Cobb County Police’s service contract with Mableton expires amid dispute

“So that ensures that we don’t have a disruption in services or procedures or what the expectations are from the community in Mableton,” Ferrell said at a Tuesday news conference at county police headquarters.

Credit: Estela Muñoz/AJC

Credit: Estela Muñoz/AJC

The issue that torpedoed the $13 million contract to extend county police service for another 12 months in Mableton, according to county officials, was the city’s demand that some misdemeanor citations be routed to Mableton’s municipal court rather than Cobb County State Court, as they are now.

In a statement, the county said routing citations to a separate court “would require complex operational and technological integration measures that are not feasible for a 12-month service extension.”

Mableton Mayor Michael Owens said it should not be difficult for the county to route citations to the city’s municipal court.

“This is 2026,” Owens said in an interview. “While I understand that there is technical work that needs to be done, we’re willing to do that.”

Owens objects to a section in the agreement saying all fines ordered by the county’s state and superior courts would go into the county’s general fund and that any court revenue resulting from a case during the term of the agreement would be paid to the county.

“This agreement cripples our municipal court,” Owens said. “We want the ability to have some misdemeanors, including traffic violations, heard in our court.”

Owens said a court annex is under construction and the city has hired staff for the new court, though he did not answer the question of how many employees. For now, the court is operating virtually and handles city code violations, he said.

He said the city has made significant investment in the court, but added: “I’m not sure exactly how much.”

At Tuesday’s news conference, Cobb Commission Chair Lisa Cupid said the city “put the cart before the horse” when creating its court and now is blaming the county.

“If they wanted a court, they would have ensured that they had the resources to do that,” Cupid said. “If they hired people to provide a service, they would have ensured that they had the resources to compensate those persons.”

On May 22, the city and county reached an agreement in mediation on the core terms under which Cobb would continue providing service, Cupid said.

County officials said the city demanded Friday that the contract be changed as the language was being finalized.

“For the 12 hours of mediation, they had the opportunity to review that agreement and see if there was anything material that they disagreed with, and it did not come up at the time,” Cupid said.

Owens said the city only received a copy of the agreement a few hours before mediation started and did not examine the document line by line during mediation. Thursday, city officials went through the contract again and prepared to raise issues it was concerned about with the county, he said.

Additionally, Owens said the city is “looking at the feasibility” of forming its own police department.

In the meantime, the county says it is “evaluating all available legal options to secure a lawful resolution to this matter as expeditiously as possible.”