Category Archives: Lowndes County Commission

NOAA Weather Radios: “think before you act” –J.L. Clark, LCC, 22 Feb 2011



The week after Commissioner Raines
said NOAA Weather Radios were “wasteful spending”
and the commission voted 2:1 against them,
J.L. Clark asked the Commission to “think before you act”.

Clark pointed out that nobody said anything when the state effectively
raised property taxes.
He read off a list of other grants the county has accepted,
and asked:

Are you going to return those grants?
I think not.

He brought up a recent earthquake and pointed out those radios
would be quite useful in such a natural disaster.

I ask the Commissioners to think before you act,
and not to react to you-know-what.

The commissioners made no response.
Here’s

the video:





Lowndes County Commission, 22 Feb 2011, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.

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

-jsq

NOAA Weather Radios “wasteful spending” –Richard Raines



Are NOAA Weather Radios “wasteful spending”?

We’ve already seen staff present the case for
about 5,000 NOAA Weather Radios at $21.50 each, paid for out of grant money.
They made that case at the 8:30AM 7 Feb 2011 Lowndes County Commission Work Session.



At the regular session the next day (5:30 PM Tuesday 8 Feb 2011),
citizen Nolen Cox spoke against the NOAA grant and more generally said

“just say no to grants”.
He also went on at some length about how he didn’t believe in climate change.
Nevermind that the fifth U.S. or British board of inquiry has

reconfirmed yet again that the data and analysis for climate change
are solid.



EMA Director Ashley Tye summarized the case for NOAA Weather radios,

according to the minutes,

stating Lowndes County had been awarded $107,500.00, in Hazard Mitigation
grant funding for the purchase of 5,000 NOAA weather radios to benefit
all of Lowndes County. Mr. Tye added that Alert Works had presented the
low bid in the amount of $21.50 per radio.

Finally, the Commission had some discussion.
According to the minutes:

Continue reading →

NOAA Weather Radios, LCC, 7 Feb 2011



We’ve already heard about NOAA Weather Radios from two different citizens,
Nolen Cox
and Ken Klanicki.
What are they talking about?
As usual, much of the discussion was in the work session
(8:30 AM Monday 7 Feb 2011), available here in two parts.

In

Part 1
staff talks about buying about 5,000 NOAA weather radios
so the citizens can get weather news.
Low bidder would charge $21.50 per radio.





Lowndes County Commission, 7 Feb 2011, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.

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

In

Part 2, staff notes that the grant would require that
the radios can’t be earmarked, so people could come to the
county office to pick up radios, and staff proposes to have
several community events throughout the community, well-advertised,
for people to pick up radios and staff to answer questions about them.

One of the commissioners notes:

That’s almost $108,000 tax money
what happens to that grant money if, we say you know,
it might not be a good idea […]
what happens to that?

Continue reading →

“the citizenry has a right to scrutinise the state.” –Julian Assange



Some people compare LAKE to Wikileaks, so let’s go there.
Julian Assange, like

Wendell Berry,
links the civil rights movement and the environmental movement.
He

then says:

“For the Internet generation this is our challenge and this is our time.
We support a cause that is no more radical a proposition than that the citizenry has a right to scrutinise the state.
The state has asserted its authority by surveilling, monitoring and regimenting all of us, all the while hiding behind cloaks of security and opaqueness.
Surely it was only a matter of time before citizens pushed back and we asserted our rights.”

LAKE’s

motto is:

Citizen dialog for transparent process

That makes Assange’s proposition

“the citizenry has a right to scrutinise the state”

sound very familiar to us.

Locally it’s more a matter of elected and appointed bodies ignoring
their chartered responsibilities to

the public good and the general welfare.
Well, many people are also tired of the permit inspection brigade,
but that’s another story.

Assange

also adds:

Continue reading →

GA SB16: Lowndes County Commission Expansion



Georgia Senate Bill 16

Lowndes County; provide for a board of commissioners; powers and composition
has

passed the House on Feb 10th and the Senate on Feb 28th
and is now waiting for the governor to sign it.
Here’s the summary:

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend and supersede the laws pertaining
to the governing authority of Lowndes County; to provide for a Board
of Commissioners of Lowndes County; to provide for the powers and
composition of the board of commissioners; to provide for election
districts, qualifications, terms of office, and filling of vacancies of
commissioners; to provide for meetings and quorum; to provide for the
responsibilities of the chairperson; to provide for a vice chairperson
and the vice chairperson’s responsibilities; to provide for submission
pursuant to Section 5 of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, as
amended; to provide for severability and effective dates; to provide for
the repeal of existing enabling legislation; to repeal conflicting laws;
and for other purposes.

