Tag Archives: Transparency

One Day Notice: Lowndes County Annual Planning Meeting, Jekyll Island, GA 2025-03-05

Update 2025-03-13: Packet: Lowndes County Commission Annual Planning Meeting 2025-03-05.

Update 2025-03-07: Cancelled: Lowndes County Commission meetings 2025-03-10-11 2025-03-10.

If you were signed up for Lowndes County’s civicplus alert system, yesterday you got a notice that today starts the three-day Lowndes County Annual Planning Meeting on Jekyll Island.

No agenda is posted.

The name of the venue is not mentioned, but at 110 Ocean Way, Jekyll Island, GA, is The Westin Jekyll Island Beach Resort, with rooms listed at $299/night, or $372 with taxes and fees.

[One Day Notice: LCC Annual Planning Meeting, Westin Jekyll Island Beach Resort 2025-03-05-07]
One Day Notice: LCC Annual Planning Meeting, Westin Jekyll Island Beach Resort 2025-03-05-07

Generally I agree the budget of the Lowndes County Commission is frugal.

But not this resort island splurge away from the eyes of the taxpayers and voters.

LAKE has filed a Georgia Open Records Act (GORA) request for the agenda and board packet. The three-day statutory limit does not expire until after this retreat is over. We would have filed the request earlier, had we known. Continue reading →

Packet: Insurance cancellation, annexation and rezoning for Development Authority, final bond resolution for water and wastewater, and $679,832.40 for tasers @ VCC 2024-12-05

The board packet has a couple of pages on why city staff want to cancel the insurance broker contract, while the broker is posting his version on his ValdostaFirst facebook group.

Valdosta Police Department wants $679,832.40 for Conducted Electrical Weapons (CEW), which say taser on the side.

I’m told this is the final resolution required before issuing the $67 million bonds for water and wastewater projects.

[Packet: Issue water and sewer bonds, cancel insurance contract, $679,832.40 for tasers, VLDA rezoning and annexation, raise wrecker rates @ VCC 2024-12-05]
Packet: Issue water and sewer bonds, cancel insurance contract, $679,832.40 for tasers, VLDA rezoning and annexation, raise wrecker rates @ VCC 2024-12-05

See also the agenda.

The board packet, received in response to an open records request, is on the LAKE website.

For the rezoning and annexation, see also the preceding Planning Commission meeting. Continue reading →

Packet: ULDC text amendments, Loch Winn LTD rezoning, adoption of millage rates, USGS stream gauges, sprayfield expansion, watermain interconnection @ LCC 2024-10-14

Update 2024-10-21: Agenda: DRC Emergency Services and VSU South Campus Purchase @ LCC 2024-10-21.

The TXT-2024-03 ULDC Text Amendments are quite long and detailed. The county still has not published them for the tax-paying and voting public to see. You can see them now, because LAKE got them with an open records request, and now they are on the LAKE website.

[Packet: ULDC text amendments, Loch Winn rezoning, millage rates, river gauges, sprayfield expansion, watermain interconnection: Grove Pointe, Nelson Hill @ LCC 2024-10-14]
Packet: ULDC text amendments, Loch Winn rezoning, millage rates, river gauges, sprayfield expansion, watermain interconnection: Grove Pointe, Nelson Hill @ LCC 2024-10-14

It’s good the Lowndes County Commissioners decided Tuesday to table those amendments (and the rezoning) until the Planning Commission can review them.

Cost What
$3,369,213.71 Sprayfield Expansion Phase
$78,392.6.00 Grove Pointe Nelson Hill Watermain Interconnection
$3,025.00 Joint Funding Agreement with USGS for Stream Gauge Maintenance
$3,450,631.31Total

The board packet, received in response to a LAKE open records request, is on the LAKE website.

See also Continue reading →

Videos: ULDC text amendments, Loch Winn LTD rezoning, adoption of millage rates, USGS stream gauges, sprayfield expansion, watermain interconnection @ LCC Regular 2024-10-15

Update 2024-10-17: Packet: ULDC text amendments, Loch Winn LTD rezoning, adoption of millage rates, USGS stream gauges, sprayfield expansion, watermain interconnection @ LCC 2024-10-14.

As Chairman Bill Slaughter said they would in the preceding Millage Public Hearing, they adopted the roll back millage rate of 7.356 rather than the advertized rate of 7.804. Last year (2023) the rate was 8.778.

