Ott's focus: 'truly restructuring and reorganizing county government'

After coming out on the losing side of this week's vote to raise the millage rate on property taxes, Cobb commissioner Bob Ott said Wednesday he'll keep pressing to slice more spending from the county budget. 

In a meeting of the East Cobb Civic Association, the District 2 Republican, who represents parts of East Cobb and Smyrna, outlined several money-saving options he has gathered that total more than $25 million.

He referenced that sum on Tuesday before the commission voted 3-2, with Ott and fellow East Cobb representative JoAnn Birrell opposed, to for the first time in more than 20 years. 

Holding papers with documentation of suggested cuts that came from a variety of sources, Ott said that prior to Tuesday's vote, the commission "has not discussed any options for anything other than do we raise taxes or do we cut expenses?"

Among the suggestions would be to close five smaller libraries located near regional libraries (he said the East Marietta branch had been included on other lists he saw, but he did not include it on his); sell empty buildings, including two recently closed senior centers; privatize certain programs within the county parks and recreation department; and move the property tax/water payments office located at the East Cobb Government Services Center to the East Cobb Library. 

Possibilities for raising revenues also include a $60 annual or $5 monthly fee for seniors to use senior centers and an annual $25 fee for home alarm registration. Ott said Cobb has 60,000 home alarms a year, and the fee would amount to $1.3 million.

He said he wanted to wait on a millage rate vote for the completion of duties by the Citizen Oversight Committee he advocated last fall that is closely reviewing county finances and spending.

"I'm concerned that in six to eight months, if we're not careful, we're going to be where we were in April," Ott said. 

That's a reference to the painful budget decision the commission made to impose 10 percent across-the-board cuts, including employee furloughs, to make up for a $30 million shortfall on top of more than $21 million in reductions to balance the fiscal year 2011 budget.

Commission chairman Tim Lee is expected to unveil a budget next month, with a likely vote by the commission at the end of August. 

Ott said his suggestions were aimed as a bridge through fiscal year 2012, and then he plans to "focus on truly restructuring and reorganizing county government.”