Should Olens fulfill those words, and should Tippins run, it might set up a classic west Cobb vs. east Cobb battle between Tippins and Commissioner Tim Lee of northeast Cobb, who has said he plans to run for the chairmanship if Olens resigns.
Olens said he will resign toward the end of March, so a special election would be held during the primary on July 20, 2010.
A possible wild card in the race is popular Northwestern District Commissioner Helen Goreham, who could give either man a strong run for his money, but who has kept her intentions under wraps. Smart money has it she’ll stay on the sideline this time, but there’s no question she enjoys rattling the chains of Olens and Lee.
Tippins has a degree from the Woodrow Wilson School of Law in Atlanta and is the self-made, highly successful owner of Tippins Contracting, an underground utility business specializing in water and sewer lines. He lives on a 60-acre tract with two horses in the Lost Mountain community and speaks with a quiet, country drawl. The great joys of his life are his two grandchildren — a third is on the way — and quail hunting with his half dozen bird dogs.
Tippins was first elected to the school board in 1996 and represented the Post 1 area of Harrison, Hillgrove, Kennesaw Mountain and Allatoona high schools in west Cobb until retiring in December. He never accepted a dime for his school board work, donating his salary (a total of almost $250,000) to the Cobb Educational Foundation for student scholarships.
Serving as school board chairman in 2000, 2004 and 2007, Tippins was known for his no-nonsense, business-like approach to education issues. From the very beginning he and longtime board member Betty Gray of Mableton were the lone voices of opposition to then-Superintendent Joe Redden’s $100.8 million plan to equip each middle and high school student with a take-home laptop computer, which Cobb Superior Court Judge S. Lark Ingram ultimately ruled was illegal.
In contrast to the folksy, down-home style Tippins, Lee is more typically suburban and is a strong supporter of the arts. Lee serves on the board of the Cobb Symphony Orchestra and is responsible for the county’s Cultural Affairs Department. The Olens protégé took office in November 2002 and is serving his second term on the commission. Lee is a past president of the Northeast Cobb Homeowners Group and owns a marketing consulting firm, Summit View Marketing, Inc.
Politicos say one thing that could discourage Tippins from running is the high bar Olens has set for attending public events. Courthouse observers say “wherever two or more are gathered, Olens is usually there.” Trying to meet that standard in terms of time commitment could limit Tippins’ time with his beloved grandchildren and bird dogs.
The commission chairman is responsible for a $900 million budget and for all practical purposes is the mayor of unincorporated Cobb County, given that 75 percent of Cobb voters live in unincorporated Cobb.
Tippins is expected to make a decision on the county chairman’s race by mid October. If he runs, observers predict both he and Lee will be well financed and share strong support from the local business community. While one candidate would eventually lose, Cobb would win regardless of which one came out ahead at the ballot box.
PLANNING A BIG PROJECT in Marietta? It sure does help your prospects to have the city's "ultimate insider" in your corner.
These days, that would be developer Roger DeBoy, who successfully lobbied the City Council on Wednesday to allow him to renovate and then reopen the burned-out and boarded-up Holiday Inn at the Delk Road exit along Interstate 75 as an extended-stay motel. The building has stood an eyesore at one of the city's major gateways since January 2006, when it closed after a fire.
The Marietta Planning Commission had rejected the request for an extended stay motel there, voting 4-0-1, with Ward 5 member Kenneth Carter abstaining, to advise the council to decline the request. The City Council and most similar bodies don't usually vote to override the recommendations of their planning and zoning boards.
But on Wednesday the council voted 5-1, with Councilwoman Holly Walquist opposed and the Rev. Anthony Coleman absent, to approve DeBoy's request.
Present at that vote was Sanjay Patel of the Diplomat Companies, the Atlanta company that owns the Holiday Inn property. He said afterward that even though he is a Hindu, he planned to buy DeBoy a steak dinner for successfully getting his extended stay motel approved.
POLITICOS ARE FORGIVEN if they have trouble citing a recent Marietta development that the Lafayette, Ind. native DeBoy has been involved with that hasn't been touched by controversy.
For example, DeBoy developed Emerson Overlook, an office and residential tower on Roswell Road across from the National Cemetery. In assembling land for that project back in 2005, DeBoy bought an old Shell station and its less-than half-acre property from the city for $550,000. Yet just months earlier, the city had paid $1.5 million for that property and an adjoining sliver along Roswell needed for a road widening. Talk about a sweetheart deal.
Then there was Wes Godwin's Marietta Mill Lofts, for which DeBoy was project manager, at the corner of Atlanta Street and the South Marietta Loop. The council awarded Godwin a controversial retroactive $400,000 TAD subsidy, but the development was later foreclosed upon despite the infusion of tax dollars.
And then there was the Strand Theatre renovation project, for which DeBoy was project manager, although that controversy had little to do with DeBoy. Councilman Van Pearlberg voiced concerns about using public funding to help renovate the Strand, a building owned by Councilman Philip Goldstein's family, particularly when Goldstein holds in his possession a certificate of approval for the demolition of the Strand.
AS FOR HIS LATEST PROJECT, DeBoy is the contractor for the old Holiday Inn renovation, representing the owner, Diplomat Companies, a family-owned company founded in 1981 and chaired by R.C. Patel. Patel's Web site describes him as a native of Uganda who now lives in Duluth, serving as chairman for various Indian cultural events.
On Wednesday, DeBoy attempted to lobby the council into approving the project, telling them in so many words that allowing Diplomat to erect an extended-stay motel would do for the crime infested Delk/Franklin Road gateway what the Taj Mahal did for its town.
But Councilwoman Walquist wasn't buying DeBoy's argument, worrying about what might happen down the road as the building aged.
Her concern was echoed by the head of the business association that represents the Kingston Court office complex next door to the Holiday Inn site.
Abdul Amer, president of A&R Engineering, whose offices are in Kingston Court, said with the high crime rate in the Franklin Road area, an extended-stay motel was not the ideal use for such a major gateway to the city of Marietta.
Several others who have been watching the city's fitful redevelopment efforts later told AT they agreed with that assessment.
"Marietta should set a higher goal for itself, instead of selling itself so cheap," said one of them.
QUALIFYING BEGINS Monday and continues through Wednesday at the city clerk’s office for Marietta’s Nov. 3 election in which voters will elect a mayor and seven councilmen and seven school board members. Qualifying is from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., excluding lunch from noon to 1 p.m. Election watchers say it has been one of the quietest pre-qualifying periods ever.
A HAPPY BIRTHDAY to retired Lockheed administrator John Strother, who turns 96 on Monday. This will no doubt be a poignant birthday, though, for Strother, whose wife of 58 years, Ruth Strother, died last week. Strother taught the Young Adults Sunday school class for more than 40 years at First United Methodist Church of Marietta, and the class is now named in his honor.
POPULAR GEORGIA GOP Chairwoman Sue Everhart of east Cobb was honored by national GOP chief Michael Steele for being the first woman to ever head the state’s Republican Party.
U.S Rep. Phil Gingrey’s town hall meeting on health care is at the Cobb Civic Center Tuesday from 5:30 to 7 p.m. … And U.S. Rep. Tom Price’s town hall meeting is at Roswell High Auditorium, 11595 King Road in Roswell on Tuesday from 7 to 8:30 p.m.
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