The actual bill still has
to be approved by U.S. DoJ
“pursuant to Section 5 of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended”:

Continue reading →

VLCIA Bonds: $15M becomes $23.5M?



How much are those bonds
VLCIA has committed we the taxpayers to?

According to

VLCIA’s FYE 2011 Annual Financial Report
it looks like the bonds started out as about $15,000,000,
and are

If I’m reading that right (I am not a CPA),
VLCIA took out about $15M in bonds
for which they will pay back a total of about $23.5M.
Is that really $8.5M in debt service, or about 56% of the original
principal?
Is that a good deal VLCIA has made with we the taxpayers’ money?

Meanwhile, VLCIA has

That’s an interesting number to contemplate while other arms of local
government are scraping to pay salaries and provide services.
One of those other arms of local government is the Lowndes County Commission,
which

appears to be co-guarantor for those bonds.

-jsq

VLCIA “inter-governmental funding agreement” with Lowndes County



If Lowndes County funds VLCIA and helps secure its bonds,
how can the Lowndes County Commission have no control over VLCIA?

In
Note A: Summary of Significant Accounting Policies
of

VLCIA’s FYE 2011 Annual Financial Report:

Reporting Entity

The Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority is a political subdivision
created by the State of Georgia Legislature to stimulate growth in the
Valdosta-Lowndes County area.
The Authority’s revenues are derived primarily from contributions by
local governnments and by the sale of land in the industrial development
parks owned by the Authority.

Well, the VLCIA’s charter is

available on the web
and it doesn’t just say “growth”; it also says

“the public good” and “the general welfare” of the community.

The financial report continues:

The members of the Industrial Authority are appointed by both the City
Council of the City of Valdosta and the Lowndes County Board of Commissioners.
Primary operating funding, as well as guarantees for certain bonds, comes from
the Lowndes County Board of Commissioners and accordingly, the Authority is
considered to be economically dependent on Lowndes County.

The first sentence is correct.
If the second sentence is correct, how can the Lowndes County Commission
say it has no control over or responsibility for the Industrial Authority?

Further, in

Note F: Long Term Debt:

The bonds are secured by an “inter-governmental” funding agreement
between the
Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority and Lowndes County, Georgia.

If the Lowndes County government is co-guarantor of VLCIA’s bonds,
how can the Lowndes County Commission say it has no responsibility
or control over what VLCIA does?
I am not a CPA, but the term “fiduciary responsibility” comes to mind.
These bonds are, after all, being paid for by our tax dollars,
and the Board of Commissioners are our elected representatives for the county.

How big are those bonds, anyway?
See
the next post.

-jsq

VLCIA Annual Financial Report FYE 30 June 2011



Where does that

$3 million a year in VLCIA tax revenue go?

In the

Annual Financial Report for the fiscal year ending 30 June 2011,
for the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
there are some interesting assertions, and some really interesting
dollar figures.
These documents were obtained by

open records request February 2011
and given to LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

See the following posts about the

“inter-governmental agreement” between VLCIA and Lowndes County
and about

the size of the bonds and debt servicing VLCIA has committed to.
And of course read the report for yourself and see what you think.

-jsq

DHS grant for emergency vehicle, LCC work session, 21 Feb 2011



Here’s video of the explanation by county staff
the proposed DHS grant application for an emergency vehicle.
It includes questions and statements from commissioners,
and goes on for almost 11 minutes.
This was at the work session of 21 Feb 2011.

The sound would be better if the county used their own equipment,
which is already purchased and in place in that same room,
to record their own sessions and make them available over the web.

Here is

the LAKE video.
Maybe somebody would like to make a transcription.





Work session, Lowndes County Commission, 21 February 2011.
Video by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Video of this topic at the regular session of the next day will follow.
This is one of the grants Ken Klanicki referred to in his LTE in the VDT
the other day about a steep learning curve.

-jsq

“the learning curve is very steep” –Ken Klanicki

This LTE appeared in the VDT yesterday (28 Feb 2011). -jsq



Former Lowndes County commissioner Richard Lee once told me “…the
learning curve is very steep for first-time commissioners.” Our new county
commissioners, Richard Raines and Crawford Powell, are living proof of the
veracity of that statement. In case Bill O’Reilly is reading this, here’s a
few examples.

Earlier this month a grant application for the purchase of 5,000 weather
emergency radios was nixed by a 2 – 1 vote. The radios could’ve been a means
for citizens residing in remote areas of the county to

Continue reading →