{"id":8114,"date":"2014-03-10T19:24:02","date_gmt":"2014-03-10T23:24:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=8114"},"modified":"2014-03-10T22:50:13","modified_gmt":"2014-03-11T02:50:13","slug":"suddenly-an-agenda-lcc-budget-2014-03-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2014\/03\/suddenly-an-agenda-lcc-budget-2014-03-10.html","title":{"rendered":"Suddenly an agenda! @ LCC-Budget 2014-03-10"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/a>
\nYou can go to the rest of the budget meeting, which is tomorrow.
\nSome time after this morning when I looked for it,
\ntoday’s
\n
\nbudget meeting<\/a>
\nmagically appeared on
\n
\nthe calendar<\/a>
\nand in
\n
\nCurrent Events<\/a>
\non the Lowndes County front page.
\nIt shows most of the day tomorrow also as budget meetings.
\nAnd at 5:30PM tomorrow (Tuesday) there’s still the
\nCounty Commission Regular Session<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\nPlus in the middle of all that, the Airport Authority
\nis having a Board Meeting at the Commission Chambers.<\/p>\n

Only a little more than a year ago,
\n
\n<\/a>
\nthat Authority said
\n
\nthe County Commission shorted them $150,000 on payments they were expecting<\/a>,
\ncausing the Airport Authority to have to borrow that much from the
\nCity of Valdosta, plus interest.
\nWill that come up in tomorrow’s meeting?<\/p>\n

According to the
\n
\nGeorgia Open Meetings Act<\/a>, O.C.G.A. 50-14-1.,<\/p>\n

\n

\n501-14-1.(a)(3)(A) ‘Meeting’ means: <\/p>\n

\n(i) The gathering of a quorum of the members of the governing body of
\nan agency at which any official business, policy, or public matter of
\nthe agency is formulated, presented, discussed, or voted upon; or\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nThe “or” is about committees, but nevermind that, since
\nthree of the voting Commissioners were at the budget meeting today,
\nand 3 of 5 is a quorum by most definitions, even before
\nJohn Page vacated District 5 last week<\/a>
\nleaving only four, and I think anybody would agree 3 of 4 is a quorum.
\nThere are a bunch of exceptions for inspections of facilities,
\ntraining courses, etc., but I don’t see anything in there for
\nbudget meetings.
\nAlso there’s nothing in there about a meeting has to be called to order
\nto be a meeting, just the “gathering of a quorum”.<\/p>\n

\nNow it may be that the county notified the newspaper of record (the VDT)
\nand posted a sign out front, and that’s all state law requires them to do,
\nso far as I know.<\/p>\n

\nAnyway, you know about tomorrow’s budget meeting, and:<\/p>\n

\n

\n501-14-1.(b)(1)
\nExcept as otherwise provided by law, all meetings shall be open to the public.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nNow it says down at the bottom of each page,<\/p>\n

\n\n\n
Joe Pritchard<\/td>\n<\/td>\n3\/10\/2014 7:52 AM<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nThat seems to indicate the County Manager didn’t finish that agenda
\nuntil little more than half an hour before it started.
\nInteresting management.<\/p>\n

\nWhy are they having every department paid by the county,
\nincluding the constitutional officers, show up at a budget meeting?
\n
\n<\/a>
\nI’d guess it has something to do with the human resources consulting contract with Condrey & Associates, Inc.
\n
\nthat the Commission discussed 10 February 2014<\/a>
\nand approved the next day.
\nHuman Resources Director Kevin L. Beals said it was to conduct a position
\nclassification compensation pay study to update the last one done in 2007.
\nHe also said it would include the entire county, including the constitutional officers, such as the Sheriff\u2019s department, board of elections, etc.,
\nand that’s what we see on the agenda for these budget meetings.<\/p>\n

