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Cupid’s Disappointing First Year as Cobb Chair

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After eight years as commissioner, Cupid revealed to the MDJ that she thought she had a solid idea of what she was getting into when she ran for Chair for Cobb County. Her actions since taking on the role show that Cupid was ill-prepared and remains a deer in headlights as a new year is upon us.

At the midpoint of her first year in office, SPOTLIGHT South Cobb News issued a report card on the performance of Cobb Chair Lisa Cupid. She received failing marks across the board from one subject area to the next. Six months later, we regret to inform you that the end of the year report card on Cupid is no better. As the leader of Cobb, Cupid has shown no signs of improvement in the job that she misled voters into thinking that she could perform.  

Many across the community have seen Cupid’s failures up close. They have also seen her wrath when they point out her errors and failings in office. Instead of getting their heads chewed off, many in and outside of government have elected to tiptoe around her and are afraid to say what is on their minds. They often seek out SPOTLIGHT South Cobb News to help tell their stories of frustration and alarm because the public has a right to know. 

A whispering campaign around Cobb’s government includes accusations of Cupid and her staff not showing up for work on most days, which leaves the support teams of others to pick up the workload that the chair and staff fail to perform.

When Cupid ran, she told the voters that she would be ready to lead on day one, but that has proven to be untrue. A company that secretly came to her in January to give her and others free lessons and training on how to perform their jobs were recently awarded a multi-million dollar contract to advise the county on how to spend the millions coming in from the federal government.

Instead of using the team from the county including County Manager Dr. Jackie McMorris and other seasoned department heads, Cupid has elected to construct a workaround – a pseudo-government – with this company and others. With them at the helm of decisions that they were never elected or appointed to make, this allows Cupid to work around any obstacle or person that gives her pushback on what she is trying to pursue. She will always get a yes on what she wants to do because she manipulates the outcome.

Some who supported Cupid are now realizing that their support was misplaced. They spent the first year whispering amongst themselves but are now willing to say aloud that they made a mistake.

They point to better days when they received support under former Chairman Mike Boyce, a moderate republican that did not allow an R or D next to a name to define how he treated the people of Cobb.

Many citizens in the South Cobb community knew that Cupid had no record of accomplishments that she could point to and that she was running on being the first black woman elected as chair. If the voters had only looked at Cupid’s tumultuous relationship with her fellow board members, they could have seen that she spent eight years on the commission achieving nothing, had a bad temperament, and could not get along with others.

Now that she has finished her first year in office as chair and voters have had a taste of government under Cupid, they are left with a bad taste in their mouths. Many are looking towards the next election cycle saying they will not forget Cupid’s flaws, her mismanagement of county government, or her hiring of outside companies to do the job she was elected to do while she sits back and does nothing.

In reading the MDJ article, many say it was laughable to hear that Cupid was fielding citizens’ calls. County employees with knowledge of her comings and goings say that Cupid does not take calls from constituents and meetings before 4 p.m. are forbidden, again, because she does not come into the office.

With racial injustice and violence erupting across the country, many forward-thinking communities are taking down symbols of hate. In Cobb, Cupid is doing the opposite. She, along with fringe groups from South Cobb, including a Civil War preservationist and another group claiming to represent the desires of the community, led the charge to name the newest park in Mableton after the Civil War. This occurred despite public outcry from the community that they did not want that in their diverse community. Cupid even held a ribbon-cutting to dedicate the racist named park.  The park and money dedicated to it could have been used in a way to bring people together. Instead, it was used to honor a racist past that deserves no honor. 

Cupid’s vision included placing the economic engines for Cobb County, Dobbins, and Lockheed, in harm’s way and starting a verbal fistfight with those from the business community who had the nerve to point out to her that she was wrong.  

There was no sensitivity exercised when she led that controversial zoning decision vote to build a condominium complex within Dobbins Air Reserve Base’s “Accident Potential Zone,” a decision opposed by Dobbins, the chamber, and the Cobb Planning Commission. Instead of leading the vote to correct this mistake as the business community pleaded with her, Cupid dug in and exacerbated the public feud with the Cobb Chamber of Commerce.

