{"id":1164,"date":"2012-01-21T16:54:20","date_gmt":"2012-01-21T21:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/01\/3-appointments-to-vlc-conference-center-and-tourism-authority-lcc-2012-jan-9-10.html"},"modified":"2012-01-21T16:54:20","modified_gmt":"2012-01-21T21:54:20","slug":"3-appointments-to-vlc-conference-center-and-tourism-authority-lcc-2012-jan-9-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/01\/3-appointments-to-vlc-conference-center-and-tourism-authority-lcc-2012-jan-9-10.html","title":{"rendered":"3 Appointments to VLC Conference Center and Tourism Authority LCC 2012 Jan 9-10"},"content":{"rendered":"<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=0wCrJBK2vb8\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   src=\"http:\/\/i1.ytimg.com\/vi\/0wCrJBK2vb8\/default.jpg\"><\/a>\nWho is on the Tourism Authority Board, and why do they have\nsuch rapid changeover in executive directors?\n<p>\nThe Commissioners considered Monday 9 January and made Tuesday 10 January\nthree appointments to the Tourism Authority:\nCommissioner Joyce Evans (reappointment),\nJerome &#8220;Andy&#8221; Anderson (reappointment),\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.prweb.com\/releases\/2011\/7\/prweb8680141.htm\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   src=\"http:\/\/ww1.prweb.com\/prfiles\/2011\/07\/28\/8680141\/gI_77629_Wild%20Adventures%20Charbeneau.jpg\"><\/a>\nand Greg Charbeneau apparently to replace\nLinda Jenson (who had been appointed to fill a vacancy for ? Montgomery).\n<blockquote>\n5.a. Valdosta\/Lowndes County Conference Center and Tourism Authority\n<\/blockquote>\nCounty Manager Joe Pritchard said at the Tuesday Regular Session that\nGreg Charbeneau is a Vice President at Wild Adventures.\nHere&#8217;s\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=0wCrJBK2vb8\">\nvideo of that session:<\/a>\n<p align=\"center\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" width=\"480\" height=\"390\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0wCrJBK2vb8\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<br>\n<small>\n3 Appointments to VLC Conference Center and Tourism Authority LCC 2012 Jan 10\n<br>\nRegular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),\n<br>\nValdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 10 January 2012.\n<br>\nVideos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.\n<\/small>\n<p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=V2xeQGaCQHY\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   src=\"http:\/\/i3.ytimg.com\/vi\/V2xeQGaCQHY\/default.jpg\"><\/a>\nAccording to\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.prweb.com\/releases\/2011\/7\/prweb8680141.htm\">\nWild Adventures&#8217; own press release<\/a> of 29 July 2011\nand\n<a href=\"http:\/\/valdostadailytimes.com\/business\/x1533028049\/Charbeneau-new-General-Manager-at-Wild-Adventures\">\nthe VDT 14 August 2011<\/a>,\nGreg Charbeneau is also their general manager.\n<p>\nWe learned a little more at the Monday Work Session, but not much.\nHere&#8217;s\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=V2xeQGaCQHY\">\nvideo:<\/a>\n<p align=\"center\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" width=\"480\" height=\"390\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/V2xeQGaCQHY\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<br>\n<small>\n3 Appointments to VLC Conference Center and Tourism Authority LCC 2012 Jan 9\n<br>\nWork Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),\n<br>\nValdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 9 January 2012.\n<br>\nVideos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.\n<\/small>\n<p>\nVLCCCTA&#8217;s own\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.visitvaldosta.org\/\">\nwebpage<\/a>\nhas no indication that such a board even exists,\nmuch less\n\n<!--more-->\nwho&#8217;s on it.\nLowndes County&#8217;s web pages say nothing about it that I can find;\ninstead they have their own\n<a href=\"http:\/\/lowndescounty.com\/content.asp?pid=26\">\ntourism web page<\/a>\nthat doesn&#8217;t even name the Tourism Authority, although the county&#8217;s\nlink from Rainwater Conference Center does lead to the Tourism Authority&#8217;s\nweb page.\nThe City of Valdosta&#8217;s\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.valdostacity.com\/index.aspx?page=41#a14\">\nweb page on boards and authorities says:<\/a>\n<blockquote>\nThe primary purpose of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Conference Center\nand Tourism Authority is to give direction and leadership towards\nthe achievement of the authority&#8217;s mission, goals and objectives.