Is Cobb Chair Movin On Up?

The Jeffersons was an iconic TV show that ran for 10 years, from 1975 to 1985. “George and Weezy” led a cast of characters that made us laugh each week. Its opening theme music was a memorable jingle we all continue to sing to this day, which has many humming the tune for the Cobb Chair.

Well we’re movin’ on up, To the east side. To a deluxe apartment in the sky. Movin’ on up, To the east side. We finally got a piece of the pie. Fish don’t fry in the kitchen; Beans don’t burn on the grill. Took a whole lotta tryin’…Just to get up that hill. Now we’re up in the big leagues, Gettin’ our turn at bat. As long as we live, it’s you and me baby…ain’t nothin wrong with that…

After getting several calls about the Chair moving, many have asked us to look into this story while singing the catchy tune. Has the Cobb Chair abandoned the South Cobb community for greener pastures in the form of a Vinings zip code? South Cobb citizens reached out to SPOTLIGHT to vent as rumors have been growing each week that the Chair has turned her back on the community that voted for her and has moved her family to move to a new zip code.

If true, in her rear-view mirror is a community that she formally resided in since being elected as a commissioner that has a trucking company outside of its front gates (that she voted for as commissioner); a community with limited to no sidewalks so people are forced to walk in the streets as they dodge oncoming cars; and a community with streets that flood after rainstorms because of inadequate drainage problems, among other quality of life problems that were never addressed as she served as commissioner for the area.

Some are calling her move to a new zip code a slap in the face for the people from South Cobb that elected her to her current role. Those that voted for her in this area say this feels like a betrayal, pointing to commitments Cupid made to them as she campaigned. They claim she promised them that she would stay in the area and not leave if elected. Others who have followed her political voyage say it is shocking, but not unexpected because the Chair has always been “tone deaf” on issues and chooses to function like a novice when it comes to the optics of politics.

These critics point to numerous missteps on Cupid’s part including her touting a message of being elected the first black woman Chair of Cobb County juxtaposed to her being the single vote on the Commission in 2020 against another black woman becoming the first female and black County Manager. We recall that in a 4 to 1 vote, with all four white Commissioners voting to confirm Dr. Jackie McMorris as the first woman of color for the role, Cupid, the lone black vote on the commission, voted No. They also point to the contract she championed for the firm of a former Fulton County Commissioner turned businessman, that cost taxpayers nearly a half million dollars for a study in South Cobb that went nowhere and delivered nothing. The back story is that years ago, this former official went to jail on ethics charges as a commissioner in a neighboring county, started a business after he served his time, and rose to becoming a darling of Cupid as she directed Cobb tax dollars his way. One cannot forget the Chair’s missteps this year involving her husband and the non-profit board that he resigned from after the Chair was tagged with an ethics charge by a fellow Cobb lawmaker.

As these conversations are making its way around South Cobb, some suggest that the Chair can live anywhere in Cobb that she can pay to live in as she serves the entire county. However, others return to the optics, saying they are unfamiliar with any other person being elected to such a high position in county government that ups and moves within days of taking office from a community that championed their election.

If Cupid is seeking a community with a better zip code, she does so with a salary that jumped from $45,176.86 as a commissioner to $140,631 as chair, which would support a Vinings zip code, if the rumors are true. Critics agree there is not a law against her moving, but like everything else, the optics continue to look bad for the Chair.

So, the community wants to know if the Chair is still our neighbor in South Cobb or has “Weezy and George” moved to a big house on the hill in Vinings? Tongues will continue to wag until we have an answer and SPOTLIGHT will bring the latest news on this topic to you as soon as we have it.