MARIETTA — It was déjà vu at the Cobb Board of Commissioners’ planning meeting Monday.
For the second time this year, Chairwoman Lisa Cupid proposed an agenda item to move her $200,000 in contingency funding into an operational budget, and Commissioners Keli Gambrill and JoAnn Birrell once again expressed hesitancy.
This is the first year that each commissioner and the chairwoman are receiving their own contingency budget, which Gambrill said should only be spent to address constituent needs.
Cupid’s proposed shift would allow her to spend the funds in three buckets: professional services, programs and events, and office activity. The most controversial of those categories is professional services, where Cupid plans to use $100,000 to pay for policy research.
“We all have varied interests that we try to gain headway with … there is some research that I’d like to do that sometimes is more involved, so that I can be clear on what the outcome is before I share it,” Cupid said. “I certainly would like to be as well informed as possible before I share those things.”