Tag Archives: Gretchen Quarterman

Videos of morning of budget discussion @ LCC 2013-06-05



Here’s a

video playlist
of Wednesday morning’s

Lowndes County Commission Budget Discussion Meeting.



Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 5 June 2013.

They broke for lunch shortly before noon, and Gretchen had another appointment,
so the video ends there, although the Commission apparently continued
te discussion in the afternoon.
Hm, if they had real discussion at their other meetings, they wouldn’t
have to save it up for long marathon sessions like this….

-jsq

Budget hearing public notices @ LCC 2013-06-05

Yesterday’s County Commission meeting was billed as a

Budget Discussion Meeting,
and apparently it was not a public hearing on the county’s budget,
because state law requires such a hearing to be advertised in the newspaper
or published as a news story, a week in advance.


This is different from public notice for other Commission meetings:
for budget hearings the notice has to be not just sent to the newspaper:
it has to be published, and not in the legal notices section,
and it has to appear at least a week before the hearing.
It’s also illegal

to refuse to provide a copy of the submitted
draft budget to the public or the news media:

O.C.G.A. 36-81-5.(d)
On the day that the proposed budget is submitted to the governing


authority for consideration, a copy of the budget shall be placed in
a public location which is convenient to the residents of the unit
of local government. The governing authority shall make every effort
to provide convenient access to the residents during reasonable
business hours so as to accord every opportunity to the public to
review the budget prior to adoption by the governing authority. A
copy of the budget shall also be made available, upon request, to
the news media.



LAKE is a news medium,

according to federal law.

Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts has

Georgia Law on Local Government Budgets: Continue reading →

How much will trash collection rates go up in Lowndes County? @ LCC 2012-10-09

Speaking of

Veolia winning its high bid for garbage collection,
here’s a clue to how much more its rates may go up.


Remember
ADS Veolia was bought hardly a month later by ADS, owned by Highstar Capital
of New York City?
Look at ADS’s bid for Proposal D: $18.39.


That’s $220.68 a year.
Which is even higher than
Wakulla County, Florida’s $196 a year,
which Gretchen warned us all about more than a year ago.
And more than double the $100 a year for the former county waste collection sites.

Want to guess how much ADS’s monthly rates will rise?
Maybe Continue reading →

Budget Discussion Meeting 8:30 AM Wednesday @ LCC 2013-06-05

Popped up

since 3PM today on the

Lowndes County Commission online calendar:

Budget Discussion Meeting (6/5/2013)



On June 5, 2013, at 8:30 a.m., the Lowndes County Board of Commissioners
will meet for a budget discussion, in the Executive Conference Room
on the 3rd Floor of the Lowndes County Administration Building. For
more information, please contact the Office of the County Clerk at
229-671-2400.

That’s tomorrow morning, the morning after
the Georgia Supreme Court decision about LOST
was expected today.

-jsq

County picked the highest bid from Veolia for trash pickup @ LCC 2012-10-09



The facts don’t match County Chairman Bill Slaughter’s assertion
(according to the VDT Thursday):

That decision was made in a good-faith effort to find the lowest
possible rate for garbage service for the citizens of Lowndes County,
he said Tuesday.

Commissioner Richard Raines moved and

the Commission voted to approve 9 October 2012
Proposal D and awarded it to the lowest bidder for that specific proposal, which was Veolia.
But that wasn’t the lowest-priced proposal,
according to the sheet of choices they were using in that meeting:

Continue reading →

Exclusive franchise on photographing County Commission? @ LCC 2013-05-28



Does the county ordinance that adversely affects Deep South Sanitation
and no other company follow a pattern already set by the county?
The VDT posted pictures clearly taken not from the media box during
last night’s

Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission:
this one shows Gretchen videoing for LAKE from that media box.
Has the Lowndes County Commission granted an exclusive franchise
to the VDT for photographing, like the one it granted to ADS for trash collection?
Or has the Commission admitted its anti-videoing ordinance was actually
an illegal bill of attainder directed at LAKE alone?
If so, why is it still posted on the door?
And why is the county still planning to sue Deep South Sanitation
on account of an ordinance and contract that directly adversely
affects no other business?
Hm, could that also be an illegal bill of attainder?



