City of South Fulton, GA - Mayor Kobi
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South Fulton Mayor Proposes Changes to the City Charter 
to be Voted by the People in 2026 Ballot Referendums

A City's charter is its Constitution.  The only member of City Council to serve terms as Mayor and a City Councilmember, Mayor Kobi is proposing the following changes to South Fulton's City Charger; and that these proposed changes — and any others — be put to vote by the citizens of the city.  With the help of South Fulton's Georgia State House and Senate members, any of all of these suggestions could be placed on the November 2026 Ballot for consideration by the entire city. 

REDUCING INFIGHTING & ELECTION YEAR POLITRICKS

1. Hold Elections for the Entire City Council Once Every 4 Years

The quickest way to reduce Election year antics is to reduce the number of Election Years. While cities like Atlanta, elect the entire Mayor and Council every four years; the City of South Fulton's original Charter set up staggered terms. Staggered terms are supposed to create more stable boards, preserving institutional knowledge by preventing the possibility that an entire City Council and Mayor could be voted out at one time. But never in history has the entire City Council been turned over in single election.

While the intention to create staggered terms in South Fulton may have been to create stability, it has done the opposite. In South Fulton, every other year is an election year, with Councilmembers rushing the passage of "undercooked" legislation to campaign on, which City staff are pressured to execute in time for elected to campaign on at events they pile on to the City's calendar. The frequency of elections also encourage elected in the this "strong Council" form of government to publicly attack their political opponents with the hopes of replacing those opponents with Council allies with which they can run the City through a majority of 4 votes.

In order to return to electing everyone on City Council at the same time — the terms of those being elected this year (the Mayor and Council Districts 2, 4 & 6), or those being elected in 2027 (Council Districts 1, 3, 5, 7) would have to be shortened to two years.  The cleanest way to achieve this would be to shorten the next term of Districts 1, 3, 5 and 7 — who are not up for Election until 2027 — so their next terms would run in concert with those being elected this year to end in 2029.  However, Mayor Kobi has pledged to accept limiting his next term to only two years, so Councilwide Elections could begin as early as 2027. ​​

South Fulton's Original City Charter (2016 State House Bill, HB 514) calls for City Council to serve staggered terms (lines 324-331, pg 10). This means every other year is an election year in South Fulton.

2. Stop Councilmembers from Suing Each Other with Taxpayer Funds

Since 2022, South Fulton's City Council have spent $300,000 in taxpayer funds in lawsuits and investigations against Mayor Kobi. Attorneys for the Robbins Firm — a Republican lobbying firm with limited municipal experience, fired by the City after failing to file routine paperwork to collect $ in revenues owed by Fulton County — have billed South Fulton taxpayers $200,000 on a 2022 case filed by Councilmembers seeking to remove Mayor Kobi from office (top left). With the case still open, the Robbins firm continues to bill the City of South Fulton.  

In 2025, when Mayor Kobi revealed he would run for re-election, Councilmembers called for a forensic audit of the Mayor's expenses — but not their own — even though hundreds of citizens signed a petition for a forensic audit on ALL City Council spending after a Comprehensive Review by the same autiting firm found that 30 percent of South Fulton's 76 Purchasing Credit Cards (P-Cards) transactions were made by Council, with many being “inconsistent with best, prudent practice, and expose the organization to waste, misuse, fraud, and reputational damage/loss of public trust,” including “considerable spending in higher risk areas such as food, travel, lodging, special events, equipment and materials” and “numerous instances of missing and non-itemized receipts.”

Upon completion of the $68,000 Forensic Audit of the Mayor, members of Council spent another $10,000 to sue the Mayor $5,000 of office renovations — even though over $500,000 was spent during this same period to renovate City Hall, including purchasing all new furniture for City Council's offices.  The actions of South Fulton's City Council follow a disturbing trend in national and local government in which elected officials are using the power and resources of their offices to investigate and prosecute their political opponents. City Councils of neighboring municipalities, including College Park, Jonesboro and Stone Mountain have also been drowning legal warfare, with Councils re-writing legislation and conducting audits and investigations against their daily elected Mayors.  ​

Requiring Councilmembers to finance lawsuits against each other with their own money — instead of taxpayer funds — will limit the occurrence of these frivolous lawsuits which do nothing but bring the City bad press.  

CREATING A STRONGER MAYOR FOR MORE CITIZEN-CENTERED GOVERNMENT

3. Allow Each Mayor to Appoint a City Manager, Hire Department Heads (in Consultation with the City Manager) and Fire Department Heads (Without Approval from Council). 

Every version of the South Fulton's City Charter ever passed maintains that the Mayor is "the Chief Executive Officer," "the Spokesperson for the City" and "the Chief Advocate of Public Policy (3.22(a)." But the Mayor of South Fulton cannot hire or fire anyone in the City (Sec. 3.10A(3) — even the administrative staff who work in his office. ​Though the Mayor is only City leader voted on in Citywide elections, he is the least powerful official in the city. The most powerful and highest paid person in South Fulton — the City Manager — is elected by no one; and may remain in power long after a new Mayor is elected.  

