Tag Archives: open records

Dear Mr. Pritchard: How are we paying on something that was 100% paid off? —John S. Quarterman

I sent this today. -jsq

 

From: John S. Quarterman <questions@quarterman.com>

Cc: bslaughter@lowndescounty.com, jevans@lowndescounty.com, rraines@lowndescounty.com, cpowell@lowndescounty.com, dmarshall@lowndescounty.com, jpage@lowndescounty.com, questions@quarterman.com

Subject: How are we paying on something that was 100% paid off?

Dear Mr. Pritchard,

You may recall that at the Lowndes County Commission meeting
of the 8th of January 2013, I asked the following:

“When this building complex was opened in 2010, the county put out a


double-sheet flyer saying it was completely paid off out of SPLOST money,
with zero dollars owed. I’m wondering how it is that then, either in
November or

December, the Commission just before your one here, refinanced
bonds that included I think it was six or seven million dollars for this
very building complex? I’m very confused by that. I wonder if someone
could clarify how we’re paying on something that was completely 100%
paid off with zero owed.”

I asked Commissioner Crawford Powell this question at the going-away
reception for former Chairman Ashley Paulk on 14 December 2012, and
he referred me to you for an answer. It has been more than two weeks
since I asked in a Commission Regular Session and I have received
no answer. So I ask again.

Specifically:

Continue reading →

Lowndes County’s 2007 and 2012 favors for the same developer

According to the Lowndes County Commission’s minutes,
the developer for whom the Commission now proposes
to change the zoning code back in 2007 got $130,000 in road
construction labor from the Commission.

In the

26 June 2007 Lowndes County Commission Regular Session Minutes:

County Engineer, Mike Fletcher, presented an item that was brought
to the Commission during the previous work session regarding the


paving of Davidson Road. Further, Mr. Clint Joyner was in the
process of building a previously approved development that was being
affected by an unforeseen Department of Transportation requirement
regarding a costly intersection improvement. Mr. Fletcher further
stated that Mr. Joyner was required to pave a portion of Davidson
Road; however, due to the intersection cost he was offering to
purchase the materials for the funding of the entire road, if the
county would provide the road construction labor at a cost of
approximately $130,000.00. Commissioner Lee made a motion to approve
the request, Vice Chairman Carter and Commissioner Roberts offered a
second. Motion carried.



Somebody help me here, is not that the same Clint Joyner back in 2007
getting a $130,000 subsidy from the County Commission
who last month

got invited to talk to the Commission in a Work Session
with nobody else invited to speak?
The same one for whom

the same Commission is now proposing to change the zoning code?
For another development on the same Davidson Road?
A development

the Chamber and Moody and the Planning Commission
are all opposing, while the VDT channels Ashley Paulk in promoting it?

What is it about this Clint Joyner or Joyner Realty or Davidson Road
that the County Commission should favor him or them so?
It can’t be the individual Commissioners: not a one of them is the
same now from 2007.
What is the same then and now?

Maybe we should find out before the Commission grants any more favors.

-jsq

Chamber opposes zoning code change for developer near Moody

Apparently it’s the Chamber and Moody and the Planning Commission

Red arrows on MAZ
and the TRC all against Ashley Paulk
on the Moody rezoning-and-zoning-code case, with the VDT sidling towards Paulk.
The VDT claimed Lowndes County Chairman stated something that’s
not true according to the agenda and LAKE’s videos of the
recent Planning Commission meeting.
And the VDT buried opposition by the Chamber of Commerce’s relevant committee
at the end of its article.

Jason Schaefer wrote for the VDT today,

County disagrees with proposed zoning amendment,
Paulk: Military intervention could prevent development near base,
and the caption of the picture on the right says:

The Greater Lowndes Planning Commission proposed a text amendment to
the Unified Land Development Code in November that would reduce lot
density restrictions from 2.5 acres to one acre, allowing landowners
within the Moody Activity Zoning (MAZ) district “more
flexibility” to parcel off their land holdings, Paulk said.

The Planning Commission’s own agenda says TEX-2012-02 was proposed by
“Lowndes County Board of Commissioners”.
And the Planning Commission

voted to recommend against approving that
text amendment to the ULDC.
According to Planning Commissioner John Page,
that vote was following the recommendation of the Technical Review Committee (TRC),
which consists of staff of Lowndes County and the City of Valdosta.
Page is also an incoming Lowndes County Commissioner, to take office
next month.
So either Paulk said something he as the Chairman of the Lowndes
County Commission should know not to be true, or the VDT wrote erroneously.

