Tag Archives: Elections

Annexation and watershed monitoring @ Hahira 2014-04-03

The rezoning and annexation previously recommended by the Planning Commission and discussed by the Lowndes County Commission.

And there’s a Proposal for Long-term Watershed Monitoring from TTL, which may or may not be related to the flood risk management study or flood mapping previously discussed by the city of Valdosta and the Lowndes County Commission.

Curiously, both Wikipedia and the Hahira City Council’s own web page seem to think Wayne Bullard is still mayor. I read in the VDT that Bruce Cain was sworn in as mayor in January.

Thanks to City Manager Jonathan Sumner for the agenda.

Hahira City Council
April 3, 2014
Agenda
7:30 pm-Hahira Courthouse
Continue reading →

Videos of Day 1 @ LCC-Budget 2014-03-10

It’s a good thing the county held these first-ever (as far as I know) comprehensive budget sessions. Here are videos of the first day. Most of the departments are asking for more money, due to increased population and increased demand for services during a period of economic downturn. Something needs to be done, and these sessions are one step in getting to doing something.

Here’s the agenda.

Whom do you serve? A question for local government

A question asked about big oil and Mobile is just as relevant to every local and state government along the proposed Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline, and Transco and Florida Southeast Connection, too. A couple of local elected officials and several candidates did make public statements Saturday (stay tuned), so maybe we’re starting to get some answers to this question in Lowndes County, Georgia. Some other locations have already been getting answers.

Brad Nolen wrote for New American Journal 28 March 2014, How Big Oil Controls Local Governments: Whom Do You Serve? Thoughts on Local Government and Dirty Industries,

Now, it should go without saying that the purpose of councils, commissions and public office in general is to represent the varied interests of the citizens, and hopefully through consensus- seeking achieve some semblance of collective wisdom; and then, if we’re really lucky to apply said wisdom in charting our course toward a Mobile our great grandchildren will be proud to inherit.

Yet, when it came to finding a voice to protect our drinking water from Big Oil, we heard nothing substantive from our local leaders, even though we marched on their doorsteps in boots that are still wet with BP oil.

And now, Continue reading →

How to invite toxic industries to your county

Maybe we should stop inviting toxic industries to Lowndes County. We’ve been doing that with coal ash, PCBs, superfund wastewater, used diapers in recycling, and suing local businesses while not terminating an exclusive franchise with a company that is involved in all of that. Not to mention Sterling Chemical.

Here in Lowndes County we have TVA coal ash and Florida coal ash in our landfill, and the landfill operator spreads the coal ash on roads on the site, which is just uphill from the Withlacoochee River. GA EPD fined that landfill operator $27,500 in January 2013 for accepting PCBs into that same Pecan Row Landfill. The same landfill that accepted 196,500 gallons of wastewater from the Seven Out Superfund site in Waycross, GA.

A landfill that is in an aquifer recharge zone. Continue reading →

District 3 down to two candidates for Lowndes County Commission

The southern District 3 for Lowndes County Commission is down to only two candidates, one Democrat and one Republican, so there will be no primary races and Tom Hochschild (D) and Mark Wisenbaker (R) will face each other in the general election in November. Retiring candidate Don Thieme (D) throws his support behind Hochschild. District 3 is mostly the south half of the county, but it also wraps around Valdosta to incorporate Remerton and VSU. See detail map or PDF of district 1,2,3 as found on lowndescounty.com.

And Crawford Powell has withdrawn from the race for House District 174, so that leaves only two candidates there, too: Jessie Smith (D) and John L. Corbett (R), with no primary races, to face each other in November.

Continue reading →

Lowndes County School Board Election

I got redistricted into LCBOE District 1, and Districts 1, 2, and 3 are all up for election, with 1 and 2 contested. If, like me, you can’t tell which district you’re in or who’s running without a map and a list, see the list Gretchen drew up.

-jsq

VLCIA high noon last week @ VLCIA 2014-03-13

An Industrial Authority board member resigned to run for an office he qualifed for the previous day, at a meeting that had apparently been rescheduled the day before he qualified. OK, who’s going to replace him, and when and by whom will that be decided? Oh, and that rescheduling means there’s no VLCIA meeting today.

The Industrial Authority rescheduled its March meeting for Thursday last week at noon, and at that meeting, according to the VDT, VLCIA board member Norman Bennett said:

“I am announcing that at the end of the day today, I will resign from the Industrial Authority,”

Puzzled by that, I called the Board of Elections to ask if they had told him there was some conflict of interest. They said no, they had read about it in the newspaper like everybody else.

I asked when he qualified to run for District 5. Answer: March 12th, which was the day before he resigned from VLCIA at its rescheduled board meeting.

When was that meeting rescheduled? Their website gives no clue. But their facebook page notice of the new meeting is dated March 11 at 3:15pm.

What do all those dates mean? Probably nothing, since local appointed and elected boards reschedule on whims around here. But it’s a curious series of coincidences:

More interesting is: when and by whom will a new board member be appointed to the Industrial Authority?

Here’s the agenda. Maybe some year we’ll get to see their minutes. It’s been more than two years since Roy Copeland said he’d try to make that happen. He’s no longer Chairman (although he did get reappointed to the board), and another board member has just resigned. You know, that VDT editorial I’m fond of quoting was actually about the Industrial Authority’s minutes:

When officials act like they have something to hide, they often do….
Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority
Thursday, March 13, 2014 12:00 p.m.
Industrial Authority Conference Room
2110 N. Patterson Street

Agenda

General Business

  • Call to Order
  • Invocation
  • Welcome Guests

Minutes

  • Regular Meeting, February 18, 2014

Financial

  • Review Compiled Balance Sheet and Income Statements for February 2014

Public Relations & Marketing Update-Meghan Duke

  • Public Relations Opportunities
    • International Trade Representatives
    • County Commission Presentation
  • Marketing Opportunities
    • Marketing Materials
    • ValdostaLowndesProspector Mobile Site
    • South Georgia Classic

Project Report-Allan Ricketts

  • Project Maroon

Existing Industry-Allan Ricketts

  • Existing Industry Visits
  • Existing Industry Expansion Projects
    • Project Wire
    • Project Treadway
    • JHS-14
  • Community Business and Industry Partnership

Executive Director’s Report- Andrea Schruijer

  • Business Development Opportunities
    • Georgia Quail Hunt February 2013
    • March Regional Marketing Trip to Consultants
    • Recruitment activities
    • International Representative Visit South Joint Regional Development Authority
    • Staff Planning Session
    • Board Planning Session
    • Met with Department of Agriculture to discuss regional food processing activity

Attorney Report

Citizens to Be Heard

Adjourn General Meeting Into Executive Session

Adjourn Executive Session into General Meeting

Adjourn General Meeting

Mission of the Valdosta Lowndes County Industrial Authority
“Create an environment to attract new industry and promote the growth of existing industry to drive job creation and capital investment.”

-jsq

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 →

Musical chairs in local qualifying

Three out of five voting County Commissioners are not running again, and one has already vacated his seat, plus you have to have a playing card to keep track of who’s running for the state Senate and House.

We already knew State Senator Tim Golden was not running again, and now we know who’s running for that seat: Richard Raines (R), who had said two months ago he was not running again for County Commission District 2, Ellis Black (R) currently House 174, Bikram Mohanty (D) who ran last time and came close, and John Page (R), who thus vacated County Commission District 5.

Because Ellis Black is running for Senate, and even though he qualifed for his House District 174 seat Monday, when he qualified for Senate Wednesday, he left his House seat open. Running for District 174 are Crawford Powell (R), currently County Commissioner for District 3, Jessie Smith (D), and John L. Corbett (R).

The incumbents qualifed for the other House seats, each with no challenger.

As for the three (3) County Commission seats now open, here, read Gretchen’s explanation.

And remember, more changes can still happen, because qualifying has reopened for County Commission District 3, and will have to reopen for District 5.

-jsq

GA Senator Tim Golden not running

This makes state Senate district 8 an open seat. Qualifying is al this week, Monday through Friday.

Dated 2 March 2014, STATEMENT OF SENATOR TIM GOLDEN:

Today, I am announcing that I will not be a candidate for re-election to the Georgia State Senate, District 8, in 2014. After 34 years in public service—more than half of what will soon be my 60 years on this earth—and having gone through many difficult yet successful campaigns during that time, I have decided that this is the right time to devote more time to my business career and to my family during the remainder of our son’s high school years before he goes on to college.

I’m familiar with at least one of Sen. Golden’s campaigns, but he has also spoken up for solar power in Georgia, although neither he nor his buddy Gov. Deal got it that doubling GEFA’s solar state tax rebate fund once in 2011 wasn’t enough when solar deployments increase 65% every year. Witness we installed 12KW more of solar panels at the end of 2012 and we’re finally on the list for rebate for 2014 because state funds for 2012 and 2013 were already used up.

Maybe we can elect a state senator who will Continue reading →