Category Archives: SPLOST

30 Club Candidate Forum @ 30Club 2013-10-21



The candidates were almost unanimous on

SPLOST VII and

how to prevent JK situations,
but more varied on other questions.

Roy Copeland, billed as “Valdosta attorney”
(but perhaps known better to LAKE readers as VLCIA board member and former Chairman)
was the moderator,
assisted by
Valdosta Fire Chief and



Thirty Club member

J.D. Rice.
They took questions from the audience and recognized their host,

Pastor Floyd Rose of Serenity Church.
You may wonder as I do why city council candidates were answering
about graduation rates.

Matthew Woody wrote for the VDT 21 October 2013,

‘Let the games begin’.
Here’s the list of
qualified candidates.
As usual, nobody showed up from the smaller cities, although at least one Valdosta candidate,
Richard Miller,
spoke up for the smaller cities about SPLOST.


Valdosta City Council District 2

Continue reading →

The SPLOST Debate –Tim Carroll

Received 27 October 2013. -jsq



I have had a number of folks contact me about the upcoming SPLOST
VII referendum and inquiring about a MOST. Trying to talk about all
of this in as few a words as I can is not easy. But to give you
some perspective—the city’s general fund budget is $32M.
$5.9M of the revenue for this fund comes from property taxes. Based
on the city tax digest a mill is worth $1.5M. The experts say
50.2% of the sales tax is paid by out of towners. In the opinion of
some folks, it is closer to 30%. Pick the experts or local guesses
….it still is a significant amount. It clearly is very beneficial
to the citizens of Valdosta and Lowndes County.

By now many have heard about a MOST or Municipal Option Sales Tax.

In the first part of this year—the city of Valdosta was faced
with Continue reading →

Videos, AAUW Candidates’ Forum @ AAUW 2013-10-15



Water was a popular topic, as you can see in these
videos of the

Candidates’s Forum by AAUW.
Same location (VSU Continuing Education Building)
as the one

Chamber held,
but this time the audience got to ask questions.
Yes, Virginia, they do all live in their districts, and some of them have widely divergent views about what cities or school boards should do.

Local

AAUW President Diane Holliman gave a welcome, and then
Dr. Luke Fowler moderated.
Here’s

the list of qualified candidates.
Here’s

Matthew Woody’s writeup in the VDT.


Valdosta City Council District 2

John Hogan and Calvin Graham Sr. were present; Sandra J. Tooley was not.


John Hogan pointed out that a road issue could really be a drainage issue,
so it’s necessary to look at context.


Calvin Graham Sr.
said he was retired military, lived in the district, and had
been spending a lot of time volunteering.
He indicated the Continue reading →

County lost LOST; now has 120 days to negotiate with cities



So all our tax money the county spent on the

alleged county attorney
arguing
before the state Supreme Court was wasted.
The remaining law seems to say by 120 days from Monday
the cities and the county need to come to an agreement.

Kay Harris wrote for the VDT yesterday,

Lowndes LOST in limbo:
Supreme Court tosses key amendment,

In a ruling issued Monday, Oct. 7, the Supreme Court of Georgia
declared a 2010 amendment to the Local Option Sales Tax Act
unconstitutional, reasoning that the amendment would delegate a
legislative function of allocating tax proceeds to the judicial
branch of government, a violation of the Separation of Powers clause
of the Georgia Constitution.



For Lowndes County, the ruling effectively renders the lawsuit moot
that was filed by the five cities against the county in September
2012.

The Supreme Court’s ruling came in the case of Turner County vs. the
City of Ashburn over a dispute in splitting the proceeds from the
one cent sales tax, the same issue in the Lowndes lawsuit. By
declaring the portion unconstitutional that would allow a judge to
decide how to allocate the tax dollars between the entities, the
issue is now in limbo for several counties in Georgia.



You may recall that

former Chairman Ashley Paulk
wasn’t interested in discussing proposals from the cities,
and said from before

the LOST negotiations began
that he expected it to go to arbitration.



This was the same Chairman Ashley Paulk who put SPLOST VII on the ballot
a year early and

lost it.
I wonder how much input County Manager Joe Pritchard had into these two losing decisions?

At least SPLOST VI hasn’t expired yet
and there’s time for the voters to go again on

SPLOST VII in November.

What happens now with LOST? Continue reading →

Videos: SPLOST VII Resolution, child proclamation, and appointment @ LCC 2013-09-10



They voted to put the

SPLOST VII Resolution on the ballot in November,

“to reimpose the tax”, with not even a hint of those

town halls that never happened.
They reappointed

Mac McCall to ZBOA.
The Proclamation
was for a boy who called 911 to help an old neighbor
who was trapped under a refrigerator
(nope, not for

South Georgia Pride).
And we learned that nobody has to fear arrest or threat
and everybody can speak their mind
in the Commission chambers; nevermind recent history to the contrary.

