Category Archives: Transparency

Lowndes County LOST like Hall @ LCC 2013-10-15

Gretchen reports LOST was the topic at today’s special called meeting of the Lowndes County Commission. And yes, they went into executive session. Rumor has it that it’s not 120 days to come to an agreement, rather this week is the deadline. That’s what seems to be happening over in Hall County.

Sarah Mueller wrote for Gainesville Times today, Hall commissioners to consider new local option sales tax certificate,

Hall County Administrator Randy Knighton said the special called commission meeting today at 4 p.m. at the Hall County Government Center in Gainesville was in response to a suggestion from the Association County Commissioners of Georgia. ACCG has talked with the Department of Revenue and the Georgia Attorney General’s Office.

“(ACCG) has advised us that each county who has been engaged in the LOST arbitration proceedings submit a new LOST certificate to the Revenue Department this week,” Knighton said.

Knighton declined Monday to say Continue reading →

Special Called Lowndes County Commission Meeting @ LCC 2013-10-15

Could that pending litigation be the county’s lawsuit against Deep South Sanitation about that exclusive franchise that benefits ADS investors in New York City? Will they go straight into executive session?

On the county’s online calendar, with nothing on their front page, and nothing in the online VDT public notices. Here’s the county’s PDF and here’s the text:

Lowndes County Commission logo Lowndes County, Georgia
Board Of Commissioners
SPECIAL CALLED MEETING
A Special Called Meeting of the Lowndes County Board of Commissioners will be held on Tuesday, October 15, 2013, at 3:00 p.m. The meeting will be held in Commission Chambers, located on the second floor of the Lowndes County Judicial‐Administrative Complex, 327 North Ashley Street, Valdosta, Georgia. The Special Called Meeting is being held for attorney client communication regarding pending litigation.

Office of the County Clerk
K. Paige Dukes
229‐671‐2400
pdukes@lowndescounty.com

-jsq

Exits 11, 22, and 29 right of way funding, public open house and comments –VLMPO

Update 2017-08-27: Fix some links that have changed and one broken one. See also GDOT construction on I-75 Exit 29 2017-08-28.

You can comment on road improvements at I-75 and exit 11 onto GA 31 Madison Highway towards Clyattville, exit 22 onto US 41 North Valdosta Road, and Exit 29 onto GA 122 at Hahira, at the Valdosta-Lowndes Metropolitan Planning Organization (VLMPO), the one board around here that goes out of its way to ask for public input, with information in many public offices, with an open house at their office, and with details of their projects on VALOR GIS (select interactive map, then More in the upper right Layers, then MPO Transportation Improvements), including links to project sheets/ GDOT Project Search (GeoPI) is similarly useless for finding the project sheets (which I’ve linked into the public notice below; well one of them is correct).

Public Notice of a Public Comment Period and Public Open House,

In accordance with requirements set forth in the adopted FY2014-2017 Transportation Improvement Program and in 23 CFR 450 and other laws and regulations; the Valdosta-Lowndes Metropolitan Planning Organization (VLMPO) proposes to amend its Transportation Improvement Program for Fiscal Years 2014-2017 (TIP) for the Valdosta Metropolitan Planning Area which includes all of Lowndes County and portions of Berrien, Brooks and Lanier Counties.

The proposed projects in the amendment are as follows: Continue reading →

AAUW Candidates’ Forum 15 October 2013

This one will include questions from the audience (here are videos of last year’s AAUW forum.) This announcement received yesterday. -jsq

The American Association for University Women is hosting a Candidates’ Forum on Oct. 15 (please see the announcement below), and we are hoping to let everyone in the area know about it. I am contacting various media in the hope that a public service announcement can be made. I would much appreciate your help!

The AAUW (American Association of University Women) will sponsor a Candidates’ Forum on Tuesday, Oct. 15th, at 7 p.m. in the VSU Continuing Education Building Auditorium, located at 903 N Patterson St. Candidates for the upcoming Municipal Elections will give brief presentations and the audience will be invited to ask moderated questions. For further information, contact Dr. Diane Holliman (229-560-8645) and visit the AAUW website at http://valdosta-ga.aauw.net.

Thank you so much.

