Court clerk candidates set to debate

Incumbent will face three Dems, former Cobb Co. attorney.

Candidates for Cobb County superior court clerk will participate in a forum Thursday night ahead of the primary election in May.

Incumbent candidate Connie Taylor’s first term has been fraught with controversy, and she now faces several Democratic primary challengers, along with a Republican candidate who will face the primary’s winner in the November election.

The three Democrats running include Brunessa Drayton, who once worked in Cobb Commission Chair Lisa

Cupid’s office and for U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff’s office; Carole Melton, a bailiff in Cobb County courts; and Nick Simpson, who also ran for the office in 2020 and used to work as COO in the superior court clerk’s office. Deborah Dance, former Cobb County attorney, is running as a Republican.

Taylor first came under scrutiny in 2022 after an investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported she had taken $425,000 in passport fees as personal income during her first term in office. Under state law, clerks are allowed to claim passport processing fees as income, but Taylor had also taken funds paid to cover expedited shipping costs for passport applications.

After the report, Taylor agreed to pay the county $84,000 from expedited shipping fees she told commissioners had been taken “in error.” When a letter from a whistleblower who worked in the clerk’s office came to light, Taylor then withdrew her memo in the middle of a board of commissioners meeting before the board could approve it.

The whistleblower employee alleged Taylor ordered her to delete records involving the passport fees rather than fulfill an AJC request under the Georgia Open Records Act.

Taylor has not yet returned the $84,000 she said was taken in error, and the matter has not been brought before the board, said county spokesman Ross Cavitt.

Taylor did not respond Monday to a request for comment. The GBI has opened an investigation into her office, which was referred to Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr in March for prosecutorial review, GBI spokeswoman Nelly Miles said via email.

In 2023, Taylor faced renewed scrutiny after a Cobb County judge posted on social media about the severe backlog at the clerk’s office that has caused frustration for attorneys and judges alike. Documents for cases in the superior court clerk’s web portal were nearly three months behind, causing case delays, the Marietta Daily Journal first reported.

The candidate forum will take place at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Zion Baptist Church, 165 Lemon St., Marietta. It will also be livestreamed.