{"id":2109,"date":"2011-04-29T12:27:42","date_gmt":"2011-04-29T16:27:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/04\/im-all-for-openness-tom-call.html"},"modified":"2011-04-29T12:27:42","modified_gmt":"2011-04-29T16:27:42","slug":"im-all-for-openness-tom-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/04\/im-all-for-openness-tom-call.html","title":{"rendered":"I’m all for openness —Tom Call"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/a>\nThe member who hardly ever speaks at board meetings makes a strong case for openness.\n

\nTom Call\n\ncalled me back about the biomass plant<\/a>,\nand we talked about a number of other matters.\nHe remarked that he was not an appointed spokesperson for the Industrial\nAuthority, so this is just him talking.\n

\nI asked him about\n\nAshley Paulk’s remarks in the 26 April 2011 Lowndes County Commission\nmeeting.<\/a>\nTom Call said VLCIA was not standing behind any other body,\nand he clarified what had happened.\n

\nHe said the biomass plant had been brought to the Industrial\nAuthority by\n\n\nthe Georgia Department of Economic Development,\nwhich involved some gentlemanlike protocols.\nSo in a gentlemanly manner, their Chairman Jerry Jennett,\nattorney Gupton, and Acting Executive Director Ricketts\nwent up to Atlanta to tell Wiregrass Power LLC that they\n

\n“don’t have faith in their ability to perform.”\n<\/blockquote>\nSterling (the parent company) said they would withdraw\ntheir request to extend the June 1st<\/sup><\/small> deadline.\n
\n“Sterling asked us to rescind the letter.”\n<\/blockquote>\nHe said Sterling also said they would send a new letter with different deadlines.\n

\nTom Call said he expected there would be a vote on the biomass plant\nat the VLCIA meeting later that same day (19 April 2011<\/a>).\nHe didn’t say why there wasn’t.\n

\nTom Call said he didn’t vote for the biomass plant\nin the first place (he added that he wasn’t saying he would or wouldn’t have)\nbecause he wasn’t on the board at the time.\nAnd because of that\n

\n“I see myself as a consensus builder.”\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nHe added that if the biomass plant goes away,\n

\n“I’m happy this chasm in the community is going to go away.\nThe community needs healing.”\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nRegarding Ashley Paulk, Tom Call remarked,\n

\n“I don’t know why he took it upon himself to say all that.”\n<\/blockquote>\nTom Call asked my opinion.\nI said among other things, I thought Ashley Paulk saw an opportunity to be\nthe hero of the county and took it,\nand the Valdosta City Council and the VLCIA board had certainly\ngiven him every opportunity to do that by not saying what was\ngoing on.\nFurthermore, while all public bodies have their difficulties\nwith transparency, and I realized that he was a recent appointee,\nso this wasn’t a criticism of Tom Call specifically,\nbut VLCIA was the worst I’d ever run into at\nPR about its own activities.\nAs a trivial example, did he realize four months on there was still\nno picture of him on the VLCIA website?\n

\nTom Call said that such a picture would probably break the website,\nand agreed that the Industrial Authority could do better about PR.\nWe discussed some possibilities, such as putting out press releases\nabout local industries when they add jobs.\nHe suggested posting a timeline for the executive director search\n(see below).\nWe discussed VLCIA’s need to have some confidentiality in negotiating\nwith new industries, and he said he thought “some transparency”\nwas good.\n

\nI said I understood some confidentiality was necessary,\nand nobody expected VLCIA to post detailed notes of every\nnegotiation session with every potential industry, but\nI thought their board minutes needed to be on the web.\nHe noted that most industrial authorities did not do that, but as far as posting VLCIA’s board minutes on the web,\n

\n“I don’t disagree with that.”\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nHe talked about a conversation he had had with\n\nBobbi Anne Hancock<\/a>\nafter the most recent VLCIA board meeting\n(she told me about the same discussion a few days ago)\nin which she had said that the Albany, GA development authority\nhad their minutes online, and she had emailed him later to clarify\nthat it was actually Albany, NY.\nI suggested, as I often do, that we don’t have to wait for Atlanta\nor Albany, New York to lead:\nwe can do that from right here in south Georgia.\nHe agreed that we could.\n

\nHe also said that after the most recent VLCIA board meeting,\nthere were no citizens still there, but\nsome of the board members were still sitting around,\nnot in a formal meeting, just talking, and he told them\nthat\n

\n“We need to get better at not letting the newspaper\ndictate our story and tell our own story.”\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nTom Call brought up Jack Pruden’s op-ed in the VDT yesterday.\nHe remarked that none of Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett, or him (Tom Call)\nare actually from around here.\nI agreed that while Jack Pruden had some good points in his editorial,\nif he thinks oligarchy is something new around here, or if he thinks\nthe VLCIA board members are the main members of the oligarchy,\nhe doesn’t know local history very well.\n(Disclosure: I am from around here. I was born in Little Griffin\nHospital in Valdosta, and I live on the same land I grew up on.)\n

\nTom Call brought up the executive director selection process,\nsaying he hoped the new executive director would understand PR.\nI told him that some people, including me, were drawing an inference from\n\nthe position being posted only a week before the deadline<\/a>\nthat VLCIA had already selected someone.\n

\nHe said that was not the case, that “we haven’t met any candidate”.\nHe said the posting was supposed to be out for 30 days,\nso either the posting I saw was posted late, or the deadline is incorrect.\nHe said they have received a hundred applications,\nand their search firm will winnow those down to six to eight.\nAt their regular meeting the week of May 20\n(17 May 2011<\/a>)\nthey will view those winnowed applications in the open meeting\nand then discuss them in an executive session.\n

\nPosting a timeline for the executive director selection was\none of his suggestions for how VLCIA could inform the public better.\nTom Call added:\n

\n“I’m all for openness.”\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nTom Call noted that he is a citizen, too,\nthat he has a full time job,\nand that\n

\n“I volunteer my time to make this board better.”\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nThese notes are from memory and scribbles on a sheet of paper,\nand doubtless contain inaccuracies, which I hope Tom Call will correct.\n

\nThat’s four out of five VLCIA board members.\nRemaining: Chairman Jerry Jennett.\n

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