Category Archives: Law

FERC pipeline Scoping Meeting tonight in Valdosta: testify for your community

A local affected landowner and the chair of a local political party ask you to come tonight at 6PM at the Holiday Inn on West Hill Avenue to testify to the federal agency that decides on a permit for the proposed yard-wide hundred-foot right of way methane pipeline that a company from Houston wants to gash through here. First a presentation by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), then citizens can stand up and be recorded by a court reporter.

As directly affected local landowner Carol Singletary pointed out on WALB Sunday,

“When you have it within 100 feet of your home, you cannot have any sense of security there. There are alternate routes that aren’t being considered. So I want to get those on the table and some strong considerations given to those.”

As Gretchen Quarterman pointed out for the Lowndes County Democratic Party on WCTV yesterday,

“The Georgia Democrats feel that there’s a moral obligation to leave the world as beautiful and majestic as we found it and the pipeline, it does not do that”, says Gretchen Quarterman, Chairman of the Lowndes County Democratic Committee.

More from the LCDP Press Release yesterday, plus more meetings and more ways to testify, Continue reading →

Broadband, outsourcing, trash, and fire @ LCC 2014-02-28

The second day of the Commission retreat is finished. Reporting from location, Gretchen noted:

1PM: BroadBand

Chairman Bill Slaughter has a five year goal of making broadband available. Some possibility of creating a fibre ring. He says he’s working with the City of Valdosta.

Well, a year ago in February he said broadband was “one of the number one issues”, but in October he said “we have broadband”, so it’s anyone’s guess what his opinion will be in a few months.

1:06PM: Outsourcing

Commissioner Crawford Powell wants to outsource more county services.

That’s working so well, after all; see the next note.

1:19PM: Trash evaluation

Continue reading →

Solar financing HB874 on GA House Energy Committee for Monday

The bipartisan distributed rooftop solar financing bill, HB 874, the Solar Power Free-Market Financing and Property Rights Act of 2014, is on the agenda for Monday for the House Energy, Utilities & Telecommunications Committee, according to Claudia Musleve Collier.

The Committee member from closest to here is Carol Fullerton (D 153) Albany. Here are the rest of the committee members. Call ’em up!

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More the county could do about the pipeline –John S. Quarterman @ LCC 2014-02-25

I thanked the County Manager but mentioned something else the county could do about that pipeline, at the 25 February 2014 Lowndes County Commission Regular Session.

I thanked County Manager Joe Pritchard for notifying constituents like FERC had recommended about the FERC Scoping Meetings starting next week.

Then I read the recommendation of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) after Spectra Energy’s 1994 Durham Woods pipeline fireball in Edison, New Jersey that burnt dozens, evacuated thousands, made hundreds homeless, and literally scared one woman to death:

The public will not benefit from the safety improvement recommendations developed in RSPA’s public safety risk study without guidance containing implementation procedures and without motivation from associations representing local governments.

I suggested Lowndes County Commissioners might want to talk to the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG) about that.

Here’s the video:

Continue reading →

Objections and Sabal Trail pipeline reader –Danielle Jordan @ LCC 2014-02-25

A local native and VSU student voiced her objection to the proposed Sabal Trail pipeline in the 25 February 2014 Lowndes County Commission Regular Session.

8. Citizens Wishing To Be Heard – Danielle Jordan

And she handed the Commission a pipeline reader. The VDT summarized:

During the citizens to be heard portion of the meeting, Danielle Jordan voiced her opposition to the Sabal Trail Transmission pipeline because “it violates personal property rights, causes safety concerns, and causes troublesome environmental impacts.” She then presented the commission with a packet of research.

Here’s the video:

Continue reading →

FERC Scoping Meetings on Sabal Trail Pipeline –Joe Pitchard @ LCC 2014-02-25

County Manager Joe Pritchard told everyone about the FERC Notice of Intent and Scoping Meetings starting next week (Albany Monday 3 March, Valdosta Holiday Inn on West Hill Ave. Tuesday 4 March, Moultrie 5 March, all at 6PM). at the 25 February 2014 Lowndes County Commission Regular Session.

