All candidates were invited; most of the Democratic ones came and spoke;
most of the Republicans did not.
Here are links to each LAKE video of each candidate, followed by a video playlist. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Dexter Sharper
Dexter Sharper Town Hall this morning
Breakfast right now, meeting 10AM.
VDT, 11 April 2014, Sharper hosts town hall meeting,
State Rep. Dexter Sharper hosts a town hall meeting this Saturday to discuss the past General Assembly session and the upcoming Let Us Make Man event.
Let Us Make Man 2014 is a train-the-trainer, community-oriented event designed for everyone: parents, non-profit administrators, entrepreneurs, college students, churches, teachers and most importantly teenagers. A full day of workshops include: Continue reading
Crazy Qualifying Season Finally Completed
Update 31 March 2014: Withdrawals of Thomas Sims and Don Thieme from Lowndes County Commission District 3 and of Crawford Powell from House 174. See also school board election.
Additional entries in County Commission Districts 3 and 5,
plus a swap and a withdrawal,
continued the
musical chairs in local qualifying.
Plus three out of four County Commission seats up for election
will actually be decided in May, not November.
And one state House seat and the state Senate race are hotly contested.
The three County Commission seats that will be decided May 20th are: Continue reading
Secret meeting of Lowndes County Commission and state reps @ LCC 2013-12-20
The VDT report doesn’t say when or where, and doesn’t say whether
Dexter Sharper (District 177) wasn’t invited or chose not to attend.
There’s nothing about this meeting in the online agendas or calendar, even though that calendar lists Pictures with Santa at the Historical Courthouse (12/19/2013).
There is this undated public notice with no agenda:
The Lowndes County Board of Commissioners will meet with members of Lowndes County’s Legislative Delegation on Friday, December 20, 2013, at 4:00 p.m. in the Commissioner’s Conference Room located on the 3rd floor of the Judicial-Administrative Complex, 327 North Ashley Street, Valdosta, Georgia.
K. Paige Dukes, County Clerk
pdukes@lowndescounty.com 229-671-2400
Matthew Woody wrote for the VDT 22 December 2013,
Commissioners host local delegation,
oddly omitting the when and where and much of the why from
the traditional
who, what, when, where, and why of journalism.
The Lowndes County Commission hosted Continue reading
Tim Golden and Amy Carter at Chamber Legislative Lunch @ VLCoC 2013-12-04
The event posting (noon today at Wiregrass Tech)
doesn’t say, but I’m told state
Senator Tim Golden (District 8) and
state
Rep. Amy Carter (R 175) will be there.
Event Name: State Legislative Lunch Event Type(s): Chamber Calendar
Community Calendar
MetroOne
Continue reading Description: A luncheon featuring a program presented by State Legislators on issues on top for the upcoming State Legislative Session. Tickets are $15 for Chamber members and $20 for non-members. Seating is limited!
Legislative Luncheon at Wiregrass Tech by Chamber and Rotaries @ VLCoC 2012-12-05
No questions and no mention of Moody AFB at the Legislative Luncheon at
the
Legislative Luncheon at Wiregrass Technical College Wednesday by
the Chamber of Commerce and the three
Rotary Clubs.
State Sen. Tim Golden R-08,
and
State Rep. Ellis Black R-174
plus
incoming
State Rep. Dexter Sharper D-177 spoke
(Reps. Amy Carter R-175 and Jason Shaw R-176 were not present).
But they didn’t answer any questions.
The organizers didn’t even
take questions on cards from the 75 or so people in the room.
It’s nice they’re going around to all the organizations and talking to them,
but it might be more helpful if they listened to the concerns of their
constituents all at once.
Lowndes County Commissioners Joyce Evans and Richard Raines were there,
but they did not speak,
and none of the state legislative delegation said anything
about Moody Air Force Base encroachment,
unlike
Houston County where their state rep. helped organize
“$7.5 million to
help resolve the encroachment issue affecting Robins Air Force Base.”
Ron Borders
on behalf of the Chamber’s
Governmental Affairs Council (GAC) did
invite people to a
Members to the Heard session
Monday 7 January 2012 at Valdosta City Hall Annex Multi-Purpose Room.
Waiting a month to provide feedback to legislators through the Chamber
does seem a tad indirect.
Overall, it would be nice if the legislators would at least actually listen to
(even if they don’t want to answer) questions and concerns from citizens without
those citizens having go go through some filtering system (ie chamber legislative affairs
or county commissioner).