\nHere’s
\n
\nthe agenda:<\/a>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
March 10, 2014<\/strong>
\nMonday<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
8:30 AM – 9:30 AM<\/td>\n\nRegular Work Session — Commission Chambers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
9:30 AM – 10:00 AM<\/td>\n\nBoard of Elections – Budget Meeting -\u00bb 2nd Floor Commission Chambers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10:00 AM \u2014 10:20 AM<\/td>\n\nPublic Defender \u00bb Budget Meeting ~~ 2nd Floor. Commission Chambers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
11:00 AM – 11:30 AM<\/td>\n\nSheriff\/ Budget Meeting — 2nd Floor, Commission Chambers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1:00 PM – 1:20 PM<\/td>\n\nCoroner \u2014 Budget Meeting — 2nd Floor, Commission Chambers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1:30 PM – 1:45 PM<\/td>\n\nMental Health – Budget Meeting \u2014 Stephanie Jackson \u2014- 2nd Floor. Commission Chambers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2:00 PM – 2:15 PM<\/td>\n\nLibrary – Budget Meeting \u2014\u2014 2nd Floor, Commission chambers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2:30 PM – 2:50 PM<\/td>\n\nAnkle Monitoring – Budget Meeting — 2nd Floor. Commission Chambers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3:00 PM – 3:20 PM<\/td>\n\nExtension Service \u2014 Budget Meeting \u2014\u00bb 2nd Floor, Commission chambers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3:30 PM – 3:45 PM<\/td>\n\nFamily Services \u2014 Budget Meeting (Rhonda Wheeler) — 2nd Floor, Commission Chambers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4:00 PM – 4:30 PM<\/td>\n\nEmergency Medical Services \u2014 Budget Meeting \u2014- 2nd Floor. Commission chambers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4:30 PM – 4:50 PM<\/td>\n\nProbate Court – Budget Meeting .- 2nd Floor. Commissioner chambers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
March 11, 2014<\/strong>
\nTuesday<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
8:30 AM – 9:00 AM<\/td>\n\nState Court – Budget Meeting — 2nd Floor. Commission Chambers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
9:00 AM – 9:30 AM<\/td>\n\nSolicitor – Budget Meeting -\u2014 2nd Floor. Commission Chambers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10:00 AM – 10:30 AM<\/td>\n\nTax Commissioners – Budget Meeting \u00bb- 2nd Floor, Commission Chambers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10:30 AM – 1.0150 AM<\/td>\n\nDistrict Attorney \u2014 Budget Meeting N 2nd Floor, commission Chambers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
11:00 AM – 11:30 AM<\/td>\n\nMagistrate Court \u2014 Budget Meeting \u2014- 2nd Floor, Commission chambers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1:30 PM – 2:00 PM<\/td>\n\nClerk of Court \/ Board or Equalization – Budget Meeting -4 Zml Floor, Commission chambers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2:00 PM – 2:30 PM<\/td>\n\nBoard of Assessors \u00bb Budget Meeting — 2nd Floor, Commission Chambers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2:30 PM – 2:45 PM<\/td>\n\nPublic Health – Budget Meeting — 2nd Floor, Commission Chambers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2:50 PM – 3:10 PM<\/td>\n\nAirport Authority – Board Meeting — 2nd Floor, Commission Chambers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5:30 PM – 7:30 PM<\/td>\n\nRegular Meeting — Commission Chambers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Joe Pritchard<\/td>\n 3\/10\/2014 7:52 AM<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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

You can go to the rest of the budget meeting, which is tomorrow. Some time after this morning when I looked for it, today’s budget meeting magically appeared on the calendar and in Current Events on the Lowndes County front page. It shows most of the day tomorrow also as budget meetings. And at 5:30PM […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,2,88,3,807],"tags":[7497,1424,7499,8704,8701,8699,10,8702,7500,12,7,8734,1683,3092,782,652,8700,6,8804],"class_list":["post-8114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","category-government","category-lowndes-county-commission","category-transparency","category-vlcaa","tag-10-march-2014","tag-board-of-elections","tag-budget-meeting","tag-economy","tag-georgia","tag-government","tag-gretchen-quarterman","tag-lake","tag-lcc-budget","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-lowndes-county-commission","tag-open-meetings","tag-public-defender","tag-quorum","tag-sheriff","tag-transparency","tag-valdosta","tag-vlcaa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8114","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=8114"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8128,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8114\/revisions\/8128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}