They unanimously approved everything except the one withdrawn item, and except for the Executive Session, the whole thing took 9 minutes. They meet again 8:30 AM Monday morning 24 July 2017.
Below are links to each LAKE video of the 27 June 2017 Lowndes County Commission Regular Session, with a very few notes, followed by a video playlist. See also the LAKE videos of the previous morning’s Work Session including the Zika Presentation by Ken Lowery; and the agenda.
Tonight at 5:30 PM they vote on what they discussed
yesterday morning at the Lowndes County Commission.
But you won’t hear the
Zika Presentation by Ken Lowery;
that was only in the Work Session.
It was by far the longest item, at seven minutes, longer than all the rest of the meeting, which took less than six minutes.
The second longest item at almost a minute and a half was
abandonment of a portion of Ponce de Leon Trail (CR 374).
You will see them adopt the Fiscal Year 2018 budget. See the previous post for more background about the budget requests that the county almost all denied.
Below are Continue reading
They’re going to adopt the county budget Tuesday, after talking about it this morning at 8:30 AM, after complaining that nobody showed up at a budget hearing they didn’t announce. Also after refusing budget requests due to revenue continuing down for several years, and not being willing to adjust taxes.
The VDT summarized, Thomas Lynn, VDT, 23 May 2017, County Manager: Proposed budget austere; Most new funding requests denied. And Thomas Lynn, 22 June 2017, Public absent from county budget hearing. No wonder, since the county didn’t even post the meeting online until that same morning, with no agenda. The VDT wasn’t there most of the time, but Gretchen was, with the LAKE video camera.
Photo: Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE of
Harrison Tillman and Stephanie Black about Budget at the Lowndes County Annual Planning Meeting Day 1 @ LCC 2017-02-16
Gretchen also videoed Continue reading
Six minutes and ten seconds yesterday morning
to breeze through the
agenda for the Work Session;
the Lowndes County Commission votes tonight at 5:30 PM.
Also,
the Chairman announced
the
Budget Work Session to start at 9AM,
which didn’t match the posting about that time put on the county’s website.
Tonight they will very likely reappoint Jeff Sikes to the Airport Authority, increase “convenience fees for online and telephone payments to $2.50 per transaction”, some I-75 exit work, and a swimming pool at Moody Air Force Base. Plus a beer and wine license due to the usual change of ownership, and an HVAC maintenance contract.
Video.
Jeff Sikes had a letter of endorsement from the Airport Authority,
and the county Chairman said a few words for him.
If Sikes was present, they didn’t mention it.
Below are links to each LAKE video of yesterday morning’s Work Session plus a very few notes, followed by a LAKE video playlist. Continue reading
It probably won’t take them 15 minutes after 8 AM to breeze through this
light agenda, including reappoinging Jeff Sikes to the
Airport Authority,
increasing “convenience fees for online and telephone payments to $2.50 per transaction”, some I-75 exit work, and a swimming pool at Moody Air Force Base.
Plus a beer and wine license due to the usual change of ownership,
and an HVAC maintenance contract.
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
Continue reading
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, MAY 22, 2017, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, MAY 23, 2017, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Even though Lowndes County voted 2 to 1 against T-SPLOST in 2012, and Southern Georgia Region 11 voted it down by 38,731 no votes (58%) to 28,217 Yes (42%) votes, a few counties in the region voted for it (Clinch, Atkinson, Coffee, Bacon, and Irwin). Also, Lowndes County had lots of transportation items ready to trot in case it passed. So it shouldn’t be surprising that five years later local governments in the region are considering rolling their own. It’s on this morning’s Lowndes County Commission agenda for voting Tuesday evening.
After hearing of it in the videos Gretchen took of the Lowndes County Planning Session Day 2 back in February, I asked the South Georgia Regional Commission and got this email from Corey Hull: Continue reading
People showed up and asked questions!
Finance Director Stephanie Black said they were having public hearings because they were required to when raising the millage. She said some of the reasons for the raise were a decline in the Local Option Sales Tax revenue, “because of the TATV” a decline in motor vehicle revenues, and a decline of 1.88% or $56 million in the property tax digest. TATV appears to be Ad Valorem Title Tax, which changed with HB 386 becoming law 1 March 2013, changing annual TATV to a one-time tax at vehicle purchase, and that new tax goes to the state, not the local government. As you can see in the Millage History slide pictured, they did Continue reading
For an authority that gets 1.25 mil of your property tax dollars,
the Commissioners didn’t even know who was wanting to be reappointed,
none of them asked what happened during a year when one of them
was apparently serving on that board without a formal appointment,
not all of the Commissioners were present even voted,
and none of the candidates for any of the board appointments even shhowed up, much less spoke.
The Lowndes County Commission at its June 28th 2016 Regular Session also
unanimously adopted the budget for what the Chairman repeatedly called
“the physical year”, despite only perfunctory public hearings in advance,
and no draft budget available on their website for the public to see.
After they approved the budget to spend the money
(and according to County Manager Joe Pritchard after earlier that same morning the Tourism Authority approved their budget),
the Lowndes County Commissioners
unanimously approved a hotel/motel tax rate increase.
Odd order, eh?
About the 1.25 mil property tax Parks and Rec Authority, the Chairman finally got around to saying Continue reading
Not on
the agenda for
Monday morning’s Work Session,
but added back for Tuesday evening’s Regular Session,
the Brookwood Place Subdivision tabled two weeks ago
popped up in
Reports.
Where is it? Who owns it? How did they get it? Who’s the developer? No, really, who’s the developer?
8. Reports – County Manager – the reappearance of Brookwood water
Video. County Manager Joe Pritchard said he was bringing back the trust indenture for “the Brookwood Place subdivision off of Mt. Zion.” He can’t have meant Mt. Zion Road, which is in the southwest part of the county, not near the Valdosta City limits, Continue reading
County Planner Jason Davenport said at Monday morning’s Work Session that the
Comprehensive Plan Update should be a Public Hearing,
so it needs to be listed as such for Tuesday evening’s Regular Session.
I guess that is more than 24 hours notice, but did they send a notice to the newspaper?
How were people to know, and why was this left to the day before when this
schedule has been known for months to all the local planners?
Not on the agenda, the Brookwood Place Subdivision tabled two weeks ago popped up in Reports.
The county has had a board member listed for VLPRA for a year after his term actually expired.
Plus a special Continue reading
