Cobb seeks dismissal of lawsuit over district map

Mar. 28—Cobb County wants the lawsuit over its commission district map thrown out.

County attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit from east Cobb resident Larry Savage and Commissioner Keli Gambrill challenging the legality of the map.

The lawsuit is a response to the county commission's Democratic majority invoking "home rule" powers last October to redraw their own district boundaries, a decision Gambrill, fellow Republican Commissioner JoAnn Birrell, Republican state lawmakers and Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr opposed.

The controversy started when Democratic Commissioner Jerica Richardson was drawn out of her east Cobb District 2 early in 2022 by a Republican-sponsored local map, which was passed by the GOP-controlled General Assembly and signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp last March.

The county legal team's motion to dismiss cites a March Georgia Supreme Court ruling to argue the county and its Board of Elections cannot be sued in the same lawsuit.

That ruling on sovereign immunity places limits on how government officials and entities can be sued.

The motion from the county, signed onto by the Board of Elections, says the Georgia Supreme Court ruling, the State v. SASS Group LLC, found that a lawsuit against the state government violates sovereign immunity if it "asserts an independent claim against a party other than the county."

Thus, county attorneys argue since the suit from Savage and Gambrill is against both the county and the Cobb Board of Elections, Cobb Superior Court Judge Ann Harris must dismiss it.

The county will continue to operate under its own map until a judge rules otherwise in the case. Were Judge Harris to grant the county's motion, the lawsuit would need to be filed once again.

This is not the first lawsuit from Savage, an east Cobb resident, against the county. His initial suit, filed at the start of the year, was withdrawn with the promise of being refiled.

Gambrill joined in the filing of his second suit. She filed it as a resident and voter and not in her official capacity, though it notes the two are interrelated.

"(I)n both roles as an individual and a commissioner, she has an interest in having the BOC comprised of a group of individuals who have been elected in a fair and constitutional manner and who legally wield authority derived from a fair and constitutional election," the suit says.

Gambrill declined to comment on the matter Tuesday.

A first hearing in the case is scheduled for May 3, but with the motion to dismiss, that date could be subject to change.