I recommend people go to
tonight’s budget “hearing”
and see what’s said, and maybe even try to ask some questions.
I’m staying home; here’s why.
Since
Ashley Paulk is apparently still running the County Commission,
I’m going by
Ashley Paulk’s stated theory
that citizens provide input to the budget process at every meeting.
I already provided mine
14 May 2013: Continue reading
I guess some things are just not to be questioned, at least at this morning’s Lowndes County Commission Regular Session. However, although Commissioners did not, I do have a question.
5.b. Lowndes County Parks and Recreation Authority
County Chairman Slaughter:
“Lowndes County Parks and Recreation Authority Appointment.”County Manager Pritchard:
“The term currently held by Ashley Paulk will expire June 30th. Mr. Paulk has expressed an interest in being reappointed if the board so chooses.”
County Chairman Slaughter:
“Any questions?
OK, hearing none, let’s move on to agenda item number 6.”
I have a question. Why isn’t it Continue reading
Only fifteen minutes on any topic, said Chairman Bill Slaughter, even though 8 people wanted to speak about trash at last night’s Lowndes County Commission Regular Session. But there is no such rule in the county’s relevant ordinance.
He was enforcing an odd mashup of the county’s 25 January 2013 ordinance about
Citizens Wishing to Be Heard.
It does have these two rules: Continue reading
The facts don’t match County Chairman Bill Slaughter’s assertion
(according to the VDT Thursday):
That decision was made in a good-faith effort to find the lowest possible rate for garbage service for the citizens of Lowndes County, he said Tuesday.
Commissioner Richard Raines moved and the Commission voted to approve 9 October 2012 Proposal D and awarded it to the lowest bidder for that specific proposal, which was Veolia. But that wasn’t the lowest-priced proposal, according to the sheet of choices they were using in that meeting:
Continue readingFormer Chairman Ashley Paulk may say he didn’t tell Cory Scarborough of Deep South Sanitation that any contract by the county for curbside pickup would be non-exclusive (VDT 30 May 2013), but David Rodock reported for the VDT from Ashley Paulk’s guest house at a Lowndes County Commission retreat chaired by Ashley Paulk that:
Commissioners decided that getting out of the “trash business” was best and that a non-exclusive agreement with current curbside pickup companies (which about 12,000 citizens already employ) would provide service without putting any people out of business.
The VDT reported
(
Commission tackles key issues:
Waste management, tax lighting districts and SPLOST discussed at retreat
by David Rodock, 31 March 2012)
Commissioners “decided”.
Yet there is no vote recorded, in contravention to Georgia open meetings law
and a recent
Georgia Supreme Court decision.
How is this doing
“the people’s business”?
Maybe if they took a vote and recorded it properly we’d all know what they said.
-jsq
The VDT should dig deeper into the finances of Lowndes County trash collection.
Nobody has ever seen an accounting of where where the money went for
the county’s former waste collection sites, so nobody knows whether
the county was really losing money or how much, and the county’s
version of how those sites had to be paid for doesn’t match state law..
Sure, Bill Slaughter defending a decision made when Ashley Paulk was chair
is amusing, but instead of transcribing what county officials tell it,
the VDT could find lots more under the county’s garbage with a little digging.
Jason Schaefer write for the VDT Thursday, Concerns continue over garbage agreement: Business owner argues case against County
The County is not required under Georgia law to issue RFPs to any company for waste disposal services, according to Slaughter. That decision was made in a good-faith effort to find the lowest possible rate for garbage service for the citizens of Lowndes County, he said Tuesday.
Is that the point of county government, to act like Wal-Mart?
Is money the only value the county government can name?
Everyone I talked to about the trash issue in 2012 who already
had a waste collection card said they’d be willing to pay more
to keep the sites open.
Maybe if the county had held public hearings they would have learned that.
And does anyone believe ADS’s rates are going to stay that low? Look at Wakulla, Florida, where it’s $196/year. But the bigger question is why did the county privatize trash collection anyway?
Continue reading
The Industrial Authority was very forthcoming
about everything about their new office purchase
except who they were buying it from;
this was at the
16 April 2013 Board Meeting
of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority.
The seller turns out to be a household name hereabouts.
Chairman Roy Copeland talked about the at least five year process
for finding “a new home” for VLCIA.
He noted that before he joined the board they were considering
buying a property he and his wife own.
He and former Lowndes County Chairman Ashley Paulk looked
at another property near the Courthouse.
VLCIA even toured the historic Lowndes County Courthouse
but concluded it couldn’t be renovated for their purposes.
Jerry Jennett noted the search had gone on even longer than five years.
Copeland said the parameters they had set were, as far as he recalled, Continue reading
How about if Lowndes County buys the land next to Old State Road
at Hotchkiss Crossing on the Alapaha River and turns it into
Acree Park?
That would be a much better solution to the trash, tresspassing,
and hunting problems there than closing the road.
And Lowndes County itsels claims it has plenty of money available
for just such a purpose.
As we’ve seen, Lowndes County’s own Comprehensive Plan says the county has $500,000 in Acquisition Funds Available to “Adopt, implement, and update provisions of the Greenspace Initiative Plan to include land acquisition and resource enhancement/protection.” And that it plans to “Continue preparation and implementation of the Withlacoochee River Greenway Plan.”
What say the county acquires parkland at Hotchkiss Landing from Continue reading
Old State Road at the Alapaha River is a county-maintained public road.
How could Lowndes County not have known that it was
blocked by two huge blocks of concrete
at Hotchkiss Landing from late 2010 through at least early 2012?
Why did Code Enforcement do nothing about it?
These blocks of concrete have to be quite heavy. This is not random litter, and no partier or hunter or 4-wheeler would have any motivation to block the road, much less with blocks this size. Who would? Why didn’t the county find out and do something about it?
-jsq
Sent Wednesday. -jsq
Continue readingDate: Wed, 06 Feb 2013 19:43:49 -0500
Dear Mr. Pritchard,Thank you for your message of 1 February.
Yes, the binders of the documents for the closings of the various bonds are the sort of financial instruments I requested in my message of 28 January, and that Chairman Slaughter listed in his letter dated 18 January (that I received 28 January). Monday 11 Feb 2013 after the Work Session will be a good time for me to inspect and copy those binders. I will bring a camera and a photocopier. If that time will not work, please advise me of times that would.
Yes, there are other documents I would like to inspect. Please provide
