Category Archives: Transparency

Started before scheduled time, unknown potential appointments and budget changes: Video Playlist @ LCC 2012-06-25

Gretchen arrived early, but they started even earlier. That’s right, once again the Lowndes County Commission started a meeting before the advertised time. None of the names of prospective appointees to four different boards were listed in the agenda, and many of them didn’t bother to show up. Nor do we know what’s in the budget amendments.

So we have videos starting in the middle of the appointments.

  • 6.a. Valdosta/Lowndes County Parks and Recreation Authority (VLPRA)
    Nope, they already discussed that before the announced start time, so there’s no video.
  • 6.b. Appointment to Valdosta-Lowndes County Construction Board of Adjustments and Appeals.
    Presumably he stated his name at the beginning of what he said, but that was before the stated meeting start time. And the agenda does not include names of the applicants for appointment to any of the affected boards.
  • 6.c. Keep Lowndes Valdosta Beautiful (KLVB).
    I would like to commend KLVB for listing all its board members and their terms on its own web page.
  • 6.d. Appointments to Lowndes County Library Board.
    If the Library Board has its members listed somewhere online, I can’t find it.
    Nobody showed up to speak. County Manager Joe Pritchard said Edward Rawls and Rabbi Elbaz(?) asked not to be reappointed, and Kay Harris is asking to be reappointed. (They didn’t mention that Harris is also the chairman of the library board and the editor of the VDT.) Names under consideration are [clatter, bang]. It’s impressive the ways Pritchard finds to be unintelligible even with his microphone adjusted correctly.
Continue reading →

Strategies for Lowndes County? —John S. Quarterman

My op-ed in the VDT today. -jsq

Our high schools and college graduates mostly have to go somewhere else, because jobs here are few and many of them don’t pay enough for a decent living. Should we not care enough about our families and our community to come up with strategies that grow existing businesses and attract new ones that will employ local people?

We need discussions and strategies that involve the whole community, going beyond just the usual planning professionals, to include all groups and individuals with information or opinions, whether they got here generations ago or last week: for fairness and for freedom.

Sometimes we see local strategy. Winn Roberson organized Drive Away CCA. Ashley Paulk verified there was no business case for a biomass plant in Lowndes County after many people successfully opposed it. School “unification” opponents, out-financed 10 to 1, still defeated that referendum 4 to 1.

How do we go beyond opposing things and move on to sustainable strategies that build clean industry?

The Industrial Authority focus group meeting I attended Wednesday was refreshing, because their consultants asked the opinions of people some of whom previously had to picket outside. The previous day, VLCIA Chairman Roy Copeland said this strategic planning process was a long time coming. I agree, and while nobody can say what will come of it at this point, I hope it does produce a real Economic Development Strategy.

Building on the Valdosta City Council’s annual consideration of affordable housing,

Continue reading →

TEPCO shareholders revolt about Fukushima

Southern Company might want to pay attention to this story about shareholders protesting the owner of the radiation-leaking Fukushima nuclear plants complaining in record numbers. Or SO shareholders might want to pay attention.

Mark Willacy wrote for Australia Network News, Fukushima report prompts anger at TEPCO meeting,

Anger against the company has intensified, after it released an in-house report into the disaster, in which it denies ever hiding information and blames the Japanese Government for confusion and delays.

In its 352-page report, TEPCO also claims that on March 13, less than 48 hours after a massive tsunami slammed into the Fukushima nuclear plant, it dispatched employees to the village of Namie, just a few kilometres north-west of the plant, and right in the path of the approaching radioactive plume.

But Tamotsu Baba, the mayor of Namie, has told the ABC’s AM that claim is a lie.

“TEPCO’s report says that on the 13th of March their employees visited our offices to explain the situation,” he said.

“We were never visited by anyone from TEPCO. Nor was the situation explained to us.

“I feel they are liars. TEPCO’s report makes me angry.”

