Category Archives: Lowndes County Commission

$30,000 saved by library furloughs, $millions for building construction —Idelle Dear @ LCC 2013-01-08

Idelle Dear noted we’re up to 12 library furlough days, and reported a flaw in that picture to the 8 January 2013 Lowndes County Commission Regular Session.

I looked across the street and there are millions of dollars being spent on the construction of the hospital, construction of the VSU Health Sciences building. And yet what is happening, because this is a mandatory furlough for all employees, is that people who are employed by the South Georgia Regional Library, most of whom are minimum wage, work part time, rely on the income: they are going to lose out….

We’d heard about these state-mandated furlough closings at a library board meeting. Idelle Dear spelled out some of the consequences, and made some telling comparisons.

Something is wrong with this picture, and I realize there are different kinds of money, but something is wrong with this picture if we can spend millions and millions of dollars on construction of these buildings and yet shut down the library and the employees who are in low income are going to be affected.

She said she wasn’t sure most people even knew about all this. And she heard somebody had said most people have Internet at home, but

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Stripe some roads! —Former Commissioner Richard Lee @ LCC 2013-01-08

The ghost of Commissions Past, in the form of former Commissioner Richard Lee, pointed his finger at the Commission and staff at the 8 January 2013 Lowndes County Commission Regular Session.

Richard Lee congratulated the current Commissioners on being willing to serve. He pointed at Commissioner Joyce Evans as having been to this rodeo before. He said they could trust County Manager Joe Pritchard. And he asked them to find money to stripe roads.
So if y’all can find some coins, and Mr. Prichard has a real knack for doing that, we’d appreciate it up in my end of the county.

That’s curious, since Mr. Pritchard can’t seem to to keep the solid waste collection stations open, or for to keep libraries open, or even for a bus for 4-H without children doing much of the heavy lifting.

But Mr. Lee is confident Mr. Pritchard can find funds to stripe roads in Mr. Lee’s neighborhood!

Here’s the video:

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A clock for Citizens Wishing to Be Heard! @ LCC 2013-01-08

The Lowndes County Commission has deployed a clock! Where people can see it. Even the speaker in Citizens Wishing to Be Heard can see it! Congratulations to new Chairman Bill Slaughter and new Commissioners Demarcus Marshall and John Page.

Clock, Citizens Wishing to Be Heard, Lowndes County Commission, Georgia
The clock above County Manager Joe Pritchard, Chairman Bill Slaughter, Commissioners Joyce Evans, John Page, Richard Raines, Demarcus Marshall, Crawford Powell.

This is a welcome change from when former Chairman Ashley Paulk stopped Jessica Bryan Hughes at 4 minutes 39 seconds on 24 May 2011 and cut me off at 4 1/2 minutes on 28 June 2011, both times less than five minutes according to the LAKE video camera.

Speaking of five minutes, that’s the time limit set by the Commission in its own Policies and Procedures for Citizens Wishing to be Heard:

6. Each speaker’s time to speak shall be limited to five minutes.

Maybe the Commission would like to follow its own ordinance?

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Bird supper tickets on sale

Once a year busloads of people go to Atlanta from Lowndes County and Valdosta to lobby their legislators with small birds. It’s curious we only hear about this from Valdosta, not Lowndes County. -jsq

Bird Supper 2013 Tickets on Sale Now
Posted Date: 1/3/2013

Sementha Mathews, Public Information Officer
Phone: (229) 259-3548
E-mail: smathews@valdostacity.com

Tickets are on sale for the 2013 Bird Supper, scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013, at the historic Georgia Railroad Depot, in Atlanta, beginning at 5 p.m. The tradition—over 50 years old—brings together hundreds of state officials and local business, professional and government personnel for a dinner of quail and important conversation.

The event, sponsored by the City of Valdosta and the Lowndes County Board of Commissioners, allows local professionals the opportunity to have an impact on the current legislative agenda through face-to-face conversations with those who will make some very important decisions impacting our local area and entire state.

Tickets may be purchased

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Videos @ LCC 2013-01-07

The public defender said the county palace (that we’re still mysteriously paying on) didn’t have space for his office. The Industrial Authority request to buy some still-unspecified property “has been pulled from the agenda” by unspecified forces. The new 4-H agent spoke and a bus was discussed. One Commissioner forgot to show up until late to hear Workers’ compensation is going up and the Commission’s own schedule is being adjusted for holidays. There was little substantive discussion, and there’s no sign anything will change at the Lowndes County Commission unless enough people want it to. They vote this evening at 5:30 PM, and they do have Citizens Wishing to be Heard, although it is still at the end, after all the votes.

Here’s the agenda, with links to videos, and a few notes.

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New Clayton County Commissioners fire County Manager, fund forensic audit

A few new Commissioners on a five-member board is producing significant changes in Clayton County. What changes will the new Lowndes County Commissioners make?

Tammy Joyner write for the AJC Election results usher in period of change for Clayton,

The new County Commission set the tone this week by ushering in a raft of changes aimed at creating better accountability in Clayton’s finances while putting greater control in the hands of the new chairman. The board removed County Manager Wade Starr, a long-time kingmaker in Clayton politics, and will bring in a chief financial officer to manage county finances.

The balance of power clearly has swung to newly elected Commissioners Jeff Turner and Shana Rooks. Turner, who replaces Eldrin Bell as chairman, and Rooks, who defeated Wole Ralph, teamed with returning Commissioner Michael Edmondson to create a new voting bloc on the five-member board, and they appear intent on taking swift action.

