Register returns as Cobb Public Safety Director, minus a national executive search

In what seems like a revolving door in Cobb, Michael Register is poised to return as the Director of Public Safety, minus a national executive search. Cobb Commissioners released the news last week that they will vote on hiring Register, who is currently the Director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. 

Register has reportedly informed Gov. Brian Kemp that he will resign from the position of GBI Director. If approved, Register will be returning to a job he once held in Cobb.

Not new to Cobb County law enforcement, Register has served in a number of high profile roles. Register was hired as Cobb County police chief in 2017. Two years later, he was promoted to Public Safety Director in 2019. 

Citing personal reasons, Register resigned months later to take a role in Florida. In 2021, Register was back in Cobb, this time working as an assistant chief to Cobb Sheriff Craig Owens. In 2022, Kemp tapped him as the next head of the GBI after Vic Reynolds was appointed to the Cobb Superior Court.

If approved, Register would step into a currently vacant role. Former Public Safety Director, Randy Crider, who took over after Register resigned years earlier, retired from the position at the end of 2022. Since the beginning of the year, Cobb Fire Chief Bill Johnson has been serving as interim director.

Many in the community say they like Michael Register and the work he has done in the past, but are taken aback by the current position and comments offered by Cobb Chair Lisa Cupid and point to her failure to conduct a national search for this executive role. 

They reminded SPOTLIGHT that this was a prerequisite for Cupid in 2020, when Cobb County was hiring a new County Manager. Then Chairman Mike Boyce had nominated Dr. Jackie McMorris to be the new County Manager after Rob Hosack retired from the role. McMorris, who had served with distinction as a deputy County Manager for a number of years under him, was more than capable and qualified to perform the job. 

Cupid did not support McMorris’ nomination and spent over an hour during the meeting talking  about why she could not vote for McMorris and why an executive search was necessary. After her dissertation on why she could not support McMorris, the votes were cast. Cupid was the only commissioner who voted against McMorris. 

With the votes of four White Commissioners that saw more in her than Cupid could see, McMorris became the first Black Woman to serve in this role. The only no vote that McMorris received came from the only Black Commissioner on the board, Cupid. She voted no saying she thought a national search was needed. Yes, Cupid tried to stop a Black woman from becoming the first in her category, but when she ran  the next year for Chair, Cupid sang from the rooftops that she would become the first Black Chairwoman of Cobb County, which was self-serving. Cupid told the AJC at the time that she could not vote for McMorris because the board did not open the hiring process up, either internally or externally, or consider any other candidates.

Fast Forward to now, and Cupid’s abandoning of the need for an executive search for the latest vacant high level positions in Cobb is also telling. Said some, it was never about an executive search, it was making sure no one had a greater role than hers, which meant voting no against McMorris. 

Cupid released a statement that said “…it will be a tremendous benefit to our citizens to have a director who has already forged relationships in the community and has a deep understanding of the opportunities we have as a county.” This is odd as it was the same argument that her fellow Commissioners made about supporting the hiring of Dr. Jackie McMorris. Cupid could not see the importance of voting for someone with these forged community relationships at the time because it was blocked by her own ambition.  

The board is scheduled to vote on Register’s appointment during its 7 p.m. Tuesday meeting. Michael Register said in a news release, “It has been an honor to be the director of the GBI and serve under one of Georgia’s greatest governors, Brian Kemp. I leave a great law enforcement agency with some of the most dedicated and competent professionals I have ever worked with. I look forward to leading the tremendous men and women who make up public safety in Cobb County and once again serve a great community.”

Register’s background includes having served his country for over two decades in the U.S. Army Special Forces and working with the FBI and at the Pentagon.