Category Archives: Elections

Refinancing Bonds and the Public Facilities Authority @ LCC 2012-12-10



More than a million dollars will be saved by refinancing county bonds,
the Chairman and staff indicated at
yesterday morning’s

Lowndes County Commission Work Session.
Congratulations!
But who is this shadowy Lowndes County Public Facilities Authority
that is responsible for that?

8.i. Refunding Revenue Bonds

County Manager Joe Pritchard said
the county was refinancing two bond packages, for the
Public Facilities Authority
and for the
Central Valdosta Development Authority.
County Attorney Walter Elliott said the
Public Facilities Authority was meeting 4PM tomorrow (now today 11 Dec 2012)
to approve an ordinance similar to what the County Commission was
being asked to approve Tuesday night.
There’s also a purchase agreement with the underwriter,
in the packet only the board gets to see.
Chairman Ashley Paulk said he spoke Friday to somebody named Mr.
Bucky Kensey(?) who wouldn’t tell him a number but said the
bond market had moved in the county’s favor.
The Chairman also said:

I want the public to understand these are not new bonds
these are old bonds that are at a higher interest rate
that are going to be refinanced at a lower rate,
and I believe the last savings was close to a million dollars.

The Chairman indicated Mr. Kensey(?) thought there would be a pleasant
surprise with even more savings than that.



At their

12 June 2012 Regular Session
the Commission

appointed to the Lowndes County Public Facilities Authority
Joseph Stevens (they didn’t say, but maybe

Joseph G Stevens CPA),
Steve Gupton (presumably

J. Stephen Gupton, Attorney for the Lowndes County Industrial Authority),
and Lowndes County Commissioner Crawford Powell (to the seat
previously held by Commissioner Richard Lee).
Who are the other Authority board members?
The VDT claimed

“Powell abstained from the vote.”
Neither he nor the Chairman said that when they voted.
According to

the Commission’s minutes of 25 May 2010,
they appointed Harry B. Sullivan and Antonio Henderson.
The VDT reported

22 May 2007 that:

The Commissioners reappointed Antonio Henderson and Harry Sullivan
to the Lowndes County Public Facilities Authority. Their terms will
expire May 31, 2010. Joseph Stevens was appointed, and his term will
expire May 31, 2009.

So that’s five members; is that all of them?
Apparently yes.
In

Preliminary Official Statement Dated November 29, 2012

LOWNDES COUNTY PUBLIC FACILITIES AUTHORITY (GEORGIA)
$8,965,000*

Refunding Revenue Bonds

(Lowndes County Judicial/Administration Complex)

Series 2012 		$7,145,000*

Refunding Revenue Bonds

(Lowndes County Water and Sewerage Project)

Series 2013

So, we’re paying more for the county palace than we are for county water and sewer.
Anyway, on page 4 we find:

LOWNDES COUNTY PUBLIC FACILITIES AUTHORITY

Members

Antonio Henderson

Harry B. Sullivan

J. Stephen Gupton, Jr.

Joseph G. Stevens

Crawford Powell

That Authority met

8 October 2012 in Room 248 at the
Lowndes County Administrative Building (no street address given):

The primary purpose of the meeting is for the Authority to consider
a Bond Resolution to provide for the issuance of Refunding Revenue
Bonds for the purpose of refunding in part Public Facilities Authority
Revenue Bonds (Lowndes County Water and Sewerage Project), Series 2005,
and Central Valdosta Development Authority Revenue Bonds (Lowndes County
Judicial/Administrative Complex), Series 2003, to authorize and approve
the execution and delivery of an Intergovernmental Contract with Lowndes
County, and related purposes. The meeting will be open to the public in
accordance with the Georgia Open Meetings Act.

They do not have a meeting listed

in the same calendar for today.

Bond rating agency Moody’s

reported 15 November 2012

NEW YORK, November 15, 2012 —Moody’s Investors Service has
assigned a Aa2 rating and a stable outlook to Lowndes County’s (GA)
$9.1 million Refunding Revenue Bonds (Lowndes County
Judicial/Administration Complex), Series 2012 and $7.2 million
Refunding Revenue Bonds (Lowndes County Water and Sewerage Project),
Series 2013, both issued by the
Lowndes County Public Facilities Authority.
At this time, Moody’s has also affirmed the Aa2 ratings
to $15.5 million of general obligation bonds and $193.7 million of
bonds issued through the Hospital Authority of Valdosta and Lowndes
County, the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority, the
Central Valdosta Development Authority and the Lowndes County Public
Facilities Authority…

You know, the county could just tell us all this stuff, so we wouldn’t
have to try to google it.
It is our tax money they are spending, after all.

