How much should it cost for a citizen to get access to agendas
and minutes of a tax-funded board?
How does about $2 per meeting strike you?
Bobbi Anne Hancock filed an open records request for the
agendas and minutes of all regularly scheduled and called
meetings of the
VLCIA letter asking $125.09 for copies of agendas and minutes
of the
Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA)
from 2006 to the present, and got this letter back:
So at 12 meetings per year for five years plus another 3 months,
that would be about 63 meetings, divided into $125.09 gets
about $1.99 per meeting.
Yesterday I wrote
that interactions about Valdosta Farm Days between the Lowndes Commmission
and the City of Valdosta
“could have been smoother if one or both of the parties had been proactive.”
The VDT reported that the County Commission wants to know
about Valdosta Farm Days,
and apparently there was a disconnect between the staff and the Commissioners.
Here’s how the Commission came to be informed, through interactions of citizens and staff.
First, an excerpt from the paper paper story by David Rodock,
“Farmers market proposal discussed by commission”,
Tuesday, April 12, 2011, page 3A (it’s not online):
Continue reading →
proactive: serving to prepare for, intervene in, or control an
expected occurrence or situation; anticipatory
Lowndes County Commission work session, 12 April 2011, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
While apparently supportive of the initiative, the process could
have
Continue reading →
5.a. Consideration of an Ordinance to rezone 0.24 acres from Single-Family
Residential (R6) to Office-Professional (O-P) as requested by 100 Black
Men of Valdosta (File No. VA-2011-09). The property is located at the
southeast corner of Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK) Drive and South Troup
Street. The Planning Commission reviewed this request at their March
Regular Meeting and recommended approval (7-0-1 vote).
We need to
watch local boards regardless of whatever else happens.
But to ensure
local boards and agencies become more responsive to the community,
even better is to
appoint people to them who want to be more responsive to the community.
Many such appointments are available right now.
Valdosta’s list of open appointments, qualifications, etc. can be found
here.
There are 14 positions open on 8 boards,
ranging from the Parks and Recreation Authority, which has its own dedicated
tax millage larger than that of the Industrial Authority, to the Keep Lowndes-Valdosta Beautiful Board,
which has a paid executive director.
Here’s an excerpt:
Continue reading →
Scott Orenstein made a very good point at the end of the 7 March 2011
Valdosta City Council meeting:
…spirit of concern and participation in the community.
I’d just like the videographer to pan around and see how many
people are still here at the conclusion of the meeting.
And then talk about their true concern for the community.
Are they really concerned
when they get up and leave in the middle of the meeting?
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.
The mayor re-opened Citizens to Be Heard at the end of the meeting
so
Continue reading →
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.
Adjournment!
Little joke there.
But adjournment is not the end of interacting with the city government at a city council meeting.
For example,
Council Deidra White stopped on the steps of City Hall
to talk to people.
Three people were there.
All of us lived in the county outside Valdosta.
Not a single person who lives in Valdosta stayed
to talk to her.
Among other things, she said she thought she made clear at the end of
the last Council meeting that the mayor didn’t speak for her.
That was at the end of the meeting, in the
“Council Comments” item on the agenda.
However, apparently nobody stayed to hear that, either.
The 75% pot of T-SPLOST funds is what the project lists recently
submitted by Lowndes County
and the City of Valdosta are about,
according to
Corey Hull, continuing his presentation on T-SPLOST at the Lowndes County
Democratic Party (LCDP) meeting.
Those are projects of regional significance
that the local jurisdictions want the voters to actually
vote on that project.
The other 25% goes to local jurisdictions, like this:
Corey Hull of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Metropolitan Planning Organization (VLMPO)
explains T-SPLOST (HB 277) and the Transportation Investment Act of 2010
at the monthly meeting of the Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP),
Gretchen Quarterman (Chair), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Video by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
So what’s the evidence that these
biomass opponents are many, as the VDT says?
We could review letters to the editors in the VDT,
but let’s look at the visual evidence LAKE has recorded.
With no pro-biomass demonstrators anywhere to be seen.
Sure, a few people show up at government meetings to speak for the
biomass plant, but by my tally they are indeed very few,
and most of them are either former employees or board members
of the Industrial Authority.
Yes, LAKE has posted videos of
them, as well:
Ken Garren,
Nolen Cox.
Crawford Powell.
Or watch the people at the microphones during the
6 December 2011 VLCIA biomass “forum”
and see what you think the ratio is.
How much should it cost for a citizen to get access to agendas
and minutes of a tax-funded board?
How does about $2 per meeting strike you?
But to ensure
local boards and agencies become more responsive to the community,
even better is to
appoint people to them who want to be more responsive to the community.
Many such appointments are available right now.
