Tag Archives: Transparency

Proposed Lowndes County Budget published by LAKE —Gretchen Quarterman

Apparently there was a budget hearing last week that no one attended. I don’t see it on the county calendar.

We know it happened though because the paper reported on it.

The second budget hearing is scheduled for June 28 at 5:00pm and is on the Lowndes County web site calendar.

At the work session this morning, I asked Ms. Stephanie Black if she could e-mail me a copy of the budget and she said yes. Ms. Paige Dukes said that Ms. Black should not e-mail me the document, but I could look at a paper copy. A paper copy could be provided to me for $0.25 per page. I asked if there was an electronic copy and Ms. Dukes said that this document was not available in an electronic form.

Given that the document is neatly typed and clearly is generated from a spread sheet, I think that it is not true that this document is unavailable in an electronic format.

I asked if I could photograph it instead and Ms. Dukes said Continue reading →

Lowndes County budget hearing today 5PM

That’s 5PM, before the usual 5:30 PM Lowndes County Commission regular session time, at 327 North Ashley Street. The county has published a public notice about this second hearing. It’s not clear they did that for the first budget hearing, which was last week. And the budget doesn’t include the T-SPLOST boondoggles Lowndes County is requesting.

VDT opined 23 June 2011, What We Think: Surviving, not thriving:

Lowndes County Commissioners held a budget hearing Tuesday to discuss the 2011-2012 fiscal year with citizens, only to have no citizens appear. The budget will be finalized at a public hearing Tuesday, June 28, prior to the regular commission meeting.

With all of the attention paid lately to officials and their expenses, you would think that the opportunity to learn how the county spends citizens’ tax dollars would have been an opportunity not to be missed. But missed it was.

After giving people in Valdosta a hard time for not showing up at their city’s budget hearing, I have to say: mea culpa. I wasn’t there.

However, I would ask: how were we supposed to know about it? Someone from LAKE has been at every regularly-scheduled Lowndes County Commission meeting in the recent past, videoing the whole meetings, and I must have missed the announcement of this recent budget hearing, which is also not on the county’s website calendar.

The VDT continues:

Maybe it’s because there’s nothing new about the county’s budget. It’s the same as it has been for several years — flat.

No increases in revenue are projected. No new positions, merit raises, cost of living increases, or significant purchases, again. Caps on assessments, the continuing lull in construction, and slow sales mean no new revenue is coming in. What is projected is enough to make ends meet, but there are no frills, no luxury items, not this year.

Oh, there are luxury items, they’re just not in the budget, because the county is asking we the taxpayers to pay through the proposed new T-SPLOST tax for That’s $24 million in new taxes they’re requesting for unnecessary road projects that will promote sprawl into far north Lowndes County and into Lanier County. Sprawl that will end up costing Lowndes County more than it can bring in in taxes from the sprawling developments.

And Lowndes County has tacked onto the end a request for $7.5 million for a bus system. Which would you rather have? A bus system that would promote the entire county’s economy, or five lanes on New Bethel to add to Lanier County sprawl?

Fortunately, T-SPLOST does publicize its hearings, the next of which will be 6 July 2011 in Nashville, Georgia.

The VDT concludes;

But for Lowndes to thrive, to make such a possibility come alive, it needs citizens willing to participate in the process. We need creative thinking and we need leaders willing to listen to the possibilities of new ideas.
Hear hear!

Stay tuned for what happens when a citizen tries to get involved in the Lowndes County budget process.

-jsq

VLCIA gets around to updating its meeting schedule: after the meeting

Last week the Industrial Authority held a meeting on 14 June 2011 that it called its regularly scheduled meeting. Except the date for that meeting on VLCIA’s own web page said “June 21, 2011”. I checked just before going to last week’s meeting.

Today VLCIA’s Meeting Schedule web page now says:

June 14, 2011**
**Please note date change**
Well, some of us did note the date of the 14 June meeting because the VDT published that date. However, nobody said at that meeting whether there would be another meeting this week.

And we still don’t know Continue reading →

Transparency and leadership for the local good —John S. Quarterman @ VLCIA 14 June 2011

Noting that I was there on behalf of the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), which takes these videos and puts them on the web, I recommended to the Industrial Authority board that they put their agendas on the web, since they give those away at the door and they don’t contain any of the details that they’re concerned about revealing to competitors.

