{"id":94,"date":"2013-02-22T15:50:24","date_gmt":"2013-02-22T20:50:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/retreat-lowndes-county-commission-lcc-2013-02-22.html"},"modified":"2013-06-10T08:39:00","modified_gmt":"2013-06-10T12:39:00","slug":"retreat-lowndes-county-commission-lcc-2013-02-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/retreat-lowndes-county-commission-lcc-2013-02-22.html","title":{"rendered":"Retreat, Lowndes County Commission @ LCC 2013-02-22"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\n\r\n\"Clockwise:<\/a>\r\nThe Lowndes County Commission has retreated to Berrien County once again\r\nthis year.\r\nSo far they’ve talked about budgets and finance, LOST and SPLOST,\r\ndepartmental requests, and the local Land Bank Authority,\r\nwith the occasional policy interjection.\r\nCommissioners and staff were clearly taking their tasks very seriously,\r\nalthough not without humor from John Page’s sneeze.\r\nAnd I congratulate them on\r\n\r\ngoing some place that couldn’t have cost much.<\/a>\r\nI wish they’d talk more about policy and strategies for increasing the pie,\r\nrather than almost entirely about how to divvy up the existing pie.\r\nVideo will follow; meanwhile here are a few notes.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n<\/a>\r\nOn the one hand, it’s great that county staff have pulled together\r\nand managed with 30 fewer people, and while Commissioner Page\r\nwas right that that’s efficiency, I think Chairman Slaughter was\r\neven more right in saying it’s beyond that, it’s beyond capacity.\r\nCounty Manager Joe Pritchard noted if there’s no SPLOST, the\r\ncurrent Commission will have to decide between cutting some\r\nservices and raising taxes.\r\nThat’s no doubt true, and he indicated that Valdosta seemed to\r\nbe waiting to hear what the County wants to do about SPLOST,\r\nwhile the county is waiting to hear what Valdosta wants to do.\r\nSeveral people remarked that the prior LOST negotiations (which\r\nare currently on judicial hold pending one participant returning from\r\nthe current session of the state legislature)\r\ndid affect SPLOST losing in the most recent election.\r\nI didn’t hear anybody suggest holding public hearings this time,\r\nbut Commissioner Marshall did say it would be good to say what\r\nSPLOST funds would be for in some detail.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n<\/a>\r\nOn the other hand, the Chairman asserted\r\n\r\n\r\nthat no services\r\nhad been lost to date.\r\nPerhaps he has forgotten the\r\n\r\nwaste disposal company apology<\/a> of only ten days ago,\r\nas well as the three citizens who expressed opinions on\r\n\r\nlack of recycling<\/a>,\r\nno\r\n\r\nrecycling centers<\/a>,\r\nand\r\n\r\nthe termination clause in the waste disposal contract.<\/a>\r\nMany people, and not just in the unincorporated areas of the county,\r\nalso people with businesses who now get trash dumped in their dumpsters\r\nor on their parking lots,\r\nthink a service has been lost.\r\nA service whose users, \r\nas Commissioner John Page noted in the VDT<\/a>,\r\nwere willing to pay more to keep it.\r\nAnd there’s still no accounting for how much the waste disposal\r\ncenters actually cost to keep open,\r\nand the county\r\n\r\ndoesn’t even know who the 5,000 people are<\/a>\r\nit charged for access cards.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nThe retreat location was once again undisclosed, but since\r\n\r\nlast year’s location<\/a> (Ashley Paulk’s guest house on the north\r\nside of GA 122 between Cat Creek Road and Possum Creek Road)\r\nhad a bunch of cars parked in front of it, it was pretty obvious.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\n\"Agenda\"<\/a>\r\nTo get an agenda, first figure out where it is, and then go look on the door.\r\nWhat you’ll find has about the content of the usual Industrial Authority\r\nagenda, not even as much as the usual County Commission agenda.\r\nFortunately, as\r\n\r\nStephanie Black<\/a>\r\npointed out to me, her\r\n\r\nFinance Department<\/a>\r\nhas already posted the main\r\n\r\nfinancial documents<\/a>\r\non the county’s website.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\n\"LOST<\/a>\r\nThe\r\n\r\nComprehensive Annual Financial Report July 1, 2011 \u2014 June 30, 2012<\/a>\r\ncontains copious detail about sources of revenue (still some trickling\r\nion from SPLOST V, and more from SPLOST VI) and outgo, as well as\r\nstaffing and many other financial issues.\r\nCommissioner Demarcus Marshall asked if the new jail and the\r\nJudicial Complex could be split out separately.\r\nHe was told they could be, but nobody offered him separate figures.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n<\/a><\/a>\r\nHe also asked about the financial effects of the\r\nankle monitoring program, and was\r\nwas told the budget would be where to find that.\r\nThe\r\n\r\nAnnual Operating Budget<\/a>\r\ndoes contain one page, page 109, on that:\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n

