Tag Archives: Transparency

What about NDAA? Questions for Austin Scott in Tift County

Somebody else asks elected representatives questions and posts videos. Here some Ron Paul supporters ask Austin Scott (R GA-08), our upcoming Congressional representative unless somebody defeats him, questions about NDAA ( H.R. 1540: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012) and drones at a Tift County meeting. Scott asked to see a copy of the passages they were asking about, but then the meeting conveniently ended before they could get it to him. In the video they include a quote of the relevant text, which doesn’t say what Scott said it says.

Here’s the video:

I especially like the guy afterwards complaining:

It’s the way you say things; you can’t do that!

They sounded pretty polite to me. I guess what they can’t do is ask questions about laws elected representatives voted on.

-jsq

Catch the governor before May Day

Don’t want to wait until May Day to see Governor Deal? Breakfast with him Wednesday!

According to email from the Chamber:

I wanted to let you know that this year’s State Legislative Luncheon will be a breakfast on Wed. April 25 from 7-8:30 a.m. featuring Gov. Deal and all members of our local delegation. Registration is $25 and there is limited seating as it is being held at Valdosta State University’s University Center Magnolia Room. You can register online or simply let me know how many you will have attending and I will register for you.

More on the Chamber’s website:

Registration is $25 for Chamber members and $40 for all others. Chamber members can purchase a corporate table for eight for $200. Attendees must register by noon on April 20.

Except:

Registration has closed for this event

Tut tut.

Also, is this Wednesday morning thing a rescheduling of the May Day event? Apparently so, since the Chamber’s calendar doesn’t list the May Day one and it does list this one. Why did they change the date, time, and location? Didn’t get as many subscribers as they wanted? Didn’t want it to be as public? Other?

-jsq

LOST again in Hahira 9AM 2 May 2012

The local cities want more LOST money from the county. Imagine if they and the county spent this much effort bringing in new industry such as solar to increase the pie!

David Rodock wrote for the VDT 17 April 2012, County’s LOST proposal declined: Cities want more money; negotiations to begin in May. Well, that about sums it up. Looks like this is going to end up in another round of litigation after a lot of talking past each other.

So there will be LOST again, this time in Hahira, 9AM 2 May 2012 at the Hahira Community Center, 215 Randall Street.

They could spend their time talking together more productively.

-jsq

HB 397 sunshine bill is now law: open government forecast partly cloudy

It’s a cloudy sunrise for open government in Georgia with HB 387 now law. Will anyone enforce it? Will local governments comply? Will the legislature extend this law into a sunshiny day in Georgia?

Aaron Gould Sheinin and Bill Rankin wrote for the AJC yesterday, Governor signs Open Records rewrite into law,

House Bill 397, which took effect upon Deal’s signature, is the first major rewrite of Georgia’s sunshine laws in more than a decade. New provisions in the open records and meetings laws increase fines for offenders. The maximum penalty of $500 is now $1,000, and offenders who commit repeat violations within a year face fines of up to $2,500.

Previously, the sunshine laws allowed only criminal complaints to be filed against suspected violators, meaning a prosecutor would have to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. The rewrite now allows the filing of civil complaints, which have a lower burden of proof.

That could be interesting if anyone actually files a complaint.

The rewrite also would provide new exemptions for some gatherings of governing bodies, such as allowing a quorum of members to attend the same civic function, receive training or visit government agencies — provided no official business is discussed or transpires.

So the various elected boards meeting together at the end of last month was probably OK, since they weren’t making decisions, merely educating each other. But the Lowndes County Commission repeatedly hiding from the public while discussing solid waste disposal, among other issues, does not seem to fit that exception.

It also reduces the cost of most documents disclosed under the Open Records Act from 25 cents to 10 cents per page.

That means the price of the Industrial Authority’s old minutes just went down, Continue reading →

Parks and Rec Board meets Thursday

According to their website, the Valdosta-Lowndes County Parks & Recreation Authority (VLPRA) board meets Thursday:

Date: Thursday, April 19, 2012
Time: 4:30 P.M.
Location: VLPRA Office 1901 N. Forrest Street, Valdosta

I don’t have a detailed agenda, but their website says they’ll vote on rental rates, and they include links to: Continue reading →

Importing illegal immigrants into private Georgia prisons

Ocilla, about an hour north of here, took the private prison gamble, and now is scrambling to import enough prisoners to fill it.

Jim Galloway wrote for the AJC 11 April 2012, Importing illegal immigrants — into private Georgia prisons quoting Hannah Rappleye and Lisa Riordan Seville in The Nation 10 April 2012, How One Georgia Town Gambled Its Future on Immigration Detention,

Deportations have reached record levels under President Barack Obama, and demand for detention facilities has increased. Starting in 2002, ICE had funding for 19,444 beds per year, according to an ICE report. Today, ICE spends about $2 billion per year on almost twice the number of beds.

