{"id":12008,"date":"2015-01-09T16:29:14","date_gmt":"2015-01-09T21:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=12008"},"modified":"2015-01-09T16:31:27","modified_gmt":"2015-01-09T21:31:27","slug":"valdosta-city-council-retreats-to-moultrie-this-weekend-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2015\/01\/valdosta-city-council-retreats-to-moultrie-this-weekend-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Valdosta City Council Retreats to Moultrie this weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nCitizens can attend this open meeting to hear about that flooding study, traffic cameras, compensation, and other issues, even though it’s
\n
\n<\/a>
\ninconveniently located in another county, almost as if the
\nValdosta City Council didn’t want you to see what they’re doing.
\nIf City Hall wouldn’t do, why not the Convention Center?
\nIt has its own chef. Like the VDT editorialized,
\nthere was no need to go to a out-of-town fancy resort.<\/p>\n

\nJoe Adgie wrote for the VDT 8 January 2014,
\n
\nValdosta City Council retreating in Moultrie<\/a>,<\/p>\n

\n

\nThe two-day event will feature discussion of issues that Mayor John
\nGayle and the City Council want to focus on in the coming year, as
\nwell as priorities for the legislative delegation and the Georgia
\nDepartment of Transportation.\n<\/p>\n

\nIn addition, the results of a city employee compensation study will
\nbe released and discussed at the retreat.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe number one issue listed by the council for the current year
\ninvolves funding from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) for a
\nlevee and pump proposal.\n<\/p>\n

\nAccording to the city,<\/p>\n

USACE has recommended a levee to handle the
\ncity’s flooding problems that follow heavy rains.\n<\/p>\n

\nThese levees would not prevent floods, but would reduce the
\n“depth and duration” of floods, according to the city
\nand USACE.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nHere’s
\nvideo of the Corps’ presentation<\/a>
\nto the 6 May 2014 City Work Session,
\nthe
\nslides they used<\/a>,
\nand
\nValdosta City Council Tim Carroll saying<\/a>
\n“A levee by itself is not the answer.”<\/p>\n

\nLots more in that story about red light cameras, a traffic roundabout,
\nemployee compensation, and other items. And this:<\/p>\n

\n

\nFriday and Saturday, with the Friday event starting at 9 a.m. with a
\nbreakfast and concluding at 8 p.m. with dinner, and the Saturday
\nevent starting at 8:30 a.m. with breakfast and concluding at 5 p.m.
\nafter a closed door executive session with the mayor and council.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nWhere:
\nSundown Farms Plantation,
\n
\n894 Mack Dekle Road, Moultrie, GA 31768<\/a>,
\nPhone:(229) 985-0652.
\nThat’s half way between Moultrie and Coolidge on US 319.<\/p>\n

\nThat location
\nhas to be almost directly in the proposed Sabal Trail pipeline path,
\nbut nothing about that seems to be on the agenda.
\nToo bad; they could follow up their
\ntheir excellent resolution<\/a> with an ordinance with teeth.<\/p>\n

\nThe VDT thanked Valdosta City Manager Larry Hanson for
\nhand-delivering a notice about the retreat, and added,
\nin an editorial whose very headline hinted at lavish expenses,
\n
\nPublic’s business going out of town: Lodge for Valdosta city
\ngovernment retreat offers ‘amenities second to none’<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\nIt is unfortunate, however, that once again and despite previous
\nurging the mayor and City Council are choosing to take the public’s
\nbusiness out of town.\n<\/p>\n

\nThey are taking your business to Moultrie, to be exact, and will be
\nspending two days at the Sundown Farms Plantation.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe resort is marketed as a 7,000-square-foot lodge that
\n“offers amenities that are second to none.”\n<\/p>\n

\nThe purpose of a local government retreat is to get together and
\ndiscuss plans and legislative agendas for the coming year.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe city gave public notice and the public is welcome to attend, but
\nthe public should not merely be allowed to attend, it should be easy
\nfor them to attend any meeting of their own local governmental body.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe practice of many city and county governments of holding
\nout-of-town retreats is not illegal.\n<\/p>\n

\nHowever, it is very poor public service to discuss the people’s
\nbusiness in another city.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nThe editorial goes on for some time like that, using terms like “violation of the public trust” and “The entire mindset of our elected officials needs to change.”
\nWelcome to the club, VDT!\n<\/p>\n

\nCity Council Tim Carroll sent his subscribers a message that included:<\/p>\n

\n

\nWe have 44 items on the list. As always, we will receive mid-fiscal
\nyear updates on the budget, revenues and projects.\n<\/p>\n

\nI received several replies from my November email about retreat and
\nhave included some on my list.\n<\/p>\n

\nRetreat focuses mainly on big picture items\/issues. At the
\nconclusion we will decide which items should be listed as goals for
\nthe upcoming year.\n<\/p>\n

\nAs I have been doing since my first year in office, I will report
\nback to you early next week on the outcome of our retreat and the
\ngoals we have established.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nThat report should be interesting.<\/p>\n

\n -jsq<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Citizens can attend this open meeting to hear about that flooding study, traffic cameras, compensation, and other issues, even though it’s inconveniently located in another county, almost as if the Valdosta City Council didn’t want you to see what they’re doing. If City Hall wouldn’t do, why not the Convention Center? It has its own […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,2,73,3,449,54,55],"tags":[1948,8701,8699,8702,12,7,4166,8731,8700,8767,6,8726,8727],"class_list":["post-12008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-georgia","category-government","category-safety","category-transparency","category-transportation","category-valdosta-city-council","category-water","tag-colquitt-county","tag-georgia","tag-government","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-moultrie","tag-safety","tag-transparency","tag-transportation","tag-valdosta","tag-valdosta-city-council","tag-water"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12008","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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12008"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12012,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12008\/revisions\/12012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}