the citizens would be outraged if Richardson was a Republican.

“For the past two plus years, we’ve been hearing ‘We want (Richardson) out of her seat. We want blood. We want blood,’” Sheffield said, emphasizing the point by beating her fists on the table. “... if Richardson was a Republican commissioner, would we see all of this here? Would we? I don’t think that we would.”

She said that the vitriol in Cobb mirrors that of the country.

“What’s happening in Cobb County is no different from what’s happening on a national level. People are dug in on their side, regardless of what is right. It does not matter. We have become nothing more than political Bloods and Crips. That’s what we are. No offense to the Crips and Bloods, but that’s what we’ve become. We see things through the lens of ‘R’ and ‘D,’ Republican and Democrat, instead of looking through the lens of ‘R’ and ‘W,’ what’s right and what’s wrong,” Sheffield said.

Sheffield went on to say that Richardson has received several “nasty” text messages from “cowards.”

Though Sheffield did not expressly call the messages racist, she said the texts reminded her of a time when “people were not welcome in this country,” and implied that Richardson did not belong in District 2.

“Commissioner Richardson has received some very nasty and disgusting text messages from several cowards, from several cowards. ... It takes me back to a time where people were not welcome in this country. ... when she’s told that she should move to an urban area and that someone wants to protect their community. That may not resonate with some of you, but it resonates to me quite a bit. The thought is she does not fit into someone else’s idealistic lifestyle,” Sheffield said.

Speaking with the MDJ, Richardson said she has been receiving such messages for years. Richardson said she could not call the texts racist because she does not “claim to define the hearts and minds of the individuals that have spoken,” but confirmed that she’s been called “urban” and was told she should move to south Cobb.

“When this map was originally drawn, in spite of the state legislators that represent Cobb County ... some of the authors were questioned about why they drew the map the way they drew it, I was told, directly, that I’m ‘young and urban’ and that I should ‘just move to the south side.’ That that’s where I ‘belong.’ And that they were just trying to ‘protect their community’ and ‘make sure that the representation matched,’” Richardson said.

Among those in attendance at Monday’s meeting was Cobb GOP Chair Salleigh Grubbs, who said Sheffield’s implication of race was “disgusting.”

“For Commissioner Sheffield to be admonishing people and trying to draw race into it is disgusting. It’s disgusting,” she said. “I have no idea about the messages. That’s the first time I’ve heard anything like that.”

The commission will meet at 100 Cherokee Street in Marietta Tuesday, at 1:30 p.m. for its work session and at 7 p.m. for its voting session.