Tag Archives: John S. 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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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.

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“our local gov’t officials are making decisions about things of which they have little knowledge” –Dr. Matthew Richard

Here is Dr. Richard speaking before the Valdosta City Council. He summarized in a comment on this blog:
as i endeavored to point out at the last city council meeting, our local gov’t officials are making decisions about things of which they have little knowledge. my example: the brain has two types of cells: neurons and glial cells. there are NO white blood cells; thus, the brain has no immune system, relying on the the tiny diameter of the capillaries themselves to keep infectious agents out. this is called the blood-brain barrier. BUT, as dr. sammons pointed out, PARTICULATE MATTER is small enough to make it through the body and into the brain. as dr. bob gannon (dept. head of biology at VSU) told me again the other night, this constitutes a major threat to health in the form of brain cancer.

Video by John S. Quarterman
of the regular meeting of the Valdosta City Council, 20 January 2011
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange

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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.

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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

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!”.


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

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 me
Continue reading

VLCIA biomass website

VLCIA catches up with LAKE in posting videos of 6 Dec 2010 biomass event. But where’s the VLCIA FAQ website?

Update 24 Jan 2011 7:13 PM: Bruce J. Bendl found the FAQ.

In this video, Brad Lofton tells the VLCIA board that staff have put a lot of time and effort into building a website to answer frequently asked questions about biomass, including videos from the 6 Dec 2010 event. When I congratulated Lofton on this and asked the board for an answer to one of those qeustions, I didn’t think to ask for a URL for this new website, figuring it would be announced on the main VLCIA website. If it’s there, I don’t see it. However, VLCIA has sprouted a YouTube channel in which the long-awaited professional videos from the 6 Dec 2010 event have appeared, six weeks after the event.


Video of VLCIA 18 Jan 2010 board meeting
by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange

More on that below. Meanwhile, LAKE’s videos of the entire event have been on YouTube since a few days after the event. Continue reading

VLCIA on expansion of existing industry

Local industry for local jobs: feedback loops? At the 21 Dec 2010 board meeting, Brad Lofton and the VLCIA board talk about exanding local industry, namely PCA and AlphaProTech. Lofton says AlphaProTech will add 50 new jobs. Hm, 50 is more than 25 slated for the biomass plant. And nobody even has to trade AlphaProTech land for them to produce these jobs!

According to their website, AlphaProTech sells:

“protective apparel, infection control and extended care products in addition to a line of construction weatherization building products for the housing market.”
Hm, so if VLCIA promoted refitting local houses it would also be promoting AlphaProTech.

It’s interesting to hear Gary Minchew say regarding one company:

“we just don’t need to be the front man”


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

Interesting that VLCIA is not willing to be the front man for local industry (as we’ve also seen in this response from Col. Ricketts), when VLCIA clearly is the front man for Sterling Energy and Wiregrass Power LLC, neither of which are from around here.

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