Tag Archives: budget

Valdosta Budget Hearings @ VCC 2014-06-11

He also called to be sure LAKE got this, and the Public Hearings Tuesday and Wednesday at 5:30 PM are in the City of Valdosta’s online calendar, plus there’s a much briefer story in the VDT today, and see the millage table from last year’s budget hearings. -jsq

From: Tim Carroll <tcarroll@valdostacity.com>
Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2014 14:33:35 +0000
Subject: FY 2015 Budget

Hey everyone,

It is that time of year when your city government prepares its’ budget for the upcoming fiscal year. As we have experienced over the past four years, this year’s budget presents many challenges. Revenues continue to decline while expenses keep going up. Fuel alone for the city now runs around $1.7M per year and the power bill to run the city for a year is now at $3.4M. Like you have seen in your homes and businesses, these and other costs continue to rise. Major revenue sources such as the LOST tax (our largest revenue source for the General Fund) continue to decline. And the list goes on. The city has now tapped over the past several years all the reserve funds in or der to balance the budget. Those reserve funds are now gone.

I say all this to illuminate the difficult choices that are present in this year’s proposed budget. While Continue reading →

School Board Candidates at VSU @ YR 2014-05-15

Here are videos of the school board candidates from the “debate” of last Tuesday at VSU. Remember, this school board election will be decided tomorrow, Tuesday May 20th, unless there’s a runoff for some seat, so tomorrow is the day to vote.

This is everything they said at VSU, except some of the answers to the first question, since I was late from the Lowndes County Commission meeting; sorry about that.

District 1: the incumbent, Mike Davis, spoke, and challenger Bobby Watford was absent.

District 2: the incumbent Fred Wetherington, has chosen not to run. All three candidates for this open seat spoke: Eric Johnson, Tara Parker, and Mark Barber. And here are videos when all three of the District 2 candidates also spoke:

April 7th at the Lowndes County Democratic Party
April 26th at the Hahira Historical Society

District 3: the incumbent, Brian Browning, is running unopposed, and did not speak at VSU.

Here’s a video playlist of the school board candidates at VSU, followed by links to each of the videos. As usual, anyone may use these videos, provided they cite the source, Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

Continue reading →

Maybe county should check its work about other budgets @ LCC 2013-11-14

Who’s responsible for the recent partiality in budget reports? The newspaper, or its source of information, namely the county government at its secretive retreat on the Chairman’s private property that even the VDT reporter had trouble finding?

When the Coroner and the Sheriff (often at odds lately) agree that the VDT’s version of the county government’s remarks about their budgets was at best partial, where is the source of that partiality? Who’s responsible for budgeting for the county, reporter Matthew or editor Kay Harris or Dean Poling? Or is it the local government our taxes pay to do that job, namely the Lowndes County Commission and its staff, which is managed by County Manager Joe Pritchard?

Maybe somebody down at the county palace should, as Gretchen suggested recently, “check our work”.

-jsq

Coroner responds to County Commission about budget @ LCC 2013-11-14

Like the Sheriff, the Coroner reports that something’s rotten in the Lowndes County Commission and staff’s version of his budget.

Dean Poling write for the VDT today, Coroner responds to county budget issues,

Lowndes County Coroner Bill Watson explained Friday that comments calling him one of the county budget’s “worst offenders” did not explain why his office’s expenses change from year to year.

“I have no control over the number of people that dies each year,” Watson told The Times, “and I have to fund the transportation for autopsies. Any time there is an autopsy, it costs my office about $750.”

These costs include Continue reading →

Sheriff responds to County Commission about budget @ LCC 2013-11-14

LTE in the VDT today. -jsq

Sheriff’s Response to “budget woes”
The Sheriff’s Office has received a lot of criticism in the last several months. It appears to be the fashionable thing these days and an easy target. Sheriff Prine did not receive an invitation to the Chairman’s personal property for a review of the county’s budget and criticism of the Sheriff’s budget in particular. There are some facts that have not been reported by the Valdosta Daily Times, which may or may not have been provided.

