PUBLIC SAFETY WILL DECLINE!

⇒ Cobb County Police, Fire and 911 have no intention of transferring anyone from the county to any of the new cities. Staff currently have good pensions they want to keep! 

• This comes straight from the Cobb County Police and Fire Chiefs
• A city will have to hire all new staff
• At the present time, Cobb County can’t fill their open positions
• Job vacancies are endemic everywhere

⇒ With only two fire stations serving our area, you will have slower response times. 

• In the absence of an agreement with the county, we cannot bank on their back-up when our firefighters are engaged.
• The Feasibility Study assumes we would spend the same per person as other new municipalities
• Compare this to Marietta – A city of East Cobb will have 2 stations to cover 60,000 people, Marietta has 6 stations for the same number of people.
• A proposed city will have a severely underfunded fire department. Marietta budgets $14 million while the proposed city only budgets under $6.

⇒ While building new police, fire, and 911 departments, the county is not going to give you a rebate on the 2.86 Mills you pay them for public safety – this only happens when the departments are completed.

• The city’s budget is heavily dependent on these funds.
• Your taxes are going up!
• Your ISO fire rating is going down.
• A lower ISO rating of a fire department also increases your homeowner’s insurance rates!
• (click here to see more about ISO ratings)