{"id":2330,"date":"2011-03-13T14:10:19","date_gmt":"2011-03-13T18:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/03\/history-changes-the-closer-you-get-to-valdosta.html"},"modified":"2011-03-13T14:10:19","modified_gmt":"2011-03-13T18:10:19","slug":"history-changes-the-closer-you-get-to-valdosta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/03\/history-changes-the-closer-you-get-to-valdosta.html","title":{"rendered":"History changes the closer you get to Valdosta?"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/a>
\nSome people have expressed surprise to learn that Brad Lofton
\nwas fired from his previous job in Effingham County.
\nThe VLCIA’s own website may be part of the reason why they’re surprised.<\/p>\n

\nAccording to
\n
\n“In the News”<\/a>
\non the
\nthe Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA) web site:<\/p>\n

\n“Lofton is currently the president and CEO of the Effingham County
\nIndustrial Development Authority and the executive director of the
\nEffingham County Chamber of Commerce. Lofton brings a wide range of
\nexperience to the position including time served as the executive
\ndirector of the Lee County Chamber of Commerce and the Lee County
\nDevelopment Authority.”\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You have to search or scroll way down in that page to find that passage,
\nand there’s no date on it.<\/p>\n

\nHowever, it is almost a word-for-word copy of a paragraph by Kelli Hernandez
\nthat appeared in the
\n
\nMoultrie Observer 16 August 2006<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n“Lofton’s most recent position was president and CEO of the Effingham
\nCounty Industrial Development Authority and the executive director of
\nthe Effingham County Chamber of Commerce. Lofton brings a wide range
\nof experience to the position including time served as the executive
\ndirector of the Lee County Chamber of Commerce and the Lee County
\nDevelopment Authority.”\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

See the difference? “Lofton’s most recent position was” in the
\nMoultrie article is “Lofton is currently the” on the VLCIA’s own web site.
\nSo which was it?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\nWell,
\n
\nSavannahnow.com reported on 14 June 2006<\/a>
\nthat Lofton was forced to resign on “Tuesday”, which was 13 June 2006.
\nThe same article includes quotes from Lofton himself confirming that
\nhe was asked to resign or be fired and was walked out the door.<\/a>
\nThat was two months before the Moultrie Observer article.
\nThat doesn’t sound like “currently” to me.<\/p>\n

\nSo where did VLCIA get their paragraph?
\nLet’s look at the Valdosta Daily Times (VDT) on 15 August 2006,
\n
\nLofton chosen to serve as Industrial Authority Director<\/a>
\nby Kelli Hernandez:<\/p>\n

\n“Lofton is currently the president and CEO of the Effingham County
\nIndustrial Development Authority and the executive director of the
\nEffingham County Chamber of Commerce. Lofton brings a wide range of
\nexperience to the position including time served as the executive
\ndirector of the Lee County Chamber of Commerce and the Lee County
\nDevelopment Authority.”\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The VDT paragraph is exactly the same as what VLCIA has on their website.
\nApparently the Moultrie Observer corrected that paragraph the next day,
\nbut neither VDT nor VLCIA has corrected their versions.<\/p>\n

\nAlso reporting on 16 August 2006 (same date as the Moultrie Observer article),
\nSavannahnow.com wrote
\n
\nBooming South Georgia Community Lands Lofton<\/a>, including:<\/p>\n

\nLofton was forced to resign June 13 as CEO of the Effingham IDA. The
\nIDA board ran a newspaper ad June 30 alleging Lofton promised more
\nthan $5.5 million in “gifts” to potential development prospects without
\nboard approval.<\/p>\n

\nLofton said he took no actions without the approval of the executive
\nboard and that what the board referred to as “gifts” was an offer of
\nland to a prospect that would have created 450 jobs and brought in $33
\nmillion in new investment.<\/p>\n

\nLofton said his termination stemmed from his questioning of what he called
\n“overinflated” fees by IDA attorney Claude M. “Mickey” Kicklighter and his
\nopposition to several board actions, including seizing through eminent
\ndomain about 2,700 acres from International Paper and a court petition
\nfor immunity from local zoning laws.<\/p>\n

\nPeeples said the Valdosta authority board was aware of the circumstances
\nof Lofton’s departure from Effingham and is not troubled by it.<\/p>\n

\n“Conversations with people involved in economic development in Effingham
\nand the surrounding area led us to believe that whatever occurred there
\nwould not be an impediment to his work in Lowndes County,” Peeples said.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

John Peeples was Chairman of VLCIA when it hired Brad Lofton.<\/p>\n

\nSo the VLCIA did know.
\nHowever, “would not be an impediment” does not seem quite the same
\nas VLCIA’s website containing incorrect history.<\/p>\n

\nDoes history change the closer you get to Valdosta?<\/p>\n

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

Some people have expressed surprise to learn that Brad Lofton was fired from his previous job in Effingham County. The VLCIA’s own website may be part of the reason why they’re surprised. According to “In the News” on the the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA) web site: “Lofton is currently the president and CEO of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,733,21,3,133,178],"tags":[1747,4952,4953,8701,4562,4954,4955,8702,12,7,4561,2428,6,2900,180,8749],"class_list":["post-2330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government","category-media","category-planning","category-transparency","category-vdt","category-vlcia","tag-brad-lofton","tag-effingham-county","tag-fired","tag-georgia","tag-horry-county","tag-john-peeples","tag-kelli-hernandez","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-myrtle-beach","tag-south-carolina","tag-valdosta","tag-valdosta-daily-times","tag-valdosta-lowndes-county-industrial-authority","tag-vlcia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2330","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=2330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2330\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}