Category Archives: Community

Citizens at Lowndes County Commission 7 November 2011



Five citizens spoke up at the

7 November 2011 Lowndes County Commission Regular Session.
Some got answers, some got excuses, and some got fingerpointing.
And one illustrated how the Commission doesn’t follow its own rules.



  • George Boston Rhynes asked about

    Open record requests and jail deaths
    and got the same excuses he’s heard elsewhere:
    nobody seems to be responsible for supplying information to the public
    about what’s going on in the Lowndes County Jail.



  • John Robinson asked about

    Contracts on the south side
    related to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and to
    Title III Section 3 of the HUD program
    and got a clarification from the Chairman that the county has no
    Title III projects.



  • John S. Quarterman asked the Commission to

    video meetings like the Lowndes Board of Education does    ,
    and got a slightly different excuse this time than the many previous times he’s made similar requests.



  • Matt Portwood

    asked the Commission or the individual Commissioners to state a position
    on school consolidation
    and was told they weren’t going to.
    The VDT printed that much the next morning, the morning of the election
    with the referendum on school consolidation.
    They did not print Chairman Paulk’s allusion to
    his already-known support for FVCS in opposing consolidation,
    but LAKE published a video with that on Election Day, and you can
    see it here.



  • Tony Daniels wanted to know

    How can we pursue happiness when we don’t even have a job?
    and had several recommendations for how the various local elected and
    appointed bodies could go about getting us more jobs.
    He also illustrated that the Commissions ordinance on Citizens Wishing
    to Be Heard is, as we’ve discovered on many previous occasions,
    merely guidelines at the whim of the Chairman.

Citizen participation!

-jsq

Only a vote where both city and county residents could take part would reveal the will of the people —Karen Noll

Received yesterday on

Repealing the 1928 GA School Consolidation Law. -jsq

While I live in the city as was able to vote on the consolidation issue,


I feel that only a vote where both city and county residents would
be democratic. Only a vote where both interested parties could take
part would reveal the will of the people and be admissible. Although
I opposed the effort to consolidate that was recently defeated, I feel
strongly that a true vote of both city and county residence is necessary
if consolidation should reach the ballot anytime in the future. For
this reason it is paramount that the old law that allowed the city only
vote be stricken to allow the georgia constitution to prevail. The GA
constitution allows for both city and county to vote and a majority in
both in order to pass.

Please contact your legislator to support repealing the 1928 law from
the GA law books.

Thank you ALL for your commitment to community,

-Karen Noll

Repealing the 1928 GA School Consolidation Law

Received today. -jsq



From: JC Cunningham

Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2011 09:01:26 -0800 (PST)

Subject: Fw: The Repeal of Ga. Law on School Consolidation

To: [many people]

Friends,

Even though we the Citizens of Valdosta have spoken and defeated that
hostile takeover, this is not the time to let up. We all must stay a
vigilant as possible and never let anything like this happen again.

One way in which everyone in Valdosta and Lowndes can make a impact is
to write a letter to Amy Carter, Admin. Floor Leader to the Governor,
and ask for her to introduce a bill to repeal the old 1928 law that
Cuee was able to use.

Remind Amy that she has an obligation to bring this bill to the floor.
Remind her that the people

Continue reading →

Occupying outside CCA’s Stewart Detention Center, Lumpkin, GA 18 November 2011

Want to do something to oppose privatization of prisons, but can’t be everywhere?
You can help online Friday.



Immigrants For Sale posted

Join The Virtual Vigil and Occupation Shut Down Stewart

On November 18th Brave New Foundation’s Cuéntame and a coalition of
organizations along with families and friends of victims of for-profit
detention will be occupying with a powerful vigil the outside of the
largest private detention facility in the nation – Corrections Corporation
of America’s Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia.
You can join them virtually — your voice is our most
important tool in fighting back — by leaving your own
name and a powerful message which will be read and/or written on a wall
at the event & in memory of:

Follow

the link
for details.

Oh, and
we don’t need a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia.
Spend those tax dollars on rehabilitation and education instead.

PS: Owed to Cheryl Ann Fillekes.

