Tag Archives: Lowndes County Commission

I feel we are selectively being left out of the process. —Barbara Stratton

Received yesterday on Videos for Lowndes County Commission 13 December 2011. -jsq
These videos are fantastic & I love the sequential playlist. How did you get permission to connect to the county microphones? Thanks to both of you, John & Gretchen, we citizens who can’t make all the numerous meetings have excellent access to view the proceedings. I need info on the new camera please.

I have a question. Since all meetings are open to the public & all information is accessible by open record requests why do the various entities have a habit of not publically answering questions related to money amounts publically? Very often I have noticed all local government entities share a habit of referring money & budget amounts and/or bid questions to the packets each member has in front of them instead of vocalizing them. Since the public attendees do not have access to this information I feel we are selectively being left out of the process. Citizens should not have to process & fund open record requests for information that should be part of the public meeting. Since you have more experience with local entities can you explain this practise?

-Barbara Stratton

Videos for Lowndes County Commission 13 December 2011

Here are videos for the entire Lowndes County Commission Regular Session of Tuesday 13 December 2011. Gretchen took these using a new camera with fast stop-start, high zoom, and taking audio input directly from the county’s own microphones. How do you like it?

See also the previously-posted agenda and the videos of Monday morning’s Work Session.

Here’s the playlist:


Videos for Lowndes County Commission 13 December 2011
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 13 December 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

County’s website: Reapportionment maps

Since we posted the Reapportionment maps obtained Tuesday evening, the county has posted PDF versions of this same information on their own website. Copies are on the LAKE website and appended below. I’ve added HTML tables of the statistics.
VAP is Voting-Age Population.

-jsq

Commission Explansion Update

At the December 13, 2011, meeting of the Lowndes County Board of Continue reading →

Reapportionment maps, Lowndes County, 13 December 2011

Here are the new County Commission District maps that the Commission just agreed on tonight for reapportionment due to the new census and population changes in the county. These are the districts that will be used for next year’s County Commission elections.

These documents were obtained by John S. Quarterman for LAKE from County Manager Joe Pritchard by asking the County Commission during Citizens Wishing to Be Heard at their Regular Session of 13 December 2011.

I made a little list of requests, and the County Manager fulfilled all of them. I’m convinced this demonstrates that Joe Pritchard is indeed typecast as Santa Claus.

-jsq

8.a. Ankle Monitoring System —Joe Pritchard @ LCC 12 December 2011

County Manager Joe Pritchard briefly described agenda item
8.a. Ankle Monitoring System
He said it would permit jail inmates to serve some of their time outside the jail. He mentioned early discussions with Commissioners Joyce Evans and Richard Raines, and said it started related to drug court, but the idea had expanded. He recommended the board approve the County Manager working with the judges to organize the monitoring.

Chairman (and former Sheriff) Ashley Paulk remarked that this could lower the jail population. He seemed to be in favor of it.

Sheriff Chris Prine had some concerns that were hard to hear, but seemed to be related to budget.

Pritchard indicated that everybody realized the program was an experiment, and everyone would work with the Sheriff to avoid any unnecessary impact.

Commissioner Raines also reassured the Sheriff along the same lines.

They vote on it tonight, 5:30 PM.

Here’s the video:


8.a. Ankle Monitoring System –Joe Pritchard @ LCC 12 December 2011
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 12 December 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Commissioners Uncommunicative on Comprehensive Plan @ LCC Work Session, 12 December 2011

The Commission started early, and they were already into agenda item
7.a. REZ-2011-16 South Beach Commercial, US Hwy 41 South R-10 & TLA to C-G, ~1.7 acres
when this video started. Then they moved right into
7.b. Lowndes County – Greater Lowndes 2030 Comprehensive Plan Updates — Resolution to Transmit
As you can see, County Planner Jason Davenport had little to say about that (mostly that this draft isn’t the final version; they’ll revise it some time next year after they hear back from the state), and the Commissioners even less (they said nothing), at Monday morning’s Work Session. Tonight at 5:30 PM they vote on sending these materials to the state. If you want to know what’s in these documents, see Gretchen’s writeups The actual documents are on the LAKE web site. LAKE obtained them from elsewhere after the county refused to honor an open records request. The Chairman told Gretchen yesterday that those versions were “close enough” to what they’re going to vote on tonight.

Here’s the video:


Comprehensive Plan @ LCC Work Session, 12 December 2011
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 12 December 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Videos of LCC Work Session, 12 December 2011, and Regular Session tonight

Videos from Monday morning’s Work Session of the Lowndes County Commission are here. The previously-skipped hearing related to the Comprehensive Plan is on the agenda for tonight’s Regular Session, 5:30 PM at the county palace, 327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor.

These videos of Monday morning’s work session start some way into the agenda, because they started about five minutes early. Here are the videos.


Videos of LCC Work Session, 12 December 2011
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 12 December 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Reapportionment and Comprehensive Plan @ Lowndes County Commission, 12-13 December 2011

The missing hearing related to the Comprehensive Plan is on the agenda for Tuesday’s Lowndes County Commission Regular Session. Also on the agenda is
6. Resolution – Reapportionment
which I’m guessing has to do with changes in population in County Commission districts. Maybe they’ll say at the Work Session Monday morning.

And these interesting items:

8.f. Lowndes County Fire Rescue Standard Operating Procedures .br> 8.g. Animal Welfare Standard Operating Procedures
I wonder if those procedures are available for citizens to see?

Plus a rezoning, a road abandonment, a beer and wine license, and quite a few other items for the last meeting of the year. Given they haven’t met since 7 November 2011, more than a month ago, I guess that’s not surprising.

Here’s the agenda:

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2011, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2011, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

Transparent government is totally what my heart is about. —Gretchen Quarterman

I repeatedly apologized to County Planner Jason Davenport about an earlier misunderstanding about the “public hearing” agenda item, which the Chairman stated was not really a public hearing and for which no citizens were allowed to speak:
7.b. Greater Lowndes 2030 Comprehensive Plan Updates – Lowndes County Report of Accomplishments (ROA) and Short Term Work Program (STWP)
Then I said:
Transparent government is totally what my heart is about. And I think that people trust the government more when we can see the business done in public. And I really appreciate when you do things in public and you ask questions in the work sessions so everybody can hear.
The VDT’s version was:
The lone citizen to be heard, Gretchen Quarterman, thanked commissioners for their observance of open government and apologized to County Planner Jason Davenport for things she said to him prior to the meeting, due to a “misunderstanding,” she said.

After the meeting adjourned, Chairman Ashley Paulk apologized to me in public Continue reading →

SGMC Hospital Bonds go for sale this week

The bonds the Lowndes County Commission is guaranteeing for South Georgia Medical Center (SGMC) are up for public auction this week.

According to the NYTimes yesterday, Treasury Auctions Set for This Week

The following tax-exempt fixed-income issues are scheduled for pricing this week:

…

ONE DAY DURING THE WEEK

…

Hospital Authority of Valdosta and Lowndes County, Ga., $148.5 million of revenue anticipation certificates. Morgan Keegan

-gretchen