Tag Archives: bonds

Are Augusta and Richmond County special in transparency?

So why does

Augusta have the second highest high tech job growth in the country?
I can only speculate, but local government transparency could be a factor.
If you had a high tech company and were looking to open an office,
would you go for a place where you couldn't tell what the local governments
were up to, or one where you could easily find out?
Augusta's combined City Council and County Commission meetings
(it's a consolidated government)

are on video, online.
Their agendas are available in either HTML or PDF,

with attachments.

Here's an example, their



5 December 2012 Commission Meeting.
It includes

a proposed amendment to their land subdivision code.
The actual proposed ordinance

is linked right into the agenda so everybody can see it.

And yes, they link attachments into their agendas before
their meetings;
here's

Augusta's agenda for their meeting tomorrow 18 December 2012,
already with attachments, such as this one

about a zoning exception,
which was apparently submitted on a standard agenda submittal form,
and approved by the Clerk of Commission.

Meanwhile, the outgoing Lowndes County Chairman



complained the Chamber of Commerce hadn't read a proposed
zoning code change
even though

that change is not linked into the agenda (nor is anything else)
and
last year

the same Chairman said no drafts would be published.
Tuesday last week, Lowndes County Commissioners passed changes to the
solid waste ordinance
and to the

alcohol ordinance
that voters and taxpayers and business owners did not get to see
before the Commission voted on them.
Those ordinances seem to be on the county website now that it's
too late to provide input on them: alcohol and waste.
Both ordinances were revised with no public hearings.
And the Chairman even

forgot to hold a scheduled public hearing on special tax lighting districts.
Oh, and they

apparently now have property owners paying on almost $9 million
in bonds for a county palace
that only two years ago they said was already completely paid off
out of sales taxes.

If you had a high tech company and were looking to open an office,

Continue reading →

Zero owed in 2010; why $8.9 million owed now on county palace? @ LCC 2012-12-11

If Lowndes County owed $0 (zero dollars) on the county palace in November 2010,
why are we paying on

$8,965,000 in bonds for it in December 2012?
If that palace was “100% Paid by SPLOST” in 2010,
why in 2012 is the county pledging our property tax dollars to pay those bonds?


Zero balance on the county palace?

In November 2010:


$22,380,000


Judicial Building Cost


$6,728,000


Administrative Building Cost


100%

Paid by SPLOST


$0


Balance Owed

So says a double-page flyer about “the Lowndes County Judicial &
Administrative Complex”

Flyer from November 2010
produced by the Valdosta Daily Times for Lowndes
County in 2010 and signed “Highest regards, Joe Pritchard, County Manager”.
There’s no dateline, but it invites the public to a dedication of the Complex
“on Friday, November 12, 2010.”


Preliminary Official Statement Dated November 20, 2012
from Morgan Keegan about the $8,965,000 in Refunding Revenue Bonds
(Lowndes County Judicial/Administration Complex)
Series 2012, which says this:

The Bonds are payable solely from payments to be made by Lowndes County,
Georgia (the “County”) pursuant to an Intergovernmental Contract,
dated as of December 1, 2012 (the “Contract”), between the Issuer
and the County. Under the Contract, the County has agreed to levy and
collect an annual tax on all taxable property located within the County
as may be necessary to produce in each year revenues which are sufficient
to make the payments required by the Contract.

So which is it?

Continue reading →

Land Development For Future Industries —Andrea Schruijer of VLCIA

Executive Director Andrea Schruijer explained the Industrial Authority’s
theory behind all those industrial parks.
And she mentioned market analysis for a sustainable local economy.
Nothing about market analysis about whether industrial parks actually
bring in new businesses….

Valdosta CEO posted 28 NOvember 2012,

Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority Invests in Land Development For Future Industries,



Andrea Schruijer, Executive Director of the Valdosta Lowndes County
Industrial Authority. A few years ago the community had the
foresight to approve a mill that they would set aside for the
Industrial Authority to provide for economic development. And
because the community did that, the industrial authority is able to
better plan for the future in growing our opportunities for economic
development. One of the things that we noticed a few years ago is
that we didn’t have enough land for development. And we didn’t have
the right sized tracks in case we had a large user coming in looking
at the community, where would we put them?



