Ga. City Plans Police Force After Deal With County Breaks Down

Mableton Mayor Michael Owens says his city has little choice but to establish its own police department after the Cobb County government declined to offer a long-term policing agreement and included what he described as a “crippling provision” in a proposed intergovernmental agreement.

“It wasn’t our goal, wasn’t what we asked or, it was the situation we found ourselves in going into mediation,” Owens told the Journal Thursday.

The city has preferred to continue contracting with Cobb for law enforcement services. Since Mableton’s incorporation, Owens said city leaders had planned to rely on the Cobb County Police Department and entered mediation seeking a long-term agreement that would have extended through 2034.

“We were happy with the Cobb County police force, and (it was) something that we had planned on doing,” Owens said.

Instead, Owens said it quickly became clear during negotiations that county officials were no longer willing to offer a long-term arrangement.

“It became very apparent, very quickly, that the county no longer had that as an option for us, and that we were going to have to determine the future of Mableton’s public safety in a way that would not directly include Cobb County Police Department being our law enforcement service.”

As a result, Owens said he now personally favors creating a city-run police department.

“We have to be able to have safety and security in what public safety looks like, not just for tomorrow, but for next month, and for next year, and for the next decade,” he said. “And the only way now that it seems that we’re going to be able to do that is have our own public safety office that includes a police force.”

Funding through new tax

The cost of establishing a police department would be funded through Mableton’s citywide Public Safety Special Service District, which was originally set up to pay the city’s police services bill to the county, Owens said.

“There’s an amount of comfort that is there for what we’ve already estimated in our budget to be able to do this,” he said.

In December 2025, the Mableton City Council approved the creation of a citywide public safety special service district, which allows the city to levy a tax to pay for public safety services. The city’s proposed fiscal year 2027 budget estimates approximately $21 million in revenue from the district.

Though Owens had previously said a millage rate had not yet been determined, he told the Journal Thursday that the $21 million estimate was based on a citywide tax rate of 4 mills.

That figure could change, however, as the city continues evaluating the cost of establishing and operating its own police force amid the ongoing dispute with Cobb County.

“Obviously, that was pre-’Go get your own police force, Mableton,’” Owens said.

Owens added that planned tax exemptions for disabled veterans and senior residents are still being developed.

Mediation dispute

The latest conflict stems from a disagreement over court jurisdiction and revenue from misdemeanor cases occurring within Mableton.

County officials argue those cases should continue to be processed through Cobb County State Court, while Mableton leaders maintain they belong in the city’s newly established municipal court.

Who first introduced the issue remains disputed. County leaders have suggested Mableton raised the concern, while Owens argues the disagreement originated from a provision county officials “quietly tucked” into a proposed intergovernmental agreement.

The city and county spent nearly 10 hours in mediation on May 22, ultimately reaching an agreement under which Mableton would pay Cobb County approximately $15.65 million for one year of police and transportation services. Of that, $13 million would fund one year of police services, while $2.65 million would cover the first year of routine transportation services within the city. The agreement also called for Mableton to pay the federal mileage rate of 72.5 cents per mile for transporting inmates charged with violating city ordinances to jails outside Mableton or Marietta.

Mableton was also required to pay the county $9.5 million for police services under the previous arrangement from June 1, 2025 to May 31, 2026, including a $3 million payment due at the end of May and the remaining balance by Dec. 31.

That police services agreement, however, expired Sunday.

Owens believed there was a misconception as to what was “actually discussed and agreed to in mediation” versus the proposed intergovernmental agreement, or IGA, that was later drafted.

“In mediation, we agreed to a compromise proposal for mediation, and we agreed to that,” Owens said. “The mediator signed it, I signed it and Chairwoman (Lisa) Cupid signed it. That agreement says nothing about court services.”

He noted the mediation agreement specifically stated all terms would need to be incorporated into a mutually acceptable IGA before becoming binding.

The Cobb Board of Commissioners approved the agreement May 26, and the Mableton City Council approved it the following day, authorizing Owens to finalize negotiations and sign the document. Owens contends the county approved a version that was never mutually agreed upon.

“When we brought to the county the fact that we’ve got some issues with this IGA… they basically said too late, we’ve already approved it,” Owens said.

‘Crippling provision’

At the center of the disagreement is a clause stating that any court revenue generated from cases taken to court during the agreement period would be paid to the county.

Owens described the provision as a “poison pill.”

“When I made the statement that would cripple our court services, it wasn’t because we have to have moving violations or Section 40 revenue from the courts,” Owens said. “It was because the IGA, as the county approved, would take all court revenue, including our own local municipal court revenue for code violations and everything else.”

Owens said the city received the proposed IGA “mere hours” before mediation began.

“We did not receive the IGA from the county until the day before, about four hours before in the business day, the day before mediation,” he said. “That was a brand new document. We had never seen that document before.”

According to Owens, he did not discover the disputed language until the week after mediation. He added that court services were never discussed during the mediation process, nor were they listed in the mediation terms of agreement.

“I asked for that one line to be removed, and we could have gotten past this without all the commotion and unrest, simply by changing one line in this IGA,” he said.

The disagreement has left the city without a police services agreement after the previous contract expired Sunday.

While stormwater and transportation agreements remain in place, Cobb County currently lacks legal authority to directly provide police services to Mableton.

To avoid interruptions in emergency response and 911 operations, Cobb County Sheriff Craig Owens is temporarily deputizing Cobb police officers, allowing them to continue responding to calls for service.

County officials have emphasized the arrangement is temporary and should not be relied upon long term. Owens said he has not received formal communication from the county regarding when the arrangement will end.

“Nothing that I have done, nothing that the chairwoman ( Lisa Cupid) has done, nothing that either the city or the county has done has or will compromise the safety of the residents in the city of Mableton,” Owens said. “...What this was was a disagreement over certain jurisdictional aspects of Mableton and Cobb County continuing to evolve.”

Owens said negotiations with the county remain ongoing and expressed hope that a compromise can still be reached.

“We asked for the county to come back to the table and negotiate with us, and my understanding is, speaking with our attorney, that they have started negotiating at least attorney to attorney,” Owens said.

Owens also announced plans for a June 15 town hall meeting, where city leaders will outline Mableton’s long-term public safety strategy and provide residents with an update on plans for its new Public Safety Division.

The meeting will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Riverside EpiCenter.

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