Category Archives: Valdosta City Council

Qualifying is finished: here’s the list

A few people qualified on the last day. They’re marked ! below,
in this latest information from
Deb Cox, Lowndes County Supervisor of Elections;
* indicates incumbent.

-jsq

Valdosta

Mayor Brooks D. Bivins !

John Gayle

Gary Minchew
At Large Matt Flumerfelt

Ben Norton *
Council 1 James R. Wright *
Council 3 Joseph Sonny Vickers *
Council 5 Tim Carroll*

Hahira

Council 2 Bruce Cain *
Council 3 Ralph Clendenin *

Sherry Parham Brown

Dasher

Post 2
special election		 Donald J. Bryan

James (Jim) Dew !

Becky Rogers

(was held by Rodney Lieupo)
Post 3 Albert Hall !

Edwin R. Smith *
Post 4 Anita Armstrong *

Lake Park

Walker Keith Sandlin *

Mayor
City Council At Large (Vote for 4) Eric Schindler *

Ronald Carter *

Paul Mulkey *

Cathi Brown !

Russell Lane !

Sandy Sherrill !
Special election

voting now 		Cathy Brown

Sandy Sherrill

Whoever wins will also have to run again in November.

Remerton

Mayor Cornelius Holsendolph *!
City Council At Large (Vote for 5) Alexander Abell !

Sam P. Flemming, Jr. !

Steven Koffler !

Jasen L. Tatum *

Bill Wetherington *

Valdosta Board of Education

District 4 Dean R. Rexroth *
District 5 Julian Carol Sherwood III *
District 6 Bill Love *

Qualifying is finished: here’s the list

A few people qualified on the last day. They’re marked ! below,
in this latest information from
Deb Cox, Lowndes County Supervisor of Elections;
* indicates incumbent.

-jsq

Valdosta

Mayor Brooks D. Bivins !

John Gayle

Gary Minchew
At Large Matt Flumerfelt

Ben Norton *
Council 1 James R. Wright *
Council 3 Joseph Sonny Vickers *
Council 5 Tim Carroll*

Hahira

Council 2 Bruce Cain *
Council 3 Ralph Clendenin *

Sherry Parham Brown

Dasher

Post 2
special election		 Donald J. Bryan

James (Jim) Dew !

Becky Rogers

(was held by Rodney Lieupo)
Post 3 Albert Hall !

Edwin R. Smith *
Post 4 Anita Armstrong *

Lake Park

Walker Keith Sandlin *

Mayor
City Council At Large (Vote for 4) Eric Schindler *

Ronald Carter *

Paul Mulkey *

Cathi Brown !

Russell Lane !

Sandy Sherrill !
Special election

voting now 		Cathy Brown

Sandy Sherrill

Whoever wins will also have to run again in November.

Remerton

Mayor Cornelius Holsendolph *!
City Council At Large (Vote for 5) Alexander Abell !

Sam P. Flemming, Jr. !

Steven Koffler !

Jasen L. Tatum *

Bill Wetherington *

Valdosta Board of Education

District 4 Dean R. Rexroth *
District 5 Julian Carol Sherwood III *
District 6 Bill Love *

Who qualified by the end of Thursday, per Deb Cox

There’s one new qualifier since the last post.
If you want to run, you’ve got

you’ve got today to qualify.

This post includes an update on who has qualified
for the end of the day Thursday September 1st from
Deb Cox, Lowndes County Supervisor of Elections;
* indicates incumbent.
This is basically the same as

the list I posted yesterday afternoon, with a few corrections:
the Dasher candidates (except for Post 2) are now correctly marked
as incumbents; Lake Park Mayor candidate Keith Sandlin is listed;
Lake Park and Dasher Council At Large elections are described correctly;
Paul Mulkey has also qualified for Lake Park;
various names are filled out more completely.
This morning’s post is taken from a text document sent by Deb Cox,
so it’s probably more accurate than yesterday’s writing it down from her telling it to me on the telephone.

-jsq

Valdosta

Mayor John Gayle

Gary Minchew
At Large Matt Flumerfelt

Ben Norton *
Council 1 James R. Wright *
Council 3 Joseph Sonny Vickers *
Council 5 Tim Carroll*

Hahira

Continue reading →

Who’s qualified so far, according to Deb Cox

I called Deb Cox, Lowndes County Supervisor of Elections,
and asked her who has qualified so far.
Here’s the answer, where * indicates incumbent.
This data also pretty much answers the question of why we
keep seeing the same people in office:
because hardly anybody else runs.
If you want to run,

you’ve got the rest of today and tomorrow to do qualify.
-jsq

Valdosta

Mayor John Gayle

Gary Minchew
At Large Matt Flumerfelt

Ben Norton *
Council 1 James Wright *
Council 3 Sonny Vickers *
Council 5 Tim Carroll*

Hahira

Continue reading →

What it takes to run for Mayor of Valdosta

People ask me: what does it take to run for mayor of Valdosta?
A few qualifications, a few skills, and a vision would sure help.



