Tag Archives: Transparency

LCC 5:30 PM Tuesday 26 April 2011

Even a light agenda includes a water item.

It’s a very light agenda for the Lowndes County Commission; so light the work session was cancelled. However, the regular session is scheduled as usual for Tuesday evening.

They’ve moved Citizens Wishing to be Heard back to the middle of the meeting. Historically, it’s been here and it’s been there in different places in the agenda. I still think at the end is a fine place for it, since then more people may stay for the entire meeting. I posted my other thoughts on CWTBH back when they changed to their current policy on that.

Groundwater sampling near a landfill is an item. The same item was on the agenda last time, but didn’t get resolved. Water is an issue throughout the region.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION CANCELLED
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, APRIL 26, 2011, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

Runaround —Leigh Touchton

Leigh Touchton responded to Valdosta Mayor John Fretti’s response to her previous post. -jsq
Happy Birthday, Mayor Fretti, and thank you for posting publicly.

However, I wish you would stop trying to pass Mayor and Council’s portion of responsibility for the biomass incinerator to the Industrial Authority. I delivered a letter to Mayor and Council Thursday night outlining 10 reasons your Utilities Director can legitimately give when he (hopefully) follows Mayor and Council’s recommendation to refuse to sell gray water to the proposed biomass incinerator. I and many other citizens are tired of the run-around and the shifting of responsibility for this “biomess” from one public official or group to another.

A councilmember told me that Council would never vote

Continue reading →

To Speak or Not To Speak @ VCC 21 April 2011

Can Council members answer in Citizens to Be Heard, or can’t they? One did; another says she can’t.

In Council Comments at the end of the 21 April 2011 Valdosta City Council meeting, Sonny Vickers talked about bids.

Then Deidra White said she would attend any meeting where she could hear and reply to citizens’ concerns, but she can can’t say anything about Citizens to be Heard because there’s a Council policy.

That’s interesting, considering that in the previous Valdosta City Council meeting, in Citizens to be Heard, Council Sonny Vickers responded to Dr. Mark George saying that he had already told everyone that he was for the biomass plant. Does this mean that Council supporters of the biomass plant can speak Continue reading →

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Touchton v. City of Valdosta, Georgia, et al.

Mayor Fretti mentioned a lawsuit against him and the city of Valdosta that was dismissed. Court records on that are available.

According to Justia.com Dockets & Filings, Catherine Leigh Touchton filed a federal civil rights lawsuit 30 May 2007 against John Fretti and the City of Valdosta Georgia Middle District Court, On 17 April 2009:

Court Opinion or Order ORDER directing judgment for defendants on federal law claims. State law claims are dismissed without prejudice. Ordered by Judge Hugh Lawson on 4/17/2009.
A dozen similar lawsuits were filed the same day by Karen Camion, Faye Chachere, Jesse Clark, Callie Fielden, Reggie Griffin, Kathryn Harris, Willie Head, Joann Mosley, George Rhynes, Willie Roberson, Floyd Rose, and Mary Sherman. All appear to have had the same result.

Access to related documents is available by registering with PACER. They don’t charge until a user runs up a minimum amount of usage.

-jsq

Quality time —Mayor John Fretti

More from the person posting as Mayor John Fretti, this time responding to Dr. Noll’s recent post. -jsq
Update 12:40 AM 23 April 2011: Mayor Fretti confirms that the post was by him. -jsq
Perhaps this is my last post: It is in regards to Michael Noll’s most recent post. I will attempt to cut and paste the section that I would like to respond.
“What I found most disturbing are actually the following things that happened at last night’s meeting:

1) A Mayor in absentia because he is celebrating his birthday and decided not to attend because of a lack of agenda items for the meeting.”

Michael – I hope that I have always been polite and respectful
Continue reading →

Equal opportunity criticizer —John S. Quarterman

Leigh Touchton remarked:
…apparently Yost thinks your criticism of people not staying is something he can use to good effect to nullify the need to publicly address citizen complaints.
Well, good luck to him: it doesn’t seem to be working that way.

I think I’m an equal opportunity criticizer. Remember I pointed out that the council is not a law enforcement body and gave a recent example of that. And I pointed out that the mayor of little old Gretna put out a proclamation saying no biomass and the great city of Valdosta could go ahead and do that instead of waiting for somebody else to make the decision for them. And yes, I criticized the protesters for not staying. I’m not surprised various people choose to ignore part of what I said and pick up on other parts; life’s like that.

I understand that some people don’t like to take a strong position in public. Clearly not everybody has to be an advocate for or against any given topic.

However, my opinion is that anybody who runs for elected office should be willing to say in public what their opinion is. Sure, sometimes it’s good to say “I’m thinking about it” or “I’m studying it” or even better “I’d like to know more about X”: that could promote a dialog. Even “I’m working on it behind the scenes” would be a useful public statement. But elected officials refusing to take any position is ridiculous, and I see nothing wrong with laughing out loud at the ridiculous.

-jsq

Some local governments partner with their citizens for open government

OpenAustin: speakupaustin!
OpenAustin promotes open government & open data in Austin, TX.

OpenAustin is a member-driven organizantion that promotes open government, open data, and civic application development in Austin, TX.

OpenAustin was originally formed by Austin residents interested in the City of Austin’s web strategy and approach. Presently, OpenAustin focuses on ensuring that all local public sector agencies embrace open data and open government principles, provide adequate oversight over public information, and support the civic software development.

Through a series of conversations, common ground was developed between the City and Open Austin to work together in a formal and recurring way. The goal is to develop new capacities for the City of Austin website while reducing or eliminating costs.

A strategic alliance document has been created by Open Austin and the City represents the expectations and the basis for the working relationship. In order to advance this partnership relationship, the City and OpenAustin will partner, innovate and improve.

http://open-austin.org

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=90275885408

Starting with one thing, web strategy, led to general open government. They even have a candidate questionnaire. Which most of the candidates have answered.

-jsq