Politics & Government

Home-Schooler Sends Commissioners a Message

A little child might not lead them, but an East Cobb 10-year-old offered them some directions on the budget.

The Cobb County Board of Commissioners' Tuesday drew upward of 300 people to the boardroom at 100 Cherokee St., but only 12 members of the general public had the opportunity to address the board. The youngest of them all also gave the most coherent critique of the county's budget.

Oak Martin, a home-schooled 10-year-old resident of East Cobb, wore a blue blazer and a tie as he smoothly delivered an address of more than two minutes to the commissioners and earned an ovation afterward.

He spoke during the second public-comment period, having already delivered a pro-library petition to the board. The board voted 4-1 earlier in the meeting to adopt an amended fiscal 2011 budget that avoids closing any libraries or raising property taxes but forces a 10 percent across-the-board cut to departmental operating budgets, closes the Windy Hill Senior Center and the county's adult day-care center by May 1, shifts the Mable House to rental-only use, and furloughs county employees for five days each.

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Those moves and several one-time cuts and actions, including tapping $4.5 million in reserve funds, closed a projected deficit of more than $27 million for the year ending Sept. 30.

Oak and his family live on Kinridge Road and regularly use the as part of their home-schooling. That's one of the four libraries that would have remained open under commission Chairman Tim Lee's initial budget-balancing proposal, which would have shut down 13 branches.

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In his speech, Oak questioned spending on the Cobblestone Golf Course and nonprofit groups. He doubted the enforcement of the county's hiring freeze. He contrasted county leaders' control of expenses and employees with his parents' handling of him. He accused the county leadership of having a discipline problem.

Oak said his mother, Anna Martin, helped him with the speech, but he understood and believed in what he said.


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