Recalling that I had previously had the audacity to read their own charter to them, or at least the parts about the general good and welfare of the community, I reminded them that some areas that had successfully attracted industry, such as Raleigh, NC, Austin, TX, and Portland, OR had said what kinds of industry they wanted. Expanding on the example of Austin, TX, I noted that they emphasized clean industry, music, and arts, and that helped attract the kinds of knowledge-based workers that our local Chamber of Commerce wants for knowledge-based jobs.

Then I noted that I had complimented Mayor Fretti Continue reading →

Why all those VLCIA special meetings?

Here’s the VlCIA board approving minutes for some of those recent meetings, although you can’t tell what they were for, since they were listed on the agenda like this:
Minutes
  • Special Called Meeting, May 17, 2011
  • Executive Session, May 17, 2011
  • Regular Meeting, May 17, 2011
  • Special Called Meeting, May 20, 2011
  • Executive Session, May 20, 2011
  • Special Called Meeting, May 21, 2011
  • Executive Session, May 21, 2011
  • Special Called Meeting, June 7, 2011
  • Executive Session, June 7, 2011
That’s right: no indication of what the meetings were for.

I was told outside afterwards by one board member that the special meetings were for Continue reading →

How did Lowndes County approve a contract with VLCIA that could force raising taxes?

We’ve seen that the inter-governmental contract between Lowndes County and the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA) could force the county to raise taxes to pay for VLCIA’s debts. How did the county pass such a thing? Apparently in a rush, with little review.

Matt Flumerfelt wrote in the VDT 19 November 2008, County approves bond issue:

LOWNDES COUNTY — The Lowndes County Commission heard a presentation Tuesday evening from Glenn Thomson, Alston & Bird LLP regarding a bond issue the County has entered into for the purpose of providing needed funding for the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority.

After the presentation, a vote was taken accepting the issue and Lowndes County Commission Chairman Rod Casey, County Attorney Walter Elliott and County Clerk Paige Dukes adjourned to an adjoining chamber to complete the signing of the documents that will enable the Industrial Authority to negotiate for the acquisition of property pursuant to their mission of attracting manufacturing and other businesses to Lowndes County.

Bond Counsel, Glenn Thomson, stated, “Mr. Chairman and Commission, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your time and brag on your staff and consultants. Your staff put this transaction together very quickly. In fact, the underwriter’s counsel remarked that he had never encountered county employees and staff that had worked so diligently and that due to their preparedness and hard work, he was able to put his information together in near record time. Their performance and that of County Attorney, Walter Elliott, who worked tirelessly on this project as well, is a tremendous credit to those responsible for managing the business of the county.”

Why was it necessary to put together a guarantee for a $15 million dollar bond issue in “near record time”? Continue reading →

Citizens to be Heard will get moved back earlier —George B. Rhyne s

George Rhynes said he’s positive Citzens to be Heard will get moved back earlier in the agenda. The VDT quoted that part, in a story that doesn’t appear to be online yet. He also criticized the VDT for printing more about animals than about jail deaths.

Here’s the video:


Citizens to be Heard will get moved back earlier —George B. Rhynes
Regular Meeting, Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 4 June 2011.
Videos by Barbara Stratton for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Here’s George’s own video and writeup of what he said.

-jsq

Economic opportunity and cooperation —John Robinson @ VCC 9 June 2011

Discussing the VSEB program, John Robinson remarked:
We need the council up here to show us interest in this program.
He recommended everybody work together, including city and county.

Here’s the video:


Economic opportunity and cooperation —John Robinson @ VCC 9 June 2011
Regular Meeting, Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 4 June 2011.
Videos by Barbara Stratton for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Irregular VLCIA meeting Tuesday 14 June 2011

Industrial Authority changes “regular” meeting time to be same as Lowndes County Commission meeting.

Tucked away at the end of David Rodock’s 8 June 2011 article about a special called VLCIA meeting is this tidbit:

Board members changed the date of their next meeting to June 14 at 5:30 p.m. The public is invited to attend.
You wouldn’t know that by looking at VLCIA’s own meeting schedule web page, which shows no change from the regular schedule. That page also still says this:
All Meetings will be held at 5:30pm in the Industrial Authority Conference Room, 2110 N. Patterson Street, unless otherwise notified.
So maybe that’s where it is, or maybe not. Maybe it’s possible to determine the time or the location, but not both. Valdosta-Lowndes County Heisenberg Authority.

I would post an agenda, if they made them publicly available before their meetings, which they still do not. They should have quite a collection of agendas and minutes to approve Tuesday, given how many special called meetings they’ve had lately.

-jsq