Tag Archives: Lowndes County

Legal definition of animal cruelty in Georgia —Susan Leavens

Received 27 July on Shouldn’t the people running the facilities … be held accountable? -jsq
I guess this answered my question,

What is the legal definition of animal cruelty in Georgia?

-Susan Leavens

She quoted the whole thing, which is quite long. I found this passage particularly interesting. -jsq
Local law enforcement (municipal or county police department or county sheriff’s department) enforces the criminal provisions of Cruelty to Animals, O.C.G.A. §16-12-4.

The next comment contained the clarification below. -jsq Continue reading

In accordance with the law —Susan Leavens

Received today on When officials act like they are hiding something, they usually are. -jsq
“You won’t receive an open-records request if you answer questions honestly and in accordance with the law.” What an honest statement; perhaps some of this too.
GEORGIA CONSTITUTION
ARTICLE IX. COUNTIES AND MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS
SECTION II. HOME RULE FOR COUNTIES AND MUNICIPALITIES
(c) The power granted to counties in subparagraphs (a) and (b) above shall not be construed to extend to the following matters or any other matters which the General Assembly by general law has preempted or may hereafter preempt, but such matters shall be the subject of general law or the subject of local acts of the General Assembly to the extent that the enactment of such local acts is otherwise permitted under this Constitution:

(1) Action affecting any elective county office, the salaries thereof, or the personnel thereof, except the personnel subject to the jurisdiction of the county governing authority.

(2) Action affecting the composition, form, procedure for election or appointment, compensation, and expenses and allowances in the nature of compensation of the county governing authority.

(3) Action defining any criminal offense or providing for criminal punishment.

Subjects such as CUEE don’t seem to elicit the same due diligence —Barbara Stratton

Received today on When officials act like they are hiding something, they usually are. -jsq
I commend the VDT for its persistence in pursuing requests for information on many subjects. However, as John mentioned some subjects such as CUEE don’t seem to elicit the same due diligence in pursuing true facts. The VDT continues to support CUEE agendas even though it has been well established that the CUEE committee did not follow true priority of law when it ignored the 1983 GA constitutional law requiring all involved systems in a consolidation action be allowed to vote. CUEE still persists in following a 1926 statute that says only city voters are allowed to vote & the VDT continues to support their efforts. It seems to me a failure to acurately report all facts exists for both the CUEE committee members & the VDT staff.

Since a costly voter referendum action has been activated & supported by both entities in spite of & in the face of priority of law objections it is my opinion a crime or crimes have been perpetuated upon the citizens of Lowndes Co. & a Grand Jury investigation should be convened to address these criminal actions.

-Barbara Stratton

Okra and Workforce Development @ VLCIA 19 July 2011

People keep mentioning the okra gift, and George Rhynes was kind enough to video it for his blog, K.V.C.I., so here it is.
  1. I suggested to VLCIA as I earlier did to the Lowndes County Commission that they hang up a clock so people can see how much more time they have to speak. You can see Crawford Powell lurking in the doorway. Joyce Evans was also in the hallway at this VLCIA meeting. That’s 2 out of 3 voting Lowndes County Commissioners. Maybe VLCIA will get organized enough to find chairs for them next time.
  2. I pointed out Project Excel is the private prison CCA wants to build in Lowndes County, and I still owe VLCIA a letter about why I think that’s a bad idea.
  3. Finally, I gave new executive director Andrew Schruijer a present. Crawford Powell suggested it was potatoes. Nope, this time it’s okra! Picked it myself that morning.
Here’s the video: Continue reading

There is no question how the Law reads —Susan Leavens

Received Monday as a response to Euthanization Violations at the Lowndes County Animal Shelter. -jsq
There is no question how the Law reads; the only question is who indicated there no wrong doing? And they were questioning my character? I question those people who indicated I had a bios opinion to read the laws of Georgia. I am aware you can mirror laws and even add to them in county ordinances but you cannot take away from the law in anyway.

