Your elected Commissioners and top county staff
listening to Finance Director Stephanie Black’s report,
around 9:30 AM on
the all-day retreat agenda.
The seemingly most boring subject, but the key to all the others.
Gretchen is there videoing, but apparently nobody else other
than the VDT reporter. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Stephanie Black
Millage rate to be set 8:30 AM 26 July 2013 @ LCC 2013-07-09
They approved setting millage rates 8:30 AM Friday 26 July 2013 that’s for the property taxes they collect, at the 9 July 2013 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.
7. Reports-County Manager
County Manager Joe Pritchard reminded Commissioners they were required to set a date to set tax millage. Finance Director Stephanie Black said:
You can have it as early as the 26th of July, but it has to be done and ready for the tax commissioner by July 31st.
County Manager wanted to know if there would be a quorum present for 26 July 2013 at 8:30. Chairman asked for a show of hands, and got two, which is not a quorum. Commissioner Demarcus Marshall checked his calendar and said he could also attend, and three is a quorum. Commissioner John Page asked if this was the day they previously had been advised in an email. Answer: no, that was Thursday, and this date is a Friday. County Manager also clarified that they couldn’t set their millage until the School Board did. Commissioner Marshall noted he had previously been told the 25th, and once again staff admitted that was so. Three days later, there is still nothing on the county’s online calendar for 26 July 2013.
Video is here.
-jsq
Special assessment: ordinance or policy? @ LCC 2011-01-10
Ordinance or policy?
In the
Work Session Minutes of 10 January 2011
the special assessment rate is set “in accordance with Lowndes County’s
financial policies”:
Special Assessment Rate for 2011,
Finance Director, Stephanie Black, presented the proposed special assessment rate at 5.25% (two percent above prime), in accordance with Lowndes County’s financial policies. Commissioner Raines asked if the rate would fluctuate through the year in the event the prime rate adjusted. Ms. Black answered that the county is required to set the rate annually so the actual prime rate would not be considered again until the beginning of next year.
Yet yesterday she said:
“It’s just always been set at 2% above prime. I believe it’s in your ordinance.”
Which is it, a policy or an ordinance? Maybe it’s a policy set in an ordinance. If so, which ordinance? Is it one of the dozen on the county’s website or is it one of the many more that are not?
-jsq
PS: Owed to Jane Osborn.
Additional license fee for Sunday alcohol sales? @ LCC 2012-12-10
Why should businesses have to pay an additional license fee
for Sunday alcohol sales, if the only justification is
to raise money to pay for administering that license?
That was a topic at yesterday morning's
Lowndes County Commission Work Session
for agenda item
6.a.
Revision to the Lowndes County Alcoholic Beverage Ordinance.
Finance Director Stephanie Black mentioned the things we already heard from the staff, brown bagging, social hosts (serving alcohol at private events to underage drinkers), and the Sunday package sales. She said for the voter-approved Sunday alcohol sales the license fee would be $250, plus a requirement for an immigration affidavit. Commissioner Powell took exception to that additional license fee, which would be on top of a license fee already necessary for the rest of the week. Black and Chairman Paulk defended it as necessary to collect money to administer the license fee. Powell wondered if they'd need the money if they didn't have the license fee. Paulk said the city of Valdosta charges $1000 for a Sunday license. Powell said he disagreed with that, too.
Here's the video:
Additional license fee for Sunday alcohol sales?
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 10 December 2012.
-jsq
No T-SPLOST means 30% match for LMIG, and what else? @ LCC 2012-12-10
To pave or not to pave?
That is the question that was danced around by County Engineer
Mike Fletcher and County Manager Joe Pritchard, with interest,
at
yesterday morning’s Lowndes County Commission Work Session,
on agenda item
8.d. Georgia Department of Transportation Local Maintenance & Improvement Grant.
County Engineer Mike Fletcher said Lowndes County was receiving from GDOT a Local Maintenance and Improvement Grant (LMIG) of $746,984.75 for FY “two thirteen”. Because T-SPLOST didn’t pass, the county has to come up with a 30% match, which is $224,095.43. He said there was a work sheet and project list in the board packet (which the rest of us don’t get to see).
