Category Archives: Valdosta City Council

The Comprehensive Plan updates Lowndes County refused to provide

LAKE has obtained the planning revision documents Lowndes County refused,
in violation of the law, to return in response to an open records request.
Here they are for all to see.



The Standards and Procedures for Local Comprehensive Planning,
established by the Georgia Planning Act of 1989, require updates
to the Short Term Work Projects (STWP) list and the Report of
Accomplishments (ROA) every 5 years.
Lowndes County and the cities in Lowndes County have submitted the
documents to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs
(DCA)

An open records request to Lowndes County for the documents was not satisfied.
However other government agencies were willing to abide by the

Georgia Open Records Law ocga 50-18-70.

The documents are available for review on the
Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange website for Valdosta, Lake Park, Remerton,
Hahira and Lowndes County.

I encourage you to read carefully what our elected officials see as the
future of our community.

-gretchen

The local “unification” attack on public schools is part of a nationwide assault

The “unification” attack on the public schools in Valdosta and Lowndes
County, Georgia is part of a nationwide assault on public schools,
which has nothing to do with improving
public education, and everything to do with private profit and private schools: disaster capitalism right here at home.
And it’s not government causing our local disaster: it’s local business interests.
What should we do about that?

Jeff Bryant wrote for Campaign for America’s Future 13 October 2011,

Starving America’s Public Schools:
How Budget Cuts and Policy Mandates Are Hurting Our Nation’s Students



Critics of America’s public schools always seem to start from the
premise that the pre-kindergarten-through-12th-grade public education
system in this country is failing or in crisis.

This crisis mentality is in stark contrast to years of survey research
showing that Americans generally give high marks to their local


schools. Phi Delta Kappa International and Gallup surveys have found that
the populace holds their neighborhood schools in high regard; in fact,
this year’s survey found that “Americans, and parents in particular,
evaluate their community schools more positively than in any year since”
the survey started.

The first factor: New austerity budgets passed by state legislatures
are starting to have a huge influence on direct services to children,
youth, and families.

Well, we don’t have that problem in Valdosta City and Lowndes Schools.
For example,

graduation rates in Valdosta schools have been improving year over year,
and both school systems are solvent.



So what happened instead?
Why, they made up a crisis instead!

A local business group

convinced enough registered voters to sign a petition to get
a referendum on the November 8th ballot
to decide whether to abolish the Valdosta City School System,
which would force the Lowndes County School System to take it over,
and also

would result in massively raised taxes, which still wouldn’t
be enough, so services would have to be cut.
Voila! Forced budget crisis!
Fortunately, the two school systems have seen through it, and

Continue reading →

For the second week in a row, protesters picket outside the Chamber of Commerce —WCTV

The news media might as well make Valdosta a regular weekend stop for
demonstrations. -jsq

Greg Gullberg wrote for WCTV 22 October 2011,

‘Vote No’ For Consolidation March,



For the second week in a row, protesters picket outside the Chamber of Commerce to the tune of: ‘No Consolidation’.

But unlike the
occupy movement, this rally has one message; one voice.

They say: ‘Vote No’…..

But what does Valdosta’s first black mayor say about it?

“Just Vote No,” the Mayor chants from a podium.

Mayor Sonny Vickers is one of the strongest opponents of the consolidation
plan. “The group that’s pushing this has no authority. No kind of plan to
tell us anything. Because they are not on the board. So they cannot tell
us anything specific about what’s going to happen,” says Mayor Vickers.

Videos of Candidates Forum by VLCoC last night



Videos of the Candidates Forum put on last night by the Valdosta-Lowndes County
Chamber of Commerce (VLCoC) are starting to appear in

this playlist.
The three Valdosta Mayoral candidates are there already (in order of appearance):

There’s one more candidate video to come.

Here are the videos so far:




Candidates Forum, Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce (VLCoC),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 11 October 2011.

Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Candidates Forum by Chamber of Commerce

Today from 5 to 7 PM at the Rainwater Conference Center is the

2011 Meet the Candidates Forum organized by the Valdosta-Lowndes County
Chamber of Commerce.

The Chamber’s Meet the Candidates Reception provides an opportunity
for Chamber members to meet and hear from candidates running in the
Nov. 8 general election. All Chamber members and guests are invited to
attend this event at the Rainwater Conference Center. There is no cost
to Chamber members to attend.

Here’s the link

to RSVP or if you need directions.

Here’s a list of
who qualifed to run.
As you can see, most local incumbents are running unopposed.
Maybe they’ll show up anyway, and there are at least a few contested positions
(Valdosta Mayor and Council At Large, Hahira Council 3, Dasher Post 3, and Lake Park Council At Large.
This being an odd year, there are no county-wide posts up for election,
but the municipal elections affect everyone around here, even people
like me who do not live in any of the cities.
Whether at this event or elsewhere, you may want to ask the candidates
their platforms and positions on local issues.

Usually there’s also an

AAUW Lowndes County Political Forum;
I don’t know what’s up with that this year.
Usually it’s immediately after the Chamber thing,
and the AAUW Forum is open to all.

