{"id":1043,"date":"2012-03-05T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-05T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/03\/keep-an-eye-on-the-land-bank-authority-barbara-stratton.html"},"modified":"2012-03-05T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-03-05T15:00:00","slug":"keep-an-eye-on-the-land-bank-authority-barbara-stratton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/03\/keep-an-eye-on-the-land-bank-authority-barbara-stratton.html","title":{"rendered":"Keep an eye on the Land Bank Authority &mdash;Barbara Stratton"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today the Georgia Senate Rules Committee votes on<br \/>\nSen. Tim Golden&#8217;s SB 284 &#8220;Georgia Land Bank Act; governing<br \/>\ncreation\/operation of land banks; provision&#8221;.<br \/>\nReceived 24 February 2012. -jsq<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\nA citizen&#8217;s committee needs to be formed to keep an eye on the Land<br \/>\nBank Authority because they seem to think they are exempt from state<br \/>\nSunshine Law rules. In addition Sen. Golden has a bill SB 284<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www1.legis.ga.gov\/legis\/2011_12\/sum\/sb284.htm\"><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   width=\"351\" height=\"113\" src=\"http:\/\/www1.legis.ga.gov\/images\/galegbnnr.gif\"><\/a><br \/>\nintroduced into the state senate that will allow the establishment<br \/>\nof regional land bank authorities. We citizens never consented to<br \/>\nall this regional government that is being forced on us. If we can&#8217;t<br \/>\nkeep up with what the local land bank authority is doing just<br \/>\nimagine what a regional land bank authority will be able to<br \/>\naccomplish with zero public knowledge and input. This is one of the<br \/>\nmost dangerous pseudo-government entities ever and it needs to be<br \/>\naddressed from the citizen level immediately. I applied for a<br \/>\ncitizen vacancy on the Land Bank Authority, but of course those<br \/>\npositions are reserved for politically supportive individuals. Per<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2012\/03\/georgia-takes-steps-towards-more-open-government-could-take-more.htm\"><br \/>\nthe sunshine laws<\/a>, which Sam Olens has sworn allegiance to, a<br \/>\ncitizen review committee would have to be advised of the meetings<br \/>\nthat are currently never publicized.<\/p>\n<p>\n-Barbara Stratton\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>SB 284 already passed Monday a week ago<br \/>\nin the Senate Finance Committee,<br \/>\naccording to Nelson Mullins,<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/ca.linexsystems.com\/contents\/view\/4789949\"><br \/>\nGold Dome Report &#8211; 2-27-2012<\/a>,<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\nThe second Bill on the agenda was SB 284 by Sen. Tim Golden<br \/>\n(R-Valdosta). This Bill would provide for provisions governing the<br \/>\ncreation and operation of land banks on and after July 1, 2011. Sen.<br \/>\nGolden spoke of the importance of updating land bank law. The last<br \/>\ntime the law had been overhauled was more than 20 years ago. SB 284<br \/>\npassed unanimously.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>According to Nelson Mullins,<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/ca.linexsystems.com\/contents\/view\/5108408\"><br \/>\nGold Dome Report &#8211; 2-29-2012<\/a>,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\nSenate Rules Committee:<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<strong>On the Senate Floor for Legislative Day 29, the following Bills will be heard:<\/strong><br \/>\n<br \/>\n&#8230;<br \/>\n<br \/>\nSB 284 &#8211; Georgia Land Bank Act; governing creation\/operation of land banks; provision (Substitute) (FIN-8th)\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Yep, that&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.senate.ga.gov\/sos\/en-US\/SenateCalendars.aspx\"><br \/>\ntoday,<\/a> March 5<small><sup>th<\/sup><\/small>;<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.senate.ga.gov\/sos\/SenateCalendars\/20112012\/Rules-Calendar-2012-Legislative-Day-29.pdf\"><br \/>\nhere&#8217;s the Senate Rules calendar for today.<\/a><br \/>\nHere&#8217;s<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www1.legis.ga.gov\/legis\/2011_12\/sum\/sb284.htm\"><br \/>\nthe text of SB 284.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\nI don&#8217;t see the part about regional land banks, but I do see this,<br \/>\nwhich I don&#8217;t like:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n(7) To borrow money to further or carry out its public purpose and<br \/>\nto execute notes, other obligations, leases, trust indentures, trust<br \/>\nagreements, agreements for the sale of its notes or other<br \/>\nobligations, loan agreements, mortgages, deeds to secure debt, trust<br \/>\ndeeds, security agreements, assignments, and such other agreements<br \/>\nor instruments as may be necessary or desirable, in the judgment of<br \/>\nthe land bank, to evidence and to provide security for such<br \/>\nborrowing;<\/p>\n<p>\n(8) To issue notes or other obligations of the land bank and use the<br \/>\nproceeds thereof for the purpose of paying all or any part of the<br \/>\ncost of any land bank projects and otherwise to further or carry out<br \/>\nthe public purpose of the land bank and to pay all costs of the land<br \/>\nbank incidental to, or necessary and appropriate to, furthering or<br \/>\ncarrying out such purpose;\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Just what we need: another unelected &#8220;authority&#8221; issuing bonds that we<br \/>\nthe taxpayers have to pay for.<br \/>\nIn this case, an authority with no website, no meeting schedule,<br \/>\nand no public agendas or minutes.<\/p>\n<p>\n-jsq<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today the Georgia Senate Rules Committee votes on Sen. Tim Golden&#8217;s SB 284 &#8220;Georgia Land Bank Act; governing creation\/operation of land banks; provision&#8221;. Received 24 February 2012. -jsq A citizen&#8217;s committee needs to be formed to keep an eye on the Land Bank Authority because they seem to think they are exempt from state Sunshine [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97,40,14,8,2,3,545],"tags":[728,8701,2814,753,2901,1437,383,1233,8700,8776],"class_list":["post-1043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-community","category-economy","category-georgia","category-government","category-transparency","category-vlclba","tag-bonds","tag-georgia","tag-land-bank","tag-legislature","tag-sb-284","tag-senate","tag-taxes","tag-tim-golden","tag-transparency","tag-vlclba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1043\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}