Category Archives: Government

ADS wants a trash collection rate hike: who could have forseen? @ LCC 2014-12-08

Who could have forseen the rate hike ADS requested Monday morning at the Lowndes County Commission Work Session? Maybe anybody who noticed that ADS’ bid was 40% more than its quickly-acquired subsidiary Veolia’s bid.

Update 2014-12-10: No report from ADS in the board packet. Joe Adgie reported on this topic in the VDT 10 December 2014, Advanced Disposal wants price increase.

1. Call to Order 4.Minutes for Approval 8a.Advanced Disposal 8.a. Advanced Disposal —Steve Edwards (work session)

Video. ADS wants to amend the exclusive franchise for solid waste collection due to “lost revenue and unanticipated costs”. And their number one reason: competition with “another hauler”, in other words Continue reading →

Board of Elections @ Elections 2014-12-09

They usually have Citizens Wishing To Be Heard first and they let citizens converse with them during the rest of the meeting. They meet 4:30 PM Tuesday, December 9, 2014 at the Lowndes County Elections office, 2808 N Oak St., Valdosta, GA 31602. There’s no posted agenda that I can find, and no posted list of board members. I’ve sent them an inquiry.

Agenda PDF and inline below. -jsq

300x300 4:30 PM 9 December 2014, in Notice of Public Meeting, by Lowndes County Board of Elections, 9 December 2014

Lowndes County Elections

Deb Cox
SUPERVISOR OF ELECTIONS

Madlyn Hightower
CHAIRMAN, BOARD OF
ELECTIONS

LOWNDES COUNTY ELECTIONS
LEGAL NOTICE Continue reading →

Anti-pipeline ordinance resolution + 3 more ordinances @ VCC 2014-12-09

As promised, item 5.c) on the agenda for Thursday’s Regular Meeting and Tuesday’s Work Session of the Valdosta City Council: 300x352 Page 1, in Agenda, Valdosta City Council, by John S. Quarterman, 9 December 2014

Consideration of a Resolution in support of the Lowndes County Board of Commissioners regarding the Sabal Trail Project.

Has staff found the digital copies of the maps for CU-2014-11 Normal Life of Georgia? If the county put agenda packets for the Planning Commission online, staff wouldn’t have to worry about that.

Here’s the agenda, thanks to images from Council Member Tim Carroll.

3:26 PM
120514 Agenda Packet.pdf
AGENDA
REGULAR MEETING OF THE VALDOSTA CITY COUNCIL
5:30 PM Thursday, December 11, 2014
Continue reading →

Valdosta proposes resolution against Sabal Trail pipeline @ VCC 2014-12-09

A draft resolution in support of Lowndes County’s resolution against the Sabal Trail pipeline will be discussed by the Valdosta City Council at their Work Session Tuesday 9 December and very likely voted on at their Regular Session Thursday 11 December. This is according to Valdosta City Council Tim Carroll, who has seen the draft resolution.

This would be a very good idea, not just since Valdosta is the county seat of Lowndes County, but also because three alternative routes would go right down I-75 through Valdosta.

Both Valdosta City Council meetings are at 5:30 PM at Valdosta City Hall, 216 E Central Ave, Valdosta, GA 31601. Yes, that means the City’s Work Session is at the same time as the County’s Regular Session when the county proposes to vote on their own resolution Tuesday 9 December 2014.

Another very bad PR week for Spectra, what with Continue reading →

Pipeline resolution, Trash report, Tourism + KLVB appointments @ LCC 2014-12-08

The Resolution against the Sabal Trail pipeline they already sent to FERC is on the agenda for voting. Congratulations in advance for doing that!

Advanced Disposal is back to report on their trash disposal. Did they turn in their required written report this time? How about that recycling? ADS’ Steve Edwards scheduled to report is the same who couldn’t forsee any further acquisitions before they bought three more companies. And a bunch of appointments, contracts, calendars, etc. in a very full agenda.

Shortly after the previous Commission meeting, almost a month ago, I filed an open records request for the board packet. Today at 4:35PM I got a call saying it’s ready. It takes me 30 minutes to get there. They close at 5PM.

Here’s the agenda.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2014, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

Rezoning and Budget @ Lake Park 2014-12-02

I wonder what they’re amending in the 2014 budget and what’s in the 2015 budget? Rezoning LP-2014-10-20 was previously heard at the Planning Commission 24 November 2014, which unanimously recommended approval. Plus this is local elected body that hears citizens’ concerns not once but twice.

Thanks to Tabatha Fowler for the agenda.

120 North Essa Street, Lake 300x299 Lakeparklogo, in Lake Park City Council, by John S. Quarterman, 2 December 2014 Park, Georgia 31636
A G E N D A
LAKE PARK CITY COUNCIL
DECEMBER 2, 2014
7:30 PM

Continue reading →

Videos: Lost Maps, New Vice, Lake Park R-P, Lowndes County C-G, Valdosta R-M @ GLPC 2014-11-24

Complete agenda? Maps? Election process? Calendar? But few people were there to notice these things missing.

At the Work Session we had all maps and things to show you, but between then and now the digital copies have vanished off of both laptops. And we are sort of at a loss as to where they went but they’re gone. So if you’ll use the maps that are in your packet and perhaps some memory from the Work Session discussion….

That’s right, staff lost the digital copies of an agenda item, CU-2014-11 Normal Life of Georgia. Board packets on the county’s website would serve as a backup for copies on planners’ laptops.

Gretchen, who was there, reports further below, including a note about that charming young white man recently appointed to the Planning Commission. -jsq

At a brief and poorly attended GLPC meeting, Continue reading →

Videos of Open Government Symposium in Macon @ OGS 2014-10-17

Here are videos of last month’s event organized by VDT editor Jim Zachary, director of the Transparency Project of Georgia, and Holly Manheimer, director of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation, adding to the still picture we already posted.

LAKE in the VDT @ LCC 2014-11-21

300x169 VDT videographer, Gretchen with the LAKE camera, Chairman Slaughter, County Clerk, in Open Government Symposium, by John S. Quarterman, 21 November 2014 First time ever the VDT mentioned LAKE, so far as I can recall. And we’ll see if the new VDT editor’s honeyed approach works this time with the Lowndes County Commission.

Joe Adgie, VDT, 23 November 2014, Watchdogs use open government laws to the fullest,

Not everyone at the Open Government Symposium on Friday were affiliated with a government.

Some of them, like John and Gretchen Quarterman, serve as watchdogs for the government. These watchdogs attend the open, public meetings held by governing bodies, acquire the documents and records of these meetings and other governmental affairs, and serve to make sure our local governments behave like they should.

The Quartermans run the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), a repository of Continue reading →

Lake Park R-P, Lowndes County C-G, Valdosta R-M @ GLPC 2014-11-24

300x388 Page 1: Lake Park R-P, Lowndes County C-G, Valdosta R-M, in Agenda, by John S. Quarterman, 24 November 2014

Thanks to the City of Valdosta for the agenda for tonight’s Planning Commission meeting. It’s all small cases, but how would you know whether one of them might affect you, since Lowndes County still doesn’t post Planning Commission agendas or minutes or board packets? And is there a second page? If the county did post these agendas regularly on their own website, this sort of omission would be less likely to occur.

Greater Lowndes Planning Commission

Lowndes County City of Valdosta City of Dasher City of Hahira City of Lake Park

REGULAR MONTHLY MEETING

AGENDA

Lowndes County South Health District Administrative Office
325 West Savannah Avenue

Monday, November 24, 2014* 5:30 P.M. * Public Hearing

Continue reading →