The VDT report doesn’t say when or where, and doesn’t say whether
Dexter Sharper (District 177) wasn’t invited or chose not to attend.

There’s nothing about this meeting in the online

agendas
or

calendar,
even though that calendar lists

Pictures with Santa at the Historical Courthouse (12/19/2013).

There is this undated

public notice with no agenda:

The Lowndes County Board of Commissioners will meet with members of
Lowndes County’s Legislative Delegation on Friday, December 20,
2013, at 4:00 p.m. in the Commissioner’s Conference Room located on
the 3rd floor of the Judicial-Administrative Complex, 327 North
Ashley Street, Valdosta, Georgia.

K. Paige Dukes, County Clerk

pdukes@lowndescounty.com 229-671-2400

Matthew Woody wrote for the VDT 22 December 2013,

Commissioners host local delegation,
oddly omitting the when and where and much of the why from
the traditional

who, what, when, where, and why of journalism.

The Lowndes County Commission hosted Sen. Tim Golden and House
Representatives Amy Carter, Ellis Black, and Jason Shaw to discuss
the needs of the county in preparation for the next Georgia
Legislative session.

The Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) and the earlier qualifying and
primary dates for Georgia representatives were among the items
discussed.

Commissioners requested that the representatives help to re-enact
the original LOST referendum where the revenues would be based upon
population and to show the reduction of property taxes on the bill
as a credit against the amount of property taxes owed.

“It’s a struggle between the Association of County
Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG) and the Georgia Municipal
Association (GMA),” Ellis Black said. “It should be
based on the value of the property, not the population.”

That article includes a long list of items “the Lowndes County Commission wants the representatives to look at”, including
The Motor Fuel Excise Tax Exemption,
Bridges and Off-system Bridges,
SPLOST VII (buried in the item on bridges),
Libraries,
Annexation/De-annexation,
Alcohol Beverage Tax,
taxing online purchases,
and no less than four items related to incarceration:
Inmate Heath[sic] Care,
Juvenile Justice Reform,
Magistrate Court Fees,
and Assume Full Financial Responsibility for State Prisoners.
Yet there’s no publicly-visible agenda.
And that list does not include anything about

the proposed Sabal Trail methane pipeline.

This one is pretty rich:

• Libraries
  
  Lowndes County currently pays one million in operating funds and
  approximately $40,000 in legal fee funding, and they are requesting help
  from the state level due to the cuts made in recent years.

Yet the county government sees no problem with

spending money on legal fees
to sue a local business, and losing.
Let’s see a number on how much that cost.

I do agree with the county about this one, though:

• Inmate Heath Care
  
  The ACCG requested assistance to maximize the Medicaid dollars for
  inmates who are eligible because of the increasing cost of inmate medical
  needs. Lowndes County pays $1.2 million for inmate medical costs annually.

Maybe the state should stop locking up so many people in the first place.
And the state should accept federal Medicare aid.

And I agree with County Chairman Bill Slaughter on this one:

• Juvenile Justice Reform
  
  Lowndes County received a $200,000 grant for juvenile
  rehabilitation. “Juvenile offenders need special attention and
  need to be handled differently,” Slaughter said. ACCG is
  requesting more state funding to increase the public defenders and
  prosecutors.

Local citizens might have wanted to see this meeting,
or even have a chance to talk to their state legislators.
But no worries.
Transparency is not a problem.

Chairman Bill Slaughter said so.

-jsq