It’s great that the Lowndes County Comissioner for District 2
is reporting about a highway in his district,
but why isn’t the county reporting it on its own facebook page,
website, twitter account, etc.?
While the county doesn’t have facebook account (why not?) it does
have those other things and there’s nothing on them about
this news: Continue reading
Category Archives: Lowndes County Commission
$9.40 for a mound of paper @ LCC 2015-08-10
Gretchen made an Open Records request Monday morning and
it was available Tuesday 4:37 PM: mostly on paper and less than
an hour before the Commission voted.
The rezoning material from the Planning office was sent by electronic mail.
The rest cost $9.40 to retrieve on paper.
Nevermind in the email earlier Tuesday of the
old ordinance from 1992 the county staff demonstrated they can
put a paper document on their copier and produce a PDF.
They could have done that with the rest of the board packet.
Why didn’t they?
The Work Session was
Monday morning at 8:30 AM 10 Aug 2015.
Gretchen was notified by telephone about 4:30 PM Tuesday 11 Aug 2015.
The County Palace closes at 5PM.
The Commission met at 5:30 PM Tuesday to vote.
So none Continue reading
Videos: Unknown ordinance, numerous emergencies, small rezoning, and alcohol @ LCC 2015-08-10
Here are videos of yesterday morning’s Work Session.
This morning, the same day as tonight’s voting Regular Session,
we got a few answers to some of yesterday’s questions about the
Nuisance Abatement Ordinance:
What 1992 ordinance? Which state law? Where’s the new draft?
Here’s the
old ordinance and the new draft.
And the memo wrapping the new draft refers to
O.C.G.A. §§41-2-7 through 41-2-17.
The memo doesn’t seem to say when that Georgia law was updated.
Here’s the
agenda.
See also the Continue reading
Minutes from 2006, Lowndes County Commission
Minutes aren’t on Lowndes County’s new website back more than a few years.
Even on their previous website, three sets of minutes were not there.
More than four years after Gretchen asked,
she
asked again,
and today we finally got those three.
Look who signed those minutes as County Clerk:
K. Paige Dukes, the same County Clerk who took four years to
return them in response to an Open Records request.
Here’s the message, and I’ve linked in those minutes.
-jsq
From: Amanda Smith <asmith@lowndescounty.com>
Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2015 16:43:18 +0000
To: “‘land@quarterman.org'” <land@quarterman.org>
Subject: Meeting MinutesAs per your request, I have attached the meeting minutes from 8/8/06,
12/12/06, and 12/20/06. Continue reading
Got one Lowndes County ordinance (nuisance abatement) after five years asking @ LCC 2015-08-10
Back in 2011 the County Clerk didn’t say which May she would provide
that list of ordinances….
Her response of today is below.
The
old ordinance is so old it’s signed by Inez Pendleton.
It’s still in force, though, so shouldn’t it be on the county’s website,
along with all the other ordinances in force that also aren’t there? See below for list; also notice the dates I’ve boldfaced.
The
proposed new ordinance
is not readily translatable to plain text; looks like she scanned a paper copy.
Both are relevant to
today’s Lowndes County Commission meeting.
For the minutes she mentioned, see separate post.
-jsq
From: Paige Dukes <pdukes@lowndescounty.com>
Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2015 15:42:29 +0000
To: John and Gretchen Quarterman <land@quarterman.org>
Subject: RE: Open Records Request for OrdinancesGood Afternoon Gretchen,
As per your request, please find the attached Continue reading
Unknown ordinance, numerous emergencies, small rezoning, and alcohol @ LCC 2015-08-10
How can we “Know the Laws” as the county’s
front page says,
if a county ordinance being revised isn’t there and isn’t
distributed when the county is about to vote on it Tuesday evening
after the Work Session this morning at 8:30 AM?
For the
Nuisance Abatement Ordinance the
packet agenda sheet says only: Continue reading
Moody Family Housing doesn’t want to replace trees it cut down on Val-Del @ ZBOA 2015-08-04
2:30 PM today,
should developers not have to follow code and put back trees
on the unnecessary and environmentally hazardous Moody Family Housing
on Val-Del Road?
You wouldn’t know who this was by a pretty name like
Azalea Commons,
or an acronym like
ACC Group III Housing,
and only the
board packet
mentions Balfour Beatty,
but it’s the same
Moody Family Housing
in an
aquifer recharge zone
that
already had a sinkhole
as admitted by
a K Street lawyer to the
Lowndes County Commission
and told to them and to the Air Force by VSU professors
that the Air Force proceeded to ignore in its
environmental assessment
and the Lowndes County Commission rezoned anyway.
Staff recommend 20% “relief” from planting trees.
How about the county get some relief from unnecessary sprawl?
They did provide
a table of the trees they want to cut down.
Here’s the agenda, which is not on the City of Valdosta website,
appearing here courtesy of Continue reading
Nydia Tisdale wins First Amendment Award for her Citizen Journalism, Fighting for the Right to Record
Update 2015-08-07: corrections by Nydia, including a timeline.
Only a bit more than three years since
the pictured incident,
Nydia Tisdale gets some of the recognition she deserves.
Georgia citizen journalist Nydia Tisdale is in the news again but this time, the story doesn’t involve her getting thrown out of a public meeting or arrested in a pumpkin patch.
Tisdale is being honored by Georgia’s First Amendment Foundation for her work in making public meetings available to the citizens of her community and for her dedication to keeping government open for everyone’s participation.
After
getting thrown out of the Cumming City Council for videoing in April 2012,
Nydia got Continue reading
Videos: MAZ tabled, Naylor Boat Ramp and Sabal Trail CWTBH @ LCC 2015-07-28
The proposed MAZ changes were
tabled for 90 days,
they approved everything else, and
welcomed new Utilities Director Steve Stalvey again,
at the 5:30 PM Tuesday 28 July 2015 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.
Valdosta City Council
Sandra Tooley
didn’t fill out a form and so didn’t get to speak,
but
another citizen asked about the
Naylor Boat Ramp (answer after the meeting: on schedule for this fall)
and about Sabal Trail (answer: none).
See also Continue reading
Videos: MAZ tabled + 2 small rezonings @ GLPC 2015-07-27
Once County Planner Jason Davenport admitted the
MAZ ULDC text amendments
weren’t ready (as he had indicated might happen at the same morning’s
County Commission Work Session),
and the Planning Commission recommended tabling it 4:1,
the meeting was very brief, even with the
SGRC Transportation presentation (which they weirdly heard after
adjourning the meeting, even though it was on the agenda).
The
David Brown Melody Lane rezoning
and the
Ron Borders Bemiss Road rezoning
flew through to 5:0 unanimous recommendations, with three Planning
Commissioners absent.
The
county rezoning
isn’t on the County Commission agenda yet,
and they will probably table the ULDC
MAZ item at its meeting 5:30 PM tonight.
See the Continue reading