She says “the community did that”?
That’s funny,

Gary Minchew said he organized that.
Kari L. Sands wrote for VDT 20 June 2007,

Lowndes preps for vote on budget,

Continue reading →

Video Playlist @ LCC 2012-10-09



The big item at Tuesday’s Lowndes County Commission Regular Session
was, same as

at Monday’s Work Session,
the waste management railroad,

terminating in a decision.
Other topics included citizen Karen Noll speaking

against the charter school amendment.

Here’s

the agenda
with links to the videos and a few notes, or links to separate posts.
Apologies for the poor sound on the first videos;
we didn’t have the usual camera.
Of course, if the Commission did its own videoing and posting, that problem
would be unlikely to occur.




  1. Call to Order
  2. Invocation
  3. Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag

  4. Minutes for Approval

    1. Work Session — September 24, 2012
    2. Regular Session — September 25, 2012



  5. Public Hearing — REZ-2012-15 Glenn O’Neal,     Pecan Plantation Rd. & US Hwy 84 W E-A to C-H, County
    Water & Septic, ~4.5 acres
  6. For Consideration


    1. Bevel Creek Lift Station Pump Repair
    2. Alapaha Waterline size Increase

    3. Beer License — Naylor’s Pantry — 8777 E. Hwy 135
    4. Refunding Revenue Bonds

    5. Solid Waste Management Request for Proposal
  7. Reports




    1. Community Planning Month Proclamation


      Plus recognition of two planners from Moody AFB.

    2. Employee Health Fair



    Chairman Ashley Paulk interjected not on the agenda




    • some comments about recently deceased former VSU president Hugh C. Bailey,

    • and noted the fire chief had a new fire truck, which was parked outside.
  8. Citizens Wishing to be Heard Please State Name And Address





    • Karen Noll spoke against the charter school amendment,
      saying it would implement taxation without representation Karen Noll @ LCC 2012-10-09 and would take more tax dollars from our public schools to give twice as much money to special charter school students.


    • Ken Klanicki never actually even approached the podium.
      After being asked by the chairman to come to the podium or leave the room,
      he wandered to the back of the room and was escorted out by a deputy sheriff.
      He called me by name as he left, but I have no idea what he was trying to
      accomplish.
      He called me later, but when I asked him that, he had no explanation.

Here’s

a video playlist.
It shifts from the first camera (good video, poor sound) to the second camera (video with no closeups, good sound) in the middle, when I arrived with the second camera.
The rest of the first camera videos are tacked onto the end.
Next time we’ll attempt to have the good camera.


Video Playlist

Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),

Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 9 October 2012.

-jsq

 

Videos: Water, water, water, waste! and planning? @ LCC 2012-10-08


The big news
was the
waste disposal railroad, but the Lowndes County Commission also
heard about three water issues (one a rezoning), plus a beer
license, revenue bonds, community planning month, and a health fair
at its Work Session this morning.

Here’s the
agenda, with links to the videos and a few notes, or links to
separate posts.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF
COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2012, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2012, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd
Floor

Continue reading →

A rezoning, wastewater pump repair, solid waste RFP, and community planning month @ LCC 2012-10-08


2974 Pecan Plantation Road
A rezoning for well and septic,
Bevel Creek is back with a lift station pump repair,
and something about an Alapaha waterline:
water, water, water.
Plus a beer license, refunding revenue bonds, and
the long-awaited waste management RFP.
And an employee health fair, whatever that is,
and apparently this is community planning month.
All that at the Lowndes County Commission, Monday morning
and Tuesday evening.

Here’s

the agenda.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2012, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2012, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Importing illegal immigrants into private Georgia prisons

Ocilla, about an hour north of here,
took the private prison gamble, and now is scrambling to import
enough prisoners to fill it.

Jim Galloway wrote for the AJC 11 April 2012,

Importing illegal immigrants — into private Georgia prisons
quoting
Hannah Rappleye and Lisa Riordan Seville in The Nation 10 April 2012,

How One Georgia Town Gambled Its Future on Immigration Detention,



Deportations have reached record levels under President Barack
Obama, and demand for detention facilities has increased. Starting
in 2002, ICE had funding for 19,444 beds per year, according to an
ICE report. Today, ICE spends about $2 billion per year on almost
twice the number of beds.