The Fire District Millage Rate is continuing at 2.5 mil. The commission plans to continue this rate for 5 years from the start date. This is probably year 3, so apparently 2 more years.

[Collage @ LCC 15 October 2024]
Collage @ LCC 15 October 2024

They actually did table the 5.a. TXT-2024-03 ULDC Text Amendments and the rezoning 5.b. REZ-2024-15 Loch Laurel – Carroll Ulmer so the Planning Commission could hear them at the October 28 meeting and then voted on at the November 12 Lowndes County Commission Regular Meeting.

There was quite a bit of discussion between Commissioners and Lowndes County Manager Paige Dukes and Utilities Director Steve Stalvey about the Sprayfield Expansion. Continue reading →

Videos: Forestry, Weather, ULDC text amendments, Loch Winn LTD rezoning, adoption of millage rates, USGS stream gauges, sprayfield expansion, watermain interconnection @ LCC Work 2024-10-14

Update 2024-10-17: Videos: Millage Public Hearing @ LCC 2024-10-15.

Only in the Work Session this morning, and if you weren’t there, only in these LAKE videos:

[Collage @ LCC Regular 14 October 2024]
Collage @ LCC Regular 14 October 2024

In regular items, County Planner JD Dillard recommended tabling the ULDC Text Amendments until stakeholders have more time to comment. He referred to the copy Commissioners had in their packet. We the taxpayers and voters do not have a copy.

He also recommended tabling 5.b. REZ-2024-15 Loch Laurel – Carroll Ulmer until the Planning Commission can review it. Which indicates that GLPC did not meet last month, even though there was no announcement that it had been cancelled.

Finance Director Stephanie Black said there would be a Millage Public Hearing at 5PM tomorrow, Tuesday, October 15, before the 5:30 PM Regular Session.

There was discussion in 7.a. Sprayfield Expansion Phase I. Continue reading →

Agenda: ULDC text amendments, Loch Winn LTD rezoning, adoption of millage rates, USGS stream gauges, sprayfield expansion, watermain interconnection @ LCC 2024-10-14

Update 2024-10-14: Videos: Forestry, Weather, ULDC text amendments, Loch Winn LTD rezoning, adoption of millage rates, USGS stream gauges, sprayfield expansion, watermain interconnection @ LCC Work 2024-10-14.

The long-quorum-and-hurricane–delayed REZ-2024-15 Loch Winn LTD rezoning will probably be decided Tuesday evening by the Lowndes County Commission. Before that, it will be heard at the Work Session Monday morning 8:30 AM, along with suprise ULDC text amendments, two millage rates, river gauges, sprayfield, and watermain interconnection between two northside subdivisions.

The adoption of the regular and Fire District millage rates will presumbably get presentations much like the last Millage Public Hearing on September 19.

We get a one-paragraph summary of TXT-2024-03 ULDC Text Amendments, but not the actual text.

We would have seen the text in the GLPC packet, but back in June the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission abdicated oversight of ULDC text amendments. And in June, the Lowndes County Commission rubberstamped that abdication.

The agenda item says, “9/2024 VDT Advertisements Published (Public Notice)” but I can’t find that in GeorgiaPublicNotice.com.

What is it the county planners and Commissioners do not want the public to see?

[ULDC text amendments, Loch Winn rezoning, millage rates, river gauges, sprayfield expansion, watermain interconnection: Grove Pointe, Nelson Hill @ LCC 2024-10-14]
ULDC text amendments, Loch Winn rezoning, millage rates, river gauges, sprayfield expansion, watermain interconnection: Grove Pointe, Nelson Hill @ LCC 2024-10-14

Here’s a refresher for where this would be, between Old US 41 North and Val Del Road: Grove Pointe Nelson Hill Watermain Interconnection. Continue reading →

Lowndes County Commission Meetings Cancelled 2024-10-08

the county calendar entry for tonight’s Lowndes County Commission Regular Session says it is cancelled.

No reason was given, but likely it has to do with Hurricane Helene cleanup.

[Cancelled: Lowndes County Commission Regular Session 2024-10-08]
Cancelled: Lowndes County Commission Regular Session 2024-10-08

The calendar entry for yesterday morning’s Work Session does not say cancelled.

But no agenda was posted, so we can probably assume that one was also cancelled.

