Category Archives: Transparency

ALEC “covers the spectrum in terms of bad policy for people” –FL news

ALEC will no doubt try to tar WCTV as “liberal media.” That will be amusing!

Troy Kinsey wrote for WCTV Monday, themselves as members of ALEC. Damien filer with ‘progress florida’ says its time for them to break their ties with a group that’s taking national heat over ‘Stand Your Ground’.

“This is not just about ‘shoot first’ laws; this is about everything from the so-called ‘parent trigger’ law that we saw during the last legislative session, the prison privatization schemes that we’ve seen crop up. It really covers the spectrum in terms of bad policy for people, and policy that’s really aimed at padding the pockets of the corporations that fund this organization.”

Hm, I wonder who in the Georgia statehouse are ALEC members?

-jsq

Leon County Commission agenda packets and videos

Apparently the same day Tallahassee and Leon County Florida Commissioners met together, the Leon County Board of Commissioners had its Regular Public Meeting. I know this because they publish on the web agendas with board packet details for each item plus video. They already have video on the web after yesterday’s meeting.

Do you prefer just to listen, without having to look at them?

View Live or Previously Recorded Commission Meetings on Real Audio

They’ve even got a trouble ticket system for tracking requests from citizens!

Maybe the Lowndes County Commission and the various local city councils could ask Leon County, Florida how they do it.

-jsq

If someone wants to build offices there’s plenty of room downtown.

Meanwhile, just across the Florida line, Leon County Commission and the Tallahassee City Comissioners don't seem to want sprawl.

James Buechele wrote for WCTV yesterday, Neighborhood Has Zoning Concerns: County commissioners met to talk about nine amendments for a comprehensive plan to tackle developments.

Leon County commissioners and Tallahassee City Commissioners met Tuesday evening to talk about nine proposed amendments to the comprehensive plan.

One of the issues dealt with the Haute Headz salon off of Thomasville and Gadsden roads in Mid-Town.

Property owner Marshall Cassedy wants to see the area in this section of Mid-Town changed from a residential preservation zone to one that would allow offices.

Right now, it's home to the salon, but because of the residential preservation zone, if something should happen to the business a home would have to take it's place instead of another business.

That's something Cassedy wants to change because he says the busy location is not ideal for a home.

But opponents say that if someone wants to build offices there's plenty of room downtown.

"We already have about a million and a half square-feet of vacant office space in the city and the county," said Tallahassee resident Darwin Gamble. "Help building more offices won't create more jobs."

This issue was tabled at the meeting and will come up again June 26th. Until then both sides will continue to negotiate.

That's almost strategic:

"Help building more offices won't create more jobs."

-jsq

Southern Company wants even more special nuke loan terms

Southern Company wants even more special loan guarantee terms for its new Plant Vogtle nukes. When that or CWIP gets revoked, maybe Southern Company will see that solar is a lot less trouble, and more profitable.

The license authorized by the NRC 9 February 2012 for the new Plant Vogtle nukes is the first one in thirty years. Harvey Wasserman wrote for CounterPunch 18 April 2012, The Big Liability,

It’s about a proposed $8.33 billion nuke power loan guarantee package for two reactors being built at Georgia’s Vogtle. Obama anointed it last year for the Southern Company, parent to Georgia Power. Two other reactors sporadically operate there. Southern just ravaged the new construction side of the site, stripping virtually all vegetation.

It’s also stripped Georgia ratepayers of ever-more millions of dollars, soon to become billions. This project is in the Peach State for its law forcing the public to pay for reactor construction in advance.

Look on your Georgia Power bill for Nuclear Construction Cost Recovery Rider, aka Construction Work in Progress (CWIP). It’s probably about 3% of your bill, for power you may never receive.

If you get your electricity from an EMC instead, remember Georgia’s Electric Member Corporations already participate in the existing Plant Vogtle nukes, so you’ll be on the hook one way or another for the new nukes.

When the project fails, or the reactors melt, the public still must pay.

And even before then, Georgia Power customers get to pay for cost overruns. Not to worry; last time nukes were built at Plant Vogtle, they only ran over budget by a factor of seven.

Southern Company’s existing Plant Vogtle reactors had an unexpected shutdown last year days after NRC said they were fine. And Southern Company says Continue reading →

Concrete flaws at Vogtle delay construction, require modified nuke permit

Concrete sinking into the dirt less than two months after licensing? One license amendment already requested and dozens more to come? Does this give you confidence in Southern Company's ability to build a safe nuclear plant without huge cost overruns charged to you the Georgia Power customer or you the taxpayer?

In mid-March the nuclear industry bragged about

Progress continues at the construction site of Plant Vogtle units 3 and 4 — the country's newest reactors and the first to be licensed since 1978.

We discover that at the end of March Southern Company had to ask NRC for a licensing change due to construction problems. Vogtle Nuclear Construction Faces “Additional Delay” Based on Miscalculations in Foundation Concrete — News Release from NC WARN and Alliance for Nuclear Accountability—April 9th, 2012, Continue reading →

Tired of tax abatements: Occupy Buffalo and NY state reps @ ECIDA 2012-02-13

Lots of people, from Occupy Buffalo to at least one New York state representative, are tired of tax abatements doled out by ECIDA (the Erie County Industrial Development Agency, aka The Economic Development Corporation for Erie County). ECIDA thinks it knows better. Sound familiar?

