This comment from George Boston Rhynes arrived just now,
on “Talk to my chairman”. -jsq
I was at
the last LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS MEETING when
Chairman Ashley Paulk shared information about the Biomass Project
extension being denied and the alleged secrecy surrounding keeping the
general public ignorant.
“Because certain people won’t share with you and I think it’s
unfair. We were approached about three weeks ago, Mr. (Joe) Pritchard
(County Manager) was, by the Industrial Authority, and we were tentatively
asked to make a move to ask that they not extend the contract.”
(Chairman Paulk!)
Chairman Paulk words prove that there is an apparent pattern and practice
Thank you for posting this, Mr. Quarterman. The NAACP is one of the
groups boycotting Arizona over its anti-Hispanic “immigration” law
(which really does nothing except racially profile American citizens
who happen to have brown skin.)
More on the NAACP boycott of Arizona can be found here.
“We are joining this lawsuit because the Arizona law is out of step with
American values of fairness and equality,” said Benjamin Todd Jealous,
President and Chief Executive Officer of the NAACP. “It encourages
racial profiling and is unconstitutional. African Americans know all
too well the insidious effects of racial profiling.”
This came in Sunday as a blog post on
To Speak or Not to Speak.
As a contrast, Lowndes County Commissioners do usually talk to people before and after
their meetings, and sometimes they use that time to answer questions citizens asked during the meeting. -jsq
Yost engaged Dr. Noll (and was unpleasant about it) at one meeting that I attended, Mayor Fretti engages people sometimes, Attorney Talley engaged J. Smith last Thursday, and sometimes others at other meetings, myself included, and Vickers talks pretty much to whomever he wants whenever he wants. The whole CTBH policy is a smokescreen. The Council Comments period ought to be followed by adjournment and then the Councilmembers making their remarks from the dais during Council Comments ought to have to walk out into the audience and deal with the voters’ concerns directly.
When Jimmy Rainwater was Mayor, I may not always have agreed with him, or he with me, but he always came out into the audience and talked to us.
This Council is not responsive to the concerns of its citizens,
Happy Birthday, Mayor Fretti, and thank you for posting publicly.
However, I wish you would stop trying to pass Mayor and Council’s
portion of responsibility for the biomass incinerator to the Industrial
Authority. I delivered a letter to Mayor and Council Thursday night
outlining 10 reasons your Utilities Director can legitimately give when he
(hopefully) follows Mayor and Council’s recommendation to refuse to sell
gray water to the proposed biomass incinerator. I and many other citizens
are tired of the run-around and the shifting of responsibility for this
“biomess” from one public official or group to another.
A councilmember told me that Council would never vote
Leigh Touchton posted a comment with a report from
last night’s Valdosta City Council meeting:
I won’t stay to the end in the future because if they are going to
make public attacks on citizens and then go into Executive session so
they don’t have to hear a rebuttal, then I don’t care to listen to their
bombast. Yost apparently thinks
your public criticism of the activists not
staying (and also the Tea Party left right after one of their members read
from the Bible about how laws and regulation are a sin–I had difficulty
keeping from laughing out loud—we’re in a recession because laws and
regulation were thrown away and banks made a video called Banks Gone
Wild…but I digress)…apparently Yost thinks your criticism of people
not staying is something he can use to good effect to nullify the need
to publicly address citizen complaints. Here’s his position, distilled:
“You won’t stay to the end, I’m offended. You called our important work
boring, I’m offended. (much redness of face, some veins popping out)
You come in here and talk to us like that then I’m not going to address
your complaints, I’m offended.”
Well I’m offended that a grown man elected to represent Valdosta acts
like that.
Let me go back and educate the gentle readers out there who haven’t
Leigh Touchton commented yesterday about a meeting Tuesday 19 April.
She is president of the
Valdosta-Lowndes NAACP. -jsq
Valdosta NAACP branch voted last night to oppose the private prison approved by VLCIA. We don’t need more prisons, and they do not improve economic standards in any community in which they have been located. There is a safety burden upon the community, there are human rights abuses, and the focus should be on saving the state money by rehabilitation of non-violent offenders rather than mass incarceration. When America has 5% of the world’s population but incarcerates 25% of the world’s prisoners, this is unacceptable. In North Carolina, private prisons have put local furniture manufacturers out of business because they cannot compete with the prison’s slave labor. These are not sustainable and it’s no mystery why most of the large Christian denominations in America oppose them.
Chairman Jerry Jennett asked for Citizens Wishing to be Heard,
and first up was
Leigh Touchton, President of
Valdosta-Lowndes NAACP,
who presented them
a letter from Dr. Robert D. Bullard,
about his findings that 80% of the residents
within one mile of the proposed Wiregrass Power Plant are black
and 75% of biomass facilities in Georgia are sited in minority/poor communities.
She
also said
she
was tired of people who are against biomass being
represented as a fanatical fringe crew,
primarily by Mr. Lofton,
considering she stood before them representing the local NAACP,
the Georgia state conference of the NAACP,
“the largest organization non-profit of voters in the state of Georgia”,
and the national NAACP.
Leigh Touchton, President, Valdosta-Lowndes NAACP
regular monthly meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA)
Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Tom Call, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,
J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Brad Lofton Executive Director, Allan Ricketts Program Manager,
15 March 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Perhaps I missd it because I was a few minutes late,
but this was the only mention of the Wiregrass Power LLC biomass plant
that I heard at this VLCIA board meeting.
The first thing I saw when I drove up to the Industrial Authority building:
protesters outside.
They don’t seem to like some biomass plant.
Protesters, Wiregrass Activists for Clean Energy (WACE) at the
regular monthly meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA)
Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Tom Call, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,
J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Brad Lofton Executive Director, Allan Ricketts Program Manager,
15 March 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
“We’re here to protest against biomass.
We wish Brad Lofton well in his new job,
but we want biomass to go as well.”
Karen and Michael Noll, Wiregrass Activists for Clean Energy (WACE) at the
regular monthly meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA)
Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Tom Call, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,
J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Brad Lofton Executive Director, Allan Ricketts Program Manager,
15 March 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
I was at the last LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS MEETING when Chairman Ashley Paulk shared information about the Biomass Project extension being denied and the alleged secrecy surrounding keeping the general public ignorant.
“Because certain people won’t share with you and I think it’s unfair. We were approached about three weeks ago, Mr. (Joe) Pritchard (County Manager) was, by the Industrial Authority, and we were tentatively asked to make a move to ask that they not extend the contract.” (Chairman Paulk!)Chairman Paulk words prove that there is an apparent pattern and practice
