The court proceedings in the lawsuit that seeks to invalidate the referendum that formed the city of Mableton will begin tomorrow, March 6, 2024, in the courtroom of Cobb County Superior Court Judge Sonja Brown. According to an email from Mableton interim attorney Emilia Walker Ashby, the courtroom has been changed to 2000.
The plaintiffs are Deidre White, Ronnie Blue, Judy King, Tanya Leake and Robert Swarthout. You can download the suit from https://cobbcountycourier.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/SUCV-20230067839.pdf.
The City of Mableton distributed the following announcement:
Notice is hereby provided that the City of Mableton, Georgia, (“City”) Mayor and Council will be present for a calendar call on March 6, 2024 at 9AM in Courtroom 2000 at Cobb County Superior Court, 70 Haynes Street, Marietta, GA 30090, as such calendar call may be heard and recast by the Cobb County Superior Court. The calendar call pertains to Court proceedings in Cobb County Superior Court Civil Action No. 23103734. The calendar call may be recast and further continued at said location, at the discretion of the Cobb County Superior Court.
The plaintiffs argue that the presence of language authorizing a Community Improvement District, term limits, and conflict of interest rules violates the state constitution’s Single Subject rule.
The effect of the lawsuit, if successful, would be to obliterate the city government, which is currently the largest city in the county and, out of the seven cities in the county, it is one of the three cities with Black mayors and majority Black city councils.
The Mableton cityhood effort was one of the earliest recent incorporation efforts in the county and the only one that succeeded. Cityhood advocates in Mableton had begun organizing by at least 2015.
The referendum to form the city passed with a 53.01 percent to 46.99 percent majority in the November 2022 election. The heaviest support for cityhood came from the southern precincts, and the heaviest opposition came from the northern parts of the new city.
The city council began meeting in May of 2023, passed ordinances, collected revenue, and is now preparing to hire city staff.
The plaintiffs in the case distributed the following press release:
Georgia has long since respected and upheld the rule of law that was created after the famous Yazoo Land Fraud of 1794- which resulted in the loss of a large tracts of the state.
Georgia State Constitution, ENACTMENT OF LAWS
The Single Subject Rule, states in paragraph III- “ One subject matter expressed , no bill shall pass which refer to more than one subject matter or contains matter different from what is expressed in the title therof.”
During the hectic years of 2020 a State Representative and local organization proposed to establish a city of Mableton and Community Improvement Districts, term limits and conflict of interest in House Bill 839. This bill violated the law in the state of Georgia by expressing multiple subjects, makes the bill, ballot question and law unconstitutional.
Fortunately, we residents came together, united to make sure that we are not disenfranchised or further harmed by this illegal bill. January 2023, we resident activist had our day at the capital to express concerns to how this city was formed. Raising awareness to how cities are formed in Georgia, which currently has implemented changes and may consider more bills that pertain to the constitutionality of creating cities in Georgia for future.
We plaintiffs are looking forward to our day in court to assure that the residents voices be represented in this case of the illegally formed city of Mableton. We are hopeful that the judge will adhere to the Georgia state constitution in recognizing that this house bill violated the single subject rule with two subjects in one bill, that was presented on the ballot in November of 2022. Harming the community with multiple subjects to vote for; agreeing to a New City and creating Community Improvement Districts is unconstitutional.
We welcome the opportunity to have the oral arguments presented by legal counsel to assure our rights are not violated any further.
Please attend the calendar call and /or Oral Arguments on March 6th 2024 at Cobb County Superior Court at 9 am in Judge Sonja Brown’s Courtroom-70 Haynes Street room 6300, Marietta GA 30090.