From the United States Department of Agriculture Web Site on Euthanasia

http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?navid=AZ_INDEX

Under Guidelines for Euthanasia

When performing euthanasia in a shelter

Continue reading

Five Points Steering Committee presentation by Mara Register @ LCDP 1 August 2011

Mara Register gave a very interesting presentation about the Five Points Steering Committee (FPSC) last night at the monthly meeting of the Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP).

She sent her slides to me this morning for publication by LAKE. Here they are on the LAKE web pages, in PPT, PDF, and HTML formats.

She said there is no FPSC web page, but their meetings are shown in the calendar of events on Valdosta’s city website. The next FPSC meeting shown there is for 18 August 2011.

Date: 8/18/2011 5:00 PM
Location:Valdosta City Hall Multi-Purpose Room
300 N. Lee Street
Videos of her talk will appear on the LCDP youtube channel.

I will probably post some more here about what she said and some of the Q&A that ensued. Meanwhile, you can see the slides for yourself.

-jsq

Real discussion for real education: Shanghai

Here’s how they do it in the best education system in the world:
Shanghai’s education system is distinctive and superior—and not just globally, but also nationally. Hong Kong, Beijing, and ten Chinese provinces participated in the 2009 PISA, but their results reflected education systems that were still the same-old knowledge acquisition models, whereas Shanghai had progressed to equipping students with the ability to interpret and extrapolate information from text and apply it to real world situations—what we would normally refer to as ‘creativity.’ Twenty-six percent of Shanghai 15 year-olds could demonstrate advanced problem-solving skills, whereas the OECD average is 3 percent.
I do mean that literally, the best in the world:
Every three years, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) administers its worldwide Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) to measure how well a nation’s education system has been preparing its students for the global knowledge economy. Nations such as South Korea, Finland, and Singapore have traditionally topped the rankings, but, apparently, even they are no match for Shanghai, which shoved the others into lower positions in its very first year of participation in the programme, in 2009.
That’s according to Jiang Xueqin writing in the Diplomat 1 August 2011, How Shanghai Schools Beat Them All.

So, how did they do it? Continue reading

“Debate is not allowed.” Well, why not?

The real problem with education around here is the adults who refuse to hold a civil discussion.

I hear this all the time around here:

“We’re not going to get into debate.”
“We will not, however, debate you over e-mail.”
“There’s been enough debate.”
“one more public meeting with 15 minutes of pros and cons and then hopefully that will be the end of discussion.”
“I’m not going to debate you about that.”
“Debate is not allowed.”
Well, why not? When did “debate” become a dirty word? What if we call it a civil discussion, will that make it sound better? Nobody seems to know how to do that, either.

And that, my friends, is the real failure of the local education system.

Next: how they do it in the best education system in the world.

-jsq

Euthanization Violations at the Lowndes County Animal Shelter —Judy Haverkamp @ LCC 26 July 2011

Lots of “don’t know the results of that” for drug testing, administrative review board, etc. Why don’t we know the results of those things?

Judy Haverkamp talked about what she’d discovered through open records requests.

“It seems like there’s been the same violations still occuring at the shelter even up to this year, and it doesn’t seem like anyone is trying to make an effort to correct these problems!”
She repeatedly cited Georgia code sections that had been violated.

This pretty much sums it up:

“Why would you not do the proper thing to make this process as painless as possible?”
Indeed, why not?

-jsq

Here’s the video: Continue reading

Lunch and Learn —Joe Pritchard @ LCC 26 July 2011

New program for the public to learn about Lowndes County government.

In his County Manager report, Joe Pritchard announced the first first lunch and learn, which will be a discussion of general government, noon ’til 1PM, 11 August 2011, second floor of administrative complex.

“The lunch and learn program will take various topics, and allow the public to meet for an hour, ask questions, interact on those particular topics.”
County Clerk Paige Dukes will be conducting this first meeting.

Commissioner Crawford Powell asked Continue reading