Dr. Patricia Marks
Professor Emerita, Dept. of English
Valdosta State University
******
AAUW Corresponding Secretary

No contracts for tenants of Leila Ellis Building @ LCC 2013-10-07

Two, four, six, many: that’s how Lowndes County counts tenants. It’s great the county is providing space for organizations that help the needy, but it’s kind of curious that the county didn’t seem to know who or how many organizations were using the Leila Ellis building, and had no lease agreement with them. Not to mention it took twenty questions from Commissioners to get staff to admit that lack of contracts, at Monday morning’s Lowndes County Commission Work Session.

6.b. Leila Ellis Building-Available Space

Kind of like they have no contract with the alleged county attorney.

Chad McCleod at one point said two organizations are currently in the building, LAMP and Cash Prosperity. He said the County let LAMP use it, and LAMP let Cash Prosperity use it.

In response to a question from Commissioner DeMarcus Marshall, County Manager Joe Pritchard said under normal circumstances any organization would need to come to the Commission to ask for space. They currently have more applicants than space.

Commissioner Crawford Powell wanted to know if the county was going to set up guidelines for who could lease. Pritchard said they could, and they couldn’t lease to a private business.

Commissioner Richard Raines wanted to know if annual leases were the practice of this board. Pritchard, not actually answering the question asked, said “That would be my suggestion.”

JoTaryla Thomas came up to speak for Continue reading →

Rotating vice chairmanship @ LCC 2013-10-07

Six minutes on who will be Vice Chairman and when, a ceremonial position, as far as I know. 13 minutes on a parade of organizations that want to rent space in the Leila Ellis. They vote tonight at 5:30 PM.

The storm that wasn’t was the subject of Ashley Tye’s report. They tabled Nottinghill like the Planning Commission did. They vote tonight on letting Barrington subdivision sprawl into the county. Did Commissioners ever get that list of roads for striping? Do we have enough evidence yet for juvenile justice? Or will we continue to concentrate on fining people coming off of I-75? All that and a group photo. At least the Work Session yesterday morning had some actual discussion in it for a change.

Here’s the agenda with links to the videos and a few notes.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2013, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2013, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

October LAKE meeting Monday 7 October 2013

Different day (Monday) and time (4PM), and some new developments, also adding that natural gas pipeline to the usual agenda of local governance: Water (sinkholes, aquifer recharge, runoff, drinking water, and wastewater), trash (how about that Exclusive Franchise!), and money (no-bid contracts and plus SPLOST VII). If you want to help, we have a little list of tasks you can do.

If you're on Facebook, please Like the LAKE facebook page. You can sign up for the meeting event there, Or just come as you are.

Pipeline points with streets
What: Monthly LAKE Meeting
When: 4PM Monday
7 October 2013
Where: Michael’s Deli
1307 N Ashley St.
Valdosta, GA 31601

-jsq

No Nottinghill + 3 other rezonings, 3 contracts, a bid, and vice chairmanship @ LCC 2013-10-07

Will the County Commission take up Nottinghill even though the Planning Commission tabled it? Is Barrington subdivision now ready to sprawl into the county? Did Commissioners ever get that list of roads for striping? Do we have enough evidence yet for juvenile justice? Or will we continue to concentrate on fining people coming off of I-75? Who was Leila Ellis, anyway? And who will be Vice Chairman (hint: Joyce Evans is now)? All that and a group photo, continuing the tradition of County Commission meetings as content-free photo-ops.

Here’s the agenda.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2013, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2013, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

Transparency for all

David Brin wrote on his blog yesterday, a Transparency Tsunami!

Of embracing the tech waves and ensuring that no cop, no public official, goes un-recognized, unwatched.

This will happen. We have far more cameras than they do.

-jsq

Common Community Vision for Lowndes County

What do you the citizens want Lowndes County to be? Here’s a chance to speak up, so when somebody asks where were you when the decisions were being made, you don’t have to answer “lying on the couch watching television.” (Thanks to Nolen Cox for that phrase.)

Corey Hull wrote on facebook today, Help Spread the Word for the Future of Lowndes County,

My office is conducting a survey and gathering public input on Facebook (go to www.facebook.com/valdostalowndesmpo) about what they want the Lowndes County Common Community Vision to be ( www.bit.ly/LowndesCCV). So far our participation has been low. I am calling on all of you to encourage your friends, family and colleagues to spread the word and let us know what you think about the future of Lowndes County and its cities.

Over the next two months there will be future opportunities for public input so stay tuned.

Thanks for your help.

On the Southern Georgia Regional Commission’s website, Lowndes County Common Community Vision, Continue reading →