In case you had any doubt the VDT’s pictures were taken during the actual
Commission meeting in session, this one is of

Steve Parker speaking in Citizens Wishing to be Heard.

Even the Cumming City Council, which

illegally ejected Nydia Tysdale for videoing an open meeting,
realized its error and she now

videos from the front row.
Only Lowndes County, Georgia continues to post a sign on the door
saying all videoing and photographing must be from the back of the room.
And then it lets one news organization violate its own ordinance,
but not another.

To quote

former Chairman Ashley Paulk: Continue reading →

Videos: trash, appointment, GEMA, juveniles, mowing, and wellness @ LCC 2013-05-28




Trash wasn’t on the agenda, but it was the biggest issue.
Like

last Regular Session
a Commissioner who happens to be a Christian minister
prayed for one thing
while

the Commission does the opposite.
Commissioners and staff also seemed confused about
a mowing contract but we don’t know why,
since none of us have seen what they were looking at.
A Board incumbent was reappointed without discussion.
In good news, county employees have lost 600 pounds.

Here’s

the agenda, with a few notes and links to the videos.
See also

the Work Session of the same morning.


Lowndes County Commission

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2013, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2013, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Losing our individual freedom of choosing –Carl Johnson Jr. @ LCC 2013-05-28



A veteran said he was concerned about losing our freedoms
right here in Lowndes County because of the Commissions’
recent trash collection decisions,
in yesterday’s

Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.

Excerpts from what Carl Johnson Jr. said:


Carl Johnson Jr.
As I drove into town today I drove by… Brown’s produce.
Right across the way was Mr. Carter’s produce.
Both of them same business.
Why not just take Mr. Carter’s business,
and say, well, we’re going to give it all to Mr. Brown….
We think it’s in the best interests of the county.
That’s not the American way of life.
Competition in everything is the strength of America….

[Applause]


Walter Elliott, Attorney for Lowndes County
He said he didn’t know the intricacies of the law,
but he asked the Commission to reconsider.
Attorney for Lowndes County Walter Elliott looked on stone-faced.
County Manager Joe Pritchard, as usual, paid no attention to citizen speakers.

There’s more in

the video: Continue reading →

A county that eats its own –Gretchen Quarterman @ LCC 2013-05-28


“Stop wasting taxpayer money” said Gretchen Quarterman
in yesterday’s

Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.


Gretchen Quarterman
I sort of wish that I had been able to observe the executive session
where you discussed the pending lawsuit against Deep South
Sanitation. I wonder who asked the question “Is it beneficial to all
concerned?” I wonder which one of you said “This will really attract
people to start or relocate business in our county when we sue one
of our local business owners.”

If I were considering a business move, I wouldn’t move to a county
that eats its own.

I ask that you drop the lawsuit and stop wasting taxpayer money.
Thank you.

[Applause]



Bill Slaughter and Gretchen Quarterman were inducted into Valdosta
Rotary on the same day (12 September 2012); that’s John Page,
already a member, standing behind them.
County Attorney Walter Elliott is also a member.
The Rotary Continue reading →

We like doing business with Deep South Sanitation –Duane Roark @ LCC 2013-05-28



A 47-year local resident got up to say he liked Deep South Sanitation
after he tried the monopoly company, and he likes having a choice.
This was in yesterday’s

Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.

Duane Roark said he was a satisfied customer of the recycling
centers the county closed,
and he didn’t like it when he heard

he had to do business with ADS.
Nonetheless, he signed up, but he wasn’t happy
because of

numerous mistakes
so he switched to Deep South Sanitation, where the CEO answers the phone
and delivered a can that same day.
DSS: a man with one truck: what harm is he doing?


Duane Roark
We like that we have a choice….

And he’s got my vote.

[Applause]

Some of the incumbent Commissioners may find votes hard to come by.

More in

the video:

Continue reading →