Metro Atlanta cities want to air their business in living rooms. Alpharetta agreed to spend $68,000 for a video recording system in its council chambers. Dunwoody will shell out $93,000 for a digital video recording system, enabling residents to view city council and planning commission meetings live from home.Continue readingWhile not every city electronically records its council meetings, the practice has become increasingly popular.
“It’s an overall trend of cities, going where people are to share information, to keep people in touch,” said Amy Henderson, Georgia Municipal Association spokeswoman.
Tag Archives: Gretchen Quarterman
Videos and transparency –John S. Quarterman
Here
I discuss with the mayor
about the Valdosta City Council videoing their entire meetings and putting
them on the web for everybody to see.
The mayor indicated costs of streaming was an issue;
I recommended putting it on YouTube or Vimeo and letting them handle that part.
I think the AJC article he mentioned is this one:
Meeting access video grows among city councils,
by Patrick Fox, 18 Jan 2011.
This comment by the mayor was amusing:
The worst thing you could do would be to have one camera in the back that has room audio.Touche, Mr. Mayor! :-) What do you think, is a noisy video from the back of the room more useful than no video at all? Can you see him waving his arms around? Continue reading
The Quitman 10 in Valdosta
At Serenity Church in Valdosta, 15 Jan 2011,
Gladys Lee from Brooks County addressed the Quitman 10 about
justice anywhere,
about the
spirit of conviction,
and she said
“We are residents, property owners, taxpaying voters!”.
Speaking
as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rev. Floyd Rose addressed the
Quitman 10 and the congregation:
Now I want to say though we’ve met on what would have been my 87th birthday may be some place of honor. For this honor I want to thank you, and I must say to you: unless the schools you have named for me teach children how to live as much as how to make a living they will become little more than battlegrounds for the frustrated individuals. Unless the bridges that you have named for meContinue reading
Farmers grow renewable energy? –James Wright
Grow crops to burn for fuel, or for food?
Valdosta City Council member
James Wright brings up
an article about farmers growing plants for biomass fuel.
These things get passed around by council members, and I’m pretty sure
this one that came to me indirectly is it:
November 12, 2010 – Incentivizing Renewable Biomass Production,
by New Energy Farms, Leamington, Ontario.
What they’re mainly recommending is
Miscanthus,
which is a genus of clump grass.
After all the citizens left –Valdosta City Council, 20 Jan 2011.
Now call me old-fashioned, but I prefer local farmers growing food Continue reading
LAKE visits Blazer Gardens at VSU
Students growing local food on the roof at VSU?
A local chef cooking it for fresh student meals?
LAKE had to see this, so Bobbi Anne Hancock showed us where
Blazer Gardens will be, on top of the Hugh C. Bailey Science Center.
Greenhouse A will have squash, peppers, and tomatoes, and already has some citrus growing in it; jsq gets a taste:
It all starts with composting. Bobbi and Erin Hurley of SAVE help raise awareness about clean local foods.
Bobbi and Jim Parker discuss how it’s good for you and tastes good, too! Continue reading
The issue of the proposed biomass incinerator is far from over –Dr. Noll
LAKE has reviewed the allegedly “threatening” letter Chairman Paulk
referred to in his interrogation of Dr. Noll,
and we find nothing alarming about a wakeup call,
so we have
posted it on LAKE’s website.
More on that later. -jsq
Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2011 21:05:59 -0500Continue reading
From: noll_family
To: apaulk@lowndescounty.com, jevans@lowndescounty.com, rraines@lowndescounty.com, cpowell@lowndescounty.com CC: noll_family@bellsouth.net, kay.harris@gaflnews.com, “John S. Quarterman” <jsq@quarterman.org>
Subject: Re: Tuesday’s MeetingDear Chairman Paulk and Commissioners.
I again would like to extend my invitation as President of WACE to the upcoming event this Thursday (see attachment).
The issue of the proposed biomass incinerator is far from over and concerned citizens of Lowndes County and Valdosta will use their constitutional rights to (respectfully) speak up at future meetings, as they have done in the past.
Brad Lofton wants you to see this (again and again)
You can
hear him say he hopes I record it.
This is what VLCIA considers “proof”: reciting a list of “authorities”
without addressing the specific criticisms or directly debating critics.
He still hasn’t produced
the citations to scientific literature
he’s been repeatedly asked for regarding health care,
nor has he produced the wood sourcing study.
You can hear Lofton recite much the same laundry list in Continue reading
Where’s the wood to come from and who will buy the electricity?
Here’s video of what I asked at the recent VLCIA biomass event
(6 Dec 2010) and the answers from the panel.
So there’s actually not any new study of wood sourcing (Brad Lofton told me after the meeting that the study had been “completed” after we met in June), and the study that exists is not publicly available. Someone from Sterling promised me after the meeting to redact the private parts of the wood sourcing study and provide the rest for public distribution. We’ll see.
Regarding my question about who will buy the electricity and whether we’ll end up like Plant Scherer, selling electricity to Florida while keeping the pollution here, the answer was: Continue reading
Candidates, Lowndes County Commission, District 2, at LCDP BBQ
Every year the Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP)
has a barbecue to which it invites candidates for public office.
These include local candidates. Here we have the two Democrats
running for Lowndes County Commission in District 2, in alphabetical order:
Debra M. Franklin
and
John S. Quarterman.
Notice the two candidates dining amicably side by side.
Debra M. Franklin: Continue reading
Biomass Town Hall Part 2
This is part 2 about the July 8th
town Hall meeting about the biomass plant proposed for Valdosta.
First let’s hear George Rhynes explain that it’s never too late to reregulate our minds:
Here I’ve selected videos of local County Commission candidates: Continue reading