The bipartisan distributed rooftop solar financing bill,
HB 874, the Solar Power Free-Market Financing and Property Rights Act of 2014,
is on the agenda for Monday for the
House Energy, Utilities & Telecommunications Committee,
according to Claudia Musleve Collier.
The Committee member from closest to here is
Carol Fullerton (D 153) Albany.
Here are
the rest of the committee members.
Call ’em up!
-jsq
I thanked the County Manager but mentioned something else
the county could do about that pipeline,
at the
25 February 2014 Lowndes County Commission Regular Session.
I thanked County Manager Joe Pritchard
for
notifying constituents
like
FERC had recommended
about the
FERC Scoping Meetings starting next week.
Then I read the
recommendation of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)
after Spectra Energy’s
1994 Durham Woods pipeline fireball
in Edison, New Jersey that burnt dozens, evacuated thousands, made
hundreds homeless, and literally scared one woman to death:
The public will not benefit from the safety improvement
recommendations developed in RSPA’s public safety risk study without
guidance containing implementation procedures and without motivation
from associations representing local governments.
I suggested Lowndes County Commissioners might want to talk to
the
Association of County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG)
about that.
Here’s
the video:
A local native and VSU student voiced her objection to the
proposed Sabal Trail pipeline
in the
25 February 2014 Lowndes County Commission Regular Session.
8. Citizens Wishing To Be Heard – Danielle Jordan
And she handed the Commission a pipeline reader.
The
VDT summarized:
During the citizens to be heard portion of the meeting, Danielle
Jordan voiced her opposition to the Sabal Trail Transmission
pipeline because “it violates personal property rights, causes
safety concerns, and causes troublesome environmental
impacts.” She then presented the commission with a packet of
research.
Here’s
the video:
County Manager Joe Pritchard told everyone about the FERC Notice of Intent
and Scoping Meetings
starting next week
(Albany Monday 3 March, Valdosta Holiday Inn on West Hill Ave.
Tuesday 4 March, Moultrie 5 March, all at 6PM).
at the
25 February 2014 Lowndes County Commission Regular Session.
7. Reports-County Manager
He said materials were on the county’s website,
and they are:
Make pipeline companies answer questions, motivate implementation of safety standards, announce FERC Scoping meetings, and enforce reasonable local zoning restrictions:
these are things local governments can do, and NTSB and FERC say they should do
most of them.
Gilchrist County Commission in Trenton, Florida has done most of them,
and plans to continue doing more.
The Lowndes County Commission and the Valdosta City Council still can, too,
plus all the other county and city governments along the proposed pipeline path,
and their statewide county and city government associations.
Will our local elected officials represent we the people?
There were
Real questions at the Gilchrist County Commission meeting in Trenton, Florida Monday.
Two hours of first questions from a citizens committee with
Spectra’s reps expected to answer right there in front of everybody,
then questions from locals and people from many counties around,
including attorneys representing landowners and other county
commissions cross-examining Spectra on the spot. The Chairman of the
Gilchrist County Commission said there was a general opinion among
the populace that they were asking specific questions and getting
only general answers. Congratulations, Chairman, Commission, staff,
Committee, and everyone who asked questions for showing the world
how it’s done, and for exposing Spectra’s evasions to public
scrutiny.
This is in sharp contrast to Continue reading
VDT editorial yesterday,
Violating public trust,
Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens successfully fought for and
implemented changes to the state’s Open Records law, believing that
transparency in government is essential to the public trust. The law
passed in 2012 states, “The General Assembly finds and
declares that the strong public policy of this state is in favor of
open government; that open government is essential to a free, open,
and democratic society; and that public access to public records
should be encouraged to foster confidence in government and so that
the public can evaluate the expenditure of public funds and the
efficient and proper functioning of its institutions.”
The VDT asked for records from the Lowndes County school system
and didn’t get them.
