{"id":18117,"date":"2017-02-19T20:59:05","date_gmt":"2017-02-20T01:59:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=18117"},"modified":"2017-07-05T12:50:30","modified_gmt":"2017-07-05T16:50:30","slug":"videos-annual-planning-meeting-day-1-lcc-2017-02-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2017\/02\/videos-annual-planning-meeting-day-1-lcc-2017-02-16.html","title":{"rendered":"Videos: Annual Planning Meeting Day 1 @ LCC 2017-02-16"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nTwo newly-elected officials spoke at the Thursday session:\r\n\r\nnew Tax Commissioner Rodney Cain<\/a>\r\nwho was full of praise for his staff,\r\nand\r\n\r\nnew-old Sheriff Ashley Paulk<\/a>,\r\nwho said he had more important things to do than to go get undocumented\r\nworkers out of the fields.\r\n“I tell ICE come show me a warrant.”\r\nHere are LAKE videos of that day, and stay tuned for Day 2!\r\n

\r\nTotal 2016 revenue was\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n$88 million<\/a>,\r\nwith about $50 million into the General Fund and slightly less out.\r\nExpenditures were under budget, but tax revenues were more below budget.\r\nNot just for last year:\r\n\r\nSPLOST revenues have been steadily down the past four or five years<\/a>.\r\nSpeculation is because more people are buying online.\r\n

\r\nThey think\r\n\r\n“everyone is satisfied”<\/a> with the current solid waste situation.\r\nI’d be more satisfied if there wasn’t constant litter from paper cups\r\nto mattresses left along the roads and on my property.\r\nHowever, Joe Pritchard promised that the county will send code enforcement\r\nto pick up litter at boat landings.\r\n

\r\nThe\r\n\r\nNaylor Boat Ramp<\/a>\r\nis still in the works, with the same impediment that they\r\ndidn’t budget enough SPLOST funds for anybody to bid that low,\r\nso they’ll have to do much of the work themselves.\r\nBut they do seem serious about doing it.\r\n

\r\nOne goal is to\r\n\r\nestablish a plan for long term High Speed Internet capacity<\/a>.\r\nHowever, they’re still studying it, with no actual plan.\r\nAt least they’re studying it.\r\nChairman Bill Slaughter even said\r\n\r\n“We can’t wait on someone else to do something, we are going to have to move forward.”<\/a>\r\nThat’s a big change from his October 2013 pronouncement that “We have broadband.”<\/a>\r\nThis time he also said it would be good for everybody.\r\nWhich agrees with rigorous research that shows\r\n\r\nthat for income, jobs, and creative workers we need as many people as possible to use fast affordable Internet connections; adoption matters more than availability, and speed matters for creative workers<\/a>.\r\n

\r\nThey’re seriously considering\r\n\r\ndoing county permitting separately from Valdosta<\/a>.\r\nWhy is not entirely clear.\r\nAnd six years after Gretchen first asked for a list of ordinances,\r\nthey’re\r\n\r\ntrying to update some of them<\/a>.\r\n

\r\nApparently “Citizen Engagement” means they want to tell people things,\r\nnot that they want citizens to become involved.\r\nNot that they had to worry about that:\r\nGretchen was the only citizen there.\r\n

\r\nThey tended to discuss things according to when somebody was available\r\nto talk about it,\r\nand, as they warned on \r\nthe agenda<\/a>,\r\nthey spent as long as they wanted to on each item.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nHere are links to each of the LAKE videos for Day 1,\r\nwith a few notes, mostly by Gretchen, followed by a video playlist.\r\n