Tag Archives: Gretchen Quarterman

“The road of respect goes both ways” –Matt Flumerfelt

Matt Flumerfelt compliments the commission on the good reception he’s gotten previously and objects to the item in the new rules about the commission being able to close subjects. He notes there is always resort to the law, but he hopes things won’t come to that. He concludes:
“The road of respect goes both ways.”


Video by Gretchen Quarterman
of the regular meeting of the Lowndes County Commission, 25 Jan 2011
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

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“I’m here every morning” –Ashley Paulk

You could hear this after Matt Flumerfelt spoke in the previous post, but let’s pull it out separately here. This is Ashley Paulk recommending that people come in and talk to their commissioners, and he says:
“I’m here every morning.”


Video by John S. Quarterman
of the regular meeting of the Lowndes County Commission, 25 Jan 2011
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

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“The road of respect goes both ways” –Matt Flumerfelt

Matt Flumerfelt compliments the commission on the good reception he’s gotten previously and objects to the item in the new rules about the commission being able to close subjects. He notes there is always resort to the law, but he hopes things won’t come to that. He concludes:
“The road of respect goes both ways.”


Video by Gretchen Quarterman
of the regular meeting of the Lowndes County Commission, 25 Jan 2011
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Dialog and something new –Gretchen Quarterman

Gretchen Quarterman applauds Chairman Paulk for increasing the transparency of the government in the last few years, then says:
I’m concerned that a barrier to dialog is getting higher, rather than lower. When the citizens make the effort to come to a meeting after a long day of work, or maybe they come in the morning when they don’t actually get to talk, it’s important for them to get a chance to be heard.
She describes how the Zoning Board of Appeals (on which she is a county appointee) does it:
When you’re done saying stuff new, then everybody else that has something to say, they just raise their hand.
And her main point:
I’d like to sort of suggest that hou have some dialog about this resolution that you just made. Maybe it could be modified so that people could continue to come, rather than three people could come.


Video by John S. Quarterman
of the regular meeting of the Lowndes County Commission, 25 Jan 2011
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

“Georgia’s EPA standards are a lot lower than other standards”

I didn’t get this questioner’s name. He wanted to know:
Georgia’s EPA standards are a lot lower than other standards and lower than federal EPA standards that are coming along. My question is what will the plant do when these new standards come along?
A: Don’t know what you got; probably didn’t include studies. GA EPD issues a permit.
No answer about when new standards come along.


Video by Gretchen Quarterman of 6 Dec 2011 VLCIA biomass event
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange

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Environmental Justice Community? –Phyllis Stallworth, First VP, NAACP

She asks about preschools, apartment complexes, etc.
I am for green energy, but I am against infant mortality. To VLCIA, City Councillors, County Commissioners, try planning with the community in mind.
A: It’s in an already-industrial area.


Video by Gretchen Quarterman of the 6 Dec 2011 VLCIA biomass event
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

See also Phyllis Stallworth’s previous letter. See also VLCIA executive director Brad Lofton on “some opposition has crept up”.

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Content-neutral procedures good, economic obsolesence bad –Leigh Touchton

First citizen to speak after adoption of the new rules was Leigh Touchton, President of the local NAACP. She noted NAACP promotes equality for all and Dr. Noll is a member of NAACP (see Paulk interrogates Noll for context). She thanked the board for adopting content-neutral procedures, but said she has asked NAACP for legal review of them. Then she discussed economic obsolescence, as in when a nuisance moves into a community, property values go down.


Video by Gretchen Quarterman
of the regular meeting of the Lowndes County Commission, 25 Jan 2011
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

New Policies and Procedures: Citizens Wishing to be Heard

The Lowndes County Commission Tuesday voted in and Chairman Paulk announced new Policies and Procedures for Citizens Wishing to Be Heard


Videos by Gretchen Quarterman
of the regular meeting of the Lowndes County Commission, 25 Jan 2011
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Interestingly, since the Commission rushed through these new rules after the last meeting, there was no time to completely implement them, so the first thing the Chairman did was to set them aside for this meeting.

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Meeting video “increasingly popular” –AJC

Patrick Fox writes in the AJC, 18 Jan 2011, Meeting access video grows among city councils:
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.

While 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.

Continue reading

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