Tag Archives: 7 April 2011

Roy Taylor at VCC 7 April 2011

Roy Taylor spoke first at Citizens to be Heard, Valdosta City Council, 7 April 2011. He didn’t stay to hear the rest of the meeting, though. Could he be one of the people Scott Orenstein was referring to? Here’s the video.

Regular Meeting, Valdosta City Council, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 April 2011
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

PS: Sorry for not transcribing, Roy, but we have so many videos lately that we’re going to have to rush a bunch of them out without that.

-jsq

15.a) VA-2011-09 rezoning for 100 Black Men @ VCC 7 April 2011

Rezoning some land for 100 Black Men of Valdosta was the first order of business on the agenda for Valdosta City Council for 7 April 2011:

5.a. Consideration of an Ordinance to rezone 0.24 acres from Single-Family Residential (R6) to Office-Professional (O-P) as requested by 100 Black Men of Valdosta (File No. VA-2011-09). The property is located at the southeast corner of Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK) Drive and South Troup Street. The Planning Commission reviewed this request at their March Regular Meeting and recommended approval (7-0-1 vote).

Planning Director Matt Martin, presented the case. Continue reading →

Biomass protesters @ VCC 7 April 2011

You’ve seen them before and here they are again: biomass protesters, this time outside Valdosta City Hall, 7 April 2011.

Old and young, Continue reading →

Concerned for the community and get up and leave in the middle of the meeting? –Scott Orenstein

Scott Orenstein made a very good point at the end of the 7 March 2011 Valdosta City Council meeting:

…spirit of concern and participation in the community. I’d just like the videographer to pan around and see how many people are still here at the conclusion of the meeting. And then talk about their true concern for the community. Are they really concerned when they get up and leave in the middle of the meeting?

There’s more, but I’m not going to transcribe it all; listen for yourself:

Regular monthly meeting of the Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 April 2011,
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

The mayor re-opened Citizens to Be Heard at the end of the meeting so Continue reading →

What happens at the end of a Valdosta City Council meeting?

This:

Regular monthly meeting of the Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 April 2011,
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Adjournment!

Little joke there.

But adjournment is not the end of interacting with the city government at a city council meeting. For example, Council Deidra White stopped on the steps of City Hall to talk to people. Three people were there. All of us lived in the county outside Valdosta. Not a single person who lives in Valdosta stayed to talk to her.

Among other things, she said she thought she made clear at the end of the last Council meeting that the mayor didn’t speak for her. That was at the end of the meeting, in the “Council Comments” item on the agenda. However, apparently nobody stayed to hear that, either.