ICE’s reliance on facilities like the Irwin County Detention Center
has put small rural towns at the center of one of today’s most
contentious policy arguments—how to enforce immigration law. A
yearlong investigation by The Nation shows how much politics has
come to rule detention policy. Even as Georgia and Alabama passed
harsh new immigration laws last year designed to keep out
undocumented immigrants, documents obtained through the Freedom of
Information Act reveal that politicians from both states were
lobbying hard to bring immigrant detainees in. ICE succumbed to the
pressure, sending hundreds of detainees to the financially unstable
facility in Georgia that promised to detain immigrants cheaply. That
promise came at the expense of the health, welfare and rights to due
process of some 350 immigrants detained daily in Ocilla.

Marvelous.
Pass a low to eject illegal immigrants, except it really locks up
a bunch of them, but not enough to keep Ocilla’s private prison full,
so import a bunch of them back in as prisoners.

Aren’t you glad we didn’t accept a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia?

Ocilla and Irwin County didn’t just make that bad bet once,
they doubled down on it:

Continue reading →

Keep an eye on the Land Bank Authority —Barbara Stratton

Today the Georgia Senate Rules Committee votes on
Sen. Tim Golden’s SB 284 “Georgia Land Bank Act; governing
creation/operation of land banks; provision”.
Received 24 February 2012. -jsq

A citizen’s committee needs to be formed to keep an eye on the Land
Bank Authority because they seem to think they are exempt from state
Sunshine Law rules. In addition Sen. Golden has a bill SB 284


introduced into the state senate that will allow the establishment
of regional land bank authorities. We citizens never consented to
all this regional government that is being forced on us. If we can’t
keep up with what the local land bank authority is doing just
imagine what a regional land bank authority will be able to
accomplish with zero public knowledge and input. This is one of the
most dangerous pseudo-government entities ever and it needs to be
addressed from the citizen level immediately. I applied for a
citizen vacancy on the Land Bank Authority, but of course those
positions are reserved for politically supportive individuals. Per

the sunshine laws, which Sam Olens has sworn allegiance to, a
citizen review committee would have to be advised of the meetings
that are currently never publicized.

-Barbara Stratton

SB 284 already passed Monday a week ago
in the Senate Finance Committee,
according to Nelson Mullins,

Gold Dome Report – 2-27-2012,

Continue reading →

Lowndes County Commissioners approve intergovernmental agreement with SGMC



Without discussion, the Lowndes County Commissioners at their regular
meeting two weeks ago on 11 October 2011. approved an intergovernmental
agreement with South Georgia Medical Center to guarantee more than $100
million in bonds, for expansion of SGMC facilities, to include 96 new
private rooms in the Dasher Heart Center, the 5 story parking deck,
now under construction and due to be completed in early 2012, and Life
Safety and Generator Equipment updates.

If one had not been at the work session and heard

the presentation at their work session the day before,
one would have no idea what this agenda item was about,
since the Commission does not post such presentations anywhere the public
can see them.
Fortunately, LAKE was there and videoed it.

Here’s

the video:




Lowndes County Commissioners approve intergovernmental agreement with SGMC

Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 11 October 2011.

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

-gretchen

“It would be impossible for us to sell bonds at this time” —Dr. Cason @ VBOE 29 August 2011



The school consolidation referendum is already having ill effects more than
two months before anybody gets to vote on it.
The Valdosta School Board has had to postpone further work planning
for a new elementary school.

Valdosta School Superintendent
Cason made what probably would have been a routine report about

11. A. Selection of architect for Southeast Elementary – Dr. Cason –
information only:

However, since the referendum for consolidation made the ballot,
it would be impossible for us to sell bonds at this time.

because who would buy them, knowing the selling school board
might not exist come this November?
Or, if the consolidation referendum passes, for some unknown time
after that?
So the board decided to postpone even selecting an architect
until the consolidation question is resolved.

Here’s

the video:




“It would be impossible for us to sell bonds at this time” —Dr. Cason @ VBOE 29 August 2011

education, referendum, consolidation, statement,

Work Session, Valdosta Board of Education (VBOE),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 29 August 2011.

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

-jsq