Category Archives: Politics

Community’s need for public transportation, bike lanes, and walking —Heather Evans @ LCC 10 November 2011

Heather Evans provided a petition with more than 200 signatures, and told Thursday’s Valdosta City Council meeting she got requests frequently while working in community service for something to be done about non-automobile transportation. She presented a variety of evidence.

Ideally, I’d like to see bike lanes all over town. But if I had to pick one to start with, St. Augustine would be my choice. I choose this road because it also needs to have a completed sidewalk segment. I can’t tell you how many people including myself have been endangered while using this portion of road.

George Rhynes took this video and remarked:

WOW! Valdosta-Lowndes County is now being seen as a real metro city and citizens are asking questions to their elected officials. WOW! The old control, suppress, and abate is apparently unacceptable in 2011 as we get ready for the 2012 Presidential election.

Here’s the video: Continue reading →

Truth really needs no defense! —George Rhynes @ VCC 10 November 2011

George Rhynes stood up at Thursday’s Valdosta City Council meeting to respond to Ken Klanicki’s concern about Sam Allen’s speech on the City Hall steps the previous day.

I want the record to show and I hope the Valdosta Daily Tims will print it, that former Superintendent Sam Allen, all he did was to act as a professional, which he is.

George also commended the bicyclers and said he had videoed the bicycles he found out front.

Here’s the video:

Truth really needs no defense! —George Rhynes @ VCC 10 November 2011
bicycle, path, health care, health, sidewalk, grant,
Regular Session, Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 10 November 2011.
Videos by George Boston Rhynes for K.V.C.I., the bostongbr on YouTube.

-jsq

This is what democracy looks like at the Chamber @ Occupy Valdosta 14 October 2011

A gentle reminder to the Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce of what just happened at the polls yesterday.

Myrna Ballard:

I understand that you have something that you’d like to say?

Occupy Valdosta:

This is what democracy looks like!

Here’s the video:

This is what democracy looks like at the Chamber @ Occupy Valdosta 14 October 2011
We are the 99%,
Marching to Occupy Valdosta, Occupy Valdosta,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 14 October 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

That’s Sam Allen, president of FVCS holding the front Vote No sign; Vote No for the Children is holding another one. Greg Gullberg of WCTV is standing in front of Myrna Ballard, Jade Bulecza of WALB has a camera in the lower right, David Rodock of the VDT is standing behind Myrna Ballard in the video, Desiree Thompson of the VSU Spectator was there, Valdosta Today was there, George Boston Rhynes of K.V.C.I. and bostongbr on YouTube was there, and LAKE was there.

-jsq

The grass roots effort, outspent by a 10 to 1 margin, defeat the CUEE effort by 4 to 1! —Jim Parker

Received today on School Consolidation Lost by a Landslide with 14 of 16 precincts reporting. -jsq

Hip! Hip! Hooray!
Absolutely amazing! The grass roots effort, outspent by a 10 to 1 margin, defeat the CUEE effort by 4 to 1! That’s what it’s all about! This is what democracy looks like!
Thanks to all the put in the time and effort and showed up at the polls. Now I hope we can have a serious discussion about the education of our children in Valdosta. Y’all in the county can, too.
-Jim Parker

Is consolidation inevitable? —David Mullis @ LCBOE 4 Oct 2011

David Mullis, author of the most basic and comprehensive resource on school consolidation, the Grassroots Handbook Against School Consolidation, noted that the Chamber and CUEE had tried to paint Valdosta School Supt. Dr. Cason and Lowndes School Supt. Dr. Smith as saying school consolidation was inevitable.

Dr. Smith replied:

I use the word “may”. It may occur. I’m not like CUEE; I don’t have a crystal ball to predict the future.

David Mullis asked for further clarification based on the data we have today.

Supt. Smith’s answer:

Now is the worst possible time to even consider consolidation or any other education innovation that’s going to cost more money that has possibly little or no return.

Here’s the video: Continue reading →

And I feel like there’s somebody meddling in their affairs; I wish they wouldn’t have. —Ashley Paulk @ LCC 7 November 2011

As previously noted, Chairman Ashley Paulk last night told Matt Portwood he didn’t think the Lowndes County Commission should be meddling in school affairs. Here’s the part the VDT didn’t quote:

And I feel like there’s somebody meddling in their affairs; I wish they wouldn’t have.

