Update 2024-03-23:
Packet: ULDC text amendments, Hahira Personal Service Shops, Valdosta PSS and rezonings @ GLPC 2024-03-25.
Here is the
ULDC Text Amendment handout from the Lowndes County Commission Work Session of February 26, 2024,
received in response to a LAKE open records request.
![[ULDC Text Amendments Status, Public Hearings @ LCC 2024-02-26]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2024-03-26--lcc-uldc/many.jpg)
ULDC Text Amendments Status, Public Hearings @ LCC 2024-02-26
Here are the draft changes to the
Unified Land Development Code (ULDC)
that Jason Davenport presented to the
Lowndes County Commission
in its Work Session of Monday, June 12, 2023.
![[Ten amendments, timeline, and primary staff]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2023-06-13--lcc-uldc-changes/many.jpg)
Ten amendments, timeline, and primary staff
The new rebuttal part of the Public Hearings, Continue reading
He also called to be sure LAKE got this,
and the Public Hearings
Tuesday
and
Wednesday at 5:30 PM are in the City of Valdosta’s
online calendar,
plus there’s
a much briefer story in the VDT today, and see the millage table from last year’s budget hearings. -jsq
From: Tim Carroll <tcarroll@valdostacity.com>
Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2014 14:33:35 +0000
Subject: FY 2015 BudgetHey everyone,
It is that time of year when your city government prepares its’
budget for the upcoming fiscal year. As we have experienced over the
past four years, this year’s budget presents many challenges.
Revenues continue to decline while expenses keep going up. Fuel
alone for the city now runs around $1.7M per year and the power bill
to run the city for a year is now at $3.4M. Like you have seen in
your homes and businesses, these and other costs continue to rise.
Major revenue sources such as the LOST tax (our largest revenue
source for the General Fund) continue to decline. And the list goes
on. The city has now tapped over the past several years all the
reserve funds in or der to balance the budget. Those reserve funds
are now gone.
I say all this to illuminate the difficult choices that are present
in this year’s proposed budget. While Continue reading
It’s too bad nobody came to Valdosta’s two public budget hearings,
because the city prepared
183 slides with details for each
department, including goals and accomplishments.
On
the LAKE website is that presentation sent on request by City Clerk Teresa Bolden,
and
converted to HTML by LAKE.
Plus the actual budget.
No open records requests were required.
Oh, and Valdosta runs garbage collection on a balanced budget
without any exclusive franchises.
Valdosta News PR 20 June 2013,
City Delivers a Balanced Budget:
No property tax increase proposed for citizens,
The Valdosta City Council approved the fiscal year 2014 budget for
the City of Valdosta at the June 20 City Council meeting, after
having the opportunity to hear the proposed budget at the hearings
on June 11 and 12. City staff presented the council with a balanced
budget, as required by the City Charter, possibly one of the most
challenging and difficult budgets prepared in years.
City leaders decreased the overall city budget from $86.2 million to
$77.3 million, a result of Continue reading
Received yesterday on
Allocate resources in a yearly budget? -jsq
As I was out campaigning, it was interesting what people are
interested in having their pennies spent on. Many want better
sidewalks and safer places to ride their bikes. One Valdosta police
officer particularly commented on the dangerous bike riding
conditions (especially on North Oak Extension). Many in the
un-incorporated areas want increased fire protection and it seems
that everyone better drainage (and I don't mean simply open ditches
for rain water) and still others would like to see some soccer
fields.It seems like we should be able to do some prioritizations and then
save up for these things. I guess that will be up to the new
commission chairman and members and they will have to figure out how
to move forward without a SPLOST immediately in 2014.Personally, I'd like to see a public accounting of how the previous
SPLOSTS were spent. And not in big categories, but the actual
details… But that's just me.-Gretchen Quarterman
-jsq
Received today on
SPLOST VII lost. -jsq
After reading this post, a question came to mind. Have we the
citizens of Lowndes County
actually been encouraging our elected
officials to be fiscally irresponsible with public funds by allowing
SPLOST to continue? if elected officials had to allocate resources
in a yearly budget, we may actually encourage our officials to
allocate resources towards public projects that would be desirable
by the public rather than a priority in pthe minds of our elected
officials.-Bill Grow
Speaking of
transparency,
Lowndes County voters defeated SPLOST VII 18,864 to 17,923 (51.28% to 48.72%).
Kay Harris in the VDT today quoted Ashley Paulk with this reason:
The defeat came as a surprise to Mayor John Gayle but not to Lowndes
County Commission Chairman Ashley Paulk, who said he warned the
mayors of the five municipalities that if they continued to argue
over
LOST, the local option sales tax, that voters would turn
against SPLOST in retaliation.“I told them at the beginning if they didn’t stop arguing over
a few percent of the LOST and refused to leave the numbers as is by
taking the county’s offer, that taxpayers were going to turn against
the SPLOST,” said Paulk.“Voters are disenchanted with the way their local governments
have gotten greedy and they’re tired of the arguments over money.
They voted SPLOST down because they don’t trust us with their tax
dollars, and it’s a real shame.”
I would agree
bickering over the
LOST pie was one of the reasons
SPLOST lost, and add to that the opaque back-room processes by which
the SPLOST VII projects were selected.
While the library needs updated and expanded facilities,
the lack of documented decision process
for the architect
and lack of adequate explanation for that
probably didn’t help, either,
nor did
the county’s puzzling lumping of the library in with Parks and Rec.
which they later tried to clarify.
Perhaps the voters are
tired of seeing transparency be a constant source of tension.
And I’m using the library as just one example. I could equally cite the
project for a farmers market under the overpass, which I think is a bad idea
because the farmers market already has a fabulous location at the historic
Lowndes County Courthouse, and so far as I know none of the vendors who sell there
were even asked if they wanted a new location, much less the public who buy there.
At the public-not-invited
SPLOST VII kickoff speeches
the last speaker said they were not there
I’m quoting myself here, responding to
Brad Lofton’s letter of 19 Sepember 2010.
-jsq
From: “John S. Quarterman”
To: <blofton@industrialauthority.com>, Leigh Touchton
Cc: [VDT and several elected officials; list available upon request]
Subject: Re: Brad Lofton, Executive Director Industrial Authority, doesn’t want his correpondence in the Valdosta Daily Times
Date: Wed, 22 Sep 2010 14:08:17 -0400Brad Lofton,
Leigh Touchton has forwarded me copies of the correspondence between
you on behalf of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA)
with her and the VDT.I must say I don’t agree with your assertion that:
“The vast majority of her concerns for our project would have
been answered two years ago if she had come to any of our forums…”Here are some examples of unanswered concerns.
