Category Archives: Transparency

Videos and transparency –John S. Quarterman

Here I discuss with the mayor about the Valdosta City Council videoing their entire meetings and putting them on the web for everybody to see. The mayor indicated costs of streaming was an issue; I recommended putting it on YouTube or Vimeo and letting them handle that part. I think the AJC article he mentioned is this one: Meeting access video grows among city councils, by Patrick Fox, 18 Jan 2011.

This comment by the mayor was amusing:

The worst thing you could do would be to have one camera in the back that has room audio.
Touche, Mr. Mayor! :-) What do you think, is a noisy video from the back of the room more useful than no video at all? Can you see him waving his arms around? Continue reading →

Draft Resolution on Citizens Wishing to be Heard

Here’s the draft resolution on Citizens Wishing to be Heard. Previously we posted that on Tuesday’s Lowndes County Commission agenda is an item about:
5. Resolution Establishing Policies and Procedures for Citizens Wishing to Be Heard and Consideration of Lowndes County Board of Commissioners Policies and Procedures for Citizens Wishing to Be Heard
Today I went by the county palace (hey, they call it that, too!) and asked Paige Dukes, the County Clerk, what was in the old resolution and what’s in the new draft resolution. She said there was no old resolution, and a bit later she sent me the new draft resolution, which is in the PDF below.
From: “Paige Dukes” <paiged@lowndescounty.com>
Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2011 16:32:35 -0500
To: “John S. Quarterman” <jsq@quarterman.org>
Subject: Resolution Draft 1.24.2011.pdf – Adobe Acrobat Professional

Resolution Draft 1.24.2011.pdf

It’s a PDF of a scan of a paper page, so I don’t have the plain text. If somebody wants to type it in and send it to me, have at it.

See you 5:30 PM tomorrow evening (Tuesday 25 Jan 2011) at 327 N. Ashley Street, Valdosta, GA 31601. They start on the dot or slightly early, and it’s a light agenda, so be on time and don’t blink or you’ll miss it.

-jsq

County Commission Meetings Monday and Tuesday


left to right: Ashley Paulk (Chairman),
Joyce E. Evans (District 1),
Crawford Powell (District 3),
Richard Raines (District 2).
The next scheduled meetings of the Lowndes County Commission are:
  • 8:30 AM Monday January 24, 2011: work session
  • 5:30 PM Tuesday January 25, 2011: regular session
The agenda is posted on the county website. This meeting will probably be very brief, since it has no rezoning cases; those come every other meeting. This one is mostly contracts for consideration. However, there is this interesting item:
5. Resolution Establishing Policies and Procedures for Citizens Wishing to Be Heard and Consideration of Lowndes County Board of Commissioners Policies and Procedures for Citizens Wishing to Be Heard

It also has the regular item:

7. Citizens Wishing to be Heard Please State Name And Address
This item is for the regular session, not the work session, although in the work session the Chairman sometimes notes somebody is there wanting to talk and asks them to say what they want to say. Conversely, in the regular session we don’t usually hear much from this one:
8. Reports-County Manager
The county manager often gives a longer report in the work session.

By “very brief” I mean work sessions typically run about 15 minutes, with the record being something like 8 minutes. And they start on time, or a minute early. Be there or miss what you want to hear or say.

-jsq

After all the citizens left –Valdosta City Council, 20 Jan 2011

Want to know what your city council really thinks? Stay through the entire meeting and you’ll get some clues; or watch these videos by some who did stay. City Manager, Attorney, and each council member say what’s on their minds. Much of it addresses some of the questions asked by citizens earlier: cracks in the MLK monument, biomass, council members answering questions from the audience, etc. What they didn’t talk about may indicate what various citizens didn’t succeed in conveying to the council.

It’s not like what they were saying was a secret. The VDT reporter was there. They were finishing up the agenda with the sections “7. City Manager’s Report” and “8. Council Comments”. You can see them adjourn at the end. Some of them groused about the time citizens take up in “Citizens Wishing to be Heard”.

But remember, almost none of those citizens bothered to stay around to listen to them. Among the stay-latest: two cameras for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange, providing you these two views: Continue reading →

District numbers and MLK repairs –George Rhynes

George Boston Rhynes asks for Valdosta City Council members to be easier to visually distinguish, and thanks council and staff for promising to pay attention to physical problems with the MLK monument.

Video by John S. Quarterman of the regular meeting of the Valdosta City Council, 20 January 2011 for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq