Category Archives: Lowndes County Commission

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:

Continue reading →

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?

Continue reading →

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

Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →

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:

Continue reading →

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:

Continue reading →

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.

Oh, sorry, that’s

Continue reading →

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

Are Augusta and Richmond County special in transparency?

So why does

Augusta have the second highest high tech job growth in the country?
I can only speculate, but local government transparency could be a factor.
If you had a high tech company and were looking to open an office,
would you go for a place where you couldn't tell what the local governments
were up to, or one where you could easily find out?
Augusta's combined City Council and County Commission meetings
(it's a consolidated government)

are on video, online.
Their agendas are available in either HTML or PDF,

with attachments.

Here's an example, their



5 December 2012 Commission Meeting.
It includes

a proposed amendment to their land subdivision code.
The actual proposed ordinance

is linked right into the agenda so everybody can see it.

And yes, they link attachments into their agendas before
their meetings;
here's

Augusta's agenda for their meeting tomorrow 18 December 2012,
already with attachments, such as this one

about a zoning exception,
which was apparently submitted on a standard agenda submittal form,
and approved by the Clerk of Commission.

Meanwhile, the outgoing Lowndes County Chairman



complained the Chamber of Commerce hadn't read a proposed
zoning code change
even though

that change is not linked into the agenda (nor is anything else)
and
last year

the same Chairman said no drafts would be published.
Tuesday last week, Lowndes County Commissioners passed changes to the
solid waste ordinance
and to the

alcohol ordinance
that voters and taxpayers and business owners did not get to see
before the Commission voted on them.
Those ordinances seem to be on the county website now that it's
too late to provide input on them: alcohol and waste.
Both ordinances were revised with no public hearings.
And the Chairman even

forgot to hold a scheduled public hearing on special tax lighting districts.
Oh, and they

apparently now have property owners paying on almost $9 million
in bonds for a county palace
that only two years ago they said was already completely paid off
out of sales taxes.

If you had a high tech company and were looking to open an office,

Continue reading →