{"id":1439,"date":"2011-10-06T14:44:46","date_gmt":"2011-10-06T18:44:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/school-consolidation-statement-tonight-at-valdosta-city-council.html"},"modified":"2011-10-06T14:44:46","modified_gmt":"2011-10-06T18:44:46","slug":"school-consolidation-statement-tonight-at-valdosta-city-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/school-consolidation-statement-tonight-at-valdosta-city-council.html","title":{"rendered":"School Consolidation Statement tonight at Valdosta City Council"},"content":{"rendered":"There are a bunch of changes to the Comprehensive Plan and the\n\n<\/a>\nLand Development Regulations (LDR) that people ought to pay attention to,\nscheduled for tonight’s Valdosta City Council (VCC) meeting.\nBut the one many people are going to see is this one:\n
\n6.a) Consideration of a Position Statement on School Consolidation.\n<\/blockquote>\nSome people are confused, because VCC has no formal authority over\nany school system.\nThey didn’t have any formal authority\n\nto decide whether to put the school referendum on the ballot<\/a>, either.\nAccording to the Lowndes County Board of Elections, once\n\n\n\n<\/a>\n\nenough petition signature were validated<\/a>,\nthe referendum automatically went on the ballot; the Valdosta City Council\nhad nothing to do with that decision, nevermind that nobody sitting on the podium\non 25 August seemed to know that.\n

\nNeither of the \nposition statements<\/a> by the two school boards have any formal\nauthority, either.\n

\nThis time, the Valdosta City Council knows it’s merely expressing an opinion.\nBut I think that’s both good and important.\nJust because the City Council has no formal authority doesn’t mean nobody\nlistens to its opinion, or to the opinions of the individual Council members,\nor to the mayor.\n

\n\n<\/a>\nYou may recall that I pointed out to the previous mayor that\n\nthe mayor of Gretna, Florida had made a proclamation against biomass,\nand he could, too.<\/a>\nInvestors and voters listen to that sort of thing.\n

\nThe\n\nCouncil of Hamlets<\/a>\ndanced around that issue and at various times various of them said they\n\n<\/a>\nmay or may not be able to say whether or not they can or cannot speak\nduring, at the end of, or after their council meetings.\nYet some of them did speak about biomass, and we sometimes discovered\n\nsome Council members were not familiar with the issues.<\/a>\n

\nIf they make this position statement tonight,\nthey are setting a precedent that the Valdosta City Council can indeed\nexpress opinions.\nAnd if they can do it collectively, they can do it individually.\nWhich would be a good thing, because Council members would then be expected\nto state their opinions, which would mean they’d have incentive to\nactually be up to date on the issues.\n

\nAll that plus people vote for elected officials they think have a clue,\nand people care what they think even after they are elected.\n

\nY’all come! The mayor and council\n\ninvite you:<\/a>\n

\nThe Mayor and the members of the City Council invite and encourage\ncitizens to attend City Council meetings whever possible because\ngood government depends on the interest and involvement of citizens.\nCity Council meetings are held on the first and third Thursday following\nthe first Sunday of the month, although changes may be necessary to\navoid conflict with holidays. All City Council meetings are held in the\nCouncil Chambers, located on the second floor of City Hall, and are open\nto the general public.\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\nHere’s \nthe agenda:<\/a>\n
\n
\nAMENDED AGENDA\n
\nREGULAR MEETING OF THE VALDOSTA CITY COUNCIL\n
\n5:30 PM Thursday, October 6, 2011\n
\nCOUNCIL CHAMBERS, CITY HALL\n
\n<\/center>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\n
    \n
  1. \nOpening Ceremonies\n

    \n

      \n
    1. \nCall to Order\n

      \n

    2. \nInvocation\n

      \n

    3. \nPledge of Allegiance to the American Flag\n

      \n<\/ol>\n

    4. \nAwards and Presentations\n

      \n

        \n
      1. \nConsideration of the October, 2011 Employee of the Month Award (Curtis Mincey,\nPublic Works Department).\n

        \n<\/ol>\n

      2. \nMinutes Approval\n

        \n

          \n
        1. \nThursday, September 22, 2011\n

          \n<\/ol>\n

        2. \nPublic Hearings\n

          \n

            \n
          1. \nConsideration of an Ordinance to amend the Future Development Map of the\nComprehensive Plan and change the Character Area Designation of two contiguous\nproperties as requested by Patricia Ann and Ari Santas (File No. VA-2011-18). The\nproperty consists of approximately 1.24 acres and is located at 2229 and 2249 East Park\nAvenue. The Planning Commission reviewed this request at their September Regular\nMeeting and recommended approval (8-0 vote).\n

            \n

          2. \nConsideration of an Ordinance to rezone 0.18 acres from Single-Family Residential (R-\n6) to Residential-Professional (R-P) as requested by Taylor Biddle (File No. VA-2011-\n19). This property is located along the east side of the road between Baytree Drive and\nBlanton Street. The Planning Commission reviewed this request at their September\nRegular Meeting and recommended approval (8-0 vote).\n

            \n

          3. \nConsideration of an Ordinance to rezone 0.54 acres from Neighborhood-Commercial\n(C-N) to Community-Commercial (C-C) as requested by Hetal Patel (File No. VA-\n2011-20). The property is located at 1410 Gornto Road. The Planning Commission\nreviewed this request at their September Regular Meeting and recommended approval\n(8-0 vote).\n

            \n

          4. \nConsideration of an Ordinance for Text Amendments to the Land Development\nRegulations (LDR) for Chapter 210 – Overlay Districts (File No. VA-2011-21). The\nPlanning Commission reviewed this at their September Regular Meeting and\nrecommended approval (8-0 vote).\n

            \n

            \n

            \n

            \n<\/ol>\n

          5. \nOrdinances and Resolutions\n

            \n

              \n
            1. \nConsideration of a Resolution to update the Greater Lowndes 2030 Comprehensive\nPlan’s Short-Term Work Program (File No. VA-2011-22). The Planning Commission\nreviewed this at their September Regular Meeting and recommended approval (8-0\nvote).\n

              \n<\/ol>\n

            2. \nLocal Funding and Requests\n

              \n

                \n
              1. \nConsideration of a Position Statement on School Consolidation.\n

                \n<\/ol>\n

              2. \nCity Manager’s Report\n

                \n

              3. \nCouncil Comments\n

                \n

              4. \nCitizens to be Heard\n

                \n

              5. \nAdjournment\n

                \n

                \n

                \n

                \n<\/ol>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are a bunch of changes to the Comprehensive Plan and the Land Development Regulations (LDR) that people ought to pay attention to, scheduled for tonight’s Valdosta City Council (VCC) meeting. But the one many people are going to see is this one: 6.a) Consideration of a Position Statement on School Consolidation. Some people are […]","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":[97,120,40,14,15,49,2,21,22,3,54,3667],"tags":[3676,1636,8705,8701,10,8702,91,12,7,4,1129,6,8726],"class_list":["post-1439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-biomass","category-community","category-economy","category-education","category-elections","category-government","category-planning","category-politics","category-transparency","category-valdosta-city-council","category-vcc-6-october-2011","tag-6-october-2011","tag-consolidation","tag-education","tag-georgia","tag-gretchen-quarterman","tag-lake","tag-lcc","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-regular-session","tag-resolution","tag-valdosta","tag-valdosta-city-council"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-nd","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1439","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=1439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1439\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}