With a room full of 75 or more people, wouldn’t it be refreshing for
elected officials to say “We can’t necessarily answer all your questions
today, but we would like to know what they are. Please come to the
microphone and ask your question or state your concern”.
Citizens Wishing to be Heard in the County Commission meetings
is not really the same as having a session dedicated to listening to citizens’ concerns.
The Chamber’s pre-announcment of this meeting said:
The Chamber’s Government Affairs Council will present its top business issues to elected officials.
Yet though the GAC the previous day in a contentious meeting voted to oppose encroachment on Moody Air Force Base, he said not a word about that at the Legislative Luncheon.
In his keynote,
Sen. Tim Golden said
Continue reading
Challengers made statehouse incumbents work in south Georgia
Hardly-funded insurgents led by Haley Shank put a scare into turncoat south Georgia statehouse
incumbents.
What would happen with well-funded candidates?
As we’ve already seen, in new district 177 Dexter Sharper (D) won 2 to 1 over opponent J. Glenn Gregory (R). (All election data in this post is from GA Secretary of State.)
Conversely, Jason Shaw (R-176) ran unopposed, perhaps because he is the least offensive of the incumbents (he voted against HB 1162 that put the Atlanta-power-grab “charter school” amendment on the ballot, although he did vote for HB 797 that will funnel more of your local tax dollars to charter schools imposed by Atlanta even if your school board doesn’t want them).
Other south Georgia statehouse incumbents, all Republicans, had challengers, all Democrats. All the challengers opposed Amendment 1. Haley Shank did best, in District 173 against Darlene K. Taylor, 8,324 to 12,048 (40.86% to 59.14%).
Next was Continue reading
Congratulations Dexter Sharper, Demarcus Marshall, Chris Prine, and Justin Cabral!
Congratulations to Valdosta’s new state rep for District 177
Dexter Sharper who won by 67% to 33% over opponent Glenn Gregory,
who fought a spirited and clean campaign.
I look forward to Representative Sharper
meeting with the governor
and working for our community without compromise under the gold dome in Atlanta.
I’ll come back to the other statehouse races in a separate post. Ditto the other statewide races. Meanwhile, congratulations to some local winners below.
Congratulations new Lowndes County Commissioner for District 4
Demarcus Marshall, winning 64.91% to 35.09%
after spirited debate and much agreement
with opponent John Gates.
I look forward to Commissioner Marshall
grappling with education, jobs, tourism, and personnel
down at the county palace.
Congratulations on re-election, Lowndes County Sheriff Chris Prine!
Challenger J.D. Yeager fought a good fight, but the voters said
63.53% to 36.47% they did not
want to go back to the previous administration.
I look forward to Sheriff Prine continuing to protect the safety of
all the citizens of Lowndes County, including those in the cities.
Congratulations Solicitor General Justin Cabral on retaining your post
51.56% to 48.44%!
Very honorable mention to challenger Jason Cain,
who canvassed himself pretty close to winning.
Congratulations Joyce Evans Continue reading
The power of going solar —John S. Quarterman
My op-ed in the VDT today. Remember
to vote today or Tuesday.
-jsq
This spring, the University at Buffalo turned on 750 kilowatts of solar electricity. Rutgers U., in New Jersey, installed 1.4 megawatts in 2009 and started on 8 MW this summer. Down here with a lot more sun, how about solar panels on VSU parking lots?
There’s plenty of private solar financing available. Also in New Jersey, a company installed 6 MW of solar on high school land and leased the power to the school supplying most of its needs win-win.
You can go see a solar farm already working fine here, 200 kilowatts at Mud Creek Wastewater Plant. Why not do the same
View Larger Mapat Lowndes High School, where all the world on I-75 could see, attracting business to our community?
Why not?
Continue readingVideo of 6 minute meeting @ LCC 2012-10-22
Here’s a single video of this morning’s entire Lowndes County Commission Work Session. The railroad item was neither of the ones on which I was speculating. The animal shelter wants a 24 hour “cooling-off period” with a submitted animal kept at home before “evaluation” by the shelter. The Tax Commissioner wants to refund some taxes they apparently accidentally overcharged. The Fire Chief has bids for equipment for the new fire truck. And there’s going to be an animal health fair. They vote tomorrow evening at 5PM.
Here’s the video, followed by the agenda, with links to the relevant parts of the video, and a few notes.
Video of 6 minute meeting
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 22 October 2012.
Thanks to Dexter Sharper for use of his video camera.
Here’s the annotated agenda:
Continue reading