How can we pursue happiness when we don’t even have a job? —Tony Daniels @ LCC 7 November 2011



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::

Continue reading →

Video meetings like Lowndes Board of Education? —John S. Quarterman @ LCC 7 November 2011



After apologizing for setting off a flash earlier,
I recommended the county video their own meetings,
so they wouldn’t have to depend on amateurs.

Lowndes County Board of Education had an open forum about school consolidation.
and they had their own person videoing the whole thing,
and it
ended up on the web in a day or two,
which means that everyone in the county could see what was going on….

Chairman Paulk:

We get enough of that for free.

jsq:

I’ll send you a bill!

The Chairman nodded, so I’ll take that for approval of billing by LAKE.

Here’s

the video:

Continue reading →

Cobb EMC incumbent concedes election: insurgents win 4 for 4

Last week,

3 out of 4 insurgent candidates won places on the board of Cobb EMC,


the utility that wants to build a coal plant in Ben Hill County,
as close to here for smoke drift as the Okefenokee.
Another was headed to a runoff that would have cost around $70,000.
Not anymore! It’s 4 for 4.

Janel Davis wrote for the AJC yesterday,

Cobb EMC incumbent concedes election,

Kennesaw businessman and incumbent Cobb EMC director RJ Patel conceded the race for his board seat Monday evening eliminating a need for a runoff next month and advancing four new members to lead the utility.



That means

Charles Malcolm ‘Cooter’ Swanson
is the new Area 7 board member.

The new members are still a minority of 4 out of 10 on the Cobb EMC board,
but that’s better than 0 out of 10.

-jsq

PS: Owed to Ellen Corrie and
No Coal Plant in Ben Hill County!

FVCS community event 5:30 PM 15 November 2011 @ MLK Monument

Received today (this is the event Sam Allen mentioned
in his speech on Valdosta City Hall steps last Wednesday). -jsq

Friends,

We must bring healing and closure to the consolidation saga. As a


means to reuniting our community the FVCS has planned one last event
designed to bring EVERYONE together for some good fun and relaxation.
Please come out and join us, bring the kids and your friends as we
close this chapter and begin anew. I pray that we can move forward and
enjoy the true meaning of the upcoming holidays with love and
forgiveness in our hearts. Remember: Don’t worry about me because I’m
be alright.

Thanks for everything,

Sam Allen

Details:

Continue reading →

Contracts on the south side —John Robinson @ LCC 7 November 2011



John Robinson addressed the Lowndes County Commission about
Title III Section 3 of the HUD program,
also

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act:

No person in the United States on the grounds of race or color
or national origin shall be excluded….

He said he has filed a federal complaint against the city of Valdosta,
and he wants the County Commission to know that.

….scrutinized for these special groups of people,
people of power, instead of the people that’s needing the money.

Chairman Paulk clarified that the Martin Luther King project is totally
a city project, and that the county has no Title III projects.

Here’s

the video:





Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 November 2011.

Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

A community united! —Gretchen Quarterman

LTE in the VDT today. -jsq

In the last few weeks, our community has seen an unprecedented effort from
left, right, and center, city and county, town and gown, all working

Let us not focus on the things that have divided us in the past,
but rather use this opportunity to build a stronger community,
a stronger education system.

together as a community to achieve a goal that the overwhelming
majority see as in our best interest.
We have an opportunity that we should not squander.
It doesn’t take a lot of money. It takes dedicated people, calling their
friends and neighbors, canvasing every neighborhood, holding open and honest
forums, and answering questions to the very best of their ability.

Let us not focus on the things that have divided us in the past,
but rather use this opportunity to build a stronger community,
a stronger education system.
Let us find opportunities to work together to benefit our students,
teachers, police, firefighters, farmers, small local businesses and
all the rest of us who call this community home.

We have an opportunity that we should not squander.


Let us work as one community for the benefit of all our
citizens; students, seniors, family, friends, urban, rural,
conservatives, progressives, Wildcats and Vikings.

One community out of many,
with liberty and justice for all.

Gretchen Quarterman

Chairman

Lowndes County Democratic Party