Category Archives: Lowndes County Commission

Video meetings like Lowndes Board of Education? —John S. Quarterman @ LCC 7 November 2011

After apologizing for setting off a flash earlier, I recommended the county video their own meetings, so they wouldn’t have to depend on amateurs.

Lowndes County Board of Education had an open forum about school consolidation. and they had their own person videoing the whole thing, and it ended up on the web in a day or two, which means that everyone in the county could see what was going on….

Chairman Paulk:

We get enough of that for free.

jsq:

I’ll send you a bill!

The Chairman nodded, so I’ll take that for approval of billing by LAKE.

Here’s the video: Continue reading →

Contracts on the south side —John Robinson @ LCC 7 November 2011

John Robinson addressed the Lowndes County Commission about Title III Section 3 of the HUD program, also Title VI of the Civil Rights Act:

No person in the United States on the grounds of race or color or national origin shall be excluded….

He said he has filed a federal complaint against the city of Valdosta, and he wants the County Commission to know that.

….scrutinized for these special groups of people, people of power, instead of the people that’s needing the money.

Chairman Paulk clarified that the Martin Luther King project is totally a city project, and that the county has no Title III projects.

Here’s the video:

Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 November 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Open record requests and jail deaths —George Boston Rhynes

George Rhynes complimented Ashley Paulk for having provided information about people in jail when Paulk was Sheriff, and noted that unfortunately that had not been the case since. He asked if someone could point him to where he could get such information. Chairman Paulk reminded him that the Sheriff is a constitutional officer, and the Commission did not direct him. George Rhynes responded:

Everywhere I go, I hear that. I go to Brooks County, and they inform me of the same thing.

Chairman Paulk noted:

… by state law.

They agreed on that, and George said he thought nonetheless:

Seems like somebody in the state of Georgia would know how to get that information, if it is open.

George also said: Continue reading →

And I feel like there’s somebody meddling in their affairs; I wish they wouldn’t have. —Ashley Paulk @ LCC 7 November 2011

As previously noted, Chairman Ashley Paulk last night told Matt Portwood he didn’t think the Lowndes County Commission should be meddling in school affairs. Here’s the part the VDT didn’t quote:

And I feel like there’s somebody meddling in their affairs; I wish they wouldn’t have.

That’s pretty interesting considering that Brittany D. McClure reported for the VDT 4 November 2011 that FVCS makes campaign contributions public:

Ashley Paulk, Lowndes County Commission chairman contributed $200

So it’s not like the public doesn’t already know Ashley Paulk’s opinion on this subject, and it seems he was reminding us of it: he contributed money to FVCS, a group actively lobbying to prevent the school consolidation promoted by CUEE.

Chairman Paulk also noted:

We do have county residents who live in the city.

Seems like he’s confusing two excuses for the Commissioners not speaking about school consolidation: Continue reading →

School Consolidation: Chairman Ashley Paulk responds to Matt Portwood

The VDT this morning left out all the best parts of last night’s

exchange between Matt Portwood and Lowndes County Commission Chairman Ashley Paulk. We’ll have the video up shortly so you can see for yourself.

The question:

“Reading the news, I found that both school boards and the City Council have come out with either a statement or a resoultion with their stance on school consolidation. I’m just curious why there hasn’t been a statement or resolution from you,” said Portwood.

The VDT’s version of the answer:

“Look at your tax notes. It says county taxes and school taxes,” replied Paulk. We’re two totally different entities than the county school system. I don’t feel like we should be meddling in their affairs. I don’t think the County Commission should be weighing in on the city issue. Commissioners agreed that this was their stance on the matter.”

Double Lowndes County Commission tonight: Work 4:30 PM Regular 5:30 PM

Alcohol, rezoning, hospital, debt, and an election! Because Tuesday is Election Day, the Lowndes County Commission changed its regular meeting to Monday. Work sessions are usually Monday in the morning; today the Work Session is at 4:30 PM, just before the Regular Session at 5:30 PM. It’s a busy agenda, including two alcohol licenses, two rezonings, and an appointment to the Hospital Authority of Valdosta and Lowndes County (VLCHA); that’s the body that authorized South Georgia Medical Center (SGMC) buying Smith Northview Hospital, after which SGMC got the County Commission to have we the taxpayers guarantee $100 million in bonds for expansion. Hm, and “SGMC Revenue Certificates” is on this agenda, too.