That’s pretty interesting considering that Brittany D. McClure reported for the VDT 4 November 2011 that FVCS makes campaign contributions public:

Ashley Paulk, Lowndes County Commission chairman contributed $200

So it’s not like the public doesn’t already know Ashley Paulk’s opinion on this subject, and it seems he was reminding us of it: he contributed money to FVCS, a group actively lobbying to prevent the school consolidation promoted by CUEE.

Chairman Paulk also noted:

We do have county residents who live in the city.

Seems like he’s confusing two excuses for the Commissioners not speaking about school consolidation: Continue reading →

Bussing is a natural consequence of consolidation —Warren Turner to Roy Copeland @ LCBOE 4 Oct 2011

Two attorneys brought a point into the light that CUEE doesn’t like to talk about: bussing is a natural consequence of consolidation. That was stated by the attorney for the Lowndes County School System, Warren Turner, 4 October 2011.

Roy Copeland brought up some names from the past: Mrs. Copeland or Mrs. Adams, and the newscasters Huntley and Brinkley. He then asked about the consent decree on desegregation from back in that era:

Has anyone given any thoughts to the issues relative to the consentdecreee, desegregation, and the realignment of school districts relative to the Voting Rights Act 1965 preclearance, and all those other issues.

Lowndes County Schools Attorney Warren Turner answered the question, after Roy Copeland mentioned they were neighbors. The answer was basically that there would be a hearing before November 8^th. Hm, I wonder what happened with that? As far as what happens if consolidation is approved by the Valdosta voters, he said, among other things:

So the concept of a neighborhood school, where everybody stays where they are, is not going to happen in my opinion, because the federal government is not going to allow that to happen.

Finally, Roy Copeland asked: Continue reading →

Double Lowndes County Commission tonight: Work 4:30 PM Regular 5:30 PM

Alcohol, rezoning, hospital, debt, and an election! Because Tuesday is Election Day, the Lowndes County Commission changed its regular meeting to Monday. Work sessions are usually Monday in the morning; today the Work Session is at 4:30 PM, just before the Regular Session at 5:30 PM. It’s a busy agenda, including two alcohol licenses, two rezonings, and an appointment to the Hospital Authority of Valdosta and Lowndes County (VLCHA); that’s the body that authorized South Georgia Medical Center (SGMC) buying Smith Northview Hospital, after which SGMC got the County Commission to have we the taxpayers guarantee $100 million in bonds for expansion. Hm, and “SGMC Revenue Certificates” is on this agenda, too.

Here’s the agenda:

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2011, 4:30 p.m.
REGULAR SESSION, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2011, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2^nd Floor

Continue reading →

The Hidden Cost of Wal-Mart Jobs in public safety net use by low-paid employees

Interesting study from California whose results probably also apply to Georgia, showing that Wal-Mart pays about a third less than other retail companies, so little that Wal-Mart employees tend to use food stamps and public medical assistance and housing to stay afloat, which thus “creates a hidden cost to the state’s taxpayers.”

Arindrajit Dube and Ken Jacobs wrote for UC Berkeley Labor Center, August 2004, Hidden Cost of Wal-Mart Jobs: Use of Safety Net Programs by Wal-Mart Workers in California. According to the UC Berkeley Labor Center:

This widely publicized report finds Wal-Mart’s wage and health benefits packages for its California workers to be below average as compared to the overall retail sector in California. The authors also find a greater reliance upon public assistance programs among Wal-Mart workers as compared to other California retail workers. Finally, the authors estimate the additional costs to taxpayers of “Wal-Martization”—the adoption of Wal-Mart’s wage and health benefits standards by retailers throughout California.

Here is an extract from the study: Continue reading →

How about as a first step the Chamber pledge… —Jim Parker

Received today on Why the Chamber Supports Unification. -jsq

So true, John. There was no meat in the whole letter. The last line sums it up, “We BELIEVE…” yada, yada, yada. Faith based thinking might fly in religious institutions, but in the education of our children, we have a pretty good handle on what is needed. Deferring to those trained and with years of experience in the education of our children, who have brought countless facts to the discussion, none of which the Chamber can or has bothered to refute, I will go along with both Boards of Education and vote NO to consolidation.
I did note that Mr Gooding offered to “combine our resources and our efforts and work together as a community to transform two average school systems…” Since he used the first person plural “our,”