“They hit the ground running,” said Carl Swensson, chairman of the Clayton County Citizens Oversight Committee. “The former power triumvirate has been absolutely shattered. We’re going to have good people in position where they can do the most good for this county. You’re going to find a more receptive ear in the new structure.”

Naturally the remaining old guard took issue:

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New Commission meets Monday morning and Tuesday evening @ LCC 2013-01-07

Pictured: newly elected Commissioners Page, Evans (re-elected), Slaughter, and Marshall

The Industrial Authority wants to buy some unspecified property public defender needs renewing, plus 4-H agent and school bus activity. Also workers’ compensation, and the Commission needs to approve its own schedule, since it’s a new Commission now, with two more voting members than last year, and a new Chairman.

Here’s a list of the current Commission members:

  • Bill Slaughter, Chairman, At-Large
  • Joyce E. Evans, Commissioner, District 1
  • Richard Raines, Commissioner, District 2
  • Crawford Powell, Commissioner, District 3
  • Demarcus Marshall, Commissioner, District 4
  • John Page, Commissioner, District 5

Their Commission web page still has at the top this mission statement:

“To provide an efficient, effective and responsive local government to all citizens of Lowndes County while maintaining the financial strength to meet any contingency”

The county government has apparently been pretty good about that last thing (although that $8.9 million discrepency could make some wonder). On responsiveness, not so much, considering the trash non-solution railroaded through at the last meeting of the previous Commission. Maybe this new Commission will be different.

Here’s the agenda.

-jsq

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2013, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
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Waste offer letter: take it or….

Unsigned trash letter from Lowndes County I received the appended unsigned letter from Lowndes County recently, which says the 5,000 residents of the unincorporated parts that currently use the county’s waste disposal sites can sign up with Advanced Disposal (of New York City) for curbside pickup or…. There is no or. So look forward to trash dumping long roadsides, in parking lots in town, and on your property. And neither outgoing County Chairman Ashley Paulk nor County Manager Joe Pritchard even had the courtesy to sign the letter.

After noting that back in June the county changed waste permit cards from 12 months to 6 months, the letter says:

At purchase, information was made available regarding possible future options for solid waste management in unincorporated Lowndes County.

So the county is backing off from claiming card buyers got a letter spelling out options. I got no such letter with card purchase.

This consideration became necessary due to revenue generated by the sale of the permit cards, not covering the cost of operating the centers.

And that’s all the accounting we get. Where is the summary of expenses for the centers compared to revenue? The VDT reported from the Commissioners’ stealth retreat back in April:

“In total, the county is currently spending $782,058.34 each year for solid waste disposal, a reduction from $1,176,207.75 in 2007.”

As I pointed out then, “So that’s a rapid reduction in cost to less than a third of what it used to be, and less than half of what it was only a year ago.” Later Joe Pritchard said those numbers didn’t include everything being spent. So what was actually being spent? We the taxpayers and we the card payers don’t know. After a long series of meetings to which the public was either not invited at all or was not invited to provide input, at its last meeting of the year (exactly as I predicted), Commissioners approved changes to the solid waste ordinance eliminating the collection sites and granted a monopoly to Advanced Disposal Services of New York City.

Former Chairman Ashley Paulk recently complained Moody AFB had become “privatized”. Yet at his last Commission meeting he presided over privatizing the county’s public service of solid waste collection.

Three new Commissioners were just sworn in yesterday, including a new chair. The new Commission in the new year is not, so far as I know, bound by the decisions of any previous Commission. It could undo the damage the old one just did. Or it could, like the old one, ignore concerns of public health, safety, and the environment that the state requires them to implement, plus concerns of local waste collection businesses, of local residents about recycling and about the lack of any other option than curbside; will the new Commission continue to kick 5,000 county residents towards curbside collection or tossing their trash in the your yard?

Unsigned trash letter from Lowndes County:

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Bainbridge beats Valdosta!

Bainbridge City Hall now hums with solar energy, Tristan Baurick wrote for Kitsap Sun 2 August 2012:

City Hall’s array of 297 rooftop solar panels is expected to produce the equivalent of 20 percent of the building’s energy needs, according to Joe Deets, executive director of Community Energy Solutions, the Bainbridge nonprofit group that spearheaded the privately-funded project.

“This is a great day for Bainbridge,” Deets said.

How many solar panels do you see on Valdosta City Hall? Well, that’s a historic building. But how about City Hall Annex? The parking lot? The formerly “100% Paid by SPLOST” Lowndes County palace that we’re now paying almost $9 million in bonds for? Nope, not a solar panel in sight.

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Farewell Chairman Ashley Paulk @ LCC 2012-12-14

At the county’s farewell reception for retiring Chairman Ashley Paulk Friday, Attorney General Sam Olens gave him something to hang on the wall, Paulk said a few words, County Manager Joe Pritchard read a letter from incoming Chairman Bill Slaughter, and Pritchard said a few words and gave Paulk a rocking chair, in which he declined to sit.

At some later date maybe I’ll post a retrospective about my neighbor Ashley Paulk, but for now I think the many posts in this blog will serve, and meanwhile I look forward to seeing what the new Commission will do with new Commissioners Demarcus Marshall (District 4), John Page (District 5), and new Chairman Bill Slaughter.

Here’s a video playlist:

Farewell Chairman Ashley Paulk, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 14 December 2012.

-jsq