Tag Archives: Leigh Touchton

Runaround —Leigh Touchton

Leigh Touchton responded to Valdosta Mayor John Fretti’s response to her previous post. -jsq
Happy Birthday, Mayor Fretti, and thank you for posting publicly.

However, I wish you would stop trying to pass Mayor and Council’s portion of responsibility for the biomass incinerator to the Industrial Authority. I delivered a letter to Mayor and Council Thursday night outlining 10 reasons your Utilities Director can legitimately give when he (hopefully) follows Mayor and Council’s recommendation to refuse to sell gray water to the proposed biomass incinerator. I and many other citizens are tired of the run-around and the shifting of responsibility for this “biomess” from one public official or group to another.

A councilmember told me that Council would never vote

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Touchton v. City of Valdosta, Georgia, et al.

Mayor Fretti mentioned a lawsuit against him and the city of Valdosta that was dismissed. Court records on that are available.

According to Justia.com Dockets & Filings, Catherine Leigh Touchton filed a federal civil rights lawsuit 30 May 2007 against John Fretti and the City of Valdosta Georgia Middle District Court, On 17 April 2009:

Court Opinion or Order ORDER directing judgment for defendants on federal law claims. State law claims are dismissed without prejudice. Ordered by Judge Hugh Lawson on 4/17/2009.
A dozen similar lawsuits were filed the same day by Karen Camion, Faye Chachere, Jesse Clark, Callie Fielden, Reggie Griffin, Kathryn Harris, Willie Head, Joann Mosley, George Rhynes, Willie Roberson, Floyd Rose, and Mary Sherman. All appear to have had the same result.

Access to related documents is available by registering with PACER. They don’t charge until a user runs up a minimum amount of usage.

-jsq

2005 arrests in Valdosta City Council meeting unconstitutional —Georgia Supreme Court

Some of the events the person posting as John J. Fretti described are elaborated on in this newspaper report. -jsq

Kelli Hernandez wrote 1 May 2006 in the VDT, Court rules arrests unconstitutional: Case involves 15 citizens arrested and charged with disrupting a lawful meeting

The case originally surfaced after 15 Valdosta citizens were arrested and charged with violating statute 16-11-34 (a), which provides “a person who recklessly or knowingly commits any act which may reasonably be expected to prevent or disrupt a lawful meeting, gathering or procession is guilty of a misdemeanor.” Charges came after the group allegedly disrupted a Valdosta city council meeting in May 2005. Calle Fielden and Leigh Touchton, two of those arrested, appealed to the courts on the grounds that the statute under which the citizens were charged was unconstitutionally vague and broad.

On April 21, 2005, Rev. Floyd Rose addressed the council

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Self-executing mode —John Fretti

Someone posting as Mayor John Fretti of Valdosta responded in a comment to Leigh Touchton. Mayor Fretti, please point us to where on the web is the video you mention. -jsq
Update 12:13 AM 23 April 2011: Mayor Fretti confirms (through three different channels) that this post was by him:
THat was my post. an attempt to reach out and help explain a few things. the video, as was al evidence in the case was exchanged durig the discovery part of the motion. the video should be with that.
I have asked him whether an open records request would produce the video. Back to the original post. -jsq
With all due respect to Leigh’s version of the arrest – and it is all on video, it happened in the end by way of self – executing mode. After repeated requests for the group to relinquish the podium and rose stating each time that they will not and we “must do what we have to do”. the Mayor asked if there was any objection from Council or city manager or attorney if WE allow Chief Frank Simons to approach the crowd and do what he sees necessary to allow the meeting to continue efficiently and effectively. There was some discussion and then John Fason (Cmdr.) asked if anyone wants to go to jail – to follow him. and they all did – no cuffs, no restraints. Peacefully. That’s it. and all on video for all to see. With respect to the charges filed, they were old STATE charges and were ruled out as overbroad and (something else). That was fine. There was an appeal by the solicitor General and again the old STATE laws were ruled overbroad and (something else). as they should have been. We have our own local laws and ordinances now that have been tested strong in court.

and now here it the Paul Harvey moment…

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Equal opportunity criticizer —John S. Quarterman

Leigh Touchton remarked:
…apparently Yost thinks your criticism of people not staying is something he can use to good effect to nullify the need to publicly address citizen complaints.
Well, good luck to him: it doesn’t seem to be working that way.

I think I’m an equal opportunity criticizer. Remember I pointed out that the council is not a law enforcement body and gave a recent example of that. And I pointed out that the mayor of little old Gretna put out a proclamation saying no biomass and the great city of Valdosta could go ahead and do that instead of waiting for somebody else to make the decision for them. And yes, I criticized the protesters for not staying. I’m not surprised various people choose to ignore part of what I said and pick up on other parts; life’s like that.

I understand that some people don’t like to take a strong position in public. Clearly not everybody has to be an advocate for or against any given topic.