7. Reports-County Manager

He said materials were on the county’s website, and they are:

Continue reading →

Local government pipeline responsibilities

Make pipeline companies answer questions, motivate implementation of safety standards, announce FERC Scoping meetings, and enforce reasonable local zoning restrictions: these are things local governments can do, and NTSB and FERC say they should do most of them. Gilchrist County Commission in Trenton, Florida has done most of them, and plans to continue doing more. The Lowndes County Commission and the Valdosta City Council still can, too, plus all the other county and city governments along the proposed pipeline path, and their statewide county and city government associations. Will our local elected officials represent we the people?

Make pipeline companies answer questions

There were Real questions at the Gilchrist County Commission meeting in Trenton, Florida Monday. Two hours of first questions from a citizens committee with Spectra’s reps expected to answer right there in front of everybody, then questions from locals and people from many counties around, including attorneys representing landowners and other county commissions cross-examining Spectra on the spot. The Chairman of the Gilchrist County Commission said there was a general opinion among the populace that they were asking specific questions and getting only general answers. Congratulations, Chairman, Commission, staff, Committee, and everyone who asked questions for showing the world how it’s done, and for exposing Spectra’s evasions to public scrutiny.

This is in sharp contrast to Continue reading →

Transparency in government is essential to the public trust –VDT

VDT editorial yesterday, Violating public trust,

Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens successfully fought for and implemented changes to the state’s Open Records law, believing that transparency in government is essential to the public trust. The law passed in 2012 states, “The General Assembly finds and declares that the strong public policy of this state is in favor of open government; that open government is essential to a free, open, and democratic society; and that public access to public records should be encouraged to foster confidence in government and so that the public can evaluate the expenditure of public funds and the efficient and proper functioning of its institutions.”

The VDT asked for records from the Lowndes County school system and didn’t get them. Their experience sounds quite similar to many LAKE has had with the county government in particular, with records not being provided in the statutory three days, and sometimes not even an excuse or a list of what might eventually be available.

That plus failure to make even agendas for the Planning Commission available in a timely fashion so citizens can see whether they need to attend (somebody explain to me the expense of agendas; clearly I don’t understand this Internet suff), and even in response to open records requests returning paper when the documents are obviously composed in electronic formats, agendas for County Commission meetings that are just plain incorrect, resulting in people taking time off from work to show up unnecessarily for a Sabal Trail pipeline item that didn’t happen, a public hearing that wasn’t listed as such on the agenda, a secretive retreat “work session”, and not even being clear about what tax dollars for SPLOST would go for. That’s not even all; just a sample of county government lack of transparency.

And it’s not just the County Commission. Look at Continue reading →

Videos: Dollar General, Elections, and Human Resources @ LCC 2014-02-10

Fourteen (14) minutes. The most time was spent on the Wheeler rezoning, on yet another Dollar General, Elections Supervisor Deb Cox personally made her Board of Elections personnel request, which is to change five part-time positions for one full-time, and several Commissioners asked questions about the Human Resources service contract, which might result in educational requirements for positions, and is supposed to survey everybody paid by the county: but does that include employees of boards with their own millage, namely the Industrial Authority and Parks and Rec?

They vote tomorrow, Tuesday 11 Feb 2014 at 5:30 PM. Here’s the agenda.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2014, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

Lowndes County attorney has been discussing the pipeline with other county attorneys

As usual, the citizens of Lowndes County are the last to know.

Alan Mauldin wrote for The Moultrie Observer 8 February 2014, County commission meetings to focus on Sabal Trail pipeline,

County Attorney Lester Castellow, who reently met with his counterparts from Brooks, Doughterty and Lowndes counties, is scheduled to address commissioners about the project during a Monday afternoon commission work session.

That would be the alleged Lowndes County attorney Walter G. Elliott.

Meanwhile, Colquitt County attorney Castellow is on the agenda for today’s noon Work Session in Moultrie, and again at 7PM Tuesday in the Colquitt County Commission Regular Session, with Sabal Trail pipeline reps in attendance. More here.

Which is something the Lowndes County Commission has never done. Sure, the Lowndes County Commissioners asked four questions and forwarded citizen questions in writing, which got cut-and-paste PR answers from Spectra. From one of the same Spectra reps who was “not familiar” with Spectra’s sorry rap sheet of corrosion, leaks, and fines.

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