TEPCO of course says it didn’t lie, however:

Continue reading →

Smart grid already in use due to heat waves

So if heat waves already require spot buys of electricity at high prices and is already enabling a market in demand responses to bring down, even while most electricity in the U.S. still comes from big baseload plants such as coal, nuclear, natural gas, and hydro, why is Southern Company saying we have to wait on a smart grid to deploy solar and wind energy?

This is from an EnerNOC Press Release of today that is all over the net:

…on Thursday, June 21, EnerNOC was dispatched by eleven grid operators and utilities across the US and Canada, including eight in Pennsylvania and New York, largely in response to a record heat wave across the northeast and mid-Atlantic regions that put strain on the grid and drove real-time energy prices in some regions to over $1,500 per megawatt hour, approximately 60 times higher than the previous week’s average prices. Demand response reduces the need for utilities and grid operators to procure additional supply at such high prices both by reducing overall demand on the grid and by targeting reductions in particularly constrained areas.

So demand response is energy conservation through energy distribution efficiency.

Well, maybe demand response duing that heat wave was on a small scale. Or not:

“Nearly 1,200 commercial, institutional, and industrial energy users in Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, Ontario, and other constrained regions responded to Thursday’s dispatch, providing valuable capacity to the grid that helped to stabilize prices and reduce system strain,” said Tim Healy, Chairman and CEO of EnerNOC. “Our DemandSMART application, which streams real-time energy data from thousands of sites, showed demand quickly drop from the grid as our network was activated and allowed our customers to see the contribution they were making to grid reliability and reduced prices.

So sure, this is a press release from the company that’s doing this electricity dispatch. But it’s verifiable, starting with the customer company contacts in the press release.

FERC Chairman Jon Wellinghoff pointed out years ago that Continue reading →

Video Playlist @ LCC 2012-06-12

Here is a video playlist of the entire 12 June 2012 Lowndes County Commission meeting.

Ashley Paulk prepended a word about Ed Christian, a deputy he hired when he was sheriff, who lost his son recently.

They reappointed Ms. Iverson to the Children and Family Services Board.

Seats of Joseph Stevens, Richard Lee, Steve Gupton were up for appointment on the Public Facilities Authority. Former Commissioner Lee apparently did not want to be reappointed; the other two did. Commissioner Powell wanted to be appointed. Commissioner Raines so moved, Commissioner Evans seconded, and all three Commissioners voted for. Yes, Commissioner Powell voted for himself to be on that board.

Reappointed Cindy Vickery to the South Georgia Community Service Board.

Adopted a speed zone ordinance without giving any clue what is in it. More on that later.

Determination to hold a public hearing to make Brinson Drive a dead end road, so traffic cannot come on or off of Pikes Pond Road.

A Nondisclosure Agreement with JMF Solutions, Inc., turned out to be about providing voice and data to part of the county via a county water tank.

County Clerk Paige Dukes was pleased to have approved a Contract with Municipal Code Corporation which included the second half of the funding she wanted to complete converting ordinances from paper to more legible formats.

Fire Chief Richard Guyton requested permission to apply for a $25,000 grant for emergency equipment which he said would require no matching funds. Commissioner Raines indicated his displeasure Continue reading →

Lowndes County Budget Presentation, Details and Hearing @ LCC 2012-06-26

Your second (and final) chance to comment on the 2012-2013 Lowndes County budget is Tuesday, June 26th at 5:00pm. The Lowndes County Calendar indicates that the Budget Hearing will be immediately ahead of the County Commission Meeting. I suggest arriving at least 5 minutes early.

At the first hearing, on July 19th, Finance Director Stephanie Black gave a power point presentation overview of the budget. You can view a PDF of that presentation .

Videos of the first budget hearing are available here.

And, the details of the budget are available for review in the reception area of the Lowndes County Commissioners Office (3rd Floor – 327 Ashley Street) or you can check out the low quality photos I took of them after the meeting.

-gretchen

Appointments to four boards, road abandomnent, and community block grant @ LCC 2012-06-25

Budget amendments on the agenda for the Lowndes County Commission Work Session Monday at 8:30 AM 25 June 2012 and Regular Session 5:30 PM Tuesday 26 June 2012. See if you can find some clues to what those amendments might be in the the videos of last week’s budget hearing.

