Category Archives: Transparency

2005 arrests in Valdosta City Council meeting unconstitutional —Georgia Supreme Court

Some of the events the person posting as John J. Fretti described are elaborated on in this newspaper report. -jsq

Kelli Hernandez wrote 1 May 2006 in the VDT, Court rules arrests unconstitutional: Case involves 15 citizens arrested and charged with disrupting a lawful meeting

The case originally surfaced after 15 Valdosta citizens were arrested and charged with violating statute 16-11-34 (a), which provides “a person who recklessly or knowingly commits any act which may reasonably be expected to prevent or disrupt a lawful meeting, gathering or procession is guilty of a misdemeanor.” Charges came after the group allegedly disrupted a Valdosta city council meeting in May 2005. Calle Fielden and Leigh Touchton, two of those arrested, appealed to the courts on the grounds that the statute under which the citizens were charged was unconstitutionally vague and broad.

On April 21, 2005, Rev. Floyd Rose addressed the council

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Equal opportunity criticizer —John S. Quarterman

Leigh Touchton remarked:
…apparently Yost thinks your criticism of people not staying is something he can use to good effect to nullify the need to publicly address citizen complaints.
Well, good luck to him: it doesn’t seem to be working that way.

I think I’m an equal opportunity criticizer. Remember I pointed out that the council is not a law enforcement body and gave a recent example of that. And I pointed out that the mayor of little old Gretna put out a proclamation saying no biomass and the great city of Valdosta could go ahead and do that instead of waiting for somebody else to make the decision for them. And yes, I criticized the protesters for not staying. I’m not surprised various people choose to ignore part of what I said and pick up on other parts; life’s like that.

I understand that some people don’t like to take a strong position in public. Clearly not everybody has to be an advocate for or against any given topic.

However, my opinion is that anybody who runs for elected office should be willing to say in public what their opinion is. Sure, sometimes it’s good to say “I’m thinking about it” or “I’m studying it” or even better “I’d like to know more about X”: that could promote a dialog. Even “I’m working on it behind the scenes” would be a useful public statement. But elected officials refusing to take any position is ridiculous, and I see nothing wrong with laughing out loud at the ridiculous.

-jsq

Public criticism —Leigh Touchton

Leigh Touchton posted a comment with a report from last night’s Valdosta City Council meeting:
I won’t stay to the end in the future because if they are going to make public attacks on citizens and then go into Executive session so they don’t have to hear a rebuttal, then I don’t care to listen to their bombast. Yost apparently thinks your public criticism of the activists not staying (and also the Tea Party left right after one of their members read from the Bible about how laws and regulation are a sin–I had difficulty keeping from laughing out loud—we’re in a recession because laws and regulation were thrown away and banks made a video called Banks Gone Wild…but I digress)…apparently Yost thinks your criticism of people not staying is something he can use to good effect to nullify the need to publicly address citizen complaints. Here’s his position, distilled:
“You won’t stay to the end, I’m offended. You called our important work boring, I’m offended. (much redness of face, some veins popping out) You come in here and talk to us like that then I’m not going to address your complaints, I’m offended.”
Well I’m offended that a grown man elected to represent Valdosta acts like that.

Let me go back and educate the gentle readers out there who haven’t

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Disturbing things —Dr. Noll

Dr. Noll posted a comment today about last night’s Valdosta City Council meeting, and we thank him for his report:
What I found most disturbing are actually the following things that happened at last night’s meeting:
  1. A Mayor in absentia because he is celebrating his birthday and decided not to attend because of a lack of agenda items for the meeting.
  2. A mother being harassed by Mr. Taylor who makes sexist comments when her daughter is receiving an award for an essay contest.
  3. A City Council and ALL of its members who continue to hide behind a policy that supposedly does not allow them to respond during meetings. As if they would respond before or after meetings.
  4. City Council member Yost going into a tirade about my wife’s comment in regard to “boring” meetings, when she is referring to the experience of our children who have been sitting through quite a few of them by now. Such meetings are indeed “boring” to a 9 and 12 year old.
  5. Council member Yost then goes on to “thank” all of us for staying until the end of the meeting so that we could witness the important work they do. Like what? The replacement of two belt press sludge pumps, the renaming of a street? If there is an important piece of work Mr. Yost and his colleagues could impress us with, it would be a resolution to not sell water to a biomass plant that threatens the health of our community!
-Michael Noll
Sometimes sludge replacement parts are boring, but if we don’t replace them and the wastewater treatment plant overflows, it may pollute your yard or your creek. Best we take of it ahead of time and be proactive, rather than reactive. Let’s take care of a problem before it happens!