The VDT also seemed to indicate that Paulk was speaking for

Continue reading →

Developer didn’t get his way: change the zoning code! @ GLPC 2012-11-26

A developer didn’t get his way at the Lowndes County Commission last month,
so now the county is proposing to change the zoning code for him!
To change zoning right next to Moody Air Force Base,
the largest employer in this area.
A change opposed by Moody because

of flight safety and safety of property,
and
“the longterm viability of Moody Air Force Base.”
A change that would set a precedent for further sprawl,
as Moody indicated indirectly when
the related rezoning first came before the Planning Commission.
Apparently a developer can get whatever he wants around here,
no matter how much it threatens the livelihoods or well-being
of the rest of the citizens.
Does that seem right to you?
To their credit,

the Planning Commission at its 26 November 2012 meeting
unanimously voted against this TEX-2012-02 just as they
did the rezoning case REZ-2012-17 last month.
Both will be decided by the Lowndes County Commission
at its 11 December 2012 meeting.




4. TEX-2012-02

Lowndes County Board of Commissioners

A proposed text amendment to the Unified Land Development Code as it pertains to Single Family residential
Density and Minimum Lot Area within the MAZ (Moody Activity Zone)

County Planner Jason Davenport introduced this item.


TEX-2012-02 ULDC changes
Ultimately at the end of the day this text amendment is a request
to change the minimum lot sizes allowed and the minimum residential densities
allowed in a MAZ-3 zoning district.
We have those changes highlighted on the screen but they have also been
highlighted in the packet….
At the end of the day that is what has happened.

Well, yes, at the end of that day.
At the end of many future days this zoning code amendment
if approved will be used as a precedent for more sprawl
right next to Moody Air Force Base,
which is by far the biggest employer in this area.
The packet he referred to is not available to the public.
The changes he mentioned are not on his

Unified Land Development Code (ULDC) web page.
A view of them as seen from the back of the room is shown on the right here.
Can you read them?


Moody insert in ULDC Map
The

ULDC map linked on that page
includes the Moody Area insert map shown here on the right.

Davenport added that he had received one open records request and a response
from Moody.
Plus state law requires 30 days for Moody to respond and it had been 31 days.
Then he walked through some history using pages in Commissioners’ packets
that we the taxpayers, voters, and residents of Lowndes County can’t see.

Davenport

specifically tied this text amendment to a tabled zoning case:

Continue reading →

Library Architect Submissions (part 3)

Here are the submissions from the final four architects


that were considered for the new Five Points Lowndes County Library.
This continues the series with

Library Architect Selection Documents (part 1)
and

Library Architect RFP and “Bible” (part 2)
which presents documents received by LAKE from SGRL in response to

an open records request.

The four architect submissions are linked

on this LAKE web page.
Here they are separately:

If we missed anything please let us know.


Architects: feel free to put your submissions on your own web pages
and

send us a link.

-jsq

Library Architect RFP and “Bible” (part 2)



Here is the Request for Proposals and the

“Bible” of related documents
that served as background for the architect selection process
for the new library at Five Points.
These were received on a CD as part of
the library architect selection documents in

the very organized open records response from the South Georgia Regional Library;
see

the previous post
for related agendas and minutes.

Included in

the RFP


(which was issued by the County, not by the Library Board),
is a list of fourteen numbered submittal instructions
that looks like it might have been the basis for the list of
90 items on the

Library Scoring Worksheet.

The RFP also includes this interesting section:

RESERVATIONS

Lowndes County Board of Commissioners reserves the following rights:

Rejection of any and all submittals

Negotiate changes in the Scope of Work

Negotiate services to be provided

Negotiate fee proposal

Waive any and all technicalities

That last line basically seems like it could be interpreted to mean
they could select whatever appealed to them no matter what the fit
(or not) with what was asked for in the RFP.

The “Bible” includes a cover sheet that says:

Continue reading →

Library Architect Selection Documents (part 1)

Thanks to a

very organized open records response from the South Georgia Regional Library,
we have available agendas and minutes of the SGRL Board and other materials
related to the selection of an architect for the new library at Five Points.
Here is a first batch of those materials,
which sheds a little light on the library architect selection process.


SGRL Minutes 2012-07-17
According to the

SGRL Board minutes of 17 July 2012
as

approved at the SGRL Board meeting of 18 September 2012,

SOUTH GEORGIA REGIONAL LIBRARY

BOARD MINUTES

July 17, 2012

…

V. Architectural (Building and Grounds Committee)

The Firm of Clemons, Rutherford and Associates (CRA)
was approved as the architectural firm for construction
of the Five Points Library.

Moved: Ray Devery Second: Wyn Miller
Ayes: All Nays: None

No further detail is provided in those minutes.


