Tag Archives: Georgia

DoJ ending civil asset forfeiture involving federal law

This should also reduce incarceration, through fewer unnecessary stops, so fewer drug busts. Next, how about end the failed War on Drugs?

By Robert O’Harrow Jr., Sari Horwitz and Steven Rich, Washington Post, 16 January 2015, Holder limits seized-asset sharing process that split billions with local, state police,

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Friday barred local and state police from using federal law to seize cash, cars and other property without warrants or criminal charges.

Holder’s action represents the most sweeping check on police power to confiscate personal property since the seizures began three decades ago as part of the war on drugs.

Since 2008, Continue reading →

Quail Hunt and Project Cold @ VLCIA 2015-01-20

And a City Council Retreat Presentation.

Valdosta-Lowndes Development Authority
Tuesday, January 20, 2015 5:30 p.m.
Development Authority Conference Room
103 Roosevelt Drive
Monthly Meeting Agenda
Continue reading →

Georgia Power claims credit for solar leasing bill

That antique 1973 law may finally change to greatly facilitate solar financing through power purchase agreements (PPAs), now that Georgia Power has finally realized the good PR it’s getting for its own solar power deployments.

Walter C. Jones, Jacksonville.com, 13 January 2015, Solar access for residences, churches, small businesses could become easier under agreement,

ATLANTA | Homeowners, churches and small businesses would soon have access to the financing available in two-dozen states for the installation of solar panels with little upfront costs based on an agreement announced Tuesday during a legislative hearing.

Coming up with $18,000 or more in cash to install photovoltaic panels on the average home is difficult for most homeowners. But if the agreement becomes law, they could lease their roof to companies that pay them back with free electricity, selling the rest to the utilities.

Or cities or counties. Valdosta or Lowndes County, for instance, might save hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on utility bills if they could finance solar power through PPAs.

Georgia has the fastest-growing solar Continue reading →

Board of Elections meeting @ Elections 2015-01-13

Received by email 8 January 2015, with no agenda and no other materials. -jsq

Notice is hereby given that the Lowndes County Board of Elections will conduct a public meeting on Tuesday, January 13, 2015 at 4:30 p.m., at the Lowndes County Elections office, located at 2808 N Oak St., Valdosta, GA 31602.

All interested parties are invited to attend.

For meeting information, please call the Elections office at 229-671-2850 or e-mail elections@lowndescounty.com.

Valdosta City Council Retreats to Moultrie this weekend

Citizens can attend this open meeting to hear about that flooding study, traffic cameras, compensation, and other issues, even though it’s inconveniently located in another county, almost as if the Valdosta City Council didn’t want you to see what they’re doing. If City Hall wouldn’t do, why not the Convention Center? It has its own chef. Like the VDT editorialized, there was no need to go to a out-of-town fancy resort.

Joe Adgie wrote for the VDT 8 January 2014, Valdosta City Council retreating in Moultrie,

The two-day event will feature discussion of issues that Mayor John Gayle and the City Council want to focus on in the coming year, as well as priorities for the legislative delegation and the Georgia Department of Transportation.

In addition, the results of a city employee compensation study will be released and discussed at the retreat.

The number one issue listed by the council for the current year involves funding from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) for a levee and pump proposal.

According to the city, Continue reading →

Expanded agenda, VLDA appointment, jail, taxes, water @ LCC 2015-01-12

Whose terms are up and who’s being considered for appointment (Teri Lupo for VLDA again), who bid and how much (including showers and roofing for the jail), and some detail about two tax rates: these are all big improvements to the agenda! I do wonder where the agenda item for the Water Trail resolution is.

However, there’s room for improvement. Even though you get this same extended agenda when you select “packet” for download, it is not the complete board packet. For example, each agenda item has a one or more page agenda item form, and each proposed agreement or contract typically is include in the paper packets the Commissioners get. There are no rezoning cases on this agenda, but when there are, those always contain several maps in the board packet, and often other information. There’s an HTML version of the agenda, in addition to PDF: that’s another big improvement! The HTML code includes this at the end of each item:

<div class="documents"> </div>

So it looks like the website software the county is using is prepared to include such documents. Maybe the county will actually include them soon.

Here’s the agenda in HTML and in PDF on the county’s website, and I’ve also included it inline below. Continue reading →

Sabal Trail like Keystone XL is for corporate profit not jobs

It would go through our land to be sold everywhere else, with no jobs here. It wouldn’t even be a nominal benefit for those of us whose land, water, and taxes it would take.

President Obama was half right:

Understand what this project is. It is providing the ability of Canada to pump their oil, send it through our land, down to the Gulf, where it will be sold everywhere else. That doesn’t have an impact on U.S. gas prices.

In his press conference of 14 November 2014, he was referring to the Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline. Add Atlantic to Gulf and the above quote applies equally to the proposed Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline.

History has countered his next assertion: Continue reading →

One variance in Naylor @ ZBOA 2015-01-06

300x450 Parcel 0250 050, 8887 GA 135 N, in VAR-2014-15 Deryl Sekinger @ ZBOA 2015-01-06, by John S. Quarterman, 6 January 2015 One variance in Naylor, which appears to be due to abandoned use that presumbly the owner wants to resume.

Here’s the agenda, which oddly is not yet on the City of Valdosta puts ZBOA agendas and minutes online.

Valdosta -Lowndes County Zoning Board of Appeals

Matt Martin, Valdosta Planning and Zoning Administrator Carmella Braswell, Lowndes County Zoning Administrator
300 North Lee Street, Valdosta, Georgia 327 North Ashley Street, Valdosta, Georgia
(229) 259-3563 (229) 671-2430

AGENDA

January 6, 2015
2:30 p.m.
Continue reading →

Sunshine for local government

We’ve got a little list, a spreadsheet as a list,
please don’t take this as a diss, we think they have been missed….

Unlike Ko-Ko’s in the Mikado, this list is of things previously missed that are slowly being found (or created), so local governments can tell the citizens what fine things they’ve been up to, and so citizens can decide what they need to deal with and what topics they can provide input on. Here’s the LAKE sunshine list for local government.

The Lowndes County Commission just got some additions, with its new website, by posting videos of its own meetings, and by posting agendas and minutes for the Planning Commission.

The Valdosta City Council does pretty well, with its website, its agendas and minutes, and the agendas and summaries and minutes for ZBOA. Valdosta does not (yet) video and post its own meetings, but it does have what appears to be a complete list of its ordinances with links to their text. Dasher also has its ordinances online.

Meanwhile the Lowndes County Commission has only Continue reading →

Meet Greenlaw and EarthJustice in Waycross 2015-01-06

People are still sick and dying in Waycross, and answers are still few, but now there’s increasing help, and organization at a meeting next Tuesday. Remember wastewater from the Waycross SevenOut SuperFund site was sent to the Pecan Row Landfill in Valdosta, and we could have similar sites here, too. Helping Waycross is helping everyone deal with toxic chemicals. -jsq

Facebook event, Meeting Announcement – Tuesday Evening, January 6, 2014, Continue reading →