However, my opinion is that anybody who runs for elected office should be willing to say in public what their opinion is. Sure, sometimes it’s good to say “I’m thinking about it” or “I’m studying it” or even better “I’d like to know more about X”: that could promote a dialog. Even “I’m working on it behind the scenes” would be a useful public statement. But elected officials refusing to take any position is ridiculous, and I see nothing wrong with laughing out loud at the ridiculous.

-jsq

Public criticism —Leigh Touchton

Leigh Touchton posted a comment with a report from last night’s Valdosta City Council meeting:
I won’t stay to the end in the future because if they are going to make public attacks on citizens and then go into Executive session so they don’t have to hear a rebuttal, then I don’t care to listen to their bombast. Yost apparently thinks your public criticism of the activists not staying (and also the Tea Party left right after one of their members read from the Bible about how laws and regulation are a sin–I had difficulty keeping from laughing out loud—we’re in a recession because laws and regulation were thrown away and banks made a video called Banks Gone Wild…but I digress)…apparently Yost thinks your criticism of people not staying is something he can use to good effect to nullify the need to publicly address citizen complaints. Here’s his position, distilled:
“You won’t stay to the end, I’m offended. You called our important work boring, I’m offended. (much redness of face, some veins popping out) You come in here and talk to us like that then I’m not going to address your complaints, I’m offended.”
Well I’m offended that a grown man elected to represent Valdosta acts like that.

Let me go back and educate the gentle readers out there who haven’t

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Local NAACP votes to oppose private prison in Lowndes County

Leigh Touchton commented yesterday about a meeting Tuesday 19 April. She is president of the Valdosta-Lowndes NAACP. -jsq
Valdosta NAACP branch voted last night to oppose the private prison approved by VLCIA. We don’t need more prisons, and they do not improve economic standards in any community in which they have been located. There is a safety burden upon the community, there are human rights abuses, and the focus should be on saving the state money by rehabilitation of non-violent offenders rather than mass incarceration. When America has 5% of the world’s population but incarcerates 25% of the world’s prisoners, this is unacceptable. In North Carolina, private prisons have put local furniture manufacturers out of business because they cannot compete with the prison’s slave labor. These are not sustainable and it’s no mystery why most of the large Christian denominations in America oppose them.

-Leigh Touchton

Here’s Brad Lofton’s explanation of the private prison. Here are statements on private prisons by three Christian denominations. And the state of Israel has outlawed private prisons. More information about CCA and private prisons here.

-jsq

When politicians vote for the interests of rich Atlanta investors —Leigh Touchton

Leigh Touchton posted this yesterday as a comment on Dr. Mark George’s remarks to Valdosta City Council and Sonny Vickers’ response. -jsq
It’s really unfortunate when City Councilmen like Vickers and Wright don’t care that:
  1. The black infant mortality rate in Valdosta is twice as high for black babies as for white babies
  2. The asthma rate nationally for African-Americans is 3 times higher than for white Americans
  3. The death to asthma rate nationally for African-Americans is 5 times higher than for white Americans.
  4. 75% of the biomass incinerators in Georgia have been proposed for black communities, and the rest for poor white communities.
When politicians vote for the interests of rich Atlanta investors
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VDT says VLCIA illegally made up a document

Today’s editorial in the VDT is Another Industrial Authority misstep refers to the VDT article and editorial of Sunday, and continues:
The reporter who conducted the interview with Industrial Authority Project Manager Allen Ricketts has been subsequently repeatedly contacted by Ricketts for what he deems “false reporting.” According to Ricketts, the timeline was never official and was only something the Industrial Authority threw together to appease the Times when given an official Open Records Request. Ricketts is apparently unaware that legally he cannot produce a document that does not exist to comply with said request. If he knowingly did so, as he now claims, that is a clear violation of the Open Records Act.
Presumably that would be the “Project Critical Path time-line is attached” that wasn’t actually attached to documents returned for an open records request of 17 February 2011. Hm, since VLCIA did supply such a document to the VDT, presumably it is now a VLCIA document subject to open records request, even though it was not what VLCIA told VDT it was.

Back to the VDT editorial: Continue reading →

Environmental Justice –Leigh Touchton @ VLCIA 15 March 2011

Chairman Jerry Jennett asked for Citizens Wishing to be Heard, and first up was Leigh Touchton, President of Valdosta-Lowndes NAACP, who presented them a letter from Dr. Robert D. Bullard, about his findings that 80% of the residents within one mile of the proposed Wiregrass Power Plant are black and 75% of biomass facilities in Georgia are sited in minority/poor communities.
“This is what is called environmental racism.”
She also said she was tired of people who are against biomass being represented as a fanatical fringe crew, primarily by Mr. Lofton, considering she stood before them representing the local NAACP, the Georgia state conference of the NAACP, “the largest organization non-profit of voters in the state of Georgia”, and the national NAACP.


Leigh Touchton, President, Valdosta-Lowndes NAACP
regular monthly meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA)
Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Tom Call, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,
J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Brad Lofton Executive Director, Allan Ricketts Program Manager,
15 March 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Perhaps I missd it because I was a few minutes late, but this was the only mention of the Wiregrass Power LLC biomass plant that I heard at this VLCIA board meeting.

-jsq