Category Archives: LCC 2011-05-23

I kind of like transparent government —Ashley Paulk @ LCC 2012 02 28

It’s good to know County Commission Chairman Ashley Paulk supports transparency. However, if he considers certain details important enough for the public to know, how about if the Commission puts them in its own minutes? Or publishes its own videos of its own meetings?
Or even publish a list of changes that it approves when it changes an ordinance?

At the 28 February 2012 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission, Chairman Ashley Paulk said:

I kind of like transparent government.

He proceeded to tell VDT reporter David Rodock that

Not killing the messenger, but it was written in your paper the other day that the alcohol ordinance was kind of rushed and people were not aware of it. If you would go back to your story of May the 11th we discussed that in great depth.

Here’s the video:


I kind of like transparent government —Ashley Paulk @ LCC 2012-02-28
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC), Lowndes County Commission,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 28 February 2012.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

He recommended that the VDT editors research their own archives.
Fair enough, but how about if we look at the Commissions own archives of its own minutes?

First let’s see what the reporter wrote that the Chairman was objecting to:

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Sunday Alcohol Sales @ LCC 2011 05 23

What was discussed by the Lowndes County Commission regarding the recent changes to the alcohol ordinance came up again in their 28 February 2012 meeting. Relevant to that are these videos of discussion in their 23 May 2011 Work Session.

Here’s a playlist:


Sunday Alcohol Sales
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission, (LCC), Lowndes County Commission,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 23 May 2011.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

-jsq

 

 

These are crimes —Susan Leavens

Received 28 June 2011. -jsq

John,

I am so sorry you had to see these offenses, it should have been
investigated/viewed by the Sheriffs Dept. or GBI, these are crimes not violations like the GDA says!

I will not give up on this; crimes should
be punished as such. I have written many citiznes of lowndes county
citations and they have been charged with these crimes by a court of
law. No one is above the law including Linda Patelski, but the GDA
recognizes these crimes as violations, not crimes or they would have
been handled as such. No person should be covered under the umbrella of
GDA. After statements have been lost by them (GDA) and then resubmitted
it just seems like these crimes are no more important then losing a
receipt for gas.

I find that



Joe Prichard involving my character in this matter
irrelevant and my convictions in court cases involving
animal cruelty inhumane treatment and other ordinance violations
and state laws speak of my character, over 400 cases brought before
magistrate court, municipal court and state court out weigh his
personal opinion(s) and one case lose in five years of employment as
animal control officer for Lowndes County and I was told to write that
citation by my director Linda Patelski for nuisance dog. I have not
discredited any employee who works for Lowndes County in these
matters… I have told the truth and

have documentation to back what I say.

Because I said I have no respect for Joe Prichard in my statement

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There are problems at the animal shelter. They have not been resolved.

I think it’s time to ask: what did they know, and when did they know it?

Let’s construct a timeline:

  • 2011-05-20 euthanasia violation
  • 2011-05-20 statement from Heather Terry
  • 2011-05-23 County Manager Joe Pritchard

    tells the Commission and the public    :



    “We were not able to substantiate … accusations other than that … castration of pig.”

    That was even though

    WCTV already reported there had been several
    euthanasia violations last year.

    Pritchard also said they (the county in its previous investigation,
    presumably the one of 2010    )
    examined the character of those testifying for
    the complaints and he said they found biases.

  • 2011-05-24 County Commission Chairman Ashley Paulk

    tells the Commission and the public:



    “Whatever problems there are, they’re going to be resolved.”

  • 2011-05-24 The VDT quotes County Manager Joe Pritchard

    as saying    :



    “It’s no longer a case of an individual making a claim, as it will be evident by the physical evidence provided by the security cameras.”

    and:

    “You take that policy, coupled with the updated standard operating
    procedures, added to the technical verification and I think that
    addresses the issues. My purpose is to eliminate any problem or potential
    problem.”

  • 2011-05-31 statement by Director Linda Patelski saying two people fired for euthanasia violation of 20 May 2011

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Falsified logs at the animal shelter?



