Here the facilitator is getting the board and staff to answer some initial questions.
Pictures and videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange, 23 February 2012.
After they gave individual answers, they broke into groups each including board and staff: Continue reading
What it does not have is any mention of
anything about Project Excel, or CCA, or the private prison,
even though Ms. Schruijer told me yesterday to expect the board
to say something about that.
You can still
express your opinion to them before then.
And since this agenda says
**TENTATIVE**
maybe that item will get added before tomorrow afternoon.
Also missing is any item for the Strategic Planning RFP, even though that RFP says the board will review any responses received by their February board meeting.
What this agenda does have is numerous specific items under the usual broad headers such as Existing Industry/Project Report. So instead of listening to Col. Ricketts and trying to figure out what he’s talking about, you can see such things as “e-Snychronist® Existing Industry Retention and Expansion business information system (BIS)” in writing. You still don’t see names of the “five (5) Prospects” or the “three (3) companies that are developing expansion plans”. Maybe I buy the competitive information argument for the prospects, but I’m not so sure about the three expanding companies, especially if they’re already local. And considering the things VLCIA has tried to sneak in under cover of not mentioning competitive information, such as biomass and a private prison, I’m not sure I buy that argument at all.
Also on the plus side, the agenda includes an actual schedule for bids Continue reading
VLCIA Executive Director Andrea Schruijer clarified on the telephone just now
that
Thursday’s 9AM-2PM board retreat
is an open meeting; the public can attend.
She said the agenda was made by the facilitator, and she had not seen it.
The purpose of the retreat is for board members to talk about their experiences
and roles as board members.
The retreat is not for discussing specific projects.
Regarding the 2PM board meeting Thursday, she said she thought the agenda was on VLCIA’s web pages. When we looked and found it wasn’t there, she said apparently there was some confusion due to the rescheduling of the meeting, and the agenda would be there soon.
I asked her whether the Project Excel Project Excel, the CCA private prison, she said the Preliminary Specifications ( see section 1.6.1) had been received. She said they had been received, and they were simply a site diagram, a copy of which was hanging on VLCIA’s office wall. From discussion with her, it appears to be this site plan: Continue reading
Since I’m familiar with that location as the old closed pawn shop, I called VLCIA’s new PR person, Meghan Duke, for clarification.Notice: The Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority Regular Meeting has been rescheduled for the month of February. The meeting date will be Thursday, February 23, 2011, 2:00 P.M. at 101 N Ashley Street.
Notice of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority Board Retreat, Thursday, February 23, 2012, 9:00 AM- 2:00 PM at 101 N Ashley Street.
I congratulated her on her recent appointment, and repeated what I’ve
been saying for some time now, that VLCIA does many good things most
people don’t know about and with some PR maybe we would.
She said she was working on educating the public.
About the meeting location, she told me Continue reading
We don’t know, because the county doesn’t post the details of
agenda items, just cryptic shorthand that may mean something
to Commissioners or staff, but that means nothing to the public.
At this morning’s work session and tomorrow evening’s regular session, the Lowndes County Commission has a brief but eventful agenda, including a modification to the alcohol ordinance, an alcohol license, a DHS grant a GDOT grant for a road project on Davidson Road (presumably related to the new Moody AFB gate), two road abandonments, and this interesting item:
6.h. Request from Superior Court to establish salary of the Community Corrections DirectorYour guess is as good as mine.
Here’s the agenda.
-jsq
Continue readingLOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2012, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2012, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Jay Hollis, CCA’s Manager of Site Acquisition, in his Valdosta-Lowndes County, GA / CCA Partnership: Prepared Remarks of August 2010, wrote:
So who is this local leadership?Our Valdosta/Lowndes County site quickly became our primary due to its local and regional workforce, collaboration of local leadership, site characteristics, proximity to necessary services and infrastructure, and accessibility to name a few.
We look forward to working closely with Valdosta/Lowndes leadership as we move forward in the months to come.Continue readingFinally, I’d like to take a moment to recognize a few folks that have been essential to the project:
According to
Valdosta-Lowndes County, GA / CCA Partnership: Talking Points
(undated, but it refers to
“The agreement formalized by the Industrial Authority on 8/17”),
The Valdosta/Lowndes site became the primary due to the local and regional workforce, collaboration of local leadership, site characteristics, proximity to necessary services and infrastructure, accessibility, etc.Nothing in there about low poverty or high wages. One could even read that the other way around, as in a low-wage population looking for jobs.
Looks to me like our Industrial Authority didn’t do much due diligence about private prisons.
Also note that the contract of 17 August 2010 between VLCIA and CCA was signed after the announcement in July 2010 that CCA had selected Decatur County. More about that in another post.
-jsq
Economic Impact of Project Excel by Clifford A. Lipscomb, Ph.D., 2 November 2009:
The VLCIA has noted that Project Excel is considering other locations. Below I provide a comparison of key economic indicators for these alternative counties — Grady and Decatur.So which other county did CCA actually pick? Continue reading
In closing, it appears that Project Excel is an excellent candidate for location in Lowndes County.
Table 1. Characteristics of Selected Counties Variable Decatur Grady Lowndes Population, 2008 28,823 25,115 104,583 % Pop w/ Bachelor’s degree 12.1% 10.6% 19.7% Median HH Income, 2007 32,650 33,060 38,666 Persons below poverty, 2007 22.5% 22.2% 20.5% Persons white non-Hispanic, 2008 54.8% 60.6% 60.0%
All the CCA documents VLCIA provided in response to Matt Flumerfelt’s Open Records Request
are
on the LAKE website.
I will continue posting what I see in them (in the category
CCA), but you may find things in them I don’t.
If you find something particularly interesting, please send it to the
LAKE blog submission address or comment on the blog so we can all see it.
-jsq
According to “SCHEDULE 1.6.2 DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULE” CCA was supposed to provide to VLCIA
CCA did provide a Title Objection Letter 19 November 2010, and that was due “within 30 days of receipt of the Survey”. So these Preliminary Specifications were due about six months ago. Let’s see them!Submission of Preliminary Specifications (Section 1.6.1)
No later than 6 months after receipt of the Survey
If those specifications have not been received by VLCIA, maybe the contract with CCA is no longer valid.
Or maybe VLCIA already received the NTP and is moving on with implementing the project. Seems to me the community should be informed, one way or the other.
-jsq