Here’s

the video:


Refinancing Bonds and the Public Facilities Authority

Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),

Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 10 December 2012.

-jsq

County proceeding on a fixed library line @ LCC 2012-12-10



Scoring for library architect selection seems more rigorous now,
at yesterday morning’s

Lowndes County Commission Work Session.
But where are the scores?
And what are the names of the two finalists?
They vote or table tonight at 5:30 PM.

8.h. New Main Library — Construction Manager At Risk Selection

Project Manager Chad McCleod said
proposals had been received from nine firms,
and “using a score sheet with certain grading criteria”
staff narrowed them down to three offers.
Each firm gave a one-hour presentation last Friday to
the selection committee which again
“used certain grading criteria to score each firm”.
The top two scorers were Coffee[?] Construction and
Quillian Powell Construction.

I applaud actually using scoring, instead of what appeared to happen
for the main library architect selection, with

a relatively elaborate selection process including a scoring sheet
that then apparently wasn’t actually used in the architect selection.
But where are these filled-out score sheets for the applicants this time,
so we the taxpayers can see them?

The Commission could have staff

Continue reading →

Additional license fee for Sunday alcohol sales? @ LCC 2012-12-10



Why should businesses have to pay an additional license fee
for Sunday alcohol sales, if the only justification is
to raise money to pay for administering that license?
That was a topic at yesterday morning's

Lowndes County Commission Work Session
for agenda item
6.a.
Revision to the Lowndes County Alcoholic Beverage Ordinance.

Finance Director Stephanie Black mentioned the things

we already heard from the staff,

brown bagging,
social hosts (serving alcohol at private events to underage drinkers),
and the
Sunday package sales.
She said for the

voter-approved Sunday alcohol sales
the license fee would be $250,
plus a requirement for an immigration affidavit.
Commissioner Powell took exception to that additional license fee,
which would be on top of a license fee already necessary for the
rest of the week.
Black and Chairman Paulk defended it as necessary to collect
money to administer the license fee.
Powell wondered if they'd need the money if they didn't
have the license fee.
Paulk said the city of Valdosta charges $1000 for a Sunday license.
Powell said he disagreed with that, too.

Here's

the video:


Additional license fee for Sunday alcohol sales?

Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),

Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 10 December 2012.

-jsq

Rezoning near Moody: fire code would prohibit a single entrance @ LCC 2012-12-10 @ LCC 2012-12-10



Commissioner Crawford Powell may have found solid grounds to deny
the proposed rezoning for a development near Moody AFB,
he revealed at

this morning’s Work Session of the Lowndes County Commission.

County Planner Jason Davenport explicitly linked this rezoning case,

7.a. REZ-2012-17 Lowndes Development, LLC, Davidson Rd MAZ II and MAZ III to R-10, County Water & Sewer, ~23.49 acres

to

the zoning text code amendment on the same meeting agenda.

7.d. TXT-2012-02 MAZ II Residential Density

He also mentioned the TRC (the Technical Review Committee
composed mainly of Lowndes County and Valdosta staff) had a split vote
on this item, although
he didn’t say how it was split.
And he said the Commissioners had the Planning Commission recommendation
before them,
although he didn’t mention the Planning Commission recommended against.

Commissioner Crawford Powell brought up a good point:

The fire department and the TRC say in the notes
that it fails to comply with fire rescue ingress-egress requirements.

Fire Chief Guyton appeared to confirm that was the case,
although since he wasn’t at a microphone, it’s hard to hear.
Commissioner Powell continued:

Continue reading →

Glimmers of open discussion about Moody AFB zoning by the County Commission @ LCC 2012-12-10



Lowndes County Commissioners had a small amount of open discussion about
the proposed changes to the zoning code related to Moody Air Force Base
at

their Work Session this morning.
However, most of the discussion was not about the changes currently proposed,
which the County Planner once again explicitly linked to a rezoning case
on the same agenda.
At least they discussed tabling the zoning code changes
until there could be more discussion.
They did not, however, say they would make drafts available to the public
or invite the public to discuss those drafts.

