Tag Archives: VCC

Videos @ Joint Governments 2012 03 29



Here are videos of the entire
“first annual Valdosta-Lowndes Governmental Leadership Meeting”
that was held 6:30 PM 29 March 2012 in the Lowndes High School Lecture Hall.
Here’s

the announcement.

The meeting was introduced by

Dr. Steve Smith, Superintendent, Lowndes County Schools.
Lowndes County Schools had a written position statement,
with everything from a broad variety of test scores and other metrics
to specific examples of existing collaborations such as loaning busses
to the Valdosta School System for away sporting events.



Dr. Smith

clarified that:

This is not a community forum, it is not an open dialogue.

He told me before the meeting started that he was concerned that if they
opened it up to questions from the audience it would take all night
and it had been hard enough to get the various elected officials to show
up at all without expecting them to stay for that.
I didn’t see but maybe a dozen non-elected audience members,
so I wonder whether that really would have happened,
but I applaud the various governments for collaborating at all.
He did say if you had a question you could

write it down and
hand it to a member of your elected government or school board.
He also indicated that committees might form, not that evening,
but perhaps growing out of that evening’s meeting.
He reiterated this meeting was for brainstorming among the elected officials.

The elected officials included

Valdosta Schools
Superintendent and
many VBOE members,

Lowndes School Superintendent and Superintendent-elect and many LCBOE
members,

Valdosta Mayor, City Manager, and many city council members,
and

Lowndes County Manager, Clerk, and voting commissioners,
but not the Chairman.



Wes Taylor, Lowndes High School Principal & Lowndes County Schools Superintendent Elect

talked about finances.



Valdosta Mayor John Gayle said

we’re regional now (regional hospital, regional university, etc.).
He talked about how Troup County went about landing the Kia plant,
which had to do with each governmental entity taking a role and collaborating.
(It had nothing to do with school consolidation.)




VBOE member Vanassa Flucas said they try to put everything related
to their schools on their website, in an effort of transparency for
parents and students. Plus:

We noticed that since we put our strategic plan on our website
approximately three years ago, it was very well received.
It was very heartening; people could find the information that they wanted.

Imagine that!

Continue reading →

They come to school hungry; they come to school homeless — Bill Cason @ Joint Governments 2012 03 29

Breaking from the agenda of the first annual Valdosta-Lowndes Governmental Leadership Meeting, Valdosta School Superintendent Bill Cason rose above tactics and talked about vision and the root of the matter: poverty.

Supt. Cason started talking about teenage pregnancy and drug use, and then got to the heart of the matter:

They come to school hungry; they come to school homeless. Last year we identified more than 200 homeless kids in our school district. We can talk about all of these other things, but until we can address those as a group, every public entity in this room, is willing to get together as a team and address those issues, we forgot the most important thing we deal with, that is our students.

[applause]

They will be the future leaders of this community. And if you want to see Valdosta take a backwards slide, then let this problem run as it is and you will see. I’ve seen it before in other communities, and I’m seeing it here now. This is not something we can wait on; it has to be done now. So if we want to really be serious about what we’re talking about tonight, educating our children, having a viable community, having a good community, having recreational facilities everybody can use, then you need to begin to address these problems not only with our mouths, but with our money and with our resources. And until you do this, then we’re going backwards.

Poverty is the root of the matter. It’s great that the local goverments and school boards are talking, and they can tinker around the edges all they want, but until they get serious about poverty in our community, educational improvements and the future of the community will be severely limited.

-jsq

 

 

Cats and Vikings working together: Joint meeting of LCBOE, VBOE, LCC, VCC 2012-03-29

Has this ever happened before?
Both school boards and the Valdosta City Council and Lowndes County Commission
all meeting together?
Maybe this way we can get some actual improvements in education!

The text of the announcement by Lowndes County Schools 20 March 2013,

Valdosta-Lowndes Governmental Leadership Meeting,
is below.

-jsq

The first annual Valdosta-Lowndes Governmental Leadership Meeting
will be held on March 29, 2012 at 6:30 pm in the Lowndes High School
Lecture Hall. Valdosta City and Lowndes County Board of Education
members, Valdosta City Council members, and Lowndes County
Commissioners will be in attendance. Lowndes County Schools will
host a dinner for the leadership at 6:00 pm.

The purpose of the meeting is to promote the enhancement of
communication and allow leaders to share ideas and plans pertinent
to the development and expansion of our local governmental entities.
It will also allow members to discuss long-range strategic plans,
including any special projects, while providing greater insight as
to what will transpire within our community over the next five
years. The meeting is open to the public.



Agenda




Welcome and Introductions


Dr. Steve Smith, Superintendent Lowndes County Schools


Sharing of Long Range Plans and Vision


Lowndes County Board of Education

Lowndes County Board of Commissioners

Valdosta City Board of Education

Valdosta City Council


Questions, Comments, Suggestions




Wrap Up


Wes Taylor, Superintendent-elect,
Lowndes County Schools

Light agenda at Valdosta City Council tonight 2012 03 08

A very light agenda tonight:
an award, two rezonings, and

5.b. Consideration of a request to approve the Community Development
Block Grant (CDBG) Fiscal Year 2012 Annual Action Plan.

Plus of course, Citizens to be Heard.

They heard some citizens Tuesday, as

Drive Away CCA honked at City Hall.

Here’s
the agenda.

