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Our honest responses to HUD —George Rhynes and John Robinson

Received today. -jsq

September 26, 2012

George Boston Rhynes

5004 Oak Street

Valdosta, Georgia 31605 		TO: U.S. Department of Housing
and Urban Development

Valdosta City Government

Valdosta Housing Authority

Valdosta Industrial Authority

The following is our honest responses to HUD and in response to the
City of Valdosta’s 8th Year of responding to HUD CPMP
Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report. This includes
Narrative Responses to CAPER questions in relations to and with the
Consolidated Planning Regulations and questions from the general
public as highlighted on page 5, paragraph 1.


CITIZENS VIEW POINT
AND RESPONSES: {GEORGE BOSTON RHYNES AND JOHN ROBNISON}



after reviewing all previous CAPTER’S and the city’s
responses to them, I commend the City of Valdosta for responding to
HUD in an extremely professional manner on paper. One can see and
feel the professional prowess involved in providing these answers
the City of Valdosta has placed on paper over the city’s
(long) historic past. However, when one looks deeper into the
problems facing our beloved community, one will find the following
to be as Paul Harvey would say the rest of——-the story!


GENERAL QUESTIONS: The City of Valdosta’s response on the
issues remains the same as reported in many other CAPERS such as:

  • City attained the goal of:
  • # of homes was brought up to code.
  • Worked in conjunction with——
  • to train, resident
    information sessions were held that yielded nearly 30 attendees etc.
  • Staff continues to…., Overall, the city is pleased with
    the second Consolidated Plan Submission.
  • (3.a) The city hosted
    several Section 3 Information Sessions and will continue to provide
    more information to…. Work with local community and
    faith-based organizations to identify and address.
  • I could go
    on and on with these highly professional lines of what some see as
    solutions to the real problems in the City of Valdosta, Georgia.
    However there is another side and forgive me for not going through
    the complete CAPER in the above manner. I am sure your time is
    valuable; therefore I will cut through the chase and provide the
    following in response to the City of Valdosta RESPONSES. Not only to
    this CAPER but others we have read and taken into consideration:

A recent meeting held in the Valdosta City Annex about Community
Housing etc. perhaps exemplifies

Continue reading →

K12 CEO Packard: $5M in 2011, up 36%

Does your school superintendent get paid $5 million a year?
Ronald J. Packard, CEO of K12 Inc., the second biggest
donor to the pro-charter school amendment campaign, does.
Is that where you want your tax dollars to go?

According to Bloomberg Businessweek,

Executive Profile,
Ronald J. Packard CFA,
Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Director, K12, Inc.


K12 CEO Packard made $551,539 in salary in 2011,
but was awarded other compensation totaling $5,002,933.
Which is even richer than the

approximately $3,266,387 total compensation
private prison company CCA’s CEO Damon Hininger got in 2010,
which, according to Bloomberg Businessweek, apparently only went up to

3,696,798 in 2011.

According to
Emma Brown for the Washington Post 9 December 2011,

K12 Inc. chief executive Ron Packard paid $5 million compensation package in 2011,

That’s nearly twice the $2.67 million Packard earned in 2010. It
includes $551,000 in cash, $4.2 million in stock awards and about
$290,000 in other compensation.

Packard’s pay reflects a new employment agreement negotiated in
September 2010 and good until 2014. The company had $522 million in
revenue in 2011, up nearly 36 percent percent from the year before.

“We determined that these awards were necessary and
appropriate to retain Mr. Packard as our Chief Executive Officer and
in recognition of Mr. Packard’s leadership and performance over the
term of his employment with the Company,” the filing said.

Do we want our tax revenue going to retain K12 Inc.’s CEO?
What if we retain our local schools instead?
After all, it’s dubious that charter schools would be any better

Continue reading →

SPLOST VII campaign kicks off

Update 2012-09-27 8:50AM: Added video, stills, and notes about the County Palace and Internet access.

The seventh Special Local Option Sales Tax, SPLOST,
will be on the November ballot.
Not to be confused with the just-defeated

bogus regional transportation T-SPLOST,
or last year’s successful

educational ESPLOST,
or the

currently renegotiating property-tax-relief LOST,

SPLOST Campaign
SPLOST VII will follow up on SPLOST VI
in supporting local infrastructure projects.