\nContact: Michael Jetter, Interim Executive Director at 229-245-0513 or\nmjetter@valdostatourism.com.\n<\/blockquote>\nEven the VDT has taken VLCCCTA to task for violation of open meetings laws;\n<a href=\"http:\/\/valdostadailytimes.com\/local\/x229377248\/Issues-at-Tourism-Authority-meeting\">\nBrittany D. McClure wrote 24 November 2011,<\/a>\n<blockquote>\nWhile various issues were being discussed, numerous private conversations\nwere held throughout the course of the meeting. As Tourism Authority\nmeetings are an open meeting, all issues, concerns and discussion\nshould be discussed in an open manner as required by Georgia Sunshine\nLaws. There were several instances that took place throughout the meeting\nthat violated the Open and Public Meetings Law.\n<\/blockquote>\nOh, and it&#8217;s not even clear who is the Interim Executive Director:\n<blockquote>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/valdostadailytimes.com\/local\/x546441656\/Tourism-Authority-welcomes-new-executive-director\">\nTim Mabe joined the Conference Center in December of 2009<\/a>\nand left in August 2010. At that time, Michael Jetter became the Interim\nExecutive Director and was let go less than a year later. Mary\nCulbreth, director of accounting, now fills the role of Interim\nExecutive Director.\n<p>\n&ldquo;This is the third time I have been the Interim\nDirector,&rdquo; said Culbreth.\n<\/blockquote>\nYet the City&#8217;s web page still says Jetter. Is he back?\nOr is Valdosta as unable as the rest of us\nto keep up with the less than transparent doings at the Tourism Authority?\n<p>\nAnd the board, whoever they are, apparently wants to outsource everything\nto an even less transparent unnamed management company:\n<blockquote>\nAccording to Culbreth, the board has expressed interest in pursuing\na management company as opposed to pursuing a search for a single\nExecutive Director.\n<p>\n&ldquo;Within the management company, they would have their own\ndirector,&rdquo; said Culbreth. &ldquo;I&#8217;m not sure, everybody would\nprobably be employed by the management company, not saying that we\nwouldn&#8217;t have our same employees but instead of being employed by\nthe authority they would probably be employed by the management\ncompany.&rdquo;\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\nLet&#8217;s see if we can pull together a partial list of Tourism Authority\nBoard members from VDT articles and the LCC meetings:\n<ul>\n<li>\nRob Evans, Chairman\n<li>\nTim Carroll (also on Valdosta City Council)\n<li>\nJoyce Evans (also on Lowndes County Commission), just reappointed by LCC\n<li>\nCharlie Felts, human resources director for the City of Valdosta\n<li>\nRick Williams\n<li>\nDr. John Gaston\n<li>\nJerome &#8220;Andy&#8221; Anderson, just reappointed by LCC\n<li>\nGreg Charbeneau, Wild Aventures VP and GM, just appointed by LCC\n<\/ul>\nIs that all of them?\n<p>\nWhy do we the taxpayers have to ferret out such information?\n<p>\n-jsq\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Who is on the Tourism Authority Board, and why do they have such rapid changeover in executive directors? The Commissioners considered Monday 9 January and made Tuesday 10 January three appointments to the Tourism Authority: Commissioner Joyce Evans (reappointment), Jerome &#8220;Andy&#8221; Anderson (reappointment), and Greg Charbeneau apparently to replace Linda Jenson (who had been appointed [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[14,2,3166,822,3,780,13],"tags":[3184,3187,8701,10,8702,91,12,7,8734,4,467,3185,8700,6,3186,8703],"class_list":["post-1164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","category-government","category-lcc-2012-january-9","category-lcc-2012-january-10","category-transparency","category-travel","category-vlcccta","tag-10-january-2012","tag-conference","tag-georgia","tag-gretchen-quarterman","tag-lake","tag-lcc","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-lowndes-county-commission","tag-regular-session","tag-tourism","tag-tourism-authority","tag-transparency","tag-valdosta","tag-valdostalowndes-county-conference-center-and-tourism-authority","tag-vlcccta"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-iM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164","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=1164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}