George Rhynes’ video of the last two citizens speaking at the
7 November 2011 County Commission meeting has
interesting closeups on the county staff while
the Chairman was answering Matt Portwood.
Then at 1:35 Tony Daniels answered the request for “any other business”
by walking up to the podium and talking.
He cited life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness
from the Declaration of Independence:
How can we pursue happiness when we don’t even have a job?
I believe the city and county and Industrial Authority and the Chamber of Commerce
need to work more together to create an atmosphere of trying to bring more
industry inside the city.
We have highways coming through Valdosta.
I hope to see in the near future that the county and the city and the
Industrial Authority and the Chamber of Commerce
work like brothers and sisters.
Because you know and I know that you are elected by the people
of the people and for the people, and I’d like to see that….
Because we need more entrepeneurs, we need to see all governments
in this area promote that….
I suspect the Chairman was asking the Commissioners whether they
had any other business, but he wasn’t clear about that.
I think what Tony Daniels had to say was important, and citizens
should be able to say they have other business.
However, since he had not signed up to speak before the meeting started,
he was in violation of
Rule #1 from the Commission’s hastilly adopted Policies and Procedures
for Citizens Wishing to Be Heard::
- Persons wishing to speak at “Citizens Wishing to be Heard” shall sign in
with the Clerk of the Board of Commissioners. The Clerk shall be available
for this purpose at least 10 minutes before the scheduled time at which the
meeting will begin. Each person signing in shall provide his or her name,
his or her mailing address, his or her daytime telephone number, whether he
or she is a resident of the County, whether he or she is a taxpayer of the
County, the subject on which he or she wishes to speak, and the action
requested of the Board of Commissioners, if any. The Clerk shall prepare
and have available a form for the purpose of persons signing in to speak.
Neither the Chairman nor any Commissioner made any objection to that
violation of their own rules.
Of course, by now, no one should be surprised to discover yet another way
in which those rules are merely guidelines completely at the discretion
of the Chairman.
Which makes me wonder why they have them at all….
Here’s
the video:
How can we pursue happiness when we don’t even have a job? —Tony Daniels @ LCC 7 November 2011
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 November 2011.
Videos by George Boston Rhynes for K.V.C.I., the bostongbr on YouTube.
-jsq