Library Scoring Worksheet
A

Library Scoring Worksheet
for the design and construction of the “Lowndes County Library”
was included in the materials received in response to the open records request
(it’s the extra item in the left edge of the picture in

the previous post).
It lists 30 topics with a potential score of 3 points each for
a total of 90 points,
grouped in categories of
“Responsiveness/Quality of Presentation/Capabilty”,
“Experience, Design Concept and Creativity”,
and
“Personal Overall Impression of the architectural team”.
However, no marked-up worksheets with scores for any architecture firm
were included.

The complete agenda packets for the SGRL board meetings of

18 September 2012
and

17 July 2012
are available

on the LAKE website where
more will be added later.

Next: the RFP.

-jsq

Library open records request 2012-10-26

The most-organized open records response ever!
Well, that we’ve asked for, anyway.
Sure, sometimes local government bodies deliver a three-ring binder
of papers.
Sometimes they deliver a CD.
Sometimes they deliver on a USB stick.
Nobody ever delivered all of the above.
OK, I brought the USB stick and the scanner (not pictured),
but look at that CD lying on top of the really thick binder:
the CD contains everything that’s in the binder,
and that saved us a lot of scanning time.

Thank you, Kelly Lenz, Patrick Spurlock, and Tom Gooding!

It will take a bit of time to process all this information; stay tuned.


Kelly Lenz, Library Director, Tom Gooding, Attorney


Kelly Lenz, Library Director, Tom Gooding, Attorney

Left to right:
an extra item,
the four architect presentations,
the “bible” of what the new library should be (the thick binder and the CD),
and agendas, minutes, and board packets (the other two binders).

Picture by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),

at South Georgia Regional Library, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 26 October 2012.

I know of at least one open records request somewhere else that,
two years later and counting,

Continue reading →

Waste disposal discussions with Richard Raines —Gretchen Quarterman @ LCC 2012-10-09


Gretchen Quarterman
Waste disposal issues in Lowndes County are more complex than one might think,
and transparent processes could help citizens understand these stewardship
issues, while helping the local government do its job.

Commissioner Raines called me yesterday evening after I had left him
a voice mail and an e-mail letting him know that I had some
questions.

I was particularly curious about the proposals

in column “F” which asked for:

Contractor(s) agrees to provide an independent proposal option to
address residential solid waste, bulky item, yard waste and
recyclable materials collection, transportation and disposal,
collection center management and related customer service, records,
billing and payment processing services for unincorporated Lowndes
County residents.

Proposal “F” Pricing —

Residential solid waste, bulky item, yard waste and recyclable
materials collection, transportation and disposal, collection
center management and related customer service, records, billing
and payment processing services.

$______________ per month/subscriber

This was an opportunity for the vendors to provide some option that
the county had not asked for but used their expertise in waste
disposal and offer a creative solution.


Lowndes County Solid Waste RFP Summary Sheet October 9, 2012

The prices in column “F” ranged from $8.33 to $19.95 to “Negotiate”.

Commissioner Raines briefly explained what had been submitted by
each vendor and it became clear that there was not a creative
winning solution proposed there. In fact, submitting a “Negotiate
Rates and Program” is clearly a failure.

We then went on to discuss at length the whole solid waste disposal
history, problems, options, and so on. Commissioner Raines stressed
his focus

Continue reading →

Lowndes County Solid Waste RFP Summary Sheet @ LCC 2012-10-08

This is the summary sheet Kevin Beals presented

at the Lowndes County Commission Work Session this morning.


Assuming the dollar figures in the table are monthly charges to the end user,
note that the only one that comes out less than the current $100/year
is the $8.33 in the lower right corner: $8.33 * 12 = $99.96.
Presumably plus tax, since this would be a private service.
So if the Commission chooses any of these options, we the current
waste disposal customers will have to pay more.

The upper end of $19.95 (upper right corner) comes to $239.40 per year.
Or 140% more than the current price.
A bit more to a lot more: that’s what we’ll have to pay.
Plus

the socialized costs of privatizing waste disposal,
such as code enforcement to pick up trash dumped on rights of way,
private fences and gates built to keep trash out, and other costs.



Average is somewhere around $13/month, for $156/year.
If they simply charged that for the current service,
the already rapidly decreasing budget deficit for waste disposal
would vanish,
and there would be no need to change to something else.

If you want to see the actual proposals summarized in this table,
you can file

an open records request.
According to

the County Clerk’s web page:

Once a request is received, Lowndes County will notify the
requesting party within 3 days regarding the availability of
information.

So if you file it today, you’ll get a response of some sort within
two days after they vote on waste management tomorrow.

Does this seem right to you?

-jsq