Category Archives: Law

Protesters, police, and press at Wiregrass Solar LLC groundbreaking

All these protesters were in favor of the groundbreaking today for the Wiregrass Solar LLC plant, but they wanted to object to the related biomass plant proposed for next door. Here you can see Valdosta police saying they’re going have to issue a summons to some protesters because they didn’t have a permit, Valdosta Mayor Fretti saying the permit process is simple, and Dr. Michael Noll president of Wiregrass Activists for Clean Energy (WACE) explaining that they only heard of the event recently, and besides he’d be happy to pick up a shovel and help with the groundbreaking for the solar plant:

Wiregrass Solar LLC groundbreaking, 21 Feb 2011,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Video by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange. Enter the police chief. Continue reading →

Prior restraint –Prof. Jane Elza

This LTE appeared in the VDT today. Here is context in case you haven’t been following this subject. -jsq

Dear Sir,
The County Commission has recently passed a resolution that will prohibit discussion of issues the commissioners consider closed by citizens in the “citizens will be heard” section of the Commission meetings. While apparently reasonable on its face, the restriction is designed specifically to prevent any more discussion of the Biomass plant. Commissioners have been quoted in the paper as saying they just don’t want to hear anymore about it. A law designed to prevent a citizen from discussing a particular subject is prior restraint. I taught Constitutional law at VSU for 28 years and I think this resolution is unconstitutional for that reason. One cannot separate the intent from the prohibition.
I can also argue that the restriction itself is unreasonable because

Continue reading →

Why “jobs, jobs, jobs” isn’t good enough for the public good and the general welfare –John S. Quarterman

Sure, everyone wants jobs for the people right now and jobs so the children don’t have to go somewhere else to find one. But what good is that if those jobs suck up all the water those children need to drink?

This is the problem:

“What I believe the three most important things are, not only for our community, and our state, and our country, but for our country, thats jobs number 1, jobs number 2, and jobs.”

Brad Lofton, Executive Director, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
speaking at the Lake Park Chamber of Commerce annual dinner,
Lake Park, Lowndes County, Georgia, 28 January 2011.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

I shook Brad Lofton’s hand after that speech and told him I liked it, because I did: in general it was a positive speech about real accomplishments. I’ve also pointed out I had a few nits with that speech. This one is more than a nit. This one is basic philosophy and policy.

Now one would expect an executive director of an industrial authority to be all about jobs. And that would be OK, if Continue reading →

Contracts between VLCIA and Wiregrass Power LLC

Shortly after GA EPD approved the final air quality construction permit for the proposed biomass plant, new contracts were signed between Wiregrass Power LLC and the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA).

Update 10 Feb 2011: JPEG images of each page are also available now.

Here they are, as PDFs generated from scans of paper copies.

Cover letter from J. Stephen Gupton, JR., P.C. (VLCIA Attorney, pictured here), 19 Aug 2010
Restatement and Modifications to Development Agreement
Restatement and Modifications to Indenture of Lease

Both contracts were signed for Wiregrass Power, LLC by Therrell Murphy, Jr., President, on 26 July 2010, and for VLCIA by Jerry J. Jennett, Chairman and Mary B. Gooding, Secretary, on 17 August 2010.

These documents were obtained by an open records request by a citizen who then gave copies to LAKE.

-jsq

“No person shall be eligible as a write-in candidate…” –Ga. Code

Calling investigative reporters: here’s a trail of fishy behavior in the Brooks County elections. George Rhynes brings up an interesting point in Quitman Ten, Judge Porter’s decision, News Media Outlets, Is Another Investigation Needed, and can Justice Be Found in South Georgia? The two write-in candidates in the general election for the Brooks County Board of Education were allowed to run despite a clear restriction in the Georgia code, O.C.G.A. 21-2-133. This restriction is mentioned in the Ga. Secretary of State Candidate Training Guide:

No person shall be eligible as a write-in candidate in a general or special election if such person was a candidate for nomination or election to the same office in the immediately preceding primary.

Also in the same department’s Continue reading →

What you didn’t hear at the County Commission meeting

The interesting commission meeting will be the next one. Remember, Chairman Paulk said they were still operating by the old rules at the meeting that happened this week. So next meeting they may actually refuse to let people speak on certain topics.

On the Frank Barnas Newstalk105.9 WVGA radio show 25 Jan 2011 the morning before the County Commission meeting, County Commmission Chairman Ashley Paulk complained that Citizens Wishing to be Heard has been abused and meetings are not free; there are people to pay.

“In these times we’ve got to run efficient meetings.”

Chairman Paulk also invoked Tuscon and said:

“You need to monitor people who are there.”
…
“You want a little better control over who and where they are.”

So posting videos of the meeting to the web should be a good idea so everyone could see what is going on.

And in the larger picture, should we be more concerned with a few dollars now or with the ability of citizens to be heard or for that matter with the long-term economics and health of the county?

Policies and Procedures for Citizens Wishing to be Heard

The host asked if tonight would be the time to comment on the new policy, and Chairman Paulk responded: Continue reading →

Serpico for legalization of drugs

Connie Littlefield remarks that Legalizing marijuana makes pot smoking uncool:

I was in Amsterdam because my documentary, Damage Done: The Drug War Odyssey, was being screened as part of a Cannabis Tribunal. Former NYPD detective Frank Serpico, who is in my film, travelled with me.
We were invited to speak because Damage Done is about a group of cops, including Frank, and Canadian Senator Larry Campbell, who believe that the War on Drugs does more harm than the drugs themselves.
We presented a copy of our film to the chief of the Amsterdam-Amstelland Police, who told me that he became a cop because of Frank.

Her film is DAMAGE DONE: The Drug War Odyssey, here describe on the LEAP site: Continue reading →

Roy Copeland in Top 100 Trial Lawyers

At the 18 Jan 2011 VLCIA board meeting, Brad Lofton congratulated Roy Copeland. Lofton seems to be referring to Copeland’s membership in the THE TOP 100 TRIAL LAWYERS – Georgia, A Professional, Educational, and Business Organization of Trial Attorneys. There appear to actually be 90 members. I congratulate Roy Copeland on his membership. I can’t quite make out whether he also received an award from the same organization. Anyway, here’s the video:

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

-jsq

The Quitman 10 and the Press

Patrick David reports from Macon, 7 Jan 2011, Quitman 10: New Year’s Day protest march sends message to J. David Miller, GBI:

Approximately three hundred marchers converged onto the steps of the Brooks County Courthouse to send a public message that voter intimidation and voter disenfranchisement will not be tolerated.
This story has flown under the radar of the mainstream media, but the GBI in conjunction with Republican J. David Miller, the district attorney for the Southern Judicial District that represent majority-African-American towns such as Thomasville, Moultrie, Valdosta and Alma, is preparing to move forward in the targeting of ten African-American Brooks County citizens, otherwise known as the “Quitman 10”.

I mentioned the day after the arrests (22 Dec 2010) that it was curious that the local newspaper, the Valdosta Daily Times, seemed to have nothing about that. At least WCTV and WALB reported the arrests, but they don’t seem to be following the story since. Dean Poling did report in the VDT 24 Dec 2010 that Charges won’t keep Brooks school board members from serving: Continue reading →

“we got off on the wrong foot.” –Russell Anderson

On the LAKE front

Citizen dialog for transparent process by the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange