Category Archives: Transparency

A clock for Citizens Wishing to Be Heard! @ LCC 2013-01-08

The Lowndes County Commission has deployed a clock! Where people can see it. Even the speaker in Citizens Wishing to Be Heard can see it! Congratulations to new Chairman Bill Slaughter and new Commissioners Demarcus Marshall and John Page.

Clock, Citizens Wishing to Be Heard, Lowndes County Commission, Georgia
The clock above County Manager Joe Pritchard, Chairman Bill Slaughter, Commissioners Joyce Evans, John Page, Richard Raines, Demarcus Marshall, Crawford Powell.

This is a welcome change from when former Chairman Ashley Paulk stopped Jessica Bryan Hughes at 4 minutes 39 seconds on 24 May 2011 and cut me off at 4 1/2 minutes on 28 June 2011, both times less than five minutes according to the LAKE video camera.

Speaking of five minutes, that’s the time limit set by the Commission in its own Policies and Procedures for Citizens Wishing to be Heard:

6. Each speaker’s time to speak shall be limited to five minutes.

Maybe the Commission would like to follow its own ordinance?

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Bird supper tickets on sale

Once a year busloads of people go to Atlanta from Lowndes County and Valdosta to lobby their legislators with small birds. It’s curious we only hear about this from Valdosta, not Lowndes County. -jsq

Bird Supper 2013 Tickets on Sale Now
Posted Date: 1/3/2013

Sementha Mathews, Public Information Officer
Phone: (229) 259-3548
E-mail: smathews@valdostacity.com

Tickets are on sale for the 2013 Bird Supper, scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013, at the historic Georgia Railroad Depot, in Atlanta, beginning at 5 p.m. The tradition—over 50 years old—brings together hundreds of state officials and local business, professional and government personnel for a dinner of quail and important conversation.

The event, sponsored by the City of Valdosta and the Lowndes County Board of Commissioners, allows local professionals the opportunity to have an impact on the current legislative agenda through face-to-face conversations with those who will make some very important decisions impacting our local area and entire state.

Tickets may be purchased

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Valdosta City Council meetings cancelled @ VCC 2013-01-10

And now a word from award-winning Valdosta City Clerk Teresa Bolden. -jsq

Good morning — I wanted to let you know that the Work Session scheduled for January 8th and the Council Meeting scheduled for January 10th have both been cancelled due to the lack of items on the Agenda. Our next Regular Council Meeting will be held on January 24th.

New Clayton County Commissioners fire County Manager, fund forensic audit

A few new Commissioners on a five-member board is producing significant changes in Clayton County. What changes will the new Lowndes County Commissioners make?

Tammy Joyner write for the AJC Election results usher in period of change for Clayton,

The new County Commission set the tone this week by ushering in a raft of changes aimed at creating better accountability in Clayton’s finances while putting greater control in the hands of the new chairman. The board removed County Manager Wade Starr, a long-time kingmaker in Clayton politics, and will bring in a chief financial officer to manage county finances.

The balance of power clearly has swung to newly elected Commissioners Jeff Turner and Shana Rooks. Turner, who replaces Eldrin Bell as chairman, and Rooks, who defeated Wole Ralph, teamed with returning Commissioner Michael Edmondson to create a new voting bloc on the five-member board, and they appear intent on taking swift action.

“They hit the ground running,” said Carl Swensson, chairman of the Clayton County Citizens Oversight Committee. “The former power triumvirate has been absolutely shattered. We’re going to have good people in position where they can do the most good for this county. You’re going to find a more receptive ear in the new structure.”

Naturally the remaining old guard took issue:

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New Commission meets Monday morning and Tuesday evening @ LCC 2013-01-07

Pictured: newly elected Commissioners Page, Evans (re-elected), Slaughter, and Marshall

The Industrial Authority wants to buy some unspecified property public defender needs renewing, plus 4-H agent and school bus activity. Also workers’ compensation, and the Commission needs to approve its own schedule, since it’s a new Commission now, with two more voting members than last year, and a new Chairman.

Here’s a list of the current Commission members:

  • Bill Slaughter, Chairman, At-Large
  • Joyce E. Evans, Commissioner, District 1
  • Richard Raines, Commissioner, District 2
  • Crawford Powell, Commissioner, District 3
  • Demarcus Marshall, Commissioner, District 4
  • John Page, Commissioner, District 5

Their Commission web page still has at the top this mission statement:

“To provide an efficient, effective and responsive local government to all citizens of Lowndes County while maintaining the financial strength to meet any contingency”

The county government has apparently been pretty good about that last thing (although that $8.9 million discrepency could make some wonder). On responsiveness, not so much, considering the trash non-solution railroaded through at the last meeting of the previous Commission. Maybe this new Commission will be different.

Here’s the agenda.

-jsq

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2013, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
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Substandard fire protection at nuclear Plant Hatch?

Does Hatch nuclear Unit 1 have substandard fire protection, like many reactors built before 1975? Protection against fires that the NRC says cause about half the core damage risk, such as at Fukushima, which is the same design as Hatch?

According to Simplyfy.org 2 Jan 2012, Fire Risk At Older Japan Reactors Shows Potential Worldwide Problem,

The [Japanese Nuclear Regulatory Authority] NRA announced recently that reactors built before 1975 likely have sub standard fire protection designs. This includes having important cables coated in fire resistant insulation, isolating and protecting cables and creating barriers to prevent fires from spreading to other areas of critical equipment.

Source: The Mainichi, 1 Jan 2013, Over 10 nuclear plants in Japan have flawed fire-prevention equipment: sources.

What else was built before 1975? Plant Hatch Unit 1 “Operating License: Issued – 10/13/1974”, according to the U.S. NRC. 100 miles from here, and the same design as Fukushima.

DOE also instituted upgrades and changes to their reactor facilities which included facility modifications as a result of Browns Ferry fire. Private sector nuclear power reactors in the US are not all fully up to the newer rules. The NRC has issued a number of exemptions that watchdog groups have criticized as being unsafe. Browns Ferry still does not meet the NRC fire rules for cables. 47 of 52 reactors in the US still do not comply with the 1980 fire regulations.

Plant Hatch is privately owned and operated. Has it been upgraded? Continue reading →

Waste offer letter: take it or….

Unsigned trash letter from Lowndes County I received the appended unsigned letter from Lowndes County recently, which says the 5,000 residents of the unincorporated parts that currently use the county’s waste disposal sites can sign up with Advanced Disposal (of New York City) for curbside pickup or…. There is no or. So look forward to trash dumping long roadsides, in parking lots in town, and on your property. And neither outgoing County Chairman Ashley Paulk nor County Manager Joe Pritchard even had the courtesy to sign the letter.

After noting that back in June the county changed waste permit cards from 12 months to 6 months, the letter says:

At purchase, information was made available regarding possible future options for solid waste management in unincorporated Lowndes County.

So the county is backing off from claiming card buyers got a letter spelling out options. I got no such letter with card purchase.

This consideration became necessary due to revenue generated by the sale of the permit cards, not covering the cost of operating the centers.

And that’s all the accounting we get. Where is the summary of expenses for the centers compared to revenue? The VDT reported from the Commissioners’ stealth retreat back in April:

“In total, the county is currently spending $782,058.34 each year for solid waste disposal, a reduction from $1,176,207.75 in 2007.”

As I pointed out then, “So that’s a rapid reduction in cost to less than a third of what it used to be, and less than half of what it was only a year ago.” Later Joe Pritchard said those numbers didn’t include everything being spent. So what was actually being spent? We the taxpayers and we the card payers don’t know. After a long series of meetings to which the public was either not invited at all or was not invited to provide input, at its last meeting of the year (exactly as I predicted), Commissioners approved changes to the solid waste ordinance eliminating the collection sites and granted a monopoly to Advanced Disposal Services of New York City.

Former Chairman Ashley Paulk recently complained Moody AFB had become “privatized”. Yet at his last Commission meeting he presided over privatizing the county’s public service of solid waste collection.

Three new Commissioners were just sworn in yesterday, including a new chair. The new Commission in the new year is not, so far as I know, bound by the decisions of any previous Commission. It could undo the damage the old one just did. Or it could, like the old one, ignore concerns of public health, safety, and the environment that the state requires them to implement, plus concerns of local waste collection businesses, of local residents about recycling and about the lack of any other option than curbside; will the new Commission continue to kick 5,000 county residents towards curbside collection or tossing their trash in the your yard?

Unsigned trash letter from Lowndes County:

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Industrial Authority working for solar in south Georgia @ VLCIA 2012-12-18

The Industrial Authority is working to find locations for some of the 210 MW Georgia Power got the PSC to shift from biomass to solar back in September. That’s a good next step.

Jason Schaefer wrote for the VDT 23 Dec 2012, Solar power push has Authority working to establish connections,

Since the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) approved Georgia Allan Ricketts, Projects and Existing Industry Manager, VLCIA, 2012-12-18 Power Company’s plan Nov. 20 to add 210 megawatts of solar power to its electrical grid, the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority has been devising strategies to draw solar energy producers to South Georgia.

Georgia Power will issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) from solar energy collection and production companies in early 2013, according to the PSC, and the company will contract with the lowest bidders to purchase their energy and place it on the Georgia Power electrical grid for public consumption.

Georgia Power plans to add 90 megawatts to its grid from distributed generation (small companies producing between 100 kilowatts and 1 megawatt), and 120 megawatts of large utility-scale projects producing up to 20 megawatts each. The company plans to price the solar energy at $0.13 per kWh for distributed generation and up to $0.12 per kWh for utility-scale projects, according to the PSC.

This government-approved commercial push for solar energy could be a boon to sunny South Georgia as well as the greater Valdosta area specifically, and the Authority is prepared to accommodate the solar energy producers they expect.

Andrew Schruijer, Executive Director, VLCIA, 2012-12-18 “I think there’s a very good possibility of solar energy coming to South Georgia,” Executive Director Andrea Schruijer said. “Possibly in the near future.”

There’s more in the VDT story. It’s pretty much what Col. Ricketts also told me after the VLCIA meeting Tuesday a week ago. He asked me if I knew what “distributed” meant. I pointed out Georgia Power’s version of distributed was actually not very distributed, compared to Continue reading →

Fracking: coming soon to a state near you?

Lest you think fracking is something that happens only in faraway places like Alberta or Pennsylvania, look at this map of North American shale gas basins, extending right through the Appalachians from Pennsylvania through West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina into Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi.

Source: Canada fracking creates ‘test tube‘ residents in B.C., Alberta,
by Lynn Herrmann for Digital Journal 5 January 2012.

How long before Georgia Power or Southern Company decide natural gas would be even cheaper if they fracked in Georgia or Alabama or Mississippi? How long until unavoidable human error starts fracking polluting our local groundwater and rivers? For that matter, isn’t it bad enough already that other people’s water is fracked for cheap gas in Georgia?

We could just get on with solar power, which doesn’t spill.

-jsq

NRC says it’s “never been a practice” to show licensee documents to the public

After Kendra Ulrich of Friends of the Earth asked about some licensee documents related to last week’s NRC hearing in faraway Maryland on restarting California’s San Onofre nuclear reactor, NRC’s David Beaulieu expanded on NRC’s refusal to divulge the documents.

Here’s the video:

Video by Myla Reson at NRC, Maryland, 18 December 2012.

You can hear him say it’s “never been a practice” to let the public see licensee documents. But if they’re being used in making a license decision, why doesn’t that make them public documents accessible by the public? Oh, right “it’s very complex” but “it’s a yes or no question” and “I will assess”, he says. It’s good to be king!

I wonder if the public had some assurance of transparency maybe the NRC wouldn’t get so many FOIA requests?

Remember, this is the same NRC that gave 100-mile-from-here same-design-as-Fukushima Plant Hatch a 20 year license extension, and the same NRC that gave Plant Vogtle a clean bill of health at a public meeting two days before Unit 1 shut down, and the same NRC that could stop the new nukes there even if the GA PSC won’t.

What if we deployed solar power instead, on budget and on time?

-jsq