Previously

I’ve posted briefly about

the notarized statement by Susan Leavens of 5 May 2010.
Here is more detail, with pictures. The statement alleges animals smothered, strangled, stabbed in the eye, cut, torn, beaten, slapped, thrown. Improper drug use “who signed this thing?”. Racial profiling and discrimination. Unresponsive county officials and threats from them. Oh, yes, and falsified logs of euthanasia.

“And it was time for the abuse, neglect and deceitfulness to stop.”

Susan Leavens stated:

“On 4/28/2010 I came in from checking traps around 1030 am, I was told while euthenizing a cat, the syringe I was draw pentosol out didn’t matter
what mattered was the 10cc syringe, so if it was not enough to euthenize the
animal then set it aside it would die.
But the 10cc one is the one that needed to come out right.
I said “WHAT!”
Tim Cook explained that to me he went and got Ryan Curtis
and he explained the very same thing, he said even
if you don’t have a full cc of pentosol, say it’s a cc on the log because the
10 cc syringe mattered not what we were using to euthenize with!
It was very apparent that human[e] euthanasia was
not important that the numbers were.
This was very disturbing to know we were being made to make the animals suffer because the numbers might be off!”

In the statement she names multiple people she says were witnesses
to the falsification of euthanization log entries,
and even to the complete rewrite of a log and shredding of the previous copy.

Her statement also describes:

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Why are these reports not on the desk of the sheriff? —Jane Osborn



This comment from Jane Osborn came in last night on

County Animal Shelter Issues. A good place to ask such questions of
public officials might be at

this evening’s County Commission meeting,
5:30 PM, 327 N. Ashley Street.

Sheriff Chris Prine is often in attendance.
-jsq

Abuse of an animal is a criminal offense. The GA Dept. of Agriculture


is a regulatory agency able only to issue fines, not pursue criminal
investigations. Why are these reports not on the desk of the sheriff of
Lowndes County for criminal investigation? Dismissing the allegations
because the people whose testimony was taken might be biased does no
service to the current or future animals that will pass through the
shelter.

County Animal Shelter Issues —Joe Pritchard @ LCC Work Session 23 May 2011

In his County Manager’s report at the work session this morning,

Joe Pritchard reported on:



Issues that I think you’ve heard about… animal shelter.

Presumably the issues reported by David Rodock in the 15 May 2011
Valdosta Daily Times
Animal shelter probed
Use of drugs investigated; employees speak out
and
by Gabrielle Sarann for WCTV on 19 May 2011

Lowndes County Animal Shelter Probed:
The Georgia Department of Agriculture is keeping an eye on an area animal shelter and has cited it for several violations

“I’ve seen a lot of the animals come in the shelter and not got vet care
and sometimes that comes in the form of euthanasia,” says Susan Leavens,
an animal control officer for Lowndes County.

This led several Lowndes County Animal Shelter employees to file a
complaint with the Georgia Department of Agriculture.

It launched an investigation citing the facility for not providing
humane care.

Joe Pritchard continued in his report:

August of 2010 the Department of Agriculture called me and asked
for a meeting about issues of concern.
They expressed those issues centered around
maintenance of records …
what was classified as humane treatment.



Mr. Pritchard referred to “specific castration of a pot-bellied pig”.
He didn’t say whether he considered that inhumane treatment;
he merely discussed it after referring to things “classified as humane treatment”.

He continued:

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Appointments, Alcohol, and Animals @ LCC Work Session 23 May 2011

Here is the entire Lowndes County Commission Work Session from this morning,
the same day it happened.
VDT or WCTV or WALB could do this.
Or the Commission itself could.
But since they don’t, LAKE did, and now you can see them dealing
with appointmments, alcohol, and animals.

If you have concerns about anything that happened,
or anything else related to the county government, there’s
a regular meeting Tuesday evening.

Videos are interspersed among

the agenda items:




LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, MAY 23, 2011, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, MAY 24, 2011, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

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