Category Archives: Community

Who are the “local leadership” who approved CCA’s private prison?

They’re even quieter about it than the Industrial Authority,
but the Valdosta City and Lowndes County governments are in the
private prison deal just as deep.

Jay Hollis, CCA’s Manager of Site Acquisition, in his

Valdosta-Lowndes County, GA / CCA Partnership: Prepared Remarks
of August 2010, wrote:



Our Valdosta/Lowndes County site quickly became our primary due to its
local and regional workforce, collaboration of local leadership, site
characteristics, proximity to necessary services and infrastructure,
and accessibility to name a few.

So who is this local leadership?

We look forward to working closely with Valdosta/Lowndes leadership as we move forward in the months to come.

Finally, I’d like to take a moment to recognize a few folks that have been essential to the project:

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Apparently VLCIA misunderstood what CCA was looking for

Apparently VLCIA, or one of its expert consultants,
thought CCA was looking for a thriving county economy
in choosing a private prison location.
That doesn’t seem to be what happened.


Economic Impact of Project Excel
by Clifford A. Lipscomb, Ph.D., 2 November 2009:

The VLCIA has noted that Project Excel is considering other
locations. Below I provide a comparison of key economic indicators for
these alternative counties — Grady and Decatur.

Table 1. Characteristics of Selected Counties
Variable Decatur Grady Lowndes
Population, 2008 28,823 25,115 104,583
% Pop w/ Bachelor’s degree 12.1% 10.6% 19.7%
Median HH Income, 2007 32,650 33,060 38,666
Persons below poverty, 2007 22.5% 22.2% 20.5%
Persons white non-Hispanic, 2008 54.8% 60.6% 60.0%

In closing, it appears that Project Excel is an excellent candidate for
location in Lowndes County.

So which other county did CCA actually pick?

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CCA documents from VLCIA



All the CCA documents VLCIA provided in response to Matt Flumerfelt’s Open Records Request
are
on the LAKE website.
I will continue posting what I see in them (in the category
CCA), but you may find things in them I don’t.
If you find something particularly interesting, please send it to the
LAKE blog submission address or comment on the blog so we can all see it.

-jsq

How the Industrial Authority can stop the CCA private prison: no third extension by 13 March 2012

Apparently the Industrial Authority can end the contract for CCA’s private prison
six weeks from now, by simply not doing anything until then.

CCA has already paid for two extensions on their Option Agreement
for land purchase.


The

Second Extension Term
was paid for in March 2010

and forwarded to the land owner.
Here’s video of

Col. Ricketts announcing it to
the VLCIA board 15 March 2011.
That second extension expires 13 March 2012, six weeks from today.

A Third Extension Term is possible, but has to be negotiated.
Here’s what

Purchase and Development Agreement of 17 August 201
says:

1.4.2.3. Third Extension Term.
The Authority shall use commercially reasonable efforts to obtain an option
for a third extension term of twelve (12) months
(the “Third Extension Term“).
In the event the Authority is able to obtain such extension option
on terms and conditions such that any required earnest money to be paid
by the Company in connection with the exercise of such extension option does not
exceed $75,000, and there is no increase of the price of the Site
or any other payments not already required by the Option Agreement,
then the Authority shall enter into a written agreement
(the “Third Extension Term“)
with the Seller reflecting the terms and conditions of such extension option….

What happens if the Authority does not provide such an extension option?

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Coal EMCs: no budget for this boondoogle —Katherine Helms Cummings

Received yesterday on

Coal Plants Washington and Ben Hill not quite dead yet. -jsq



I asked Washington EMC Chair Mike McCoy today after their monthly board
meeting what their budget is for 2012 and this boondoggle. They haven’t
got a budget. They are meeting next week with the four remaining co-ops
(assuming some don’t peel off before then) and they will work on a
budget then.

You can check my blog out for more of the hair raising and mind boggling
details of what they are doing in the “best interests” of the owner
members and community.

-Katherine Helms Cummings

On her blog,

Rural and Progressive,
she posted yesterday

Is Washington EMC “winging it” on Plant Washington finances?
and today

WEMC Board Member supports forensic audit.
Very interesting.

-jsq

Abandoning part of Bethany Road contentious and enlightening @ LCC



Quite a few people showed up at the Lowndes County Commission
public hearing about abandoning part of Bethany Road, speaking pro and con.
We learned many interesting reasons for abandoning that road,
which would apply to many dirt and maybe paved roads in the county,
many of which are on the county’s paving list.
More about that and an interesting view of the press in later posts.
First, here’s what we’re talking about.

12 December 2011 Work Session

Here are the

minutes:

Abandonment of a Portion of Bethany Road,
County Engineer, Mike Fletcher, presented a request by citizens for the
abandonment of a portion of Bethany Road. Mr. Fletcher explained that
the Commission was being asked to make an initial determination that
either the section of the county road system has been ceased to be used
by the public to the extent that no substantial purpose is served by it,
or that its removal from the county road system is otherwise in the best
public interest. Mr. Fletcher added that once the initial determination
was made, staff would move forward with the appropriate advertising of
a public hearing at which time the Commission could make a final decision.



Here’s

video
in which County Engineer Mike Fletcher said the part of Bethany Road
to be abandoned runs from Bethany Drive down through the Stith
and Turner family properties towards Old US 41 North
as far as the Rykard property,
and that all residents would still have access out to other roads.
County Manager Joe Pritchard noted that

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Free the Internet: stop SOPA and PIPA

If you don’t know what SOPA and PIPA are,

Google, Wikipedia, reddit, and many other websites will tell you today


that those are bills in Congress to censor the Internet.

If you like blogs, YouTube, facebook, and other social media,
you won’t like SOPA and PIPA if they become law, because they
will enable big copyright holders such as movie studios to
force websites to remove links to entire domains on suspicion
of copyright violation.

What you can do:
contact your members of Congress today.
You can do that through

one of the many online tools
Or

call, email, or send a paper letter directly.
Free the Internet!

-jsq

My job: create environment for jobs —Andrea Schruijer of VLCIA @ LCDP 5 Dec 2011



In a refreshing changes from “jobs, jobs, jobs” as everything,
Andrea Schruijer,
Executive Director of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
told the Lowndes County Democratic Party meeting, 5 December 2011,
that it wasn’t her job to create jobs, jobs, jobs; it was her job
to create an environment that let jobs be created.
Towards that end, she announced several new jobs at VLCIA,
including a PR and marketing position.
VLCIA Chairman Roy Copeland also spoke and helped answer questions
from the audience, including about

wages,

workers, and

green industries.

Perhaps not shown is her answer to my question about what does
VLCIA do to promote new local industry.
I believe she said VLCIA looks to the Chamber of Commerce for incubation,
and helps once local businesses are established.

Here’s

a playlist:




My job: create environment for jobs —Andrea Schruijer of VLCIA @ LCDP 5 Dec 2011

Andrea Schruijer Executive Director of VLCIA,

Monthly Meeting, Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 5 December 2011.

Videos by John S. Quarterman.

-jsq

“We’ve been chosen” —Barbara Stratton

Received Saturday on
Public hearing doesn’t mean the public gets to know anything. -jsq

I’ve made these same comments before. It’s just part of the attitude that

is popular with some elected & appointed officials “We’ve been chosen. Now
go away & don’t ask any questions about what we are doing until it’s time
to vote again.” I don’t think all the individuals share the attitude,
but some do & over time it has become standard procedure. Hopefully,
as more citizens pay attention & ask for more insight procedure will
adjust. There is a reason for open meetings & sunshine laws & it’s not
so citizens can listen to or read about decisions based on information
they are not allowed to hear or observe.

-Barbara Stratton

Public hearing doesn’t mean the public gets to know anything


Jane Osborn wrote:

Requesting such a hearing before January 24 would give the opportunity
to have all this information presented and for questions to be asked
and answered.

Except that’s not the way it works around here.
Public hearing locally means the chairman or mayor or whoever says
“Who wants to speak for?”
and maybe somebody speaks.
And then “Who wants to speak against?”
and maybe somebody speaks.
It doesn’t mean that the Commission or the Council or the Authority
presents anything for the public to consider.

Witness the



hearing the Lowndes County Commission
held in December on the documents related to the Comprehensive Plan.
The only reason the public knew anything about what was in those documents
was that Gretchen got them from somewhere else after the Commission
refused to supply them in response to an open records request.
The Commission never distributed any of the relevant documents
to the public.
Only one citizen spoke, perhaps because nobody else knew what
to speak about.

Almost none of the local municipalities or boards or authorities
routinely present to the public the information that is in the
packets they see before the discuss or vote.
There are rare exceptions, such as the VLMPO
and other organizations or projects administered by the

Southern Georgia Regional Commission (SGRC).
SGRC is a state agency, not a local agency.
Why does Lowndes County and all its municipalities and boards
avoid transparency?

Why can’t you, the public, see what’s in a rezoning request before

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