Also this week: appointments to four boards (Parks & Rec, Construction, KLVB, and Library), a public hearing on a road abandonment (Brinson Drive), and the County Manager has something to say about FY 2010 Community Development Block Grant. Plus a bunch of service contracts. Here’s the agenda for tomorrow and Tuesday.

-jsq

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JUNE 25, 2012, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JUNE 26, 2012, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

Ankle monitoring funded, public defender not; VLCIA and VLPRA visible: Video Playlist @ LCC Budget Hearing 2012-06-19

Ankle monitoring is fully funded this coming fiscal year, with a 2% increase, and the Sheriff’s office accounts for 35% of the county’s budget, yet the Public Defender had to beg for more funds. The state-imposed property tax assessment cap has expired, but no increases in the tax digest are yet expected. Sales tax revenues are gradually increasing. The state is fiddling with motor vehicle license fees, and nobody can predict the effect of that. The Industrial Authority and Parks and Rec are now shown in the Lowndes County budget; they and other transfers out account for about 15% of the budget, specifically about 6% VLCIA and 7% VLPRA. All that and more at Tuesday’s budget hearing.

A copy of the actual budget will be up shortly. Meanwhile, here a video playlist for the Lowndes County budget public hearing of 19 June 2012.

Chairman Ashley Paulk was not there. Commissioner Crawford Powell chaired the meeting instead.

Parks and Rec’s 1.25 mil and Industrial Authority’s 1 mil are now shown along with the county’s 7.31 mils of property tax and integrated into the budget charts. They and other transfers out account for about 15% of general fund expenditures.

Finance Director Stephanie Black said

Your CHIP grant was not renewed.

That’s news to me, since I thought the Commission Continue reading →

Video Playlist @ VLCIA 2012-05-22

The first 100% VSEB contract, local industry expansion, new prospects, a bank lost a bond, and new Georgia sunshine laws require attention. Here are videos of the entire 22 May 2012 meeting of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA) board. Here’s the agenda.

Guests included a camera crew from VSU, one of whom was Cameron Copeland, Chairman Roy Copeland’s son.

CPA Tom Davis said the county told him revenues were flat, so VLCIA would get about the same amount as last year. Tom Call asked if revenues would catch up over 6 months or 8 months. Call said they would eventually.

Tom Call reported for the budget committee and said expenses were projected to be down for the coming year, plus the budget would be more specific about where revenues were being spent.

Meghan Duke reported they had gotten an article in the newspaper, and they had held an OSHA training meeting at Wiregrass Tech. They plan to hold further courses and will send out a survey about that. She also expected updates to the land-searching Valdosta Prospector website to be ready in a few weeks. She and Andrea Schruijer had selected 3 finalists out of 10 proposals to redo the VLCIA website. Her only stated criterion for picking one was

“I just have to go with my gut.”

Website completion had been scheduled for September, but had been deferred. Roy Copeland wanted to know when. Continue reading →

New Georgia sunshine laws explained by VLCIA lawyer @ VLCIA 2012-05-22

New Georgia sunshine law explained by VLCIA attorney J. Stephen Gupton. Some highlights include:

  • Open meetings now include any time a quorum discusses business,
  • even if there was no scheduled meeting.
  • Committees now fall under open meetings.
  • Executive sessions have specific requirements.
  • Increased penalties from $500 to $100 for violating open meetings, plus potential criminal penalties up to $2,500.
  • A custodian of records needs to be appointed so people will know who is responsbile for satisfying open records requests.

Here’s the video:

New Georgia sunshine laws explained by VLCIA lawyer
Regular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
Norman Bennett, Tom Call, Roy Copeland chairman, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett,
Andrea Schruijer Executive Director, J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Project Manager, Tom Davis, CPA, Lu Williams, Operations Manager, S. Meghan Duke, Public Relations & Marketing Manager,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 22 May 2012.
Video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

-jsq