{"id":1904,"date":"2011-06-15T08:16:49","date_gmt":"2011-06-15T12:16:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/w.html"},"modified":"2011-06-15T08:16:49","modified_gmt":"2011-06-15T12:16:49","slug":"w","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/w.html","title":{"rendered":"Why all those VLCIA special meetings?"},"content":{"rendered":"<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=VN5ftvOQ0Mo\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   src=\"http:\/\/i3.ytimg.com\/vi\/VN5ftvOQ0Mo\/default.jpg\"\/><\/a>\nHere&#8217;s the VlCIA board approving minutes for some of those recent meetings,\nalthough you can&#8217;t tell what they were for, since\nthey were listed on the agenda like this:\n<blockquote>\nMinutes\n<ul>\n<li>Special Called Meeting, May 17, 2011\n<\/li><li>Executive Session, May 17, 2011\n<\/li><li><a href=\"\/blog\/2011\/06\/vlcia-land-accounting.html\">\nRegular Meeting, May 17, 2011<\/a>\n<\/li><li>Special Called Meeting, May 20, 2011\n<\/li><li>Executive Session, May 20, 2011\n<\/li><li>Special Called Meeting, May 21, 2011\n<\/li><li>Executive Session, May 21, 2011\n<\/li><li>Special Called Meeting, June 7, 2011\n<\/li><li>Executive Session, June 7, 2011\n<\/li><\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\nThat&#8217;s right: no indication of what the meetings were for.\n<p>\nI was told outside afterwards by one board member that the\nspecial meetings were for\n\n<!--more-->\nreviewing applications for executive director,\nby people who might get fired from their present jobs if it was known\nthat they were looking for another one.\nFair enough.\n<\/p><p>\nI was told by another board member that special sessions were for\nreviewing details of projects that the board didn&#8217;t want published\nbecause that would provide competitive information to competitors\nlike Albany.\nFair enough.\n<\/p><p>\nI had to point out to them that they were giving two different\nexplanations.\n<\/p><p>\nAnd of course there&#8217;s their most recent special session that,\n<a href=\"http:\/\/valdostadailytimes.com\/local\/x1315242419\/Wiregrass-LLC-to-buy-unused-land-at-biomass-facility-site\">\naccording to David Rodock in the VDT,<\/a>\nthey used to approve a wide range of other matters, including extending\nthe lease on their office, that have nothing to do with either of\nthose explanations.\n<\/p><p>\nI reiterated my suggestion (in Citizens to Be Heard; video to come)\nthat they publish the agendas, adding that for special sessions the\nagendas could just have date, time, and what it was for.\nOne board member answered, &#8220;Why?&#8221;\n<\/p><p>\nI responded by saying (as I have in a previous board meeting)\nthat I want the agendas and minutes so I can find out\nwhat are all these industries and jobs that they are bringing\nin for the $3 million a year in tax money they are getting,\nsaying I had asked for a list from\nBrad Lofton, from Col. Ricketts, and from Roy Copeland, and had never\ngotten it.\n<\/p><p>\nTheir response: they had just made up such a list recently,\nand they&#8217;d make sure I got a copy.\n<\/p><p>\nI told them that was progress.\n<\/p><p>\nThe idea of transparency in local government may slowly be getting traction.\n<\/p><p>\n-jsq\n<\/p><p>\nHere&#8217;s\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=VN5ftvOQ0Mo\">\nthe video:<\/a>\n<\/p><p align=\"center\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" width=\"480\" height=\"390\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VN5ftvOQ0Mo\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<br \/>\n<small>\nWhy all those VLCIA special meetings?\n<br \/>\nIrregular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),\n<br \/>Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Tom Call, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,\n<br \/>J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Acting Executive Director,\n<br \/>\nValdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 14 June 2011.\n<br \/>\nVideos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.\n<\/small>\n<\/p><p>\n-jsq\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Here&#8217;s the VlCIA board approving minutes for some of those recent meetings, although you can&#8217;t tell what they were for, since they were listed on the agenda like this: Minutes Special Called Meeting, May 17, 2011 Executive Session, May 17, 2011 Regular Meeting, May 17, 2011 Special Called Meeting, May 20, 2011 Executive Session, May [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,178,1810],"tags":[1816,3075,1815,275,1522,188,8701,1812,1814,1813,548,8702,1622,12,7,185,181,2664,95,183,60,182,8700,6,180,8749],"class_list":["post-1904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-transparency","category-vlcia","category-vlcia-14-june-2011","tag-14-june-2011","tag-accountability","tag-allan-ricketts-acting-executive-director","tag-bond","tag-competition","tag-executive-director","tag-georgia","tag-irregular-meeting","tag-j-stephen-gupton-attorney","tag-jerry-jennett-chairman","tag-john-s-quarterman","tag-lake","tag-land","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-mary-gooding","tag-norman-bennett","tag-personnel","tag-real-estate","tag-roy-copeland","tag-tax","tag-tom-call","tag-transparency","tag-valdosta","tag-valdosta-lowndes-county-industrial-authority","tag-vlcia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1904","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=1904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1904\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}