This was mostly an ordinary Lowndes County Commission Work Session,
except for a few items, perhaps most notably this one:
9.b. Entrance Gate at Davidson and Roberts RoadsMore about that later.
Here’s the agenda.
Here’s the playlist for the entire meeting:
Videos of 9 Jan 2012 LCC Work Session
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 9 January 2012.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
-jsq
This comes from the ACLU’s Prison Voices, Episode 1: Private Prisons: Continue readingIn my view, the worst thing is that they have normalized the notion of incarcerating people for profit. Basically commodifying people, seeing them as nothing more than a revenue stream….
If you incarcerate more people and you put more people in your private prisons you make more money. Which provides perverse incentives against reforming our justice system.
And increasing the number of people we’re putting in prison, whether they need to be there or not, just to generate corporate profit. I think that’s incredibly immoral and unethical, I think that’s the worst aspect of our private prison industry.
Please find attached the “Transportation in the Region” newsletter for the Southern Georgia Regional Commission and the Valdosta-Lowndes Metropolitan Planning Organization. For more information please visit our website at www.sgrc.us/transportation.I’ve put a copy on the LAKE website here.
Here’s the lead story:
Local Discretionary Project Lists for TIA
On October 10, 2011 the Southern Georgia Regional Transportation Roundtable approved a regional transportation project list that contains 75% of the funds this region would receive if a transportation sales and use tax is approved by the voters on July 31, 2012. The tax is estimated to generate $670,985,361 total; $503,239,020 of which is reserved for the 75% regional projects list.The remaining 25% of the funds ($167,746,439) are allocated to local governments by formula (based on population and road centerline miles). While these funds are to be spent at the discretion of each local government on transportation related projects, it is recommended that
your local government begin to consider how these funds might be spent over the next 10 years. By identifying these projects now, your local voters will be able to know how all of the funds from this proposed sales and use tax will be spent in their local community.
In order to have a central source for information about the proposed sales tax, we are asking local governments to submit their project lists for the 25% discretionary funding by March 31, 2012 to the following address: SGRC; ATTN: Corey Hull; 327 W Savannah Ave.; Valdosta, GA 31602; or by email at chull@sgrc.us.
It will be interesting to see what projects local governments submit.
Maybe you’d like to suggest something to them.
Hm, looks like there’s plenty of discretionary funds for a
bus system
such as is recommended by
the Industrial Authority’s Community Assessment.
-jsq
Here are videos of the Hahira Ethics Commission (HEC) on 12 January 2012
considering
complaint #1 against
Mayor Wayne Bullard:
1.) In 2010 permission was given by Bullard to Allgreen, the mayor’s employer, to store Allgreen equipment on city property, 6571 Union RoadHEC decided that while he shouldn’t have done it, the Hahira City Council already met on that subject and he already agreed not to do it again, so there was nothing more for the ethics commission to do on that complaint, although the City Council could take it up again if it wanted to.Dumpsite, without bringing the issue before the City Council.
Regarding the other two complaints, at the insistence of the complainant, Clay Tilman, that he had further evidence to present, Commissioner Marilyn Dye made a motion to consider the other two items in a following session.; the commission agreed to do that: they’ll meet again today, 19 January 2012, at 5:30 PM. Here’s the VDT’s writeup on the substance of the complaints.
Here’s the VDT’s writeup on the 12 Jan meeting, with this Kafkaesque moment: Continue reading
that those are bills in Congress to censor the Internet.
If you like blogs, YouTube, facebook, and other social media, you won’t like SOPA and PIPA if they become law, because they will enable big copyright holders such as movie studios to force websites to remove links to entire domains on suspicion of copyright violation.
What you can do: contact your members of Congress today. You can do that through one of the many online tools Or call, email, or send a paper letter directly. Free the Internet!
-jsq
In a refreshing changes from “jobs, jobs, jobs” as everything,
Andrea Schruijer,
Executive Director of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
told the Lowndes County Democratic Party meeting, 5 December 2011,
that it wasn’t her job to create jobs, jobs, jobs; it was her job
to create an environment that let jobs be created.
Towards that end, she announced several new jobs at VLCIA,
including a PR and marketing position.
VLCIA Chairman Roy Copeland also spoke and helped answer questions
from the audience, including about
wages,
workers, and
green industries.
Perhaps not shown is her answer to my question about what does VLCIA do to promote new local industry. I believe she said VLCIA looks to the Chamber of Commerce for incubation, and helps once local businesses are established.
Here’s a playlist:
My job: create environment for jobs —Andrea Schruijer of VLCIA @ LCDP 5 Dec 2011
Andrea Schruijer Executive Director of VLCIA,
Monthly Meeting, Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 5 December 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman.
-jsq
I’ve made these same comments before. It’s just part of the attitude thatis popular with some elected & appointed officials “We’ve been chosen. Now go away & don’t ask any questions about what we are doing until it’s time to vote again.” I don’t think all the individuals share the attitude, but some do & over time it has become standard procedure. Hopefully, as more citizens pay attention & ask for more insight procedure will adjust. There is a reason for open meetings & sunshine laws & it’s not so citizens can listen to or read about decisions based on information they are not allowed to hear or observe.
-Barbara Stratton
I see they held a special called meeting 16 December 2011, but at least they listed it on their web page. Maybe they’ve got control of their technical glitches.
Appended is the schedule for 2012, and the agenda for tonight’s meeting.
-jsq
Here’s tonight’s agenda.Meeting Schedule
All Meetings will be held at 5:30pm in the Industrial Authority Conference Room, 2110 N. Patterson Street, unless otherwise notified.
**Please note date change** Special Called Meeting
**December 16, 2011**Meeting Schedule for 2012
January 17, 2012
February 21, 2012
March 20, 2012
April 17, 2012
May 15, 2012
June 19, 2012
July 17, 2012
August 21, 2012
September 18, 2012
October 16, 2012
November 20, 2012
December 18, 2012
Continue readingValdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority
Agenda
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 5:30 p.m.
Industrial Authority Conference Room
2110 N. Patterson Street
In this video George goes into many years of evidence regarding jail violations.issue another Executive Order and STOP the jail deaths in the Valdosta, Lowndes County Jail. (30 Jail deaths from 1994-2009) Today the general public is told that the public does not have a right to know under the law.
-jsq
Requesting such a hearing before January 24 would give the opportunity to have all this information presented and for questions to be asked and answered.Except that’s not the way it works around here. Public hearing locally means the chairman or mayor or whoever says “Who wants to speak for?” and maybe somebody speaks. And then “Who wants to speak against?” and maybe somebody speaks. It doesn’t mean that the Commission or the Council or the Authority presents anything for the public to consider.
Witness the
hearing the Lowndes County Commission
held in December on the documents related to the Comprehensive Plan.
The only reason the public knew anything about what was in those documents
was that Gretchen got them from somewhere else after the Commission
refused to supply them in response to an open records request.
The Commission never distributed any of the relevant documents
to the public.
Only one citizen spoke, perhaps because nobody else knew what
to speak about.
Almost none of the local municipalities or boards or authorities routinely present to the public the information that is in the packets they see before the discuss or vote. There are rare exceptions, such as the VLMPO and other organizations or projects administered by the Southern Georgia Regional Commission (SGRC). SGRC is a state agency, not a local agency. Why does Lowndes County and all its municipalities and boards avoid transparency?
Why can’t you, the public, see what’s in a rezoning request before Continue reading