Here is one person’s opinion on the current expansion plan for the Lowndes County Commission. LAKE is also making available a
web page and an OpenOffice version of this statement.
LAKE will be happy to post other opinions on either side as part of citizen dialog for transparent process.
Vote NO on Expansion Referendum
Voters in Lowndes County are being asked in a referendum to vote YES or NO on expansion
of the Lowndes County Board of Commissioners by the addition of two
super-districts:
Shall the governing authority of Lowndes County be
changed to a six-member board of commissioners to be composed of a
nonvoting chairperson and five voting district commissioners, three
of whom shall represent the existing three districts created by
dividing Lowndes County into three districts and two of whom shall
represent additional districts to be created by dividing Lowndes
County into two districts which shall overlay the three existing
districts?
Here is my
explanation of why I am voting NO and why I think you should vote NO
too.
Jack Kingston (R GA-01) came back to Valdosta, GA to hold another Health Care Town Hall after his previous one in August had ten times as many people as he expected. This time the 1200 seat Mathis Auditorium was maybe half full, so probably somewhere between 500 and 600 people attended.
The picture on the right is the core of Kingston’s argument. See for yourself.
Here’s a YouTube playlist for all the LAKE videos by Gretchen Quarterman from that September Town Hall. This is Kingston’s complete presentation except for a few words lost between videos and a few cases of camera failure. We’re still adding more videos from the question session. All the videos from the questions session are now available (17 Oct 2009); starting with Microphones are open.
“Jails must provide for the basic medical and mental health needs of inmates and must keep them safe from attacks by other inmates and excessive force by staff,” Loretta King, the acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement.
“We have repeatedly sought the county’s cooperation in working toward an amicable resolution in this matter, and we regret that the county’s failure to cooperate compels us to litigate,” she continued.
“In light of the severity of the conditions, including multiple suicides and beatings, we must take action to ensure that the constitutional rights of those persons detained at the facilities, many of whom have not been convicted of any crime, are protected.”
Dennis Marks notes that VSU-TV’s rebroadcasts of the
AAUW Forum of 15 Sep 2009
will include the two-minute statements of unopposed candidates who
showed up. Those are not in the LAKE videos of the event which are already on YouTube, but pretty much everything else is.
Maybe VSU-TV will also put their videos online.
According to email from Walter Rollenhagen:
The Lowndes Co. Political Forum, or as we label it, VOTE 2009, will air on
VSU-TV cable channel 20:
By Kenny R. Bush and John S. Quarterman, with videos by Gretchen Quarterman.
On Sept 15, residents of Lowndes County gathered inside VSU’s Whitehead
Auditorium for a political forum concerning the upcoming 2009 General
Municipal Elections.
It was the competing Mayberrys, Hahira and Dasher,
in the shadow of the big city of
Valdosta with its council and school board.
The 100 or so people who watched learned about the candidates.
You can too, by watching the videos of each speaker
provided by LAKE on YouTube.
Perhaps VSU can also be encouraged to release online the videos it took, which are
probably of higher quality.
Perhaps VSU can also be encouraged to release online the videos it took, which are
probably of higher quality.
The event was sponsored by the American Association of University Women
(AAUW) and moderated by Jim Peterson, chair of the Political Science
Department at VSU. Before the forum began, the audience was provided
note cards and encouraged to write questions for forum participants.
A three person committee then decided which four questions that would be asked
on stage for each set of candidates.
Valdosta City Council District 2
The forum began with the five candidates competing to be the newest councilman of Valdosta’s 2nd district.
Willie T. Head, the incumbent, is not running,
but five other people other are:
David G. DeMersseman, David L. Dempsey, Rodney R. Flucas, Deidra A. White, and Dr. L. W. Williams.
The first question of the night concerned annexing land neighboring
Valdosta and if candidates believed it to be a good idea or not.
Continue reading →
Here’s the Lowndes County Commission (most of it), posing about the new StormReady County designation:
We love the Valdosta Daily Times (VDT), WCTV, and WALB, but if they published anything about that, we missed it. They have space constraints, and we don’t. Local governments do a lot of good things (and other things) that don’t get reported in the traditional press. This is where LAKE comes in.
Continue reading →