Occupy Buffalo complained to ECIDA about tax abatements for luxury residential lofts that had already been completed, saying “this board is not a democratic process”. They noted the people’s representative on the ECIDA board had said it was a clear waste of taxpayer resources but was ignored, and couldn’t stop county resources being “fleeced by this board”. They added, “This experiment has gone on for long enough, and it’s time for immediate change” of “this crony corrupt process”. Occupy Buffalo demanded suspension of tax abatements by ECIDA until a public town hall meeting could be held.

Here’s the video:

Tired of tax abatements: Occupy Buffalo and NY state reps @ ECIDA 2012-02-13

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, .
Video by for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

Occupy Buffalo wrote 16 February 2012, Occupy Buffalo and the Erie County Industrial Development Agency,

Continue reading →

Interesting voting at Lowndes County Republican Convention Delegate Meeting

Some Ron Paul supporters videoed the reading of results for votes in Lowndes County for delegates to the Republican National Convention. One of the people up front asked incredulously:

You're trying to copy them all?

As the video notes:

A copy wouldn't be too much to ask would it?

Curiously, the video also omits the actual list of names.

The moderator asked for those opposed to accepting the delegate slate for one district to stand up. Several people did. A loud complaint was heard:

For what purpose?

Um, because you asked if there was any opposition?

There's more, involving attempts to amend to add other delegates "that's gonna be a problem", requests for a count that it's not clear is ever taken, at least one person raising his hand and then having to ask whether hands were for or against, etc.

Here's the video:

The video says they were supposed to have a 2/3 majority to adopt the slate of delegates, and it doesn't look like they got it. Yet it was declared passed:

It's passed. It's done. No more discussion.

-jsq

What about NDAA? Questions for Austin Scott in Tift County

Somebody else asks elected representatives questions and posts videos. Here some Ron Paul supporters ask Austin Scott (R GA-08), our upcoming Congressional representative unless somebody defeats him, questions about NDAA ( H.R. 1540: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012) and drones at a Tift County meeting. Scott asked to see a copy of the passages they were asking about, but then the meeting conveniently ended before they could get it to him. In the video they include a quote of the relevant text, which doesn’t say what Scott said it says.

Here’s the video:

I especially like the guy afterwards complaining:

It’s the way you say things; you can’t do that!

They sounded pretty polite to me. I guess what they can’t do is ask questions about laws elected representatives voted on.

-jsq

Catch the governor before May Day

Don’t want to wait until May Day to see Governor Deal? Breakfast with him Wednesday!

According to email from the Chamber:

I wanted to let you know that this year’s State Legislative Luncheon will be a breakfast on Wed. April 25 from 7-8:30 a.m. featuring Gov. Deal and all members of our local delegation. Registration is $25 and there is limited seating as it is being held at Valdosta State University’s University Center Magnolia Room. You can register online or simply let me know how many you will have attending and I will register for you.

More on the Chamber’s website:

Registration is $25 for Chamber members and $40 for all others. Chamber members can purchase a corporate table for eight for $200. Attendees must register by noon on April 20.

Except:

Registration has closed for this event

Tut tut.

Also, is this Wednesday morning thing a rescheduling of the May Day event? Apparently so, since the Chamber’s calendar doesn’t list the May Day one and it does list this one. Why did they change the date, time, and location? Didn’t get as many subscribers as they wanted? Didn’t want it to be as public? Other?

-jsq

HB 397 sunshine bill is now law: open government forecast partly cloudy

It’s a cloudy sunrise for open government in Georgia with HB 387 now law. Will anyone enforce it? Will local governments comply? Will the legislature extend this law into a sunshiny day in Georgia?

Aaron Gould Sheinin and Bill Rankin wrote for the AJC yesterday, Governor signs Open Records rewrite into law,

House Bill 397, which took effect upon Deal’s signature, is the first major rewrite of Georgia’s sunshine laws in more than a decade. New provisions in the open records and meetings laws increase fines for offenders. The maximum penalty of $500 is now $1,000, and offenders who commit repeat violations within a year face fines of up to $2,500.

Previously, the sunshine laws allowed only criminal complaints to be filed against suspected violators, meaning a prosecutor would have to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. The rewrite now allows the filing of civil complaints, which have a lower burden of proof.

That could be interesting if anyone actually files a complaint.

The rewrite also would provide new exemptions for some gatherings of governing bodies, such as allowing a quorum of members to attend the same civic function, receive training or visit government agencies — provided no official business is discussed or transpires.

So the various elected boards meeting together at the end of last month was probably OK, since they weren’t making decisions, merely educating each other. But the Lowndes County Commission repeatedly hiding from the public while discussing solid waste disposal, among other issues, does not seem to fit that exception.

It also reduces the cost of most documents disclosed under the Open Records Act from 25 cents to 10 cents per page.

That means the price of the Industrial Authority’s old minutes just went down, Continue reading →