{"id":5772,"date":"2013-09-25T11:22:41","date_gmt":"2013-09-25T15:22:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=5772"},"modified":"2013-09-25T11:28:54","modified_gmt":"2013-09-25T15:28:54","slug":"no-contract-and-no-bids-for-county-attorney-yet-20-raise-to-300000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/no-contract-and-no-bids-for-county-attorney-yet-20-raise-to-300000.html","title":{"rendered":"No contract and no bids for County Attorney, yet 20% raise to $300,000"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n
\n<\/a>
\nIn response to (a second) open records request, County Clerk Paige Dukes
\nstated in writing that Lowndes County does not have a contract with the person
\nreferred to in numerous minutes as “County Attorney”, and that
\nno bids have been entertained for legal services for the county.
\nAccording to the budget documents the Clerk referred to,
\nthe county raised the County Attorney’s budget 20% to $300,000 for 2013.
\nIllustrations below (some with links) were added by me. -jsq\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n From: pdukes@lowndescounty.com
\n
\n To: b-ahuntley@hotmail.com
\n
\n CC: asmith@lowndescounty.com; JPritchard@lowndescounty.com;
\n bswaller@bellsouth.net
\n
\n Subject: Open Records Request
\n
\n Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2013 13:22:08 +0000<\/p>\n

\nGood Morning Mrs. Huntley,\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/a>
\nIn response to your open records request of September 18, requesting
\na copy of the materials provided to the Commission for the work
\nsession of September 23, 2013, please know that the work session
\nand regular meeting originally scheduled for September 23 & 24,
\nhave been cancelled. This being the case, an agenda notebook has
\nnot been prepared.\n<\/p>\n

In response to your open records request of September 18, requesting
\nwritten answers to questions regarding the county attorney to
\ninclude a contract, cost and bid. Please know that the open records
\nstatute is an avenue by which citizens may request existing
\ndocuments. It does not allow for the creation of documents or
\nprovide specifically for direct questions to be answered in
\n
\n<\/a>
\nwriting. However, Lowndes County Officials and staff remain
\navailable to answer and\/or discuss any questions you may have.
\nPlease do not hesitate to call or send an email if there is
\nsomething the county can help you with. Contact information for the
\nBoard of Commissioners and department heads may be found on the
\ncountys website,
\nwww.lowndescounty.com<\/a>,
\nor I will be happy to
\nhelp you and I can be reached by calling 229-671-2400.\n<\/p>\n

\nRegarding the items you requested, a contract between the county and
\nthe county attorney is not required by law, nor does one exist. The
\n
\n<\/a>
\ncurrent budget and actual expenses can be found on the countys
\nwebsite,
\nwww.lowndescounty.com<\/a>,
\nclick on Government, then County
\nManager, then Finance. On the Finance page, click on Financial
\nReports, it will take you to the countys budget documents from 2007
\n2013. Georgia law does not require professional services to be bid.
\nThis being the case, legal services are not bid. In addition, while
\nthe county primarily utilizes the firm of Elliott, Blackburn and
\nGooding, other attorneys are used depending upon the matter at
\nhand.\n<\/p>\n

\nThank you,\n<\/p>\n

\nPaige Dukes\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n
\nAnnual Operating Budget, Lowndes County, Ga., Page 140<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/a>
\n
\nGeneral Fund \u2013 Non-Departmental<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\nExpenditures\n<\/td>\n\nFY 2010
\n
\nActual\n<\/td>\n		\nFY 2011
\n
\nActual\n<\/td>\n		\nFY 2012
\n
\nBudget\n<\/td>\n		\nFY 2012
\n
\nYTD\n<\/td>\n		\nFY 2013
\n
\nRequest\n<\/td>\n		\nFY 2013
\n
\nApproved\n<\/td>\n		\nPercent
\n
\nChange\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\nNon-Departmental\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\nCounty Attorney\n<\/td>\n\n325,976\n<\/td>\n\n391,220\n<\/td>\n\n250,000\n<\/td>\n\n371,356\n<\/td>\n\n250,000\n<\/td>\n\n300,000\n<\/td>\n\n20.00%\n<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

\nThat’s 3\/5 of the amount that was stated by the county in arguing
\nfor closing the county’s waste collection sites.
\nAnd this expenditure is without a contract,
\nand with no accounting provided for what it is spent on.
\nDoes this seem right to you, the citizens, who appear at the top
\nof the county’s organizational chart?<\/p>\n

\n -jsq\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAnnual Operating Budget, Lowndes County, Ga., Page 41<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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

In response to (a second) open records request, County Clerk Paige Dukes stated in writing that Lowndes County does not have a contract with the person referred to in numerous minutes as “County Attorney”, and that no bids have been entertained for legal services for the county. According to the budget documents the Clerk referred […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,70,20,88,3],"tags":[456,257,381,2993,5871,1095,8704,8728,8701,8702,8710,12,7,8734,656,6218,1601,8700,6,6650],"class_list":["post-5772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","category-ethics","category-law","category-lowndes-county-commission","category-transparency","tag-april-huntley","tag-bid","tag-budget","tag-contract","tag-county-attorney","tag-county-clerk","tag-economy","tag-ethics","tag-georgia","tag-lake","tag-law","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-lowndes-county-commission","tag-paige-dukes","tag-raise","tag-rfp","tag-transparency","tag-valdosta","tag-walter-g-elliott"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5772","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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5772"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5956,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5772\/revisions\/5956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}