Ben Popken wrote for the Consumerist 15 July 2011, Small Arizona Town In Furor After 2nd Citizen Arrested For Speaking At Town Meeting:
What’s all this about? Continue readingThe town of Quartzsite, AZ, population 3,466, is in disarray after a video showing police hauling away a citizen for speaking at the town meeting podium went viral. The woman was saying that the town council had been violating open meeting laws.
It was the second citizen arrested at a Quartzsite town meeting in two weeks.
Ref comments by outof control – This is definitely confusing. I don’t see anything in the controversy about contracts being put out to bid. Isn’t the fact an electrical company owned by one of the board members was contracted to do work on a government project illegal conflict of interest? It appears to me that someone needs to come in & educate all the government entities (elected & appointed)& the public in Lowndes Co on what conflict of interest means.Continue readingI have seen several incidents in government meetings where an elected or appointed individual excused himself from voting because of an admitted COI. How does that excuse the COI when COI also includes impaired objectivity, unequal access to information, etc. Basically if there is any connection between a government elected or appointed official & a private company contractual relationships of any kind come under COI & are not supposed to be allowed even if a bid process takes place.
That is another reason why citizens should not allow public/private partnerships. Normal bidding procedures are ignored
Please see and share job opportunities below.The job postings he sent were the top two from this list, for Continue reading
Sincerely
Councilman James R. Wright
(229) 259-3500 City
(229) 560-3941 Cell
(229) 253-1870 Fax
jwright@valdostacity.com
Continue readingIt is unbelievable that despite all the concerns in our community about biomass, the Industrial authority is still considering to sell the land to a company like Wiregrass Power LLC. This is the same company the Industrial Authority once stated
it had no faith in anymore. This is the same company that just missed another deadline as stipulated by their contract. And this is the same company that apparently does not have the best interest of our community in mind.
The City of Stockholm’s “Action Programme on Climate Change” involves the participation of several groups: the City of Stockholm’s own departments, local businesses and those who live and work in the city. The work has been successful so far and the emission of greenhouse gases has been reduced. In 1990, emissions of 5.3 tons of CO2e* per person were registered compared with 4.0 tons CO2e per person in 2005.
The long-term target is for Stockholm to continue to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases at the same rate as between 1990 and 2005. In theory, this means that Stockholm will become a fossil fuel free city by 2050.
Greenhouse gas targets for the period of 2005-2050 compared with the base year of 1990.
* CO2e = means of specifying the effect of a gas on the emission of greenhouse gases compared to carbon dioxide.
-jsq
PS: This post owed to Tim Carroll, who saw it in Time Magazine.
Sam Allen asked in various ways:
“What about the children?”He made it clear he doesn’t think school consolidation will help the children, and it will definitely hurt current Valdosta teachers and staff, so he says don’t do it.
Continuing the FVCS press conference, Sam Allen asked some good questions,
“If the school system was good enough for them, why isn’t it good enough for us?”and
“If there’s not going to be any change, why are we doing it?”
Here’s Part 1 of 9: Continue reading
I remember when Lowndes County consolidated two high schools into one, and the rationale was cost saving and more resources for science classes. What it was really about was football. And it worked: Lowndes High School now often wins the state championship, and Valdosta hasn’t in a decade. While education lags behind.
I think the Lowndes County Board of Education is doing the right Continue reading
Sam Allen, former chair of the Valdosta school board and head of
Friends of Valdosta City Schools (FVCS) held
a press conference
to announce opposition after
CUEE announced 9,000 petitions for a referendum to
combine the Valdosta and Lowndes County school systems..
Why so late with the opposition?
Sam Allen explained:
“We were scared. We were intimidated because we had heard about all these consultants coming down, and all these studies being done. So we just thought that we would just sit back and watch and this thing would eventually go away like a bad dream. But folks I want you to know it’s not going away like a bad dream. It’s becoming a nightmare.Guess they’re not scared any more.Now we stand before you with one purpose in mind: do not sign any petitions. … If it comes to a vote, we want you to vote no.”
He added: Continue reading
Judy Green, a prison policy analyst says:
“The very first contract for the first private prison in America went to CCA, from INS.”Hear her in this video Private Prisons-Commerce in Souls by Grassroots Leadership that explains the private prison trade of public safety for private profit:
A local leader once called private prisons “good clean industry”. Does locking up people for private profit sound like “good clean industry” to you? Remember, not only is the U.S. the worst in the world for locking people up (more prisoners per capita and total than any other country in the world), but Georgia is the worst in the country, with 1 in 13 adults in the prison system. And private prisons don’t save money and they don’t improve local employment. As someone says in the video, who wants to live in a prison colony?
We don’t need a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia. Spend that tax money on rehabilitation and education.
-jsq
PS: Owed to Jeana Brown.