Well, you have to qualify.
That costs
$750 down at the Board of Elections.

According to
the City of Valdosta’s website, there are a few other requirements:

Qualification Mayor.
To be eligible for election or appointment
and service as Mayor, a person must be a minimum of 21 years of
age, be a resident of the City of Valdosta for one year prior ro
the date of qualifying, and a registered and qualified voter of the
City of Valdosta at the time of qualifying.

Then you have to campaign and win.
Some people will doubtless spend a lot of money running for mayor.
However, some recent elections to Lowndes County Commission and
Valdosta Board of Education indicate

Continue reading →

John Fretti resigned as mayor Tuesday, or, Roy Taylor got his way

Doubtless everyone knows this already, since the VDT and others
have covered it well, including his

guilty plea,
the VDT’s call for him to resign,
and his resignation.
Here is John Fretti’s

press release announcing his resignation.
It seems appropriate that he sent it to News Talk 105.9 FM, where he

so frequently appeared.



Personally, I thought he was not all that bad as mayor, even though
he never did anything I asked him to.
Given that I don’t even live in Valdosta, there is of course no
reason that he should have, and he was always courteous when I appeared
before the Valdosta City Council or met him elsewhere.
Yes, I am well aware of many of the downsides,
many of which I have written about in this blog,
and Valdosta can do better.

If Valdosta is going to do better, somebody better needs to run.
That’s why at the moment
I’d prefer to write about the open race for mayor:
qualifying is still open today and tomorrow (see next post).

I will say that whoever wins I hope will have less of this attitude:

“If they don’t say they’re against it, they’re for it.”

I think all citizens, but especially elected officials, should be willing
to say what they’re for.

If people around here are too frightened to do so, then we’ve got a much
bigger problem than who is mayor of Valdosta.

-jsq

5.a. Vote to put school consolidation referendum on ballot —Tim Carroll @ VCC 25 August 2011



Council Carroll made a motion to put the referendum on the ballot
and Council White seconded.
Yost, White, Norton, and Carroll voted for.
Wright and Vickers voted against.

The mayor then pointed out voters will have had to be registered for six months
to vote on this referendum in November, so if someone registered
tomorrow, they couldn’t vote in November.
(It’s not clear that this is actually true, but it is what he said.)

They all had more to say later in Council Comments.

Here’s

the video:




5.a. Vote to put school consolidation referendum on ballot —Tim Carroll @ VCC 25 August 2011

petition, education, referendum,

Regular Session, Valdosta City Council (LCC),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 25 August 2011.

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

-jsq

5.a. This seems forced —Mayor John Fretti @ VCC 25 August 2011



First they voted on stopping debate on

the motion on the floor (to deny putting the referendum
for school consolidation on the ballot).
White and Norton voted against stopping debate.

Then they voted on the motion to deny.
Council White agonized over whether they were doing anything illegal.
They
split evenly 3 to 3:
Wright, White, and Vickers for denying, and
Yost, Norton, and Carroll against.



Since it was a tie, the Mayor got to vote.
First he made a statement, which included:

It started out in the least inclusive manner.

…

This seems forced to people who don’t want the city school system
and to a city school system which doesn’t want to cope with these
people right now.
And that’s unfair.

He suggested the legislature should handle it.

After all that, he voted against the motion to deny,
so the motion failed.

Here’s

the video:




5.a. This seems forced —Mayor John Fretti @ VCC 25 August 2011

petition, education, referendum,

Regular Session, Valdosta City Council (LCC),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 25 August 2011.

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

-jsq

5.a. There is no plan … we just don’t know —Sonny Vickers @ VCC 25 August 2011



Council Vickers said there was no plan for how to do school consolidation, and so he was against the referendum, and he called for a vote on his motion to deny the referendum.

He said that if we were going to consolidate school systems,
the two school boards should sit down and make a plan.

But in this case, there is no plan.

…

We just don’t know.

…

Too much is unknown.

He called for a vote on
his motion to deny the referendum.

Here’s

the video:




5.a. There is no plan … we just don’t know –Sonny Vickers @ VCC 25 August 2011

petition, education, referendum,

Regular Session, Valdosta City Council (LCC),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 25 August 2011.

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

-jsq

5.a. Legal issues —Attorney Talley and others @ VCC 25 August 2011



Council Carroll noted that council was merely voting on putting
a referendum on the ballot.


Attorney Talley said he hadn’t looked at soem of the legal possibilities,
and talked about several specific pairs of counties consolidating schools.

Council White asked for further clarification.

Manager Hanson used an analogy of annexation (for which he said there
were at least four legal methods) to indicate that proponents could
pick whichever one they liked.
He said someone could choose to challenge it in court.
I believe he also said council could vote against holding the referendum.

Here’s

the video:




5.a. Legal issues –Attorney Talley and others @ VCC 25 August 2011

petition, education, referendum,

Regular Session, Valdosta City Council (LCC),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 25 August 2011.

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

-jsq