Here’s

the agenda, with links to the videos and a few notes.
See also

videos of the previous morning’s Work Session.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2013, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2013, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Videos: SPLOST VII Resolution and mystery proclamation and appointment @ LCC 2013-09-09


Charlie Clark
The big surprise in the eleven-minute meeting
was they called up former
County Engineer Charlie Clark to explain the Utility Director’s
comment about making a profit on wastewater to Lake Park Elementary School.
Yes,

the SPLOST VII Resolution is to put it on the ballot in November,
“to reimpose the tax”.
So much for those

town halls that never happened.
Yep, it’s Mac McCall for

reappointment to ZBOA.

No Proclamation this morning, so
it could still be for

South Georgia Pride
like

Valdosta Mayor John Gayle refused to proclaim last year.
And they vote tomorrow night at 5:30 PM.

Here’s

the agenda, with links to the videos and a few notes.



LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2013, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2013, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

SPLOST VII Resolution and mystery proclamation and appointment @ LCC 2013-09-09

Presumably the SPLOST VII Resolution is to put it on the ballot in November.
So much for those

town halls that never happened.
I’m guessing the ZBOA appointment is for the finally-expired term
of Dave Kirk;
they appointed

John “Mac” McCall last December to the unexpired part of Kirk’s term,
so McCall would be the odds-on reappointment.


Maybe the Proclamation is for

South Georgia Pride
like

Valdosta Mayor John Gayle refused to proclaim last year.
Why do we have to guess what all those items are for, anyway?
Why don’t they just make the agenda items descriptive,
or, even better,

link the board packet items in with the agenda?
The two
For Consideration
items are more intelligible, but would still make more sense
with those board packet materials.

Here’s

the agenda.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2013, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2013, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Videos: Moody, Moody, acre, water, and SPLOST VII @ LCC 2013-08-13



The

big item was a public-private partnership for units to be rented only to
military personnel, built on top of the same soil as has a sinkhole
next door.
They also approved a no-bid contract for
a drinking water treatment plant upgrade near the Alapaha River,
plus another no-bid contract for Lovell Engineering, for
wastewater treatment.
And they’re so confident SPLOST VII will be approved
by the voters (even though they never held a town hall or public hearing)
that staff is going to ask the state

to continue collections in January;
plus Gretchen pointed out that
if citizens knew what was in SPLOST they might be more willing to vote for it.
Including maybe even
the woman who noted that since garbage trucks
are coming down her road it needs to be fixed.

Here’s

the agenda,
with links to the videos and a few notes, including a few links to related posts.



LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, AUGUST 12, 2013, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2013, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Access to information about SPLOST –Gretchen Quarterman @ LCC 2013-08-13



If voters knew what they were voting for with SPLOST VII,
maybe they’d be more likely to vote for it,
noted Gretchen Quarterman
at the

13 August 2013 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.

Gretchen Quarterman said she was happy about the work the county
had done with the cities to figure out SPLOST VII, but:

Last year we didn’t do a good job in the county about getting
the county residents to go and vote for SPLOST
so now we’re in this gap.
Thank you for figuring out how to
fill the gap; if we do that, that’s good.

One of the things that I think would really help us Continue reading →

Videos: SPLOST VII open up, Prisoners, Water, Roads, and Costs @ LCC 2013-07-23

The closest we’re apparently going to get to a town hall or public hearing
about the county’s SPLOST VII list:
Chairman said “we’re going to open up” for comments.
The only taker was

Airport Authority Executive Director Jim Galloway.
Confusion about the minutes continued.
They appointed Ellen Golden to the

Department of Family & Children’s Services Board.
They hired prisoners again to compete with local labor.
They approved a letter
from Lovell Engineering to GA EPD on behalf of the county;
it wasn’t clear whether any of the Commissioners knew about
all the previous violations at the same water treatment plant.
They accepted Barrington subdivision infrastructure,
whereever that is, saying it wouldn’t cost the county anything,
except, of course, maintaining those roads as county development sprawls outwards.
They approved their
their Directors and Officers insurance.
This was all with a bare 3 of 5 quorum, because
Commissioners Raines and Powell didn’t show up for work.
A citizen thanked the Commission for increasing library funding.



Here’s

the agenda, with links to the videos and a few notes.
See also

the previous morning’s Work Session.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JULY 22, 2013, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JULY 23, 2013, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →