{"id":2358,"date":"2011-03-01T11:55:59","date_gmt":"2011-03-01T16:55:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/03\/the-learning-curve-is-very-steep-ken-klanicki.html"},"modified":"2011-03-01T11:55:59","modified_gmt":"2011-03-01T16:55:59","slug":"the-learning-curve-is-very-steep-ken-klanicki","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/03\/the-learning-curve-is-very-steep-ken-klanicki.html","title":{"rendered":"“the learning curve is very steep” –Ken Klanicki"},"content":{"rendered":"

This LTE appeared in the VDT yesterday (28 Feb 2011). -jsq<\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/a>
\nFormer Lowndes County commissioner Richard Lee once told me “…the
\nlearning curve is very steep for first-time commissioners.” Our new county
\ncommissioners, Richard Raines and Crawford Powell, are living proof of the
\nveracity of that statement. In case Bill O’Reilly is reading this, here’s a
\nfew examples.<\/p>\n

\nEarlier this month a grant application for the purchase of 5,000 weather
\nemergency radios was nixed by a 2 – 1 vote. The radios could’ve been a means
\nfor citizens residing in remote areas of the county to\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

\nstay abreast of storm
\nconditions in case of widespread power outages. The $100,000+ FEMA money had
\nalready been appropriated, and the radios will simply go to another south
\nGeorgia county. At this week’s meeting, a citizen politely but firmly
\nchastised the two “naysayers” for their ill-advised decision. Our new
\ncommissioners’ discomfort and inability to maintain eye contact with the
\nspeaker were obvious.<\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/a>
\nGranted, neither new commissioner has had much government
\nexperience–other than Mr. Powell’s tenure on the Industrial Authority–so
\nthe voters, understandably, should cut them some slack. But the new members
\nused up a whole lot of slack at Tuesday’s commission meeting. The 2 – 1
\nrejection of a Homeland Security Agency grant for an Emergency Operations
\nCenter to be located here was, in my opinion, short-sighted. Their recorded
\nopposition to this center, fully reimbursable by federal funds, was rather
\nconfusing. Messrs Powell and Raines wanted solid assurances that
\n“surrounding counties could be persuaded to contribute” financially to the
\nmaintenance of the Center before committing to the project. (Surely these
\nmen know as much about geography as Sarah Palin, but may I remind them our
\nadjoining county neighbors are Echols and Clinch to the east, Lanier to the
\nnortheast, Berrien and Cook to the north, and Brooks to the west. As far as
\nI know, those counties’ discretionary funds are VERY limited and will be for
\nthe foreseeable future.)<\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/a>
\nAs such I’m hard-pressed to take their concerns seriously. Apparently
\nthey have some doubts as to whether Lowndes County really is the regional
\nleader it’s aspired to be for the last 30 years. I’m sorry they feel that
\nway—if they really do.<\/p>\n

\nHere’s my take, for what it’s worth: Either we can dismiss the
\ncommissioners’ dubious judgment as rookie mistakes or our new commissioners
\nare being—and I really dislike this word—disingenuous. I’m not sure which.
\n(For all our sakes, I truly hope it’s not disingenuousness!)<\/p>\n

\nThis voter’s assessment of Commissioners Raines’ and Powell’s initial
\nmonths on the job can be summed thusly: Pennywise and pound-foolish.<\/p>\n

\nKen Klanicki —Valdosta\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This LTE appeared in the VDT yesterday (28 Feb 2011). -jsq Former Lowndes County commissioner Richard Lee once told me “…the learning curve is very steep for first-time commissioners.” Our new county commissioners, Richard Raines and Crawford Powell, are living proof of the veracity of that statement. In case Bill O’Reilly is reading this, here’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97,14,2,88,2919,1577,3,133,178],"tags":[623,65,8701,4964,3449,7,8734,1098,882,653,2900,180,8742,8749],"class_list":["post-2358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-economy","category-government","category-lowndes-county-commission","category-noaa-weather-radios","category-radio-2","category-transparency","category-vdt","category-vlcia","tag-crawford-powell","tag-fema","tag-georgia","tag-grants","tag-ken-klanicki","tag-lowndes-county","tag-lowndes-county-commission","tag-noaa","tag-radio","tag-richard-raines","tag-valdosta-daily-times","tag-valdosta-lowndes-county-industrial-authority","tag-vdt","tag-vlcia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2358","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=2358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2358\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}