Greg Gullberg reported for WCTV today,

Campaign Kicks Off For Valdosta Tax

(no video appears to be available):

The text story link has vanished, but

video has appeared.

There is a campaign in Lowndes County to rally for the tax called
SPLOST, or the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax. It could
bring in as much as $35 million, but that is only if voters say it’s
worth the extra pennies.

Continue reading →

Georgia Power inches towards more solar, trailing New Jersey

If you’re quick, you may be able to sell solar from your roof
to Georgia Power.
If the PSC approves a pending request.
If you get in before that new quota gets filled.
And if you’re a Georgia Power customer.
The rest of us?
Not until the
1973 Georgia Electric Territorial Act
is changed.
Until then, Georgia will continue to lag way behind New Jersey in solar power.


210 MW is more than 50 MW but way less than 3,000 MW

Walter C. Jones wrote for the Augusta Chronicle today,

Georgia Power plans to triple solar power use,

Georgia Power filed Wednesday seeking permission from state
regulators to more than triple the amount of solar power it uses to
generate electricity for its 2.4 million customers by swapping it
for what was already planned from other renewable sources.

What “other renewable sources”?

The Georgia Power plan won’t affect rates because it is based on
paying the solar providers what it would have paid the biomass
provider, 13 cents per kilowatt hour, which is already figured into
customer’s rates.

OK, that’s good, because it means biomass is well and truly
dead in Georgia.
But it also means Georgia Power isn’t very serious about solar,
if all it’s doing is fiddling with accounting for the small amount
of power biomass might have produced and not going for the real
numbers solar can produce.
OK, how many solar megawatts?

Continue reading →

Walton Family Foundation granted $1.05 million towards GA charter schools in 2011

The total amount of Walton family affiliate money backing the Georgia
charter school referendum is far larger than

Alice Walton’s $250,000.

In the Walton Family Foundation’s list of

2011 Education Reform Grants,
there are two Georgia organizations:


Georgia Charter Schools Association Inc. 700,000
Georgia Family Education and Research Council, Inc. 350,000

GCSA has

made the news quite a bit lately,


and its name makes its purpose pretty clear.
According to

the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA),
GCSA is a NACSA member.
You remember NACSA,

the organization that Zaid Jilani
discovered was an ALEC member, and that bailed out of
ALEC two days later.
That was in May 2012, after the Georgia legislature
passed the bill putting the charter school referendum on the ballot.

Georgia Family Education and Research Council, Inc. (GFERC)
is slightly less obvious. According

Continue reading →

Video Playlist @ LCC 2012-09-24

A parade of speakers not on the agenda extended yesterday morning’s
Work Session of the Lowndes County Commission.
They spoke about the

conference center,
about

South Georgia Partnership for Homelessness,
and about

health
and

life insurance.
Commissioners heard from staff about

repairs to a sewage lift station
and

laptops for the Sheriff’s office.
They vote on all these things at their Regular Session
tonight at 5:30 PM.

Here’s

the agenda,
annotated below with links to the videos and a few notes,
and followed by

a video playlist.



  1. Call to Order
  2. Invocation
  3. Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag
  4. Minutes for Approval

    1. Work Session — September 10, 2012
    2. Regular Session — September 11, 2012



    The Chairman announced guests not on the agenda.

  5. For Consideration




    1. Bevel Creek Lift Station Repair

      MR Systems’ quote for
      SCADA control panel was $13,775,
      plus another control panel $25,194, for a total of $38,969.
      Utilities Director Mike Allen said making an addition (presumably
      of the $25,194 control panel) would save four weeks of downtime.

    2. Dell Lease Agreement for Sheriff’s Office Laptops

    3. Contract with Corporate Health Partners



      County Manager Joe Pritchard said they had achieved
      $260,000 in savings towards projected $300,000 savings
      in health care expenses.
      He introduced
      Chris Park(?) with Park(?) Group and
      Jack Curtis with

      Corporate Health Partners      .
      Pritchard said the county Wanted to add a wellness program to improve
      employee quality of life and wellbeing.
      Chris Park(?)

      spoke first.
      He introduced Jack Curtis,
      who spoke about

      a wellness program proposal.

    4. Agreement with Basic Life

      Chris Park(?) spoke again, saying what he was proposing would save
      $10,000 or 23% over the current plan while preserving all the current benefits.

