Category Archives: Planning

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 →

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

Authority should listen to other sources –John S. Quarterman

This op-ed by me appeared in the VDT today, 24 Feb 2011. On 15 Feb 2011 I spoke directly to the VLCIA board about the main points and the next day I sent them the longer version, Why “jobs, jobs, jobs” isn’t good enough for the public good and the general welfare, which includes links to videos of the relevant speeches and to VLCIA’s charter. -jsq
Everyone wants jobs for those who need them and jobs for young people so they don’t have to go somewhere else to find one. But what good is that if those jobs suck up all the water those people need to drink?

At the Lake Park Chamber of Commerce annual dinner Brad Lofton gave a speech which I liked, and I told him so afterwards, because it was mostly about real industry with real jobs that that the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA) has brought into the area.

But it had a problem:

Continue reading →

VDT on VLCIA biomass “Forum” expenses

David Rodock writes in the VDT, Report on funds spent by Industrial Authority during biomass conference:
An open records request led to the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA) publicly releasing the detailed costs associated with hosting a panel discussion to answer questions about the Wiregrass biomass plant at the Rainwater Conference Center on Dec. 6, 2010.

The total cost for the event was $17,534.36.

LAKE posted the detailed expense documents Monday 20 Feb 2011.

The VDT article quotes Col. Allan Ricketts as saying:

“These costs included renting the center and providing refreshments. We view these costs as due diligence because they relate directly to our community. We need to make sure that a project is a good fit for our community and that it won’t do harm to our community,” said Ricketts.

“You would want to insure that you going provide the best information available – they are the most qualified professionals you can find. You’d expect to pay them and they expect to be paid for their services.”

If they were so qualified, why wasn’t the VLCIA willing to have local people who would have charged nothing sit on the panel and debate them? Perhaps it’s because so many of the paid experts’ points were so easy to refute, as we know because so many of them have since been amply refuted?

-jsq

“In 20 years we’ll be meeting all of our energy needs with solar” –Ray Kurzweil

The man who knows more about doubling rates than anyone else in the world (he accurately predicted computers winning at chess and the Internet, including the correct dates), Ray Kurzweil, interviewed by Lauren Feeney on PBS:
One of my primary theses is that information technologies grow exponentially in capability and power and bandwidth and so on. If you buy an iPhone today, it’s twice as good as two years ago for half that cost. That is happening with solar energy — it is doubling every two years. And it didn’t start two years ago, it started 20 years ago. Every two years we have twice as much solar energy in the world.
Think about how fast the Internet has grown in the 21st century. That’s what he’s talking about: from unknown to TV news anchors to facilitating multiple revolutions in weeks. He continues: Continue reading →

Tranquility Trail –James Wright and students @LCC, 8 Feb 2011

Valdosta City Council member James Wright and students speak to the County Commission about Tranquility Trail. The students have a number of good points, such as “It’s not about me but our community” and “Don’t Litter, Make Our Trail Glitter”, and trees have educational and recreational benefits, and “We need our community to come in with us… how our community can get involved.” James Wright wraps up with “Development of our community and our citizens.” There’s more. Here’s the whole thing:


Regular meeting of the Lowndes County Commission, 8 February 2011,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

VLCIA Payments for 6 Dec 2010 biomass “Forum”

VLCIA spent more than $17,000 on speakers and catering for their 6 Dec 2010 “Forum”, according to VLCIA’s response to an open records request. Yet local speakers against the biomass plant who would have charged nothing were not invited to be on the panel. VLCIA insists on referring to it as an “information exchange”, even though their hand-picked moderator said “we’re not going to get into debate.”

Here is a summary of the expenses: Continue reading →

GA biomass bubble bursts

Dan Chapman writes in the AJC:
The premise, and the promise, were brilliant in their simplicity: Turn tree waste into fuel, help break the Middle Eastern choke hold on America’s economy and bring hundreds of jobs to rural Georgia.

What wasn’t there to like?

Plenty, starting with the closing last month of the Range Fuels cellulosic ethanol factory that promised to help make Georgia a national leader in alternative energy production. Then there’s the money — more than $162 million in local, state and federal grants, loans and other subsidies committed to the venture.

Hm, who was involved in that?
“Range Fuels represents a new future for our country,” proclaimed then-Gov. Sonny Perdue, flanked by dignitaries and beauty queens. “With Georgia’s vast, sustainable and renewable forests, we will lead the nation.”
That reminds me of this press release from 15 Sep 2009:
“Georgia’s status as the nation’s Bioenergy Corridor continues to grow with the location of a renewable energy power plant in Valdosta,” said Governor Perdue. “Our vast supply of biomass, technology innovations and business-friendly environment are very attractive to companies such as Wiregrass Power.”
Will history repeat itself?

-jsq

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 →

What was missing from Brad Lofton’s speech?

Seems like there’s something from Brad Lofton’s speech at the Lake Park Chamber of Commerce on 28 January 2011. Right at the end he mentioned:
a project we’ve been working on


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

What could that project be?

Right at the beginning Lofton said:

Ben Copeland beat me slap silly
Maybe that’s a clue. What did Ben Copeland say about Brad Lofton?
Brad Lofton was going to talk after me, and he’d talk about biomass. [laughter]
Continue reading →