Tag Archives: Law

Land is not just money: appeal tax valuations today




Appeal today
if you think there’s more to land (or business)
and woods and fields and streams than money,
unlike the Tax Assessors, whose revaluation would drive development
into agricultural areas of the county where it doesn’t belong,
while avoiding populated areas such as the south side of Valdosta.
We can expect pipeline companies and utilities from other states
to think nothing of pillaging our lands for their profit.
We shouldn’t expect that of our neighbors whom we elected Tax Asssessors.
If you have affection for your land, your county, your neighborhood,
today’s the deadline

to appeal your valuation
.
And there will be an election later.

As Wendell Berry said,



Whatever has happened in what economists call “the
economy,” it is generally true that the land economy has been
discounted or ignored.

Are the Tax Assessors boomers?
Are you a sticker?
Wendell Berry explains: Continue reading

Unknown ordinance, numerous emergencies, small rezoning, and alcohol @ LCC 2015-08-10



How can we “Know the Laws” as the county’s
front page says,
if a county ordinance being revised isn’t there and isn’t
distributed when the county is about to vote on it Tuesday evening
after the Work Session this morning at 8:30 AM?

For the
Nuisance Abatement Ordinance the
packet agenda sheet says only: Continue reading

Nydia Tisdale wins First Amendment Award for her Citizen Journalism, Fighting for the Right to Record

Update 2015-08-07: corrections by Nydia, including a timeline.

Only a bit more than three years since



the pictured incident
,
Nydia Tisdale gets some of the recognition she deserves.


Georgia Woman Wins First Amendment Award for her Citizen Journalism, Fighting for the Right to Record
,

Georgia citizen journalist Nydia Tisdale is in the news again but this time, the story doesn’t involve her getting thrown out of a public meeting or arrested in a pumpkin patch.

Tisdale is being honored by Georgia’s First Amendment Foundation for her work in making public meetings available to the citizens of her community and for her dedication to keeping government open for everyone’s participation.

After

getting thrown out of the Cumming City Council for videoing in April 2012
,
Nydia got Continue reading

Hayden Barnes wins $900,000 settlement for being expelled from VSU for free speech

Update 2015-07-24: Hayden adds detail in comments on this article: Andy Thomas, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 23 July 2015, Valdosta State U. Will Pay $900,000 to Settle Student’s Free-Speech Lawsuit.

Finally!
Expelled for protesting a parking garage,


after VSU then-president Zaccari claimed a facebook collage was “threatening”.
If the powers that be around here want to be a metropolitan area,
maybe VSU should act like an institution of higher learning.
Then it wouldn’t have to pay settlements like this.

Katie Barrows, FIRE, 23 July 2015,

Eight Years After Student’s Unjust Expulsion from Valdosta State U., $900K Settlement Ends ‘Barnes v. Zaccari’
Continue reading

Videos: Airport, appointments, well and septic, road naming, and evidence @ LCC 2015-07-14



Tuesday’s surprise report

was on airport funding
,
followed by an unscheduled vote for funding.

They also

reappointed Dr. Martha Giddens to the Lowndes County Division of Family and Children Services Board
, approved two

well
and

septic
rezonings,
passed
Lowndes County Road Naming Resolution and Procedure that they haven’t published even though
it’s because a Commissioner said citizens requested it,
and the latest in the long-running

Juvenile Justice Court diversionary program grant contract
.

See also Continue reading

Videos: Transportation, appointments, well and septic, road naming, and evidence @ LCC 2015-07-13



A

surprise report on public transportation trucking by VLMPO Corey Hull

yesterday morning at 8:30 AM.
They vote today at 5:30 PM
on this agenda
for

reappointing Dr. Martha Giddens to the Lowndes County Division of Family and Children Services Board
, two

well
and

septic
rezonings,
Lowndes County Road Naming Resolution and Procedure that they haven’t published even though
it’s because a Commissioner said citizens requested it,
and the latest in the long-running

Juvenile Justice Court diversionary program grant contract
. Continue reading

Appointments, well and septic rezonings, road naming, and evidence @ LCC 2015-07-13

This morning at 8:30 AM, with voting Tuesday at 5:30 PM,
on this agenda,
for

reappointing Dr. Martha Giddens to the Lowndes County Division of Family and Children Services Board
, two

well
and

septic
rezonings,
Lowndes County Road Naming Resolution and Procedure that they haven’t published even though
it’s because a Commissioner said citizens requested it,
and the latest in the long-running

Juvenile Justice Court diversionary program grant contract
.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JULY 13, 2015 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JULY 14, 2015 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading

Videos: Four board appointments, plus Justice, Water, and Alcohol @ LCC 2015-06-23



$16,915

to upgrade a water main to subsidize a developer
,
but no approval of

$15,957 to study public transportation and truck routing
.

Speaking of subsidizing private developers,
there’s yet more fallout from the failed 2007 mega-mall-and-subdivision Market Street project; see separate post.

And the Chairman

gave an excellent demonstration
of why elected officials would benefit
by interacting and even debating with citizens, instead of
jumping to conclusions and preaching at them.

Here’s the agenda,
and the
LAKE videos of

the previous morning’s Work Session

and
the budget hearing immediately before the Regular Session
.
Below are the Regular Session LAKE videos with a few comments,
followed by a video playlist. Continue reading

Videos: Four board appointments, plus Justice, Water, and Alcohol @ LCC 2015-06-22



The Chairman said the Finance Director would make a presentation
about the

Adoption of the Fiscal Year 2016 Budget

Tuesday before they voted; he said nothing about that presentation
being the second Public Budget Hearing.
See LAKE videos of the first Budget Hearing
and of
the second budget hearing.

The

Commercial Driveway for Raceway on James Road
.
is yet more fallout from the failed 2007 mega-mall-and-subdivision Market Street project; see separate post.
Also five pre-bidders but only one bid, this one from Scruggs Co., for

Widening of a Portion of Old US 41 N
.

Why is the county paying the cost to

Upgrade Water Main at Lake Alapaha Subdivision

from 2 inches to 6 inches?
At least we found out where and why for the

Engineering and Surveying Services for Water and Sewer
.

Here’s the agenda.
Below are the LAKE videos of the Work Session with a few comments,
followed by a video playlist. Continue reading

Want to help stop racism? End the failed war on drugs!

If we’re tired of arguing over pieces of cloth, how about we do


something about one of the main tools of racist oppression in the
U.S.? Legalize drugs, thus stopping paying for 75% of the U.S.
prison population, which is far more black than white, and is often
rented out for literally pennies.
Remember, slavery is not illegal
in the U.S., as long as it is punishment for some crime. Second clause, 13th Amendment:

except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted

More black men are in jail, prison, probation, or parole now
than were enslaved in 1850, as Michelle Alexander has noted.
Anyone who says Continue reading