Tag Archives: Transparency

Here is what we got in response to an open records request for the agenda and board packet for the Lowndes County, Georgia, three-day Annual Planning Meeting, which you may recall was held on Jekyll Island with one day’s notice to the public.

There are packet materials for many of the agenda items, including Finance (in some detail), SPLOST VIII, VLPRA (in great detail), TIA I and II, Comprehensive Plan, and E-911.

Lowndes County Commission, Annual Retreat 2025-03-05-7, Agenda and Board Packet

I don’t seem to see materials for South Health DIstrict, Utilities, Public Works, or Lowndes County Fire Rescue. If any of those are in here, somebody please point them out.

Not listed on the agenda there are long sections by the Engineering Department, and lists of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee staff.

The board packet, received in response to a LAKE open records request, is on the LAKE website.

Agenda:

Lowndes County Board of Commissioners
2025 Annual Planning Meeting Agenda
March 5 1:00 p.m. — 4:30 p.m.*
March 6 8:30 a.m. — 4:30 p.m.*
March 7 8:30 a.m. — 1:00 p.m.*
(*times may vary based on length of discussion)
The Westin — Jekyll Island
110 Ocean Way, Jekyll Island, Georgia

Wednesday-
1:00 p.m. Finance
2:30 p.m. SPLOST VIII
3:00 p.m. SPLOST IX
Thursday-
8:30 a.m. VLPRA
10:00 a.m. South Health District
11:00 a.m. TIA I
11:30 a.m. TIA II
12:00 noon Lunch
12:45 p.m. Utilities
2:00 p.m. Public Works
3:00 p.m. Comprehensive Plan Review
Friday-
8:30 a.m. Lowndes County Fire Rescue
9:30 a.m. E-911


Wednesday-
1:00 p.m.	Finance
2:30 p.m.	SPLOST VIII
3:00 p.m.	SPLOST IX
Thursday-
8:30 a.m.	VLPRA
10:00 a.m.	South Health District
11:00 a.m.	TIA I
11:30 a.m.	TIA II
12:00 noon	Lunch
12:45 p.m.	Utilities
2:00 p.m.	Public Works
3:00 p.m.	Comprehensive Plan Review
Friday-
8:30 a.m.	Lowndes County Fire Rescue
9:30 a.m.	E-911

Continue reading →

Cancelled: Lowndes County Commission meetings 2025-03-10-11

Update 2025-03-13: Packet: Lowndes County Commission Annual Planning Meeting 2025-03-05.

Maybe they were tired after three days on Jekyll Island.

Once again, they let the public know the day before.

Their alert system civicplus sent a notice at 9:30 AM this morning, Friday, March 7, and a notice appeared on lowndescounty.com.

There has been no response yet to the LAKE open records request for the board packet for the now-cancelled meetings. Nor to the other LAKE request for the agenda and board packet for the three-day Jekyll Planning Meetings.

Cancelled: LCC, Meetings 2025-03-10-11, Lowndes County Commission, Lack of agenda items

Posted on: March 7, 2025
Commission Meetings Cancelled
Due to a lack of agenda items requiring attention at this time, the Lowndes County Commission Meetings scheduled for Monday, March 10, 2025, at 8:30 am and Tuesday, March 11, 2025 at 5:30 pm, have been cancelled.

-jsq

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One Day Notice: Lowndes County Annual Planning Meeting, Jekyll Island, GA 2025-03-05

Update 2025-03-13: Packet: Lowndes County Commission Annual Planning Meeting 2025-03-05.

Update 2025-03-07: Cancelled: Lowndes County Commission meetings 2025-03-10-11 2025-03-10.

If you were signed up for Lowndes County’s civicplus alert system, yesterday you got a notice that today starts the three-day Lowndes County Annual Planning Meeting on Jekyll Island.

No agenda is posted.

The name of the venue is not mentioned, but at 110 Ocean Way, Jekyll Island, GA, is The Westin Jekyll Island Beach Resort, with rooms listed at $299/night, or $372 with taxes and fees.

One Day Notice: LCC Annual Planning Meeting, Westin Jekyll Island Beach Resort 2025-03-05-07

Generally I agree the budget of the Lowndes County Commission is frugal.

But not this resort island splurge away from the eyes of the taxpayers and voters.

LAKE has filed a Georgia Open Records Act (GORA) request for the agenda and board packet. The three-day statutory limit does not expire until after this retreat is over. We would have filed the request earlier, had we known. Continue reading →

Packet: Insurance cancellation, annexation and rezoning for Development Authority, final bond resolution for water and wastewater, and $679,832.40 for tasers @ VCC 2024-12-05

The board packet has a couple of pages on why city staff want to cancel the insurance broker contract, while the broker is posting his version on his ValdostaFirst facebook group.

Valdosta Police Department wants $679,832.40 for Conducted Electrical Weapons (CEW), which say taser on the side.

I’m told this is the final resolution required before issuing the $67 million bonds for water and wastewater projects.

Packet: Issue water and sewer bonds, cancel insurance contract, $679,832.40 for tasers, VLDA rezoning and annexation, raise wrecker rates @ VCC 2024-12-05

Packet: ULDC text amendments, Loch Winn LTD rezoning, adoption of millage rates, USGS stream gauges, sprayfield expansion, watermain interconnection @ LCC 2024-10-14

Update 2024-10-21: Agenda: DRC Emergency Services and VSU South Campus Purchase @ LCC 2024-10-21.

