How can we “Know the Laws” as the county’s
front page says,
if a county ordinance being revised isn’t there and isn’t
distributed when the county is about to vote on it Tuesday evening
after the Work Session this morning at 8:30 AM?
For the Nuisance Abatement Ordinance the packet agenda sheet says only: Continue reading
Update 2015-08-07: corrections by Nydia, including a timeline.
Only a bit more than three years since
the pictured incident,
Nydia Tisdale gets some of the recognition she deserves.
Georgia citizen journalist Nydia Tisdale is in the news again but this time, the story doesn’t involve her getting thrown out of a public meeting or arrested in a pumpkin patch.
Tisdale is being honored by Georgia’s First Amendment Foundation for her work in making public meetings available to the citizens of her community and for her dedication to keeping government open for everyone’s participation.
After getting thrown out of the Cumming City Council for videoing in April 2012, Nydia got Continue reading
Update 2015-07-24: Hayden adds detail in comments on this article: Andy Thomas, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 23 July 2015, Valdosta State U. Will Pay $900,000 to Settle Student’s Free-Speech Lawsuit.
Finally!
Expelled for protesting a parking garage,
after VSU then-president Zaccari claimed a facebook collage was “threatening”.
If the powers that be around here want to be a metropolitan area,
maybe VSU should act like an institution of higher learning.
Then it wouldn’t have to pay settlements like this.
Katie Barrows, FIRE, 23 July 2015, Eight Years After Student’s Unjust Expulsion from Valdosta State U., $900K Settlement Ends ‘Barnes v. Zaccari’ Continue reading
Tuesday’s surprise report
was on airport funding,
followed by an unscheduled vote for funding.
They also reappointed Dr. Martha Giddens to the Lowndes County Division of Family and Children Services Board, approved two well and septic rezonings, passed Lowndes County Road Naming Resolution and Procedure that they haven’t published even though it’s because a Commissioner said citizens requested it, and the latest in the long-running Juvenile Justice Court diversionary program grant contract.
See also Continue reading
A
surprise report on public transportation trucking by VLMPO Corey Hull
yesterday morning at 8:30 AM.
They vote today at 5:30 PM
on this agenda
for
reappointing Dr. Martha Giddens to the Lowndes County Division of Family and Children Services Board, two
well and
septic rezonings,
Lowndes County Road Naming Resolution and Procedure that they haven’t published even though
it’s because a Commissioner said citizens requested it,
and the latest in the long-running
Juvenile Justice Court diversionary program grant contract. Continue reading
This morning at 8:30 AM, with voting Tuesday at 5:30 PM, on this agenda, for reappointing Dr. Martha Giddens to the Lowndes County Division of Family and Children Services Board, two well and septic rezonings, Lowndes County Road Naming Resolution and Procedure that they haven’t published even though it’s because a Commissioner said citizens requested it, and the latest in the long-running Juvenile Justice Court diversionary program grant contract.
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
Continue reading
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JULY 13, 2015 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JULY 14, 2015 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
$16,915
to upgrade a water main to subsidize a developer,
but no approval of
$15,957 to study public transportation and truck routing.
Speaking of subsidizing private developers, there’s yet more fallout from the failed 2007 mega-mall-and-subdivision Market Street project; see separate post.
And the Chairman gave an excellent demonstration of why elected officials would benefit by interacting and even debating with citizens, instead of jumping to conclusions and preaching at them.
Here’s the agenda, and the LAKE videos of the previous morning’s Work Session and the budget hearing immediately before the Regular Session. Below are the Regular Session LAKE videos with a few comments, followed by a video playlist. Continue reading
The Chairman said the Finance Director would make a presentation
about the
Adoption of the Fiscal Year 2016 Budget
Tuesday before they voted; he said nothing about that presentation
being the second Public Budget Hearing.
See LAKE videos of the first Budget Hearing
and of
the second budget hearing.
The Commercial Driveway for Raceway on James Road. is yet more fallout from the failed 2007 mega-mall-and-subdivision Market Street project; see separate post. Also five pre-bidders but only one bid, this one from Scruggs Co., for Widening of a Portion of Old US 41 N.
Why is the county paying the cost to Upgrade Water Main at Lake Alapaha Subdivision from 2 inches to 6 inches? At least we found out where and why for the Engineering and Surveying Services for Water and Sewer.
Here’s the agenda. Below are the LAKE videos of the Work Session with a few comments, followed by a video playlist. Continue reading
If we’re tired of arguing over pieces of cloth, how about we do
something about one of the main tools of racist oppression in the
U.S.? Legalize drugs, thus stopping paying for 75% of the U.S.
prison population, which is far more black than white, and is often
rented out for literally pennies.
Remember, slavery is not illegal
in the U.S., as long as it is punishment for some crime. Second clause, 13th Amendment:
except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted
More black men are in jail, prison, probation, or parole now than were enslaved in 1850, as Michelle Alexander has noted. Anyone who says Continue reading
For most of June, Georgia Power has had two ads rotating on the
five LED billboards in Valdosta, saying
Giving you the power to go solar —Georgia Power
When? Tomorrow, July 1st, as Southern Company CEO Tom Fanning said at the SO Stockholder meeting 27 May 2015. Why then? Because that’s when HB 57, aka the Solar Power Free-Market Financing Act of 2015, goes into effect. As Tom Fanning has made his mantra since that meeting:
“If somebody wants to buy distributed generation, I want to sell it to ’em,”
Herman K. Trabish, Utility Dive, 11 June 2015 Inside Georgia Power’s move into the residential solar market: The utility says it will offer solar through an unregulated business, but installers fear possible anticompetitive impacts, Continue reading