First it should be noted that the Sheriff’s Office general fund budget was reduced from last year’s budget by $171,306. This was before another $130,492 was taken away in August as a result of shift in traffic citation processing responsibilities to the Clerk’s Office.

A closer look at some of the specific line items targeted for criticism will show Continue reading →

No contract and no bids for County Attorney, yet 20% raise to $300,000

In response to (a second) open records request, County Clerk Paige Dukes stated in writing that Lowndes County does not have a contract with the person referred to in numerous minutes as “County Attorney”, and that no bids have been entertained for legal services for the county. According to the budget documents the Clerk referred to, the county raised the County Attorney’s budget 20% to $300,000 for 2013. Illustrations below (some with links) were added by me. -jsq

From: pdukes@lowndescounty.com
To: b-ahuntley@hotmail.com
CC: asmith@lowndescounty.com; JPritchard@lowndescounty.com; bswaller@bellsouth.net
Subject: Open Records Request
Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2013 13:22:08 +0000
Good Morning Mrs. Huntley,

In response to your open records request Continue reading →

Dollar General, trash, a tobacco warehouse, and alcohol @ Hahira 2013-09-05

The Teramore Development items are for a Dollar General (like the one in Naylor), even though the agenda doesn’t say (see Planning Commission videos). Since City Council District 2 Allen Bruce Cain, Sr. resigned to run for Mayor the ever-contentious, ethically– investigated garbage contract last voted on 2 August 2012 could go differently this time. Thanks to City Clerk Jonathan Sumner for providing the agenda upon request, even though it’s not on the web. Stay tuned for LAKE videos. -jsq

Hahira City Council
September 5, 2013
Agenda
7:30 pm- Hahira Courthouse

Call to order
Establish quorum
Pledge of allegiance
Invocation
Review/Correction of Minutes

July 29, 2013 Work Session
August 1, 2013 Council Meeting
August 22, 2013 Special Called Meeting

Public Hearing

HA-2013-01: Rezoning Request by Teramore Development (Planning and Zoning Administrator)
HA-2013-02: Variance Request by Teramore Development (Planning and Zoning Administrator)
FY14 Budget Preliminary Adoption (City Manager)

Citizens to Be Heard
Review of Bills/Budget Overages
Discussions Continue reading →

Valdosta budget with goals and accomplishments for each department

It’s too bad nobody came to Valdosta’s two public budget hearings, because the city prepared 183 slides with details for each department, including goals and accomplishments. On the LAKE website is that presentation sent on request by City Clerk Teresa Bolden, and converted to HTML by LAKE. Plus the actual budget. No open records requests were required. Oh, and Valdosta runs garbage collection on a balanced budget without any exclusive franchises.

Valdosta News PR 20 June 2013, City Delivers a Balanced Budget: No property tax increase proposed for citizens,

The Valdosta City Council approved the fiscal year 2014 budget for the City of Valdosta at the June 20 City Council meeting, after having the opportunity to hear the proposed budget at the hearings on June 11 and 12. City staff presented the council with a balanced budget, as required by the City Charter, possibly one of the most challenging and difficult budgets prepared in years.

City leaders decreased the overall city budget from $86.2 million to $77.3 million, a result of Continue reading →

County bus system reapproved @ LCC 2013-06-25

Didn’t know the county had a bus system? It does; you can call 316-2153 and they’ll pick you up for a flat fee. The county’s contract with the state Department of Transportation and with the contractor MIDS, Inc. was reapproved at the 25 June Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.

7.b. Section 5311 Rural Transportation Operating Contracts

The contract is with GADOT, and the contractor is MIDS, Inc. Per Commissioner Joyce Evans’ request of the previous morning, County Engineer Joe Pritchard said there had been 12,322 trips with six buses over the past 5 months.

The County Engineer referred to some discussion of the previous morning, The Engineer said the federal government put in the first $220,000, and while the county had to pick up any shortfalls, there have been no shortfalls over the past twelve years. This is different from County Manager Joe Pritchard’s answer of the previous morning that it “has been budgeted”. At least staff managed to come up with budget detail after being asked in public by Commissioners. No questions. Unanimous approval.

Here’s Part 1 of 2: