Remember, much of the discussion already happened the previous morning in the work session.
Continue readingLOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, MAY 23, 2011, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, MAY 24, 2011, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
He’s back from Afghanistan and has a new plan to fight McDonald’s.
Vince Schneider asked the County Commission for an ordinance about hours.
After quoting from the U.S. Tenth and Fourth Amendments and talking about privacy rights, he read similar passages from the Georgia Constitution, and this one, from Section II. Origin and Structure of Government:
All government, of right, originates with the people, is founded upon their will only, and is instituted solely for the good of the whole. Public officers are the trustees and servants of the people and are at all times amenable to them.He then read a definition of ordinance, and noted that many ordinances deal with issues of safety, health, morals, etc.
His recommendation: for the Commission to pass an ordinance limiting hours of operation for such type of enterprises.
That’s the county attorney visible directly past Schneider (under the microphone). Of course it’s the commissioners who must propose and pass any ordinance. That will require Continue reading
Presumably the issues reported by David Rodock in the 15 May 2011 Valdosta Daily Times Animal shelter probed Use of drugs investigated; employees speak out and by Gabrielle Sarann for WCTV on 19 May 2011 Lowndes County Animal Shelter Probed: The Georgia Department of Agriculture is keeping an eye on an area animal shelter and has cited it for several violationsIssues that I think you’ve heard about… animal shelter.
“I’ve seen a lot of the animals come in the shelter and not got vet care and sometimes that comes in the form of euthanasia,” says Susan Leavens, an animal control officer for Lowndes County.This led several Lowndes County Animal Shelter employees to file a complaint with the Georgia Department of Agriculture.
It launched an investigation citing the facility for not providing humane care.
Joe Pritchard continued in his report:
August of 2010 the Department of Agriculture called me and asked for a meeting about issues of concern. They expressed those issues centered around maintenance of records … what was classified as humane treatment.
Mr. Pritchard referred to “specific castration of a pot-bellied pig”.
He didn’t say whether he considered that inhumane treatment;
he merely discussed it after referring to things “classified as humane treatment”.
He continued: Continue reading
If you have concerns about anything that happened, or anything else related to the county government, there’s a regular meeting Tuesday evening.
Videos are interspersed among the agenda items:
Continue reading
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, MAY 23, 2011, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, MAY 24, 2011, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Usually silent VLCIA board member Tom Call got a board meeting agenda
item:
Mr. Jerry and I met on May the second to review the… I was kind of educating myself as to the current operating budget and how it applies… goes into forming next year’s budget…. There’s just a few differences from the 2011 budget to the proposed 2012 budget.He listed a couple of items:
Here’s the video:
Diff Operating Budget —Tom Call @ VLCIA 17 May 2011
Regular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Tom Call, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,
J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Acting Executive Director,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 17 May 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Clearly audible outside are people honking at the biomass protesters.
OMG! VLCIA has finally put Continue reading
Col. Ricketts reported he was on a panel at the
2011 Economic Summit which was sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce,
and that he got a copy of a report by the
VSU Center for Business and Economic Research
about how the local area compares with others.
Mary Gooding said Col. Ricketts represented VLCIA very well.
If VLCIA knew how to do PR, this would have been a great PR opportunity for them to publicize.
Meanwhile, WALB and VDT reported on the event itself.
Here’s the video:
2011 Economic Summit @ VLCIA 17 May 2011
Regular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Tom Call, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,
J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Acting Executive Director,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 17 May 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
-jsq
Col. Ricketts reported that VLCIA participated in panel discussions
at the
2011 Georgia Logistics Summit.
He mentioned among topics of interest:
agribusiness, technology and life sciences.
He said they also got a chance to look at expansion in Savannah.
Here’s the video:
2011 Georgia Logistics Summit @ VLCIA 17 May 2011
Regular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Tom Call, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,
J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Acting Executive Director,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 17 May 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
This would have been a great PR opportunity for VLCIA, if VLCIA knew how to do PR.
-jsq
PS: No, he didn’t really talk that fast; that’s an artifact of the video editing to separate out this item. That’s why we usually just record in short clips that require no editing.
Here’s what I said to the VLCIA board on 17 May 2011.
Notes are appended after
the video:
Expand the array, publish the minutes, private prison is a bad idea —John S. Quarterman @ VLCIA 17 May 2011
Regular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Tom Call, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,
J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Acting Executive Director,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 17 May 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Congratulations on the
Wiregrass Solar commissioning.
Since this was not ever the largest array in Georgia let’s encourage
Mayor Fretti and Commissioner Powell
to help VLCIA
expand the local array.
Referring to Mary Gooding’s comments about people who wanted to see minutes probably going to be frustrated, I pointed out that Continue reading
VLCIA is still indecisive about minutes online,
but is at least talking about it.
Support for publishing minutes came from a surprising source.
Col. Ricketts said he had been asked by Roy Copeland to look at putting the minutes online and had talked to local authorities (Parks & Recs, Hospital, Prison, Airport) and other economic development authorities around Georgia (Macon, Albany, Tifton, Columbus, Savannah, and Augusta) and found none of them publish minutes online. He said their concern was prospective project details.
Col. Ricketts said Chairman Jerry Jennett asked him to talk to former Executive Director Ken Garren. Ricketts said Garren said that even though Continue reading
Chairman Jerry Jennett reported that VLCIA was generally operating
at a slower pace due to the economy.
Roy Copeland asked for the board to come back to the operating budget
later in the meeting when they could ask their CPA a few questions.
He was out of town, so they agreed to try to get him on the telephone later.
Here’s Part 1 of 2: Continue reading