-jsq

School consolidation as disaster capitalism

School consolidation would set up an artificial fiscal disaster that
could force the “unified” public school system to turn to private foundations
for funding, at the price of control of public education by private entities.
This is disaster capitalism, or the shock doctrine, right here in
Valdosta and Lowndes County.

What’s the Shock Doctrine?
It’s been around for a long time, but Naomi Klein researched it for

her book of the same name. It’s

“the rapid-fire corporate reengineering of societies still reeling from shock”

She was writing mostly about wars, terrorist attacks, and natural disasters.
Locally here we haven’t had any of those.
But we may be about to create a disaster, a shock,
at the ballot box in November,
if voters fall for the school “unification” snake oil.

What’s the next step after CUEE has accidentally revealed that

Continue reading →

Valdosta City Council voted to oppose school consolidation



Mayor Sonny Vickers said he thought it was important for children
and grandchildren and proper for the City Council to take a stand
against school consolidation, and City Manager Larry Hanson read
the statement (transcript appended).

For:


City Council District 1 - James Wright

James Wright

District 1


City Council District 3 - Hoke Hampton

Hoke Hampton

District 3


City Council District 4 - Alvin Payton Jr.

Alvin Payton

District 4


City Council At Large - Ben Norton

Ben Norton

At Large

Didn’t Have
to Vote:


Valdosta Mayor - Sonny Vickers

Sonny Vickers

Mayor

Against:


City Council District 6 - Robert Yost

Robert Yost

District 6


City Council District 5 - Tim Carroll

Tim Carroll

District 5

Missing:


City Council District 2 - Deidra A. White

Deidra White

District 2

After very brief discussion, the vote was 4 for
(James Wright of District 1, Hoke Hampton of District 3,
Alvin Payton of District 4, and Ben Norton At Large)
and 2 against
(Robert Yost of District 6 and Tim Carroll of District 5).

That means Ben Norton changed his vote since since

their last non-binding vote related to school consolidation.
(Nonbinding because
they didn’t have any authority to decide whether the referendum
went on the ballot or not.)
Council Deidra White of District 2 was absent throughout the meeting,
which I find rather odd since she seemed quite aware when I spoke to her
the previous day that this vote was going to occur.
Back in August

she voted against putting the referendum on the ballot.
Yes, I know the motion was not exactly the same, so the votes
are not exactly comparable.
In any case, this time there was no tie and thus no need for the (new)
mayor to break a tie.

Here’s

the video:




Valdosta City Council voted to oppose school consolidationo

education, consolidation, resolution,

Regular Session, Valdosta City Council (VCC),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 6 October 2011.

Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Here’s the statement transcribed as accurately as I could from the video:

Continue reading →

School Consolidation Statement tonight at Valdosta City Council

There are a bunch of changes to the Comprehensive Plan and the


Land Development Regulations (LDR) that people ought to pay attention to,
scheduled for tonight’s Valdosta City Council (VCC) meeting.
But the one many people are going to see is this one:

6.a) Consideration of a Position Statement on School Consolidation.

Some people are confused, because VCC has no formal authority over
any school system.
They didn’t have any formal authority

to decide whether to put the school referendum on the ballot, either.
According to the Lowndes County Board of Elections, once

Continue reading →

Solar Lowndes County Commission?

While GSEA is promoting statewide solar businesses and lobbying the state government to do what other states have done to promote solar,


local governments and businesses don’t have to wait
on the state.
For example, the

Lowndes County Commission has opened a discussion about solar energy
in response to a presentation by Bill Branham.
Now that they’ve learned

the Lowndes County Commission could lead by making one of their famous
position statements, this time in favor of solar,
or by putting solar on the roofs of their buildings (solar on the jail! imagine that),
bringing in money to do so by
or by applying for grants,
or by making a project big enough to apply for private venture capital
from the at least two firms that are looking for such projects.

If the LCC won’t do it, how about solar Valdosta fire departments,
or solar Hahira tobacco barns?

-jsq

Sonny Vickers, Mayor of Valdosta?

A usually-reliable source says Sonny Vickers will be appointed
interim Mayor of Valdosta tomorrow
by the

Valdosta City Council at its 5:30 PM 8 September meeting.



Since he’s

running unopposed
for

City Council District 3,
Sonny Vickers can resign from that post,
get appointed mayor,
and get re-elected as Council 3 in November.

This is the same method used in 2003 when former Mayor
James H. Rainwater died before the election.
Council appointed David Sumner interim mayor.
According to the VDT 31 August 2011:



At that time, Councilman David Sumner assumed the role of mayor, but had
to resign his council seat to do so. He had already qualified to rerun
for his seat in the November 2003 election, was re-elected to his seat
and stepped down as mayor at the end of 2003, re-assuming his duties as
a newly elected councilman at the beginning of 2004.

If they don’t appoint Vickers interim mayor tomorrow,
the Valdosta City Council will probably appoint somebody else.
According to the VDT today:

Vickers is among those being considered for appointment by council,
along with Dexter Sharper and David Sumner, who are also former council
members. Vickers pointed out that he did not submit his name for
consideration, but rather it was mentioned in conversations with other
council members.

We’ll see.

In the November election, one of

Brooks D. Bivins, John Gayle, or Gary Minchew
will be elected mayor (unless of course there’s a runoff).

-jsq