Cobb County Commissioner Tim Lee, District 3, Northeast Cobb, spoke to Madison Forum members and guests at the regular luncheon meeting Monday, November 12, 2007.
Mr. Lee said he feels there should be a constant input from all sides of the spectrum of whatever topic we are talking about, and he is pleased to see that thoughtful debate and discussion regarding the issues is one of the primary sentences in the Madison Forum’s platform.
Mr. Lee gave some background concerning how he got to be a commissioner. He didn’t just wake up one morning and decide that he wanted to do this. He was the president of his homeowner’s association about fifteen years ago. He became that because he failed to show up for a meeting. Someone nominated him. He said he’d think about it. Next thing he was elected. He did that for about ten years. During his first six-eight years, he very rarely came before the County Board of Commissioners. Most of his input was with the Coty of Marietta. The City annexed areas around his neighborhood through about seven different pockets throughout the years, so it is now on three sides. So his involvement with zoning and with government was with the City of Marietta. As a county resident he can’t vote in city elections, so he had to develop a relationship with people that his only area of influence was when he was able to convince them to believe that his perspective was the right thing to do. It was a completely different group from the ones currently there.
He said he got involved through a very bad zoning on a hill behind him in the city. That’s where he learned a 50-foot buffer which could be penetrated for utilities included storm water management. He never thought of storm water management as a utility. But they created a 50-foot buffer and then installed a storm water pond in it. He met John Moore, the other city attorney, when Moore represented Wilmot Williams to annex East Park. He worked with a lot of the representatives on that. That was the first time he went to the Cobb County Commissioners because they wanted to annex the Park to the city, and his group was saying: no, it needs to stay in the County. He said Sprayberry High School doesn’t have any trailers, and it’s primarily because a lot of the land they were hoping to be fed into the school is now the City of Marietta. He went to see District Commissioner Olens who wasn’t interested in providing any density over 2.5, and they wanted, obviously, more than that. That’s why they were going to the City. That took about ten months and was covered a lot in the newspapers, and that’s how his name got exposed.
Then Chairman Byrne decided to run for governor, Commissioner Olens decided to run for chairman, and Mr. Lee was approached to run for commissioner. He told them absolutely not. But, as fall came on he was bombarded with calls from people saying you’ve got to do this, there’s no one else. He told them the business community has to support him financially, his boss has to say it’s OK, and his wife has to say it’s OK. The business community offered financial help, his boss’s father had been a commissioner, so he said go ahead, and his wife said it must be a calling, so go ahead. So he ran. He said clearly most of the district didn’t know who he was. His neighborhood knew him, and he was known in the City of Marietta. But, he said, if he was going to do it he had to do it right. He asked God for guidance saying he couldn’t do it by himself. He needed someone to help make it happen. And, although we may not always like the answer, sometimes asking God for direction is what we should always do, and His direction to me was to go ahead and do this. And, He gave me the strength to get though it. Mr. Lee said it was one of the more difficult things he had ever done in his life. He said he would choose raising three kids again over doing this.
He said he has learned a lot. He remembers sending an e-mail to his staff saying he would be in the office from 7:00 to 8:30 a.m. every morning. That’s enough time to get everything done. Don’t worry about it. Well, it’s not. This is a part time job with a full time schedule. It pays miserably. He said Chairman Byrne gave him some good advice when he was first elected – “do not let your regular business suffer”. Mr. Lee said he has a few times, and it has come back to haunt him. Speaking about Veterans Day, he said he was at four events prior to Sunday. When Sunday came he had to be in his office at home making money so he could pay the rent.
Mr. Lee says he is a guy that can’t remember anything. As a result he relies heavily on being able to refer back to his notes, refer back to conversations, and refer back to tape. And as a result he never, ever will lie to anyone, because he just cannot remember what he lied about. He said he may tell us what he believes, maybe based on wrong information, but he will never knowingly lie.
Mr. Lee said he was elected by very few people. Voter apathy is miserable. 30% of the people didn’t agree with him, but, he says, he represents everyone. He said he tries to do the best job he can with what he has in front of him, and with the staff he has, and with the friends he has. He holds quarterly meetings with leadership groups and with homeowners. He has five homeowners groups. Northeast Cobb is primarily built out, but his district has the most homeowners groups of all the districts. Commissioner Gorham’s district is growing, so it doesn’t have as many. District 3 has grown, so it has them. So he meets quarterly with the homeowners groups. Feeling that the leadership are the ones getting input from their groups, and they are bringing that information, he works with them. He sits with the leadership group and they develop goals. Every year they go away on a retreat, and they set Commission goals. He said his goals are established by his homeowners groups. Some stuff he has put together. The homeowners know that he has the ability to set policy or set a goal for the County every year. So they provide ideas. He uses them as a sounding board for new ideas and new concepts as well. He said he tried to be productive with relationships as much as he can.
Mr. Lee said he wanted to make it absolutely clear that he, personally, supports 180 percent everything our Sheriff, Neil Warren, is doing. Mr. Lee said he knows the Sheriff is a good guy, and he knows he needs more money. But, everything he is doing at the jail is an incredible challenge to keep it from just imploding, along with his wonderful staff. Me. Lee said he stands at Mr. Warren’s side in support of all he is doing. He is doing a great job, and people are talking about him in all the right ways, in his mind.
Mr. Lee said that water is a whole discussion, and he is learning more about water than he cared to. He said state legislators are having a meeting on November 27th at 8:30 a.m. in the Main Library in Marietta. There will be people from the Corps of Engineers, and from Atlanta to give them specific solutions. At the latest legislative session, on the 9th of November, they indicated that their goal was to get specific solutions, because their goal is to go to the Governor in December to get funding for dredging. This is our local delegation trying to get input on what can be done at Lake Allatoona, which is our priority, so they can get the funding, if any is necessary, or even if they can get a commitment for the funding that comes from the legislature.
Mr. Lee said his son, who is a senior at George Washington University, has a job at the Pentagon working for Veterans Affairs. His wife recently took a job at MUST Ministries, and her job is to make sure there is enough food there. Mr. Lee is on the Board of MUST, and one of the issues that came up is what they are doing specifically for homeless veterans. Turns out there is an incredible amount of veterans who are homeless. There is an incredible amount of need to make sure that somewhere in our consciousness we are mindful that not only are there veterans who are struggling, but there are a lot of homeless vets that we are turning our backs on, and as we come in to Thanksgiving and Christmas, we take that into consideration. In conjunction with that, there are a lot of serving military who have family here that may have a water heater that’s broke, or may have grass that needs cutting, or may have a car that needs the oil changed. We talk abut the veterans, and July 4th wouldn’t be here without them, but what about the families back home who are taking the kids to soccer on their own, or fixing the house on their own, or taking care of the lawn on their own, or dealing with all the family crises that we do collectively that they can’t because a spouse is away. He encouraged us to take them to that place where you go when you contemplate what you do, and see what can be done in your area of influence for (a) veterans that are homeless, and (b) the families of those who are currently serving that might have special needs that we as a community can take care of on a Saturday afternoon instead of watching Georgia whip on other teams across the southeast. He said he feels that these are two important issues that are being overlooked, and he feels these are issues the Madison Forum should be mindful of as well.