County Planner Jason Davenport introduced agenda item
7.d. TXT-2012-02 MAZ II Residential Density:

This text amendment is part of the response to
some of the questions that were raised with the additional rezoning.
At the end of the day what this text amendment is going to do
is to take that very outer blue color, the lightest color,
which is the MAZ-3, and recommend change the zoning to 1 acre.
Currently it’s 2 and a half acres.

He mentioned they missed the 30 day requirement to inform Moody AFB
by about a week, but Moody responded anyway.
Hm, that’s not what he said to the Planning Commission;
there he said

they had allowed 31 days.

Commissioner Richard Raines said he’d prefer to table this amendment
until next year, because:

I think there are other issues that we’ve discussed related to MAZ.
If you have a mobile home and it becomes unlivable,
under the restrictions you can’t replace it….

Chairman Ashley Paulk responded that he didn’t have a problem with that, and:

Continue reading →

More developer favors at the County Commission Work Session this morning? @ LCC 2012-12-10

At the 8:30 AM Work Session this morning,
will the Chairman


Clint Joyner and J.D. Yeager of Joyner Realty


Clint Joyner (speaking) and J.D. Yeager (seated on right)
of Joyner Realty at LCC Work Session 2012-11-12


invite Clint Joyner of Joyner Realty to speak
like he did last month, without inviting anybody else?
Will Chairman Ashley Paulk invite J.D. Yeager of Joyner Realty (and formerly
Sheriff Paulk’s lieutenant at the Sheriff’s office) to speak?
That plus
solid waste

(if privatization is bad for Moody, why is it good for a county public
health and safety service like solid waste collection?),
Dollar General

(where’s the marketing plan to indicate whether tiny Naylor needs the
area’s nineteenth Dollar General?),
Library,

(Houston County’s SPLOST passed in a landslide after they held
public hearings; maybe Lowndes County should try that),
and
Alcohol

(county staff say they’re coalescing previous changes into the body
of the ordinance),
all at the Lowndes County Commission Work Session this morning;
here’s the agenda.

When

he spoke 12 November 2012, Clint Joyner started by referring to
a nearby subdivision “In 2007”.
2007 was the year Mr. Joyner got

(according to the Commission’s minutes of 26 June 2007)
$130,000 in road construction labor from the Commission because of
“an unforeseen Department of Transportation requirement regarding a costly intersection improvement.”
Why couldn’t the County Engineer or Mr. Joyner forsee such a requirement?

This time many people

do forsee that rezoning to develop in the Moody Activity Zones
would be a bad idea.

Houston County is using state and local tax money to buy up houses
in similar zones around Warner Robins Air Force Base.
Doubtless Houston County would love it if Lowndes County encroached
enough on Moody AFB that Moody’s missions moved to Robins AFB.

-jsq

Re: The proposed text amendments —Richard Raines

Richard Raines answered again.
He continues to be communicative and genial.
-gretchen

From: Richard Raines

To: Gretchen Quarterman

Subject: RE: Text Amendment

The motion to table the issue is made by the Commissioners. Chairman


Paulk thinks (and I agree) that this issue cannot be satisfactorily
settled by December 11th and that the new Commission should take it
up. It is not unusual for Chairman Paulk to weigh in on whether or
not we should table an item. Often times he is in a unique position
to give an informed opinion and in this case I concur.

The proposed text amendments, if approved, do not endanger Moody’s
mission or survival. If I have my way, the MAZ will be strengthened
in the areas closer to the base while easing development
restrictions in the areas furthest away. Even a cursory glance at
the ULDC and MAZ 1-3 reveals certain issues which must be addressed
in an effort to be equitable.

I reject the template which argues

Continue reading →

Houston County has exclusion zones around Warner Robins AFB like the Lowndes County MAZ

Lowndes County is not

“the only community in the country with a MAZ”:
Houston County has very similar zones of encroachment protection around
Warner Robins Air Force Base (RAFB).

As we’ve already seen,

Houston County is buying up houses around RAFB
using $7.5 million from the state of Georgia.
That’s in addition to $6 million from Bibb County and
some unspecified amount from the Defense Department.
Plus Houston County
allocated $7 million from SPLOST funds,

and their SPLOST won by a landslide, apparently partly for that reason.

But what are

Warner Robins Air Force Base encroachment zones

those encroachment zones around Warner Robins AFB
depicted on the buyback map?
I called Houston County to find out.
Their Community Planner, Jacob Cox, said yes, Houston County
has crash zones, and noise attenuation zones in which they can
have businesses but not residences.