-jsq

Investigative reporting costs money, for open records requests, copying, web hosting, gasoline, and cameras, and with sufficient funds we can pay students to do further research. You can donate to LAKE today!
http://www.l-a-k-e.org/blog/donate

Cancelled: Millage and Special Called Meetings because Hurricane Helene @ LCC 2024-09-26

A lowndescounty.com news item yesterday says:

Millage Public Hearing Meeting and Adoption Meeting / September 26, 2024 / CANCELLED

The Lowndes County Board of Commissioners is postponing the Millage Public Hearing scheduled for Thursday, September 26, 2024 at 5:00 p.m. as well as the Special Called Meeting for the Adoption of the Millage Rate which was scheduled for Thursday, September 26, 2024 at 5:30 p.m. due to Hurricane Helene.

These meetings will be rescheduled at a later date.

Also yesterday they posted that, “Lowndes County Offices will be closed Thursday, September 26, 2024, and Friday, September 27, 2024 due to Tropical Storm Helene.”

[Cancelled: Millage Public Hearing and Special Called Adoption Meeting @ LCC 2024-09-26 County Offices closed Thursday and Friday]
Cancelled: Millage Public Hearing and Special Called Adoption Meeting @ LCC 2024-09-26 County Offices closed Thursday and Friday

That all seems sensible.

And that cancellation announcement resolves the question we posed of how was the Commission to approve the budget, given there was no meeting scheduled for that?

I don’t see a Public Notice anywhere for that Special Called Meeting. Of course, state law merely requires the notice to be sent to the local legal organ of record (The Valdosta Daily Times). The law does not require that the notice actually get posted.

So apparently they cancelled a Special Called Meeting without the public having seen a notice that it had been called.

-jsq

Investigative reporting costs money, for open records requests, copying, web hosting, gasoline, and cameras, and with sufficient funds we can pay students to do further research. You can donate to LAKE today!
http://www.l-a-k-e.org/blog/donate

Work and Regular Sessions Cancelled @ LCC 2024-09-23-24

“The September 23, 2024 Work Session and the September 24, 2024 Regular Session Commission Meetings have been cancelled,” reads the Lowndes County response to the usual LAKE open records request for the board packet. No explanation was included.

The calendar entries on lowndescounty.com for the Work Session and the Regular Session are no more informative, merely saying &lquo;CANCELLED”.

[CANCELLED: 2024-09-23-24 Work and Regular Sessions, But Millage Public Hearing Thursday, Lowndes County Commission]
CANCELLED: 2024-09-23-24 Work and Regular Sessions, But Millage Public Hearing Thursday, Lowndes County Commission

However, the third and final Public Hearing on the Millage is 5 PM Thursday, September 26, 2024.

According to Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter in the second Millage Public Hearing on September 19, “And then we will adopt the millage, setting the rate, on September 26, as well.”

How that will work is mysterious, since no agenda is posted for the Millage Public Hearing. Maybe they will just vote after the Public Hearing, since presumably a quorum of Commissioners will be in the room. Or they still have time to announce a Special Called Meeting at least 24 hours in advance, as state law requires.

-jsq

Investigative reporting costs money, for open records requests, copying, web hosting, gasoline, and cameras, and with sufficient funds we can pay students to do further research. You can donate to LAKE today!
http://www.l-a-k-e.org/blog/donate

Videos: Ban passes 3:2 on Planning Commission reviewing ULDC changes @ LCC Regular 2024-07-09

Only Commissioners Mark Wisenbaker and Clay Griner voted against prohibiting the Planning Commission from reviewing proposed amendments to the Unified Land Development Code (ULDC). Commissioner Scottie Orenstein made the motion, seconded by Commissioner Joyce Evants. Commissioner Demarcus Marshall also voted in favor. But if you’re a “stakeholder”, which county staff define as Chamber or Homebuilders, you’ll get special email notification and maybe sit-down meetings before ULDC changes appear before the County Commission.

[Collage @ LCC 9 July 2024]
Collage @ LCC 9 July 2024

If you’re a private citizen, you can speak in Citizens Wishing to Be Heard, as Matthew and Debra Williams did, asking once again for the county to do something about a drainage easement draining onto their property.

Or Tara Parker, suggesting a spay and neuter program would be more effective than the new animal control building the Commissioners budgeted $10 million for. As usual, nobody answered them during the public meeting.

Everything else on the agenda passed unanimously.

Before they voted, on the ULDC changes, Gretchen Quarterman spoke in opposition, noting that they previously had ULDC text amendments in 2015 and last year, and the Planning Commission did not delay any of those. Also, if private citizens want a rezoning, they have to go through the Planning Commission first, yet this amendment means the county government does not.

Before that, Continue reading →