ICE’s reliance on facilities like the Irwin County Detention Center has put small rural towns at the center of one of today’s most contentious policy arguments—how to enforce immigration law. A yearlong investigation by The Nation shows how much politics has come to rule detention policy. Even as Georgia and Alabama passed harsh new immigration laws last year designed to keep out undocumented immigrants, documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act reveal that politicians from both states were lobbying hard to bring immigrant detainees in. ICE succumbed to the pressure, sending hundreds of detainees to the financially unstable facility in Georgia that promised to detain immigrants cheaply. That promise came at the expense of the health, welfare and rights to due process of some 350 immigrants detained daily in Ocilla.

Marvelous. Pass a low to eject illegal immigrants, except it really locks up a bunch of them, but not enough to keep Ocilla’s private prison full, so import a bunch of them back in as prisoners.

Aren’t you glad we didn’t accept a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia?

Ocilla and Irwin County didn’t just make that bad bet once, they doubled down on it:

Continue reading →

Parks and Rec citizen meeting tonight in Hahira

Following up on something I heard last night, I called Valdosta-Lowndes County Parks & Recreation Authority and determined they’re having a citizens meeting tonight in Hahira:

Who: Lose & Associates presentation
What: will ask questions and take community input
Where: Courthouse, 305 W. Main Street, Hahira, GA
When: 6-7PM 18 April 2012

Image by Old Shoe Woman

There was one of these yesterday at Mildred Hunter in south Valdosta. For unknown reasons these events were not posted on VLPRA’s website, which is odd considering this earlier report:

In March there will be about six public meetings concerning the master plan. According to Mr. Page the meetings will be advertised on the VLPRA website, in the Valdosta Daily Times, and by word of mouth.

I heard by word of mouth there was a notice in the VDT yesterday, so that’s two out of three.

-jsq

Videos @ VLCIA 2012 03 20

Likely new industry, private prison really cancelled, strategic planning, and trees in the median!

Here are videos of the entire March regular meeting of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA). Here’s the agenda.

It’s good that they approve minutes after emailing them to each other. Maybe someday we the taxpayers will get to see those minutes.

Did you know they had two executive sessions on 23 February 2012, at 10AM and 2:25 PM in addition to their retreat and regular meeting of that same day? If they’re having all these executive sessions, presumably all the material about personnel and real estate that needs to be kept confidential is in there, and the minutes of the regular meetings shouldn’t contain anything the public should not see.

For example, Continue reading →

Videos @ Joint Governments 2012 03 29

Here are videos of the entire “first annual Valdosta-Lowndes Governmental Leadership Meeting” that was held 6:30 PM 29 March 2012 in the Lowndes High School Lecture Hall. Here’s the announcement.

The meeting was introduced by Dr. Steve Smith, Superintendent, Lowndes County Schools. Lowndes County Schools had a written position statement, with everything from a broad variety of test scores and other metrics to specific examples of existing collaborations such as loaning busses to the Valdosta School System for away sporting events.

Dr. Smith clarified that:

This is not a community forum, it is not an open dialogue.
He told me before the meeting started that he was concerned that if they opened it up to questions from the audience it would take all night and it had been hard enough to get the various elected officials to show up at all without expecting them to stay for that. I didn’t see but maybe a dozen non-elected audience members, so I wonder whether that really would have happened, but I applaud the various governments for collaborating at all. He did say if you had a question you could write it down and hand it to a member of your elected government or school board. He also indicated that committees might form, not that evening, but perhaps growing out of that evening’s meeting. He reiterated this meeting was for brainstorming among the elected officials.

The elected officials included Valdosta Schools Superintendent and many VBOE members, Lowndes School Superintendent and Superintendent-elect and many LCBOE members, Valdosta Mayor, City Manager, and many city council members, and Lowndes County Manager, Clerk, and voting commissioners, but not the Chairman.

Wes Taylor, Lowndes High School Principal & Lowndes County Schools Superintendent Elect talked about finances.

Valdosta Mayor John Gayle said we’re regional now (regional hospital, regional university, etc.). He talked about how Troup County went about landing the Kia plant, which had to do with each governmental entity taking a role and collaborating. (It had nothing to do with school consolidation.)

VBOE member Vanassa Flucas said they try to put everything related to their schools on their website, in an effort of transparency for parents and students. Plus:

We noticed that since we put our strategic plan on our website approximately three years ago, it was very well received. It was very heartening; people could find the information that they wanted.
Imagine that! Continue reading →

Industrial Authority board meets Tuesday @ VLCIA 2012 04 17

Industrial Authority board meets about something or other Tuesday; hard to tell what. Maybe this will reveal some sort of strategy:

  • Target Market Study Update

VLCIA’s website is restored enough to say:

The Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority will hold a Regular Board Meeting on Tuesday, April 17, 2012 at 5:30pm in the Industrial Authority Conference room.
They’ve also posted a notice on their facebook page.

The agenda doesn’t say much. I guess that one time they put a lot of information in it was a one-shot. And if you want to see any old agendas, you’ll need to wait until they finish fixing their website. Or look in the LAKE blog….

Now, let’s see, where are those minutes?

Here’s the agenda.

-jsq

Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority
Agenda
Tuesday, April 17, 2012 5:30 p.m.
Industrial Authority Conference Room
2110 N. Patterson Street
Continue reading →