Here is your true measurement of Cupid’s inability to compromise and her insensitivity on issues of importance to Cobb and its people. Cupid was accused of jeopardizing the base’s future by the other elected leaders and the business community. Instead of responding to correct the error in judgment she foolishly argued a double standard was being applied. So much for thinking about what is best for Cobb.

Also, Cupid’s claim of meeting with federal officials for Cobb is a red herring. Please recall how Cupid refused to meet with Senator Warnock when he questioned her on her Dobbins vote. Even the Senator wondered what the ‘heck Cupid was thinking.’

Cobb is the third-largest county in Georgia, but Cupid has no standing from a state or regional perspective, and she knows it. Any suggestion to the contrary is a blatant attempt to mislead the community.

The State has a Republican Governor and both chambers are held by Republicans. Cupid has done absolutely nothing to build bi-partisan relationships at the capitol, which the citizens of Cobb expect their elected leader to do to get things done at that level for Cobb.

Her failure in this regard was highlighted during a recent legislative meeting by a Republican representative that heads transportation. He unknowingly enlightened us all by saying he had heard nothing from the Cobb Commission on the vitally important topic to our county – transportation.

So, let us assess  what is going on… Cupid is not coming to work, she is not responding to federal officials, she is not leading on issues, and she is not building relationships with those who can help Cobb. What is she doing?

There are several things we can confirm that Cupid has been doing. She is running around with two county taxpayer-financed police officers who are serving as her bodyguard. She is changing the dynamics of public engagement, leading an effort to shut down citizens’ ability to communicate with its government, she is threatening community meeting goers with police, she has changed the dynamics of community meetings where citizens are unable to speak, and she is holding meetings with hand-picked citizens on community issues instead of the general public. 

Not to be outdone by this list, Cupid is leading the efforts to stop communities in Cobb from becoming cities. Cupid encouraged her compatriots in the legislature to leak that they would not be supportive of these efforts to become cities and would block the actions. This bravado was laughable.

Nothing Cupid and her cronies have to say will change the minds of thousands of determined citizens who are pushing for their own rule. Now that they have seen governance under Cupid, they are even more anxious for cityhood to occur and will support it as soon as it comes up for a vote.

As citizens are looking toward Cityhood, many are also looking towards the next election cycle as names are being thrown into the hat as candidates to take her on for re-election. In addition to many hoping Boyce will come back and run, some see former Marietta Councilwoman Michelle Cooper Kelly as a better choice compared to Cupid. They believe Kelly would beat Cupid hands down because she knows how to effectively lead a bi-partisan government that is supposed to work for all of the people.

Many are pointing out the massive departures that have occurred at the departmental level since Cupid came into office including the police chief, who many says was forced out of his job by Cupid. They say Cupid has always had an ax to grind since she accused police years ago of following her home.

Not to be overlooked is Cupid voting for land deals for her favorite zoning attorney. She has closed the year out by funneling a contract to a former county commissioner, turned felon, turned businessman while failing to disclose her connection to him. She has helped him obtain contracts in the past with no deliverables ever being provided to the community for the hefty sums being paid out on these ‘sweetheart’ deals. Citizens and government watchdogs should pay close attention to this one.  

As for Covid, Cupid’s leadership during the pandemic is abysmal. Cupid lifted the mask mandate, which she had to re-issue weeks later after her ill-informed decision was met with rising numbers in Cobb.

The MDJ article attributes Cupid with saying her eye is always on the silver lining. Not so, as many observers attest. They have personally witnessed Cupid childishly rolling her eyes around while forced to listen to people she does not want to hear from. This also includes the unprofessional exchanges during testy commission meetings as she bullies and threatens others who disagree with her. 

Cupid is wearing rose-colored glasses to think she is seen as an optimist leading the county successfully. Truth be told, she is leading the county as a bully. She is bullying and intimidating her fellow commissioners, department heads, and citizens alike. Cupid has shown that she answers to no one, not even the citizens of Cobb.

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