Their experience sounds quite similar to many LAKE has had
with the county government in particular,
with records not being provided in the statutory three days,
and sometimes not even an excuse or a list of what might
eventually be available.
That plus
failure to make even agendas for the Planning Commission available
in a timely fashion so citizens can see whether they need to attend
(somebody explain to me
the expense of agendas; clearly I don’t understand this
Internet suff),
and even in response to open records requests returning paper
when the documents are obviously composed in electronic formats,
agendas for County Commission meetings that are
just plain incorrect, resulting in people taking time off from work
to show up unnecessarily for a Sabal Trail pipeline item that didn’t happen,
a
public hearing that wasn’t listed as such on the agenda,
a secretive retreat “work session”,
and not
even being clear about what tax dollars for SPLOST would go for.
That’s not even all; just a sample of county government lack of
transparency.
And it’s not just the County Commission.
Look at Continue reading
Fourteen (14) minutes.
The most time was spent on the
Wheeler rezoning,
on yet another
Dollar General,
Elections Supervisor Deb Cox personally made her
Board of Elections personnel request,
which is to change five part-time positions for one full-time,
and several Commissioners asked questions about the
Human Resources service contract,
which might result in educational requirements for positions,
and is supposed to survey everybody paid by the county:
but does that include employees of boards with their own millage,
namely the Industrial Authority and Parks and Rec?
They vote tomorrow, Tuesday 11 Feb 2014 at 5:30 PM.
Here’s
the agenda.
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2014, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
As usual, the citizens of Lowndes County are the last to know.
Alan Mauldin wrote for The Moultrie Observer 8 February 2014,
County commission meetings to focus on Sabal Trail pipeline,
County Attorney Lester Castellow, who reently met with his counterparts from Brooks, Doughterty and Lowndes counties, is scheduled to address commissioners about the project during a Monday afternoon commission work session.
That would be
the
alleged
Lowndes County
attorney Walter G. Elliott.
Meanwhile, Colquitt County attorney Castellow is on the agenda
for today’s noon Work Session in Moultrie, and again at 7PM
Tuesday in the Colquitt County Commission Regular Session,
with Sabal Trail pipeline reps in attendance.
More
here.
Which is something the Lowndes County Commission has never done.
Sure, the Lowndes County Commissioners asked four questions and forwarded citizen questions in writing, which got
cut-and-paste PR answers from Spectra.
From one of the same Spectra reps who was “not familiar” with
Spectra’s sorry rap sheet of corrosion, leaks, and fines.
-jsq
Three water wells
(
Wheeler,
Brown,
and
Dollar General),
a
Board of Elections personnel request,
and a
Human Resources service contract,
plus whatever the Chairman interjects off the agenda
and whoever the County Manager has give reports.
Here’s
the agenda.
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2014, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
This should have been obvious already from
the Open Government Act of 2007,
among other laws, but now a court has reaffirmed it.
Dan Levine wrote for Reuters 17 January 2014,
Blogger gets same speech protections as traditional press: U.S. court,
A blogger is entitled to the same free speech protections as a
traditional journalist and cannot be liable for defamation unless
she acted negligently, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday.Crystal Cox lost a defamation trial in 2011 over a blog post she
wrote accusing a bankruptcy trustee and Obsidian Finance Group of
tax fraud. A lower court judge had found that Obsidian did not have
to prove that Cox acted negligently because Cox failed to submit
evidence of her status as a journalist.But in the ruling, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San
Francisco said Cox deserved a new trial, regardless of the fact that
she is not a traditional reporter.
“As the Supreme Court has accurately warned, a First Amendment
distinction between the institutional press and other speakers is
unworkable,” 9th Circuit Judge Andrew Hurwitz wrote for a unanimous
three-judge panel.
Here’s the actual ruling:
Obsidian Finance Group, LLC; Kevin D. Padrick v. Crystal Cox,
United States Cour tof Appeals for the Ninth Circuit,
17 January 2014, Continue reading