  6. Reports-County Manager

    Joe Pritchard had no report, so they adjourned.
  7. Citizens Wishing to be Heard Please State Name And Address

    That’s only for the Regular Session.


Video Playlist

Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),

Videos by Brandon Livingston for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 24 September 2012.

-jsq

Video Playlist @ LCC 2012-09-11

After
briefly discussing or at least hearing items at

the previous morning's Work Session,
the Lowndes County Commission voted on them at its Regular Session of
Tuesday 11 September 2012.

Here's

the agenda,
and the copy below has links to the corresponding videos or
previous blog posts.
Here's a

video playlist.




  1. Call to Order
  2. Invocation
  3. Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag

  4. Minutes for Approval

    1. Work Session — August 13, 2012
    2. Regular Session — August 14, 2012
  5. Resolutions




    1. Adopt Resolution Appointing an Open Records Officer
    2. Resolution Regarding Review & Approval of Minutes of Executive Sessions

    3. Adopt Resolution accepting infrastructure for Glen Laurel Subdivision Phase II

    4. Adopt Resolution accepting infrastructure for Crestwood Subdivision Phase IV

  6. Appointment — Keep Lowndes/Valdosta Beautiful
  7. Public Hearings




    1. REZ-2012-12 Parker Place, 4842 Parker Place Rd., 0070 015;       3.4 ac., 3 lots, E-A to R-1,
      well/septic

    2. REZ-2012-14 Harris, 6926 Jones Dr., 0139 023,       6.8 ac., 1 lot, E-A to R-A, well/septic

    3. TXT-2012-01 — Primary Intent: Appendix A Land Disturbance & Clean Version of ULDC

    4. Public Hearing Renaming Sandy Creek Drive (CR #1118)

    5. Beer License — Lin's Hibachi — 1078 Lakes Blvd.
  8. For Consideration




    1. Letter of Understanding — Bond Refunding

    2. USGS Funding Agreement for HWY 122 Stream Gauge

    3. Section 5311 Rural Transportation Program Operating Contracts

    4. Declaration of Surplus Vehicles



    5. Brown Bag Ordinance

  9. Bid – Rescue Pumper for Lowndes County Fire Rescue
  10. Reports-County Manager
  11. Citizens Wishing to be Heard Please State Name And Address

-jsq

Rezoning denied: REZ-2012-12 Parker Place, 4842 Parker Place Rd. @ LCC 2012-09-11



After no changes since

the previous morning's Work Session,
the Lowndes County Commission

at its 11 September 2011 Regular Session
did the right thing and denied a rezoning
that would have put many houses in a wet area next to many people
who did not want it.
One speaker against the rezoning said some of the adjoining land
had been in his wife's family since her Indian ancestors.

Here's

a video playlist:


Rezoning denied: REZ-2012-12 Parker Place, 4842 Parker Place Rd.

Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),

Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 11 September 2012.

-jsq

Revised alcohol brown bag ordinance @ LCC 2012-09-11



Following up on the previous morning’s

opaque presentation of a proposed brown bag ordinance,
in which we did at least learn it was about alcohol,
a bit more information came from the county attorney in the

Regular Session of 11 September 2011.

County Manager Joe Pritchard mentioned:

Mr. Chairman and Commissioners, you have handed, or were placed at your seats,
a revised alcohol beverage brown bagging ordinance.
There were some changes that came about, wording changes,
yesterday, after our work session.

Ah, that passive voice!
I guess it was the ordinance elf that made those changes and left paper
copies at each Commissioner’s seat.
The ordinance elf didn’t put a copy of that draft on the web where
the rest of us could see it, however.

County Attorney Walter Elliott clarified:

Continue reading →

For-profits are chomping at the bit to take Georgians for a ride. —Karen Noll

Received yesterday on

Outside money fueling charter school amendment referendum. -jsq



For-profits are chomping at the bit to take Georgians for a ride. It
is expected, as per, John Barge, Superintendent of Georgia schools,
that the charter school commission that this amendment would allow
can cost us $430million in 5 years. This amendment has absolutely
NOTHING to do with school achievement and everything to do with
shareholders and profits. Vote NO on amendment #1 and vote NO to
higher taxes and vote NO to bigger government, OH and vote NO to
lining the pockets of millionaires with our tax dollars!!

-Karen Noll

-jsq