-jsq


AGENDA
REGULAR MEETING OF THE VALDOSTA CITY COUNCIL

5:30 PM Thursday, March 8, 2012

COUNCIL CHAMBERS, CITY HALL

Continue reading →

Valdosta Mayor and Council are implicated in the private prison —John S. Quarterman @ VCC 2012 02 23



Valdosta City Council and Mayor, who may not have been following the private prison issue,
now know about it and are aware that they are all implicated in the private prison
decision, due to events at the Industrial Authority board meeting
and the Valdosta City Council meeting, both Thursday 23 February 2012.

After remarking that I’d rather be talking about the additional solar panels
recently installed on my farm workshop up here in the north end of the county,
I recapped the
case against a private prison
and referred the Valdosta City Council to

my LTE in the VDT of that morning
(Thursday 23 February 2012).
I remarked that I was disappointed the Industrial Authority

hadn’t done anything to stop the prison at its meeting earlier that same day.
Since they might be wondering what all this had to do with them, I pointed out that,
if I could use the word,
they were all implicated as mayor and council
in the private prison decision because

Jay Hollis, CCA’s Manager of Site Acquisition, in his Valdosta-Lowndes County, GA / CCA Partnership: Prepared Remarks of August 2010,
lavishly praised the Lowndes County Commission and Chairman and the
Valdosta City Council and mayor.
Although the mayor was different now, and maybe some of the council,
nonetheless it was the same offices of council and mayor, still implicated.
I asked for their opinions on that subject.
Per their custom, they did not offer any at that time.
So, maybe we’ll hear from them later.
Or maybe the Industrial Authority board will hear from them….

Here’s

the video:




Valdosta Mayor and Council are implicated in the private prison —John S. Quarterman @ VCC 2012 02 23

VSEB, employment,

Regular Session, Valdosta City Council (VCC),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 23 February 2012.

Videos by George Boston Rhynes for K.V.C.I., the bostongbr on YouTube.

-jsq

VSEB application is too long — John Robinson @ VCC 2012 02 23



John Robinson told the Valdosta City Council that he thought the
application for the

Valdosta Small Emerging Business (VSEB) Program
was too long and complicated compared to the one-page
application to do major construction work.

Here’s

the video:




VSEB application is too long — John Robinson @ VCC 2012 02 23

VSEB, employment,

Regular Session, Valdosta City Council (VCC),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 23 February 2012.

Videos by George Boston Rhynes for K.V.C.I., the bostongbr on YouTube.

-jsq

How can we pursue happiness when we don’t even have a job? —Tony Daniels @ LCC 7 November 2011



George Rhynes’ video of the last two citizens speaking at the
7 November 2011 County Commission meeting has
interesting closeups on the county staff while

the Chairman was answering Matt Portwood.
Then at 1:35 Tony Daniels answered the request for “any other business”
by walking up to the podium and talking.

He cited life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness
from the Declaration of Independence:

How can we pursue happiness when we don’t even have a job?
I believe the city and county and Industrial Authority and the Chamber of Commerce
need to work more together to create an atmosphere of trying to bring more
industry inside the city.
We have highways coming through Valdosta.
I hope to see in the near future that the county and the city and the
Industrial Authority and the Chamber of Commerce
work like brothers and sisters.
Because you know and I know that you are elected by the people
of the people and for the people, and I’d like to see that….
Because we need more entrepeneurs, we need to see all governments
in this area promote that….

I suspect the Chairman was asking the Commissioners whether they
had any other business, but he wasn’t clear about that.
I think what Tony Daniels had to say was important, and citizens
should be able to say they have other business.
However, since he had not signed up to speak before the meeting started,
he was in violation of

Rule #1 from the Commission’s hastilly adopted Policies and Procedures
for Citizens Wishing to Be Heard::

Continue reading →

Bicyclists at Valdosta City Council 10 November 2011



Courtesy of the camera of George Rhynes, here are the
Citizens to Be Heard at

Thursday’s Valdosta City Council meeting.
Most of them are frequent cyclists, with a surprise ally speaking first.

I think that’s all of them.

-jsq

I’m a bicyclist —Jim Jones @ VCC 10 November 2011

Jim Jones told

Thursday’s Valdosta City Council meeting
he was a certified bicycle technician.
He mentioned all sort of reasons for bicycling:



Bicycles are going to be a big part of our future.
Gas prices, and a lot of folks getting
their licenses suspended, having to walk….
And if you don’t have a bicycle, that’s the only choice you have.

He mentioned Valdosta was lagging behind Portland.

Here’s

the video:




I’m a bicyclist —Jim Jones @ VCC 10 November 2011

bicycle, path, health care, health, sidewalk, grant,

Regular Session, Valdosta City Council (VCC),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 10 November 2011.

Videos by George Boston Rhynes for K.V.C.I., the bostongbr on YouTube.

-jsq

How about some bike racks? —Matt Portwood @ VCC 10 November 2011



Matt Portwood told
Thursday’s Valdosta City Council meeting
that since his last address to the Council was so well received
this time he brought friends (such as

Heather Evans, who had just spoken)
and an ally in the front row (
Roy Taylor, who spoke first)
This time he asked for bike racks.
If City Hall had one outside, their bicycles wouldn’t have been

locked to the front step railing.

Here’s

the video:




—Matt Portwood @ VCC 10 November 2011

bicycle, path, health care, health, sidewalk, grant,

Regular Session, Valdosta City Council (VCC),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 10 November 2011.

Videos by George Boston Rhynes for K.V.C.I., the bostongbr on YouTube.

-jsq