Here’s the agenda:

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2011, 4:30 p.m.
REGULAR SESSION, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2011, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2^nd Floor

Continue reading →

$75/day Lowndes County Travel Policy @ LCC 24-25 October 2011

Commissioner Crawford Powell wanted exemptions or exceptions to Lowndes County’s travel policy for “department heads, elected officials, County Manager”. Commissioner Richard Raines just wanted the limits raised. Commissioner Joyce Evans preferred they

…make a statement that we should not exceed a certain amount per day.

Chairman Ashley Paulk said exceptions were a problem and indicated they would be a bad idea. Powell and Raines are the same Commissioners who thought accepting a federal grant for NOAA Weather Radios would be “wasteful spending” of tax dollars and who refused a federal grant for an emergency vehicle. Spending local taxes seems fine with then when it comes to their travel expenses. They finally adopted a total of $75/day for meals. I hate to agree with Frank Barnas, but GSA standard for trips to Atlanta is $56/day.

At the Monday 24 October 2011 County Commission Work Session, County Manager Pritchard said the county’s travel policy had been discussed during their retreat and during budget preparations, with changes for mileage reimbursement, meal limitations, and use of tax forms. .

This is the policy we have been acting under since the adoption of the budget. I just wanted to bring it back before you to make this adoption public.

Joyce Evans expressed a concern about it saying the County Manager or his designee could approve expenses. She seemed to want the designee part removed.

Crawford Powell said:

Continue reading →

The missing Lowndes County public hearing for Comprehensive Plan Updates

Four local governments followed the rules, one appears to have left citizens out of the process.

According to their letters of transmission to the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) Valdosta, Hahira, Remerton, and Lake Park all held public hearings on the Short Term Work Programs and Report of Accomplishment documents.

Here is video of the Valdosta Public Hearing.

The Lowndes County resolution does not say that a public hearing was held. That’s because no public hearing was held, as you can see in the video below.

A public hearing was listed in the agenda of the 11 October 2011 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.

7. Public Hearing
a. REZ-2011-13, Fred’s Dept. Store, 4401 Bemiss Rd., 145c-90a, 2.0 ac., water/sewer, C-H(c) & C- G(c) to C-G
b. Greater Lowndes 2030 Comprehensive Plan Updates – Lowndes County Report of Accomplishments (ROA) and Short Term Work Program (STWP)

However, citizens were not invited to speak for or against the document. In fact, the document was not provided to the citizens for comment and an open records request for the document has not been satisfied by the county. Here is video of items 7a and 7b.

The County’s Resolution to Transmit says in part: Continue reading →

The Comprehensive Plan updates Lowndes County refused to provide

LAKE has obtained the planning revision documents Lowndes County refused, in violation of the law, to return in response to an open records request. Here they are for all to see.

The Standards and Procedures for Local Comprehensive Planning, established by the Georgia Planning Act of 1989, require updates to the Short Term Work Projects (STWP) list and the Report of Accomplishments (ROA) every 5 years. Lowndes County and the cities in Lowndes County have submitted the documents to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA)

An open records request to Lowndes County for the documents was not satisfied. However other government agencies were willing to abide by the Georgia Open Records Law ocga 50-18-70.

The documents are available for review on the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange website for Valdosta, Lake Park, Remerton, Hahira and Lowndes County.

I encourage you to read carefully what our elected officials see as the future of our community.

-gretchen

Lowndes County Commissioners approve intergovernmental agreement with SGMC

Without discussion, the Lowndes County Commissioners at their regular meeting two weeks ago on 11 October 2011. approved an intergovernmental agreement with South Georgia Medical Center to guarantee more than $100 million in bonds, for expansion of SGMC facilities, to include 96 new private rooms in the Dasher Heart Center, the 5 story parking deck, now under construction and due to be completed in early 2012, and Life Safety and Generator Equipment updates.

If one had not been at the work session and heard the presentation at their work session the day before, one would have no idea what this agenda item was about, since the Commission does not post such presentations anywhere the public can see them. Fortunately, LAKE was there and videoed it.