He pointed me to

The Robins Air Force Base and Middle Georgia
2004 Joint Land Use Study,
which notes:

The 2004 JLUS examines land issues as they relate to RAFB flying
missions and suggests measures to ensure compatible land use in the
Base environs now and into the future. The 2004 JLUS process
utilizes information provided in the 1998 RAFB Air Installation
Compatibility Use Zone study (AICUZ) to evaluate land use
compatibility and regulatory adequacy in areas subject to air hazard
potential and noise impact. Additional considerations related to air
navigation, including air protection surfaces are examined. Clear
Zones and Accident Potential Zones are all considered compatible
with AICUZ guidelines. Incidences of incompatible development are
predominantly restricted to a limited number of non-noise attenuated
residences built prior to 1994.

The results of the 2004 JLUS demonstrate that previously adopted
land use regulations have been effective in limiting incompatible
development within the Base environs. The 1994 adoption of the Base
Environs Zoning District (BEZD) model by the surrounding communities
has served to check most encroachment-type development. Only a very
low number of sporadic, isolated examples of noise-related
incompatible development was observed to have been built since
implementation of the BEZD land regulation strategy. Consistent
local government implementation of adopted provisions must be
maintained in order to continue to provide the protection necessary
to prevent incompatible development from restraining Base operations
in the future.

So as far back as 1994 the communities around RAFB were using zoning
to limit base encroachment.
The 1998 AICUZ recommended further
Clear Zones and Accident Potential Zones.
Why?
Mission changes at RAFB.
So the 2004 JLUS made recommendations and the local governments, including Houston County,
decided to go ahead and do something about it.

Continue reading →

SPLOST won in Houston County but not in Lowndes County: why?

Why did SPLOST in Houston County, Georgia win by a landslide
while SPLOST VII in Lowndes County lost?

Houston County’s SPLOST passed in March 2012 by a landslide.
Christina M. Wright wrote for The Telegraph 6 March 2012,

UPDATE: Houston officials celebrate landslide SPLOST approval,



“This is a ‘thank you’ for the voters,” said Houston
County Chairman Tommy Stalnaker as Warner Robins Councilman Paul
Shealy presented the black and white sign. “They are the real
victors of this thing tonight.”…

Unofficial results showed the SPLOST received 10,029 ‘yes’ votes
to 4,799 ‘no’ votes. More affirmative than negative votes were
cast in every precinct.

That’s 67.6% to 32.4%, and a difference:
Houston County local elected officials
thanked the voters.
Lowndes County Chairman Ashley Paulk,
who rushed through a SPLOST vote a year early,

Continue reading →

Text Amendment —Gretchen Quarterman

Received today, referring to TXT-2012-02, which is on the agenda for

Monday morning’s Work Session and Tuesday evening’s Regular Session
of the Lowndes County Commission. -jsq



Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2012 13:42:37 -0500

From: Gretchen Quarterman

To: Richard Raines

Subject: Re: Text Amendment


On Thu, Dec 06, 2012 at 12:25:31PM +0000, Richard Raines wrote:

Gretchen,

Richard,

Thanks for your thoughtful and indepth answer.

Based on a conversation with the Chairman yesterday, it is my
understanding that this issue will be tabled until sometime next
year (Chairman-elect Slaughter will decide when to put it back on
the agenda) because we are working with MAFB on a compromise as
they are well aware of our mandate to balance property rights with
protecting against base encroachment.

Interesting, I thought that the commissioners made the decisions
about hearing or tabling an issue, not the chairman. While the
chairman can set the agenda, it is my understanding that the
voting members of the commission are the ones that actually get
to make the decisions.

Since I’ve been on the County Commission we have made it a priority
to constantly evaluate the ULDC and all zoning districts. MAZ 1-3
is no exception and must be evaluated to make sure that it is
balanced and consistent.

I appreciate that.

We have discovered a few inconsistencies with the MAZ which are
not practical and making adjustments will in no way put Moody Air
Force Base in peril. I was recently informed that Lowndes County
is the only community in the country with a MAZ, which means we
have gone to greater lengths than any other community to protect
against encroachment. Making minor adjustments is necessary with
all ordinances and, even if the proposed changes are made, we still
have the only MAZ in the country. Making minor adjustments in an
effort to promote consistency and eliminate duplication is not equal
to an all out assault on Moody.

I have many concerns about the continued presence of Moody AFB in
our community. Moody is a $400M+ economic engine and its loss or
reduction

Continue reading →