Metro Atlanta cities want to air their business in living rooms. Alpharetta agreed to spend $68,000 for a video recording system in its council chambers. Dunwoody will shell out $93,000 for a digital video recording system, enabling residents to view city council and planning commission meetings live from home.Continue readingWhile not every city electronically records its council meetings, the practice has become increasingly popular.
“It’s an overall trend of cities, going where people are to share information, to keep people in touch,” said Amy Henderson, Georgia Municipal Association spokeswoman.
Category Archives: Valdosta City Council
Videos and transparency –John S. Quarterman
Here
I discuss with the mayor
about the Valdosta City Council videoing their entire meetings and putting
them on the web for everybody to see.
The mayor indicated costs of streaming was an issue;
I recommended putting it on YouTube or Vimeo and letting them handle that part.
I think the AJC article he mentioned is this one:
Meeting access video grows among city councils,
by Patrick Fox, 18 Jan 2011.
This comment by the mayor was amusing:
The worst thing you could do would be to have one camera in the back that has room audio.Touche, Mr. Mayor! :-) What do you think, is a noisy video from the back of the room more useful than no video at all? Can you see him waving his arms around? Continue reading
“An error was made” –Luana Goodwin
This LTE appeared in the VTD 23 Jan 2011. -jsq
I wonder if there is any way for the Industrial Authority, County Commission and City Council to now do the right thing for Lowndes County. How can they save face?Reading the scientific data makes it clear that an error was made, and clearly this data wasn’t made available to those who have been charged with finding appropriate industry for us, industry that will raise the quality of life for the citizens of Lowndes County by providing good jobs. They can be excused for an industry that provides only a few jobs. Jobs are jobs, after all. But how can we help them apologize to all of us and thank those citizens who have spent so many hours of their own time gathering information and providing a forum to educate us? I wish it were possible.
Luana Goodwin
Valdosta
Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority Act
The Act of the Georgia Legislature that created VLCIA in 1960.
Note III.4.F:
F. To encourage and promote the expansion of industry, agriculture, trade, commerce and recreation in the City of Valdosta, County of Lowndes, and to make long-range plans therefor.Hm, so its board appears to have understated the range of VLCIA’s state-chartered scope when it stated:
“We’re industrial development.”See also Section 9. – Liberal construction.
This Act was found via search.municode.com, which notes:
Editor’s note—Printed in this article is 1960 Ga. Laws, page 2786, as adopted by the Georgia General Assembly. Amendments to this act are indicated by parenthetical history notes following amended provisions. The absence of a history note indicates that the provision remains unchanged from the original act. An act (1960 Ga. Laws, page 1359), substantially identical to the act set forth in this article, was also passed as a constitutional amendment. Such constitutional amendment was continued in force and effect by 1985 Ga. Laws, page 3653, as a part of the state constitution.The text of the Act is appended below.
-jsq Continue reading
Biomass Rising echoes from Macon
Patrick Davis
sums up the Valdosta biomass situation from Macon:
It appears to be the mainly conservative power structure of Lowndes trying to force this business venture into Valdosta’s community and not considering the environmental dangers.He has some interesting points, such as who just got appointed to the EPD. I think he overestimates the power of the Valdosta mayor, however.
-jsq
Farmers grow renewable energy? –James Wright
Grow crops to burn for fuel, or for food?
Valdosta City Council member
James Wright brings up
an article about farmers growing plants for biomass fuel.
These things get passed around by council members, and I’m pretty sure
this one that came to me indirectly is it:
November 12, 2010 – Incentivizing Renewable Biomass Production,
by New Energy Farms, Leamington, Ontario.
What they’re mainly recommending is
Miscanthus,
which is a genus of clump grass.
After all the citizens left –Valdosta City Council, 20 Jan 2011.
Now call me old-fashioned, but I prefer local farmers growing food Continue reading
After all the citizens left –Valdosta City Council, 20 Jan 2011
Want to know what your city council really thinks?
Stay through the entire meeting
and you’ll get some clues; or watch these videos by some who did stay.
City Manager, Attorney, and each council member say what’s on their minds.
Much of it addresses some of the questions asked by citizens earlier:
cracks in the MLK monument, biomass,
council members answering questions from the audience, etc.
What they didn’t talk about may indicate what various citizens
didn’t succeed in conveying to the council.
It’s not like what they were saying was a secret. The VDT reporter was there. They were finishing up the agenda with the sections “7. City Manager’s Report” and “8. Council Comments”. You can see them adjourn at the end. Some of them groused about the time citizens take up in “Citizens Wishing to be Heard”.
But remember, almost none of those citizens bothered to stay around to listen to them. Among the stay-latest: two cameras for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange, providing you these two views: Continue reading
“I don’t feel my interests were adequately represented” –Matt Flumerfelt
First-time speaker Matt Flumerfelt notes the Valdosta City Council
and the Lowndes County Commission both disclaim responsibility for the
Industrial Authority even though both appoint its members,
and he thinks that may make VLCIA’s contract for the biomass plant
challengeable on constitutional grounds.
He also sent LAKE the appended article on 20 Jan 2011.
Video by John S. Quarterman of the regular meeting of the Valdosta City Council, 20 January 2011, for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Continue readingFaith In Technology Is What Got Us Into This Mess
by Matt FlumerfeltMany people in the Valdosta-Lowndes County community have faith that the proposed Biomass incinerator won’t harm anyone or anything, but faith in technology is what got us into our current environmental mess in the first place. Those old enough to remember the nuclear power debate will remember how many people gave assurances that nuclear power was safe, yet we see today how difficult nuclear waste is to dispose of and how much damage it has caused when things go wrong, which, human nature being what it is, they inevitably do. The recent gulf oil spill would not have happened if
District numbers and MLK repairs –George Rhynes
George Boston Rhynes
asks for Valdosta City Council members
to be easier to visually distinguish,
and thanks council and staff for promising to
pay attention to physical problems with the MLK monument.
Video by John S. Quarterman of the
regular meeting of the Valdosta City Council, 20 January 2011
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
-jsq
Text of letter from Russell Anderson to officials
Can you find a
“veiled threat” in the appended letter?
LAKE couldn’t.
Some people seem to be forming opinions of that letter without ever having read it. LAKE has published links to a PDF of it from four previous posts: “Far from Over”, “What is Fiery Roots”, Russell Anderson Responds, and “We got off on the wrong foot”. Formerly LAKE only had a PDF of a scan of a paper copy of the email of 3 Jan 2011. Per request, Russell Anderson has sent plain text, which appears below. -jsq
Continue readingAll,
My name is Russell Anderson. I am the Co-Director of Collectiveprogression.org and graduate of Valdosta State. I am writing to inform you of my intent to publish the below piece on our website and to our readership as well as produce a full length documentary about the community struggle against the proposed Wiregrass LLC biomass incinerator. I have you all on this email {Sterling Assets, Langdale’s, Council, Commissioners, Authority, Attorneys} and ALL of you have continued to pass the blame and buck on the building of this plant. Rather than doing the more responsible thing (pending EIS),