-gretchen

PS: Don’t forget to go to the Planning Commission on Monday.

What will you do? —John S. Quarterman @ VCC 7 April 2011

I wanted to know what the council and the protesters will do when the biomass plant is canceled. I still want to know: what will you do?

Here’s the video, followed by my points.


What will you do? —John S. Quarterman @ VCC 7 April 2011
Regular monthly meeting of the Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 April 2011,
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Before I started, the mayor noted that many people needed to go to an event at 7PM (he didn’t name it, but it was the 100 Black Men Annual Dinner.) He offered to proceed with scheduled business and re-open Citizens to be Heard at the end of the meeting. Nobody objected. I had already waited until nobody else seemed to want to speak.

My points: Continue reading →

City Manager’s Report and Council Comments @ VCC 7 April 2011

Sometimes you hear what you need to hear at the end of the meeting. Or, maybe you’re not there to hear it.

I think it helps make the point if you need to first listen to the City Manager’s Report before you hear what happened at the end of this video.

City Manager’s Report

Second night of classes [for something] is this coming Monday.

Police Department review April 16-19 including a public hearing April 18th 6PM at the City Hall Annex.

Electronic recycling was very successful.

Composting program “very unique”: they give it away free three days a week; bring your own truck.

Matt Martin promoted from interim planning director to full time.

City’s table is #17 at the event tonight [100 Black Men annual dinner].

Employee appreciation luncheon Thursday April 21 at [?] Park.

Next meeting one council member will serve on committee about comprehensive plan.

Council Comments

Council Yost said: Continue reading →

About those minutes —Bobbi Anne Hancock @ VLCIA 19 April 2011

Stonewalling is a good way to get your Industrial Authority on the front page of the local newspaper (again). Here’s video of what Bobbi Anne Hancock said to the board about their minutes (and other things).

First, here’s is VDT reporter David Rodock’s excerpt of what she said last night:

Bobbi Anne Hancock, the woman who made an Open Records request with the Authority for meeting minutes from 2006 to the present day, spoke to board members during the citizens to be heard portion of the meeting.

“The majority of your costs for the request are for the five hours

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Some local governments partner with their citizens for open government

OpenAustin: speakupaustin!
OpenAustin promotes open government & open data in Austin, TX.

OpenAustin is a member-driven organizantion that promotes open government, open data, and civic application development in Austin, TX.

OpenAustin was originally formed by Austin residents interested in the City of Austin’s web strategy and approach. Presently, OpenAustin focuses on ensuring that all local public sector agencies embrace open data and open government principles, provide adequate oversight over public information, and support the civic software development.

Through a series of conversations, common ground was developed between the City and Open Austin to work together in a formal and recurring way. The goal is to develop new capacities for the City of Austin website while reducing or eliminating costs.

A strategic alliance document has been created by Open Austin and the City represents the expectations and the basis for the working relationship. In order to advance this partnership relationship, the City and OpenAustin will partner, innovate and improve.

http://open-austin.org

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=90275885408

Starting with one thing, web strategy, led to general open government. They even have a candidate questionnaire. Which most of the candidates have answered.

-jsq

Frank Barnas @ VCC 7 April 2011

George Boston Rhynes said:
Every time Frank Barnas asks one of you representatives while you all are on that radio broadcast, he gets answers. So many people who come before the city council who have answers don’t get answers.
While George Rhynes was talking Frank Barnas seemed quite amused by all that.

Here’s the video:


Frank Barnas @ VCC 7 April 2011
Regular monthly meeting of the Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 April 2011,
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

You know, when Roy Taylor and George Rhynes, about as far apart on the political spectrum as two people can get, think there’s something wrong with your council, maybe it’s worth thinking about.

-jsq

PS: George Rhynes was not one of the people Scott Orenstein was saying don’t stay for the whole meeting; George was the videographer Scott referred to. George stayed even after the meeting was over, and talked to Council Deidra White on the way out of the building.

Industrial Authority Defensive about Minutes

Could the Industrial Authority try any harder to make it look like they’ve got something to hide? Of all things to go to the mattresses about: their board minutes?

The VDT picked up on our series about a local citizen being overcharged for an open records request for VLCIA agendas and minutes. In a front page Sunday VDT story, David Rodock reports:

In response, The Valdosta Daily Times submitted their own Open Records Request for the salaries of all Industrial Authority employees.

According to the information provided by the Authority, the lowest paid fulltime employee, the Operations Manager, is paid an annual salary of $46,526.

When this number is divided by 2080, (52 weeks multiplied by 40 hours per week) it shows that the lowest paid full-time employee is making $22.40 per hour.

The salary quoted on the invoice is not the same as either Continue reading →