\r\nThe Community Service division was created during fiscal year 2012\r\nas a pilot program to determine if ankle monitoring offered\r\nsignificant costs savings versus detaining inmates in the Lowndes\r\nCounty jail. The division falls under the direction of the Superior\r\nCourt. Based on the six month performance from 2012, the program was\r\nextended for fiscal year 2013.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nThe tables on that page say a budget of $168,910 was approved for FY 2013,\r\nincluding a full time Community Service Director, which would presumably\r\nexplain the line item of $64,910 for “personal services”, at least\r\nif we guess by “personal” it means “personnel”.\r\nIf that budget says anywhere what the expected savings are for\r\nthe ankle monitoring program, I haven’t found it.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\n\"Staff\"<\/a>\r\nLate morning, four department heads were brought in and given barstool\r\nchairs to perch on:\r\n\r\nRobin English<\/a> (Public Works),\r\n\r\nRichard Guyton<\/a> (Fire Rescue),\r\n\r\nMike Fletcher<\/a> (Engineering),\r\nand\r\n\r\nMike Allen<\/a> (Utilities).\r\nIt was very clear which budget requests the County Manager thought\r\nwere most important: roads and bridges from Engineering.\r\nCommissioner John Page indicated he thought safety might be most important.\r\nIn the discussion someone asked Robin English of Public Works what\r\nsize budget she’d really like to replace or upgrade old road equipment,\r\nand she said 3 or even 4 million, but she’d asked for a bare-bones budget.\r\nInterestingly, the County Manager had earlier (before department\r\nheads arrived, I think) said that departmental budget requests were\r\nfor what they’d really like to do it right, in the expectation that\r\nrequests would have to be trimmed.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\n\"Turning<\/a>\r\nThe lunch speaker was\r\n\r\nMara Register<\/a>,\r\nAssistant to the Valdosta City Manager,\r\non\r\nLand Bank Authorities and a recent law,\r\nusing a version of this presentation,\r\n\r\nTurning Vacant Spaces into Vibrant Places<\/a>.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nMara Register noted that Commissioner Joyce Evans and Frank Morman\r\nare Lowndes County appointees to the Valdosta-Lowndes County Land Bank\r\nAuthority (VLCLBA)\r\n(reappointed March 2012<\/a>).\r\nThe Valdosta appointees are\r\n\r\nBurke Sherwood and Council Robert Yost<\/a>.\r\nI think she said Morman is the chair.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"Mara<\/a>\r\nThe new law is 2012’s\r\nSB 284<\/a>,\r\nwhich has\r\n\r\nalready attracted some attention on this blog.<\/a>\r\nMara said it was first proposed by state Senator\r\nTim Golden at the end of the 2011\r\nlegislative session knowing it couldn’t pass then, so as to get\r\nvarious parties to look at it.\r\nThe parties she mentioned seemed to be mostly realtors and homebuilders.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nShe gave a brief history of the local land bank authority.\r\nIt was authorized in 1999 as a way to provide land for Habitat for Humanity,\r\nand it successfully did that, turning a dilapidated block into\r\na going community.\r\nThe purpose of a land bank authority is to get land back on the tax rolls.\r\nThe new law expressly prohibits a land bank from using of eminent domain,\r\nor from levying taxes.\r\nIt can, however, extinguish delinquent taxes by having its board\r\nvote to do that and then telling the tax commissioner.\r\nThe new law also requires an odd number of board members, from 5 to 11.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nLand banks acquire land through donations, or by buying it with\r\nfunds raised from rents, grants, or other sources.\r\nMost local governmental bodies can’t give land to a private entity,\r\nsuch as Habitat.\r\nA Land Bank Authority can.\r\nAmong other projects was land provided to the Boys and Girls Club,\r\nwhich she said the Land Bank Authority “very quietly facilitated.”\r\nIf it was such a good thing, why was it done on the quiet?\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nI’m sure we’ll hear about what they did after that from the VDT;\r\ntheir reporter\r\nJason Schaefer was there when I got there and still there when I left,\r\nbusily taking notes the whole time.\r\nLAKE videos will follow.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

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