The Marietta Daily Journal – Bottom of the ninth for Cobb BOC vote

MARIETTA — County Chairman Tim Lee on Saturday restated his desire for a Tuesday vote on the deal between the county and Atlanta Braves that would build a $672 million stadium down the road from the Cumberland Mall.

Delaying the vote, as some have asked for, would jeopardize the deal, Lee said.

“It’s one of those situations where the longer we drag it out all we do is create more noise and more doubt without any rationale,” Lee said. “I just think it’s better to move forward with it. It’s an economic deal. We have some timing issues we have to deal with in terms of getting a deal moving forward, and I think it’s in everybody’s interest to move forward.”

Lee said most Cobb residents he’s spoken with or who have contacted him support the plan.

“I’m just hearing that there are a small group of people like the Debbie Dooleys, who, by the way, live in Gwinnett County, and the people who are making the most noise don’t even live in Cobb County,” Lee said.

Tea party leader Debbie Dooley said she is looking at filing a lawsuit against the county based on how it plans to finance the proposal.

“They’re trying to stir people up with misunderstanding and using inexperienced, loyal, wannabes as ways to keep enough heat under people to think that there’s controversy and there isn’t,” Lee said.

Lee said he brought in bond attorney Dan McRae of Seyfarth Shaw to make sure the deal was bulletproof.

“We have one of the best bond attorneys and finance people working on this, and if they think some wannabe lawyer is going to undo all that hard work with a couple of hours of whatever he did, she’s sadly mistaken,” Lee said.

Lee has support in the Braves’ deal from commissioners Helen Goreham and JoAnn Birrell, and those votes are all he needs to pass the proposal Tuesday.

Commissioners Bob Ott and Lisa Cupid have declined to say – at least publicly — how they intend to vote. Cupid has complained about being rushed to vote on such a large deal. Ott said he too has asked for more time before a vote.

“Where I stand on the issue now is that I have a town hall on Monday to hear what the people have to say, and it would be wrong to have an opinion before I hear from the people,” Ott said. “There would be no reason for the town hall.”