Rubberstamping library architect
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 24 July 2012.
A local middle school teacher spelled out problems with the
charter school referendum: no local control over creation or operation
of the charter schools it would authorize; money siphoned off from
existing local schools; and charter schools actually perform
worse than traditional public schools anyway.
Christie Davis, a teacher at Hahira Middle School,
speaking at the Lowndes County Tea Party monthly meeting Thursday,
pointed out it’s not just the
preamble
to the referendum that’s misleading.
The actual wording of the referendum is also misleading:
Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended to allow state or local approval
of public charter schools upon the request of local communities?
She remarked:
It sounds very good that we should say yes.
It’s very misleading.
And the reason why it’s misleading is totally purposeful.
It says something about local communities.
We already have that right in our local community, our local boards, to go ahead
and implement a charter school, if we see the need.
However, they put it in there so that voters that don’t really know
what’s going on think they’re helping our local schools by voting yes.
However, by voting yes, it will be funding a parallel state school system
that we have no control over.
A parallel state school system that we have no control over. —Christie Davis
Video by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 27 September 2012.
Thanks to Diane Cox, President, Lowndes County Tea Party, for the invitation.
This week, Moyers & Company (check local listings) presents
“United States of ALEC,” a report on the most
influential corporate-funded political force most of America has
never heard of — ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange
Council. A national consortium of state politicians and powerful
corporations, ALEC presents itself as a “nonpartisan
public-private partnership”. But behind that mantra lies a
vast network of corporate lobbying and political action aimed to
increase corporate profits at public expense without public
knowledge.
It would be easier for people to vote for SPLOST VII if they knew
what they were getting.
So far, that’s difficult to tell from what’s been published.
Many questions remain to be answered.
The county projects penny sales tax collections through SPLOST VII
to total at least $150 million during a six-year period, a sum that
could fund a library complex, an auditorium, the installation of a
mandated public safety radio system, an array of municipal water and
sewage improvements, new equipment for police officers and
firefighters, and road maintenance projects.
There is not adequate funding for these projects if the SPLOST
referendum does not pass, according to city and county planners.
$150 million is not $35 million.
$150 million divided by six is $25 million, not $35 million.
September 26, 2012
George Boston Rhynes
5004 Oak Street
Valdosta, Georgia 31605
TO:
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Valdosta City Government
Valdosta Housing Authority
Valdosta Industrial Authority
The following is our honest responses to HUD and in response to the
City of Valdosta’s 8th Year of responding to HUD CPMP
Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report. This includes
Narrative Responses to CAPER questions in relations to and with the
Consolidated Planning Regulations and questions from the general
public as highlighted on page 5, paragraph 1.
CITIZENS VIEW POINT
AND RESPONSES: {GEORGE BOSTON RHYNES AND JOHN ROBNISON}
after reviewing all previous CAPTER’S and the city’s
responses to them, I commend the City of Valdosta for responding to
HUD in an extremely professional manner on paper. One can see and
feel the professional prowess involved in providing these answers
the City of Valdosta has placed on paper over the city’s
(long) historic past. However, when one looks deeper into the
problems facing our beloved community, one will find the following
to be as Paul Harvey would say the rest of——-the story!
GENERAL QUESTIONS: The City of Valdosta’s response on the
issues remains the same as reported in many other CAPERS such as:
City attained the goal of:
# of homes was brought up to code.
Worked in conjunction with——
to train, resident
information sessions were held that yielded nearly 30 attendees etc.
Staff continues to…., Overall, the city is pleased with
the second Consolidated Plan Submission.
(3.a) The city hosted
several Section 3 Information Sessions and will continue to provide
more information to…. Work with local community and
faith-based organizations to identify and address.
I could go
on and on with these highly professional lines of what some see as
solutions to the real problems in the City of Valdosta, Georgia.
However there is another side and forgive me for not going through
the complete CAPER in the above manner. I am sure your time is
valuable; therefore I will cut through the chase and provide the
following in response to the City of Valdosta RESPONSES. Not only to
this CAPER but others we have read and taken into consideration:
A recent meeting held in the Valdosta City Annex about Community
Housing etc. perhaps exemplifies
Update 2012-09-27 8:50AM: Added video, stills, and notes about the County Palace and Internet access.
The seventh Special Local Option Sales Tax, SPLOST,
will be on the November ballot.
Not to be confused with the just-defeated
bogus regional transportation T-SPLOST,
or last year’s successful
educational ESPLOST,
or the
currently renegotiating property-tax-relief LOST,
SPLOST VII will follow up on SPLOST VI
in supporting local infrastructure projects.
There is a campaign in Lowndes County to rally for the tax called
SPLOST, or the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax. It could
bring in as much as $35 million, but that is only if voters say it’s
worth the extra pennies.
After
briefly discussing or at least hearing items at
the previous morning's Work Session,
the Lowndes County Commission voted on them at its Regular Session of
Tuesday 11 September 2012.
Here's
the agenda,
and the copy below has links to the corresponding videos or
previous blog posts.
Here's a
video playlist.
Mr. Chairman and Commissioners, you have handed, or were placed at your seats,
a revised alcohol beverage brown bagging ordinance.
There were some changes that came about, wording changes,
yesterday, after our work session.
Ah, that passive voice!
I guess it was the ordinance elf that made those changes and left paper
copies at each Commissioner’s seat.
The ordinance elf didn’t put a copy of that draft on the web where
the rest of us could see it, however.
Valdosta Lowndes County Industrial Authority
Thanks Mr. Quaterman,
The meeting agenda is the same as posted on the website. I'll update
the date in the morning, working on our new & improved website
project now. Can't wait to unveil our new site. See you tomorrow
evening!
While I commend VLCIA (I'm guessing by way of S. Meghan Duke)
for responding to an inquiry (even if she didn't get my name right),
I do wonder whether, while they're updating the website format,
maybe they could add some content to their agendas.
Meanwhile, the one she's referring to is the one
quoted for last month's meeting.
The Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority Monthly Meeting for
September Has Been Rescheduled For Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2012 5:30pm
Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority Offices
That’s at
2110 N. Patterson Street, Valdosta.
They also posted this notice on
their facebook page yesterday.
No agenda is posted yet.
At the 24 July 2012 Regular Session,
Lisa Burton gave a much shorter version of her
presentation from the previous morning’s Work Session,
and the Lowndes County Commission unanimously rubberstamped without
discussion
the library board’s selection of an out-of-state architect
over several local candidates.
