George Boston Rhynes said he had recently been to a Brooks County Commission
meeting and there was a lot of actual dialog.
He said here in Lowndes County is the only place he’s seen the kind
of refusal to answer questions he’d just observed earlier in this same
Valdosta City Council meeting.
George Boston Rhynes says Brooks County does it better @ VCC 7 April 2011 Part 1 of 2:
Regular monthly meeting of the Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 April 2011,
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
I’m pretty sure this is the picture Robert Hall showed the Valdosta City Council.
He was showing it to VDT reporter David Rodock outside before the meeting.
It’s not a pretty picture, which I think was part of his point.
He said he was also exposed to dioxin in Vietnam, and continues
to suffer several medical consequences.
Robert Hall on consequences of Dioxin @ VCC 7 April 2011
Regular monthly meeting of the Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 April 2011,
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
The mayor prefaced a comment that he’s read (apparently in this blog)
that he’s been criticized for not paying attention while people are speaking.
He clarified that he’s often taking notes.
Then Dr. Mark P. George spoke, wondering when people would get answers
to their more substantive questions.
I have an attorney.
These folks have an attorney.
He’s sitting right there.
Dr. Mark P. George @ VCC 7 April 2011 Part 1 of 3:
Regular monthly meeting of the Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 April 2011,
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Dr. George amplified the not paying attention comments
by adding in body language,
and saying he did appreciate taking notes.
He asked if the meeting is recorded.
Mayor Fretti answered yes.
Dr. George remarked:
It seems to me you are now cloaking the lack of response
in legalities.
…
Legality does not equal morality.
Council Sonny Vickers remarked that he
already told everyone he is for the biomass plant.
Dr. George recommended conversation,
following up on new information.
The mayor asked Dr. George to wrap up.
Dr. George responded:
Dr. Mark P. George @ VCC 7 April 2011 Part 2 of 3:
Regular monthly meeting of the Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 April 2011,
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
More back and forth between Dr. George and the mayor
about how or whether or when he or somebody might answer
questions, followed by interchange between Dr. George
and the audience.
Dr. Mark P. George @ VCC 7 April 2011
Part 3 of 3:
Regular monthly meeting of the Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 April 2011,
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Roy Taylor spoke first at Citizens to be Heard,
Valdosta City Council, 7 April 2011.
He didn’t stay to hear the rest of the meeting, though.
Could he be one of the people
Scott Orenstein was referring to?
Here’s
the video.
Regular Meeting, Valdosta City Council, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 April 2011
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
PS: Sorry for not transcribing, Roy, but we have so many videos lately
that we’re going to have to rush a bunch of them out without that.
Mara Register came to the Lowndes County Commission regular meeting
to talk about Downtown Valdosta Farm Days,
following up from the
Farm Days organizational meeting Monday.
I think her main points were:
Provide additional information about healthy eating
with food from local farmers,
thus helping solve the epidemic of childhood obesity in Georgia.
Economic development opportunity for small farmers.
Promote downtown district.
When?
The Saturday after First Friday and the Saturday after Art After Dark.
Where?
The parking spaces around the historic courthouse.
Regular Meeting, Lowndes County Commission, Lowndes County, Georgia, 12 April 2011
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
To the Armed Forces of Mexico
You have always been the custodians of peace for our nation
That’s why we never want to see you again,
outside of your barracks,
except to defend us from foreign invasion,
or to help us, as you always have, during natural disasters.
What does this have to do with us?
We don’t need a private prison;
we need an end to the War on Drugs that
fills our prisons with more prisoners
total and per capita than any other nation on earth.
The war on drugs is not a metaphor in Mexico:
for four years the Mexican Army has fought drug traffickers
in the streets.
With no success and 40,000 dead, many of them collateral damage.
The people have had it with that:
No mas Guerra de las Drogas!
Yesterday, multitudes took to the streets in more than 40 Mexican cities –
and in protests by Mexicans and their friends at consulates and embassies
in Europe, North America and South America – to demand an end to the
violence wrought by the US-imposed “war on drugs.”
What? You haven’t heard about this? Or if you have heard something about
it, did you know that it is the biggest news story in the Mexican media,
on the front page of virtually every daily newspaper in the country?
A sea change has occurred in Mexican public opinion. The people have
turned definitively against the use of the Mexican Army to combat against
drug traffickers. The cry from every city square yesterday was for the
Army to return to its barracks and go back to doing the job it was formed
to do; protect Mexico from foreign invasion and provide human aid relief
in case of natural disasters such as earthquakes and hurricanes. Since
President Felipe Calderón unleashed the Armed Forces, four years ago,
to combat drug trafficking organizations, the violence between it
and the competing narco organizations has led to a daily body count,
widespread human rights abuses against civilians, and more than 40,000
deaths, so many of them of innocent civilians caught in the crossfire
and used by all sides in the armed conflict that still has no winners,
that never will have any winner.
Why does it take someone paid $24.23 an hour to convert agendas and minutes
to PDF?
Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority, VLCIA, Open Records Request,
Bobbi Anne Hancock asked Allan Ricketts why
a bunch of agendas and minutes should cost $125.09?
She received back this itemized invoice:
How much should it cost for a citizen to get access to agendas
and minutes of a tax-funded board?
How does about $2 per meeting strike you?
Bobbi Anne Hancock filed an open records request for the
agendas and minutes of all regularly scheduled and called
meetings of the
VLCIA letter asking $125.09 for copies of agendas and minutes
of the
Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA)
from 2006 to the present, and got this letter back:
So at 12 meetings per year for five years plus another 3 months,
that would be about 63 meetings, divided into $125.09 gets
about $1.99 per meeting.
The asthma rate nationally for African-Americans is 3 times higher than for white Americans