Mayor Kobi's election represented the first transition of Mayor's in South Fulton's history. Hoping to set a precedent for all Mayor's to follow, Mayor Kobi requested the resignation of all Mayoral appointees. "Each Mayor, chosen by the People in the City's only citywide election, should be able to create an administration that reflects the vision and goals for the City on which he or she campaigned." City Council issued an official reprimand of the Mayor for even making the suggestion. 

When the Mayor used the powers allowed in the 2022 version of the City Charter to fire the City Attorney for incompetence, City Council voted to overturn his firing; rehired the City Attorney; and changed the City Charter to prohibit the Mayor from firing the City Attorney with out a costly, Public Hearing and vote by City Council. Mayor Kobi challenged these actions in Court (which attorneys he paid for himself), citing Georgia State  which states "the members of the municipal governing body shall not have the right to... alter such duties or responsibilities as specifically given to a particular elected official by charter" (O.C.G.A. 36-34-2(2).  Whether any of City Council's actions were legal is still under review by the Courts.  

Just one year after being re-hired by City Council, the City Attorney was put on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) after receiving a low score during his Annual Performance Review.  In those few months, the City Attorney thoroughly failed to review a Sanitation Contract, rushed through passage by City Council during the 2023 City Council Election Year. The resulting contract has left South Fulton operating its citywide Sanitation services in red, by at least a half-million each year since 2023.  In 2024, and unknown clause in the contract required the City to pay $1.8 million to purchase the trashcans delivered to the cities 40,000 homes (the trashcans we thought to be included in the initial set up fees for the service). The City Manager has already warned City Council that South Fulton will have to raise its sanitation fees to make the service revenue neutral. However, City Council opted to put off the fee increase until 2026 — after this year's elections.  

In 2022, over the objects of Mayor Kobi, City Council rushed through a contract to repair the pool at Welcome All Park; and then a Change Order on the contract in 2023. The renovations, which were supposed to cost just over $3 million dollars and be completed by Fall of 2022, ran a year behind schedule and ended up costing the City over $7 million. In 2025, it was discovered that the new roof installed in the $7 million renovation was leaking — and not covered by a warranty. The City is currently review quotes for repairs, which are likely to cost hundreds of thousands more.  

In 2022, during his first year in office, Mayor Kobi, was alerted to corruption in the South Fulton Police department by its rank & file officers, which was then confirmed by an independent investigation conducted by the Smyrna Police Department (see document right).  City Councilmembes threatened to get rid of the City Manager if she didn't "stay out of police business" (see letter, right). When City Council failed to stand behind the City Manager, City Council took a Vote of No Confidence in the Mayor and publicly pledged their support of the Police Chief. The City Manager was forced out by City Council in 2023, and the investigation stalled. With no actual authority to remove the Chief, South Fulton Police officers suffered in silence for three more years, until a flurry of public lawsuits forced them to reconsider their position. Even though an Operational Review conducted in 2024 made over 100 recommendations — most of which were not enacted — City Council authorized a second Operational Review for $85,000 (giving the contract to the City Manager to sign without the Mayor even seeing it). South Fulton's Police Chief is now on indefinite, Paid Administrative Leave at $18,000 per month; while the City Manager has hired a new Public Safety Direct to oversee the Police (and Fire) Departments at $25,000 per month.

The barring of City Council to direct staff has been interpreted by City Attorneys to also bar the Mayor from attending meetings of Department Directors.  Mayor Kobi believe that while the City Manager should remain the City's Chief Administrative Officer and run the day-to-day operations of the City, the Mayor — the only city's only citywide elected official  — must be empowered to make changes in such extreme circumstances as those listed above.  Unlike the City Manager, who can be fired by a vote of City Council, the Mayor cannot be bullied by threats of termination into keeping bad department heads or firing good ones.  

Changes That Could Be Made Without Touching the City Charter

4. Abolishing the Use of Roberts Rules for Council Meetings

The primary function Roberts Rules of Order —  popularly known as Roberts Rules — is to limit debate in large legislative bodies with hundreds of members, like Congress, Parliaments or State Legislatures. However, City Councilmembers have repeatedly used Roberts Rules to interrupt and limit their political opponents from debating controversial items; at times even removing entire items from the Agenda. Just has we have watched Republicans in Congress block discussion or debate of Health Care Reforms and Supreme Court judges, members of City Council used these parliamentary procedures to block public discussion of crime and deteriorating conditions in Camelot on Old National; and review of the City's rushed Sanitation Contract & Tax on South Fulton Homeowners. City Council also used these rules to walk on a Forensic Audit of the Mayor's city account, while blocking any discussion or vote requested by citizens for City Council to audit themselves.