The TXT-2024-03 ULDC Text Amendments are quite long and detailed. The county still has not published them for the tax-paying and voting public to see. You can see them now, because LAKE got them with an open records request, and now they are on the LAKE website.

Packet: ULDC text amendments, Loch Winn rezoning, millage rates, river gauges, sprayfield expansion, watermain interconnection: Grove Pointe, Nelson Hill @ LCC 2024-10-14

It’s good the Lowndes County Commissioners decided Tuesday to table those amendments (and the rezoning) until the Planning Commission can review them.

Cost	What
$3,369,213.71	Sprayfield Expansion Phase
$78,392.6.00	Grove Pointe Nelson Hill Watermain Interconnection
$3,025.00	Joint Funding Agreement with USGS for Stream Gauge Maintenance
$3,450,631.31	Total

The board packet, received in response to a LAKE open records request, is on the LAKE website.

Videos: ULDC text amendments, Loch Winn LTD rezoning, adoption of millage rates, USGS stream gauges, sprayfield expansion, watermain interconnection @ LCC Regular 2024-10-15

Update 2024-10-17: Packet: ULDC text amendments, Loch Winn LTD rezoning, adoption of millage rates, USGS stream gauges, sprayfield expansion, watermain interconnection @ LCC 2024-10-14.

As Chairman Bill Slaughter said they would in the preceding Millage Public Hearing, they adopted the roll back millage rate of 7.356 rather than the advertized rate of 7.804. Last year (2023) the rate was 8.778.

The Fire District Millage Rate is continuing at 2.5 mil. The commission plans to continue this rate for 5 years from the start date. This is probably year 3, so apparently 2 more years.

Collage @ LCC 15 October 2024

They actually did table the 5.a. TXT-2024-03 ULDC Text Amendments and the rezoning 5.b. REZ-2024-15 Loch Laurel – Carroll Ulmer so the Planning Commission could hear them at the October 28 meeting and then voted on at the November 12 Lowndes County Commission Regular Meeting.

There was quite a bit of discussion between Commissioners and Lowndes County Manager Paige Dukes and Utilities Director Steve Stalvey about the Sprayfield Expansion. Continue reading →

Videos: Forestry, Weather, ULDC text amendments, Loch Winn LTD rezoning, adoption of millage rates, USGS stream gauges, sprayfield expansion, watermain interconnection @ LCC Work 2024-10-14

Update 2024-10-17: Videos: Millage Public Hearing @ LCC 2024-10-15.

Only in the Work Session this morning, and if you weren’t there, only in these LAKE videos:

8.a. Reports – Georgia Forestry Presentation (Work Session) by Chief Ranger Kenneth M. Wells
8.b. Reports – EMA Director Ashley Tye on Hurricane Helene

Collage @ LCC Regular 14 October 2024

In regular items, County Planner JD Dillard recommended tabling the ULDC Text Amendments until stakeholders have more time to comment. He referred to the copy Commissioners had in their packet. We the taxpayers and voters do not have a copy.

He also recommended tabling 5.b. REZ-2024-15 Loch Laurel – Carroll Ulmer until the Planning Commission can review it. Which indicates that GLPC did not meet last month, even though there was no announcement that it had been cancelled.

Finance Director Stephanie Black said there would be a Millage Public Hearing at 5PM tomorrow, Tuesday, October 15, before the 5:30 PM Regular Session.

There was discussion in 7.a. Sprayfield Expansion Phase I. Continue reading →

Agenda: ULDC text amendments, Loch Winn LTD rezoning, adoption of millage rates, USGS stream gauges, sprayfield expansion, watermain interconnection @ LCC 2024-10-14

Update 2024-10-14: Videos: Forestry, Weather, ULDC text amendments, Loch Winn LTD rezoning, adoption of millage rates, USGS stream gauges, sprayfield expansion, watermain interconnection @ LCC Work 2024-10-14.

The long-quorum-and-hurricane–delayed REZ-2024-15 Loch Winn LTD rezoning will probably be decided Tuesday evening by the Lowndes County Commission. Before that, it will be heard at the Work Session Monday morning 8:30 AM, along with suprise ULDC text amendments, two millage rates, river gauges, sprayfield, and watermain interconnection between two northside subdivisions.

The adoption of the regular and Fire District millage rates will presumbably get presentations much like the last Millage Public Hearing on September 19.

We get a one-paragraph summary of TXT-2024-03 ULDC Text Amendments, but not the actual text.

We would have seen the text in the GLPC packet, but back in June the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission abdicated oversight of ULDC text amendments. And in June, the Lowndes County Commission rubberstamped that abdication.

The agenda item says, “9/2024 VDT Advertisements Published (Public Notice)” but I can’t find that in GeorgiaPublicNotice.com.

What is it the county planners and Commissioners do not want the public to see?

ULDC text amendments, Loch Winn rezoning, millage rates, river gauges, sprayfield expansion, watermain interconnection: Grove Pointe, Nelson Hill @ LCC 2024-10-14

Here’s a refresher for where this would be, between Old US 41 North and Val Del Road: Grove Pointe Nelson Hill Watermain Interconnection. Continue reading →

Lowndes County Commission Meetings Cancelled 2024-10-08

the county calendar entry for tonight’s Lowndes County Commission Regular Session says it is cancelled.

No reason was given, but likely it has to do with Hurricane Helene cleanup.

Cancelled: Lowndes County Commission Regular Session 2024-10-08

The calendar entry for yesterday morning’s Work Session does not say cancelled.

But no agenda was posted, so we can probably assume that one was also cancelled.