County Manager Joe Pritchard said with change from LARP (Local Assistance Road Projects, primarily for resurfacing) to LMIG the county could now use these funds for any purpose, and had planned to use LMIG for Continue reading
Land Development For Future Industries —Andrea Schruijer of VLCIA
Executive Director Andrea Schruijer explained the Industrial Authority’s theory behind all those industrial parks. And she mentioned market analysis for a sustainable local economy. Nothing about market analysis about whether industrial parks actually bring in new businesses….
Valdosta CEO posted 28 NOvember 2012, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority Invests in Land Development For Future Industries,
Andrea Schruijer, Executive Director of the Valdosta Lowndes County Industrial Authority. A few years ago the community had the foresight to approve a mill that they would set aside for the Industrial Authority to provide for economic development. And because the community did that, the industrial authority is able to better plan for the future in growing our opportunities for economic development. One of the things that we noticed a few years ago is that we didn’t have enough land for development. And we didn’t have the right sized tracks in case we had a large user coming in looking at the community, where would we put them?
She says “the community did that”?
That’s funny,
Gary Minchew said he organized that.
Kari L. Sands wrote for VDT 20 June 2007,
Lowndes preps for vote on budget,
Public Works Expenditures @ LCC 2012-06-26
| Sheriff’s Office | $0.35 |
| Public Works (Facilities, Road Maintenance, Road Construction) | $0.15 |
| Court Services | $0.11 |
| Board of Commissioners and Administration | $0.08 |
| Recreation Authority (VLPRA) | $0.07 |
| Industrial Authority (VLCIA) | $0.06 |
| Other — including outside agency support | $0.04 |
| Tax Commissioner | $0.03 |
| Board of Assessors | $0.03 |
| Ambulance Service | $0.02 |
| Other Emergency Services (EMA, Coroner, Emergency Telecommunications) | $0.02 |
| Election Services | $0.01 |
| Engineering Services | $0.01 |
| Contingency | $0.01 |
| Animal Control Services | $0.01 |
On the county’s web pages Finance Director Stephanie Black has made available Where does your money go? She narrated that table in the 26 June 2012 Second Budget Hearing. Here it is in plain text on the right. I’ve taken the liberty of sorting it by largest expenditures first.
That order is more or less what she showed in 
this pie chart, although the categories don’t quite seem to match. In the pie chart, public safety (Sheriff) and court services are lumped together, so they make the biggest slice. In the table, the second biggest category is “Public Works (Facilities, Road Maintenance, Road Construction)”. Hm, so how much do we spend on road construction?
-jsq
Slides available for Budget Process Lunch and Learn
Slides for
this presentation are now available
on the LAKE web pages.
Revenues |
Expenditures |
Thanks to Ashley Turner and Paige Dukes for sending them along.
-gretchen
Budget Hearing wrapup: no questions were entertained from citizens
Paulk and Pritchard wrapped up the budget hearing,
quite well, except at the very end,
when about 2 seconds were allowed for citizens to say they
wanted to speak before the hearing was ended.
So that’s two budget hearings with no citizen input:
the first one nobody knew about,
and this one where nobody was permitted to speak.
Chairman Ashley Paulk thanked county employees for their cooperation. He noted that even the constitutional officers, who could appeal their budgets, had not. He noted the jail accounted for about half the sheriff’s budget, calling it an expensive operation. He said that his office had accounted for 3 of the 8 layoffs last time, and fortunately there were no more this time. He said: Continue reading
Budget presentation —Stephanie Black @ LCC 28 June 2011
More than half of Lowndes County expenditures go to law enforcement, including sheriff, courts, and the jail.
At Tuesday’s budget hearing,
Lowndes County Finance Director Stephanie Black
presented the proposed 2012 budget to the Commission.
Here are the
details of the budget,
as photographed by Gretchen from the single copy provided for the public
to see by the county clerk.
Here are
photographs of her slides.
Here’s a playlist of the videos.
A couple more videos of this hearing to come of remarks by Chairman Ashley Paulk and County Manager Joe Pritchard in this budget hearing, plus a related video from the Citizens Wishing to be Heard later that same day.
-jsq