Ilegimate Board Awarding Contracts in Unincorporated South Cobb

Good afternoon,

I hope this email finds you well! I was intrigued by the coverage Richard Belcher aired on Fort McPherson and the failure of the development agency to complete development from the remaining parcel of land. This recent story has prompted major concerns in the unincorporated South Cobb community since we have property also that has gone undeveloped for a much longer period of time.

The former apartment complex once known as Magnolia Crossing, located at 490 Six Flags Drive in unincorporated South Cobb was purchased by the South Cobb Redevelopment Authority (SCRA) for 3.7 million dollars on October 15, 2015. On September 4, 2018, the SCRA purchased the adjacent property of Magnolia Crossing for over 2.5 million. The SCRA now has a total of 50 acres of land ready for development.

SCRA has oversight on the development of this property, but has failed to show any leadership or take any action since this property was acquired in 2015. The SCRA holds regular monthly meetings providing no progressive input to the community. The community has raised concerns about their failure to develop the land, receiving only silence from the SCRA's board. After some researching, I have found several disturbing facts regarding the chair of the board, former state legislator, Doug Stoner, and the existing members of the board.

• First, Doug Stoner served on SCRA board as Vice Chair and the Smyrna Downtown Development Authority simultaneously, while he secretly helped Smyrna pillage land from Mableton annexing it into Smyrna unbeknowingly to the community.

• Doug Stoner failed to alert the community of unincorporated South Cobb of this annexation by Smyrna even though he had a fiduciary duty to the citizens of unincorporated South Cobb serving as Vice Chair of SCRA.

• Doug Stoner also served as a Smyrna city council member while serving as Chairman of the SCRA, totally a conflict of interest being his objective was to increase the jurisdictional boundaries of Smyrna by pillaging land from our community. A community he took an oath to redevelop and revitalize.

• Doug Stoner claims that he did not break any laws, but in the court of public opinion, our community believes that he did as I'm hoping you will find during your thorough investigation into this matter.

• Doug Stoner and members of the board have exceeded their term limits on the board according to the guidelines set by the Cobb Board of Commissioners & the Cobb Delegation, therefore this is an illegitimate board and should not be allowed to award contracts nor spend any additional tax payer's dollars.

• Some board members have boasted that they have been on the board for nine years. The legislation that created SCRA called for three to four year staggered terms.

• I'm attaching a copy of Senate Bill 266 which Doug Stoner authored and passed in the Senate changing the South Cobb Development Authority to South Cobb Redevelopment Authority. The boundary for the authority was increased all the way to Smyrna. I believe he made this change to make it easier to pillage land from our community. I'm also attaching a copy of the SCRA's presentation to the Cobb BOC which Doug Stoner, himself, outlines the term limits for the board. Notice also the dollar amount spent with no development on the property to date.

Decisions regarding millions of dollars, I strongly believe are being made by a group of “illegitimate” board members. Decisions being made by this board involving millions of dollars, land acquisition, and development of these parcels of land should not be legal due to their expired terms. I remember this same exact incident happening in Dekalb County.

I am requesting that you and your team of investigative reporters investigate what is occurring with Magnolia Crossing and the SCRA, similar to what was done for the Fort McPherson property and their development authority. I'm sure you'll find this to be newsworthy and a story that needs to be told! Doug Stoner is taking advantage of what he believes to be a poor community, showing us that he has no vested interest in our community. We can only achieve justice if you decide to use your platform to help us rid this community of the injustice that's taking place. I beg you to please launch an investigation into the SCRA and you'll find exactly what the community has found, we just need to have our story told.

Please respond to this inquiry as I can provide you further details and share additional concerns of the community regarding SCRA and Doug Stoner.

Thanks for your immediate attention to this matter,

Ms. Denny Wilson