Welcome
Andrea Shuijer Schruijer to a great opportunity as the new Executive
Director of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA)!
For a year I’ve been asking for a list of jobs attracted by the
Authority. We welcome your marketing expertise so we’ll know
the Authority’s successes!
We welcome your communications expertise to inform the community
affected by the process of bringing new jobs. VLCIA could publish
its agendas, minutes, and videos of its meetings, events, and
new jobs on its web pages, and facebook, maybe even twitter.
We welcome your stewardship of the Authority’s $3 million/year in taxes.
Maybe some
Chairman Paulk threatened the Humane Society with legal action last night:
…the Humane Society provided
two county employees with undercover cameras as a gratuity.
…
I want those two undercover cameras returned by my two employees,
or there will be some administrative action.
…
I’m making this a public record.
…
If I don’t get those cameras back and the gratuity
I’m going to pursue it through the Sheriff’s office.
…
Needs to be public record in the VDT.
The picture shows Ashley Paulk (center)
motioning to VDT reporter David Rodock (foreground)
as he directs the VDT to publish what he just said.
Mechelle Sullivan is on the right, and
County Manager Joe Pritchard looks on from left.
Voting Commissioners Evans, Raines, and Powell
are just visible between Paulk and Sullivan.
The VDT did take dictation and publish that this morning, adding
this quote from Chairman Paulk:
“It’s a gratuity.
You can’t give a government employee something in order to get something in return.
It’s not legal.”
Other things are also not legal, yet never seem to be pursued.
Speaking of pursued, Chairman Paulk encountered a group of
Continue reading →
Michelle Sullivan said she volunteered for the Humane Society
for about 20 years, and she was speaking for herself.
She worked with Linda Patelski and observed “many things
that bothered me over the years.”
She said:
However, the most frustrating to me was the lack of enforcement of animal….
You know, this went on for a long time time and we were all very frustrated.
And so we finally decided that the only way to improve enforcement
was to strengthen animal control laws….
So the Human Society was very interested in strenghtening those laws.
And I think the animal control ordinances now are [better].
However, enforcement is still an issue.
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 28 June 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Sheriff Prine was at last night’s
budget hearing (his office accounts for more of the county
budget than anything else).
Afterwards I asked him how matters such as the complaints about
the animal shelter could be brought to the attention of his office.
He said that was a code enforcement matter, and if code enforcement
thought it rose to a criminal matter, they would take it to Magistrate
Court, which would issue a warrant, which would go to the Sheriff’s office,
where it would be pursued.
Then there’s the regular session of the County Commission; agenda appended.
They plan to vote tonight to approve the budget they never published.
-jsq
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JUNE 27, 2011, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JUNE 28, 2011, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
These are the open records that me and another animal control officer
sent to GDA
and I also have Amanda Jordans Statement if you would like
that. Please excuse some of the language in my statement she (pat smith
GDA inspector) told me to write it like it was said….
Vince Schneider warned county homeowners that it could happen to them, too:
To permit
the establishment of the Foxborough Avenue McDonalds, the county has
irreversibly established a most terrible precedence. You too can wake
up one morning to find a Fast food store being built in your front
yard.
Like many of us, he wondered what the county government is thinking:
I cannot comprehend how the county can possibly
benefit from allowing such an establishment to be built in a quite
county residential neighborhood. Is it because it provides unskilled
low paying jobs? Will this McDonalds look good on a resume? It was my
understanding that Valdosta and Lowndes County wanted to attract a more
skilled, professional work force. The real estate on Foxborough Avenue
the county permitted McDonalds to build on would have been, and is prime
real estate for just such a professional enterprise….
Residential home owners of Lowndes County take notice —Vince Schneider @ LCC 14 June 2011
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 14 June 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
After Vince Schneider finished reading his letter,
Chairman Ashley Paulk handed him a paper, which was apparently
a communication from County Engineer Mike Fletcher.
Appended is the text of the letter Vince Schneider read to the Commission.
Continue reading →
ATLANTA, Georgia (AFP) – A controversial immigration law in the US
state of Georgia has brought unintended results, forcing farmers to
reluctantly turn to ex-convicts as Latin American manual workers flee.
Low-skilled, undocumented workers, who for years have formed the backbone
of this southern state’s farming economy, have bolted in the lead-up
to the law taking effect on July 1, fearing deportation if caught
working here.
The measure’s mainly Republican supporters argue that the state needs
to enforce immigration laws in the absence of effective federal action,
saying schools, jails and hospitals are overburdened by illegal aliens.
But as the full cost of the immigration reform emerges in the form of
an estimated millions of dollars worth of crops rotting in fields, it
could alarm other states that have passed or are considering similar
strict measures.
The story quotes the figure of 11,000 needed workers,
and quotes some farmers about that the state’s scheme to
send people on probation to work on farms:
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For a year I’ve been asking for a list of jobs attracted by the